Chapter 

When the door closed behind Michael, Caroline burst into fresh tears. Clem wrapped her arm around her sister's shaking shoulders, patted her back as she fought her own tears.
Caroline sobbed for a moment before wiping sodden tissues hard across her eyes. She swallowed, before she spoke. "To think, I tried to get in touch with her only a couple of hours ago."
Clem nodded. "Strange how things turn out. Who would have expected this in a thousand years?"
Chance had dropped into an armchair next to the sofa. He raised his head. "Why'd you try to call her, Sis?"
Caroline seemed to seize on the question as a distraction from her grief. "The school. She was a drop out, you know. Clem finally convinced me to talk to Mary Lou, see what she thought about it, might want to help."
He nodded. "Might have helped her, if something like your school had been available then." Perhaps unable to sit still, he jumped up and walked to the slider to the garden, looking out as Michael had done. "You convince that Education Committee, Sis."
Caroline was determinedly hopeful that her plan would be approved by the County Education Committee. A plan she had labored over for two years, to establish a girls' prep school, using money she and her sister had inherited from their mother.
Many years ago the old Cob Corners School building in the rural section of Longwater County called Cob Corners, had originally served all twelve grades. The year Caroline finished ninth grade the county had switched to the elementary, middle, and high school educational division system. High school and middle grades were combined to the large new Cedarvale High School in town. While she was in college the Cob Corners School was closed permanently and Cob Corners students combined with a slightly larger elementary school just outside Cedarvale.
Caroline wanted to buy or lease the Cob Corners building for her prep school. But the County Education Committee had to approve the use or disposal of the building. She preferred the lease arrangement, which would give her more money to establish the school.
Earlier that evening Clem had been the one to suggest Caroline talk to Mary Lou. "You could ask her for an affidavit of support."
"Be a 'show and tell' as the inspiration for my wanting to set up Longwater Preparatory Academy? I'm afraid it would feel awkward to look her up for that after such a long time. She might feel I was using her."
"She was your best friend at Cedarvale High before she dropped out. She wouldn't think that."
"Maybe she's happy and wouldn't be pleased that I consider her life a negative example."
"I hope she is happy. But considering that Brad Aldeen was a dropout, too, with little or no ambition, I think it's open to doubt."
"I wonder if she really loved him."
Clem shrugged. "Maybe. And maybe she just married him to get away from her dad."
"Then her dad left her mother and ran off to California with another woman the year I went to the University. Louise never married again, did she?"
"As far as I know, she still lives at their old place near Cob Corners. You could call her and find out where Mary Lou and Brad are living."
Caroline's reluctance to contact Mary Lou persisted. "Lyle and J. T. think the committee will approve my request. Mary Lou being there wouldn't make any difference."
"They're the junior members of the committee. They have no idea what the good ol' boys are cooking up in the back room. That's how it works from the county to the state legislature." Clem said. "You know that."
"They could be right. Since this isn't going to cost the county anything. In fact, it will take an expense off the county's back. Upkeep of the old building."
"We know that. It makes good sense. And since when did that amount to much in Georgia or Longwater County politics? Call Louise."
"She might resent me for not looking Mary Lou up when I came back after graduation. She probably thinks I feel superior or something."
"Caroline, she treated us like her own kids after mom died. Even Chance."
"Why haven't you kept in touch, then?"
"I did, for a while. Then I went off to school. And worked those summers in Appalachia. And the last three years in Dad's office in Atlanta." Clem sat on the couch and crossed her legs, swinging her foot in small arcs. "It's not the same as asking Dad's help."
"All right. I'll call her. We've both been unforgivably negligent toward Mary Lou and her family."