The Collingsworth family had deep roots in Savannah. Mason's Granddad bought most Savannah's prime real estate right after the depression. His Daddy and Grandad soon formed Collingsworth Properties and they started building single-family homes, apartment buildings, and hotels on the properties. By the time Mason joined the family business most of the land had been built. There were a few empty lots unsuitable for homes; Mason always had a love for cars, so he had a Cadillac and Buick Dealership built.
It was at the Cadillac Dealership that he first met Charlotte. He would stop in at least once every few weeks to admire the new Cadillac's that arrived on the lot; he liked to inspect them personally, especially if they were custom orders.
On this day something else caught his eye, when he entered the building, sitting at the reception desk what the pretties most demure Southern Belle he had ever laid his eyes upon.
Mason walked right up to the desk and extended his hand, "Mornin' Ma'am, I'm Mason Collingsworth."
Charlotte stood and shook his hand, "Good morning, I'm Charlotte Dobson, may I help you?"
Mason chuckled, "No Ma'am I own this place, and I'm just here to check on the cars."
"I'm sorry Mr. Collingsworth," she blushed.
"No need to apologize."
Mason stopped into the dealership every day for the next few weeks; until finally one day he asked Charlotte to lunch. She accepted and six months later they were married.
***
Mason shouted from the bedroom, "Charlotte do you know where my college varsity jacket is?"
"What do you want with that old thing?" She asked in an inquisitive tone.
"My 30th college reunion is coming up and some of the guys thought it would be fun to wear our varsity jackets and bring some other memorabilia."
"It must be up in the attic with everything else," she shouted. "All the boxes should be labeled."
Mason headed up to the attic and started going through boxes, not having much luck he finally saw an old cedar chest in the corner. He had never seen it before so he assumed it belonged to Charlotte. The chest had a small lock on it, he was going to yell down to Charlotte and ask where the key was but he decided to give it a kick instead; the lock popped open.
He lifted the lid and right on top was a box which contained Charlotte's wedding gown; taped to the top of the box was a picture of them on their wedding day. He studied the picture, Charlotte was a young beautiful bride of 20 and he was 38.
He mumbled under his breath, "Damn she still looks the same."
On the other hand, Mason had started to show some signs of aging, his hair had turned gray and he was beginning to get a little pot belly.
Still no sign of the varsity jacket, he dug a little deeper into the chest. He found another box which contained 10 of Charlotte's diaries. Not knowing much about Charlottes' past, curiosity got the best of him and he opened the first one. The handwriting was juvenile and from what he could tell she was about 8 years old. She wrote of riding her pony and the nice man Jeb that was teaching her to ride.
Mason was more curious about the time right before they met. She had mentioned a son which Mason adopted as his own but she never mentioned the boy's father or any of the circumstances surrounding him.
He figured they were in chronological order so he went to the last one. When he opened her diary a picture fell out; it was Charlotte and some guy, he was the spitting image of Jackson. He flipped the picture over and it read, Charlotte & Roy with a heart around it.
"So Jackson's Daddy's name is Roy, Damn," he thought to himself.
Mason began to read the diary.
"May 26, School is finally out for the summer and I can't wait to ride Misty. She is so beautiful."
"June 1, Jeb has been great with training Misty. I rode her all afternoon.
