PROLOGUE
CHARLOTTE MANNON'S JOURNAL
MARCH 15, 2011
This is my first, well I guess technically it is my second, journal in my life. I will turn sixty this year. I started writing one to keep track of the plans I have for my kids. They are so horrible at this love thing. They don't have it as easy as their father and I did. So, I think I will help them find their true happiness...and true love. I don't know what the hell happened to my family, but somewhere along the way, they all became miserable human beings. And if it's my fault, then I know I must fix it.
The plan for the first of the kids, Marjorie, started to come together in my head today. I decided she and her true love, Graham, need to be stuck out on the ocean together so they can get over themselves and have their happily ever after. I think I'm going to send them on a cruise. Hell, maybe we should make it a family reunion trip. I wonder how many other 'mates' that I could find for my kids and make sure were on the cruise. I guess I had better get busy. Alaska!!! Oh my goodness, that's it. I found the love of my life in Alaska, and I am positive that Mari will re-find hers there. (And maybe some, or all of the other kids will too!) Cruise to Alaska, here we come!
April 1, 2011
Well, it looks like my plans are coming along nicely. It seems that all of my kids will be paired up on or near the cruise. All of the talk and planning for a trip to Alaska has brought back so many memories of when I got together with the love of my life. (Although our love began ten years before that fateful summer.) June through August of 1969 was the summer of the original Four Musketeers – Ethan, Charli (me), Jackson and Francesca.
All of the emotions I cycled through in that short three month period have come flooding back! I clearly remember the excitement of the first time we saw each other again, and how I could barely stand the thought of not being able to spend time with him. The devastation I felt when he acted like he wasn't interested and when I realized he really didn't want the hassle of a girlfriend, brings tears to my eyes even now. I wouldn't trade my dear husband and our five wonderful kids for the world.
That time in Alaska and the first few months after was filled with so much joy and fear, and even sadness. That is what I want my kids to experience. It may sound mean that I want them to experience the bad stuff too, but I truly believe that is what makes a relationship work. You have to mix the fear and excitement of being intimate for the first time, with the heartbreak of fights and near breakups to round things out, to make them complete.
Boy oh boy, did we go through a lot of those ups and downs that first six months of our relationship. The downs are what I seem to be focusing on right now and my heart feels heavy. I know I should probably write it out, but at the moment I can barely see beyond the tears I'm crying - for my kids and what they will go through, and for me and what I gained and lost, forty-two years ago.
I still have many of the letters that Ethan and I wrote to each other as kids. I also remember many of the phone calls over the years. Especially the ones around our birthdays and the final one. This correspondence truly shows how our relationship evolved over the years – with only ever seeing each other once.
August 1, 1959
Hi Rich Girl! How are you? I still can't believe you kissed me in Alaska! I might forgive you cause you're just a silly ol girl. I have to go now. Mama and Papa want to take us into town to get stuff for school. Yuck! Bye for now.
Stick
August 12, 1959
Hi stick! I AM NOT a silly ol girl! I only kissed you cause Francesca dared me to. I didn't really want to, you're just a stinky ol boy. I can't wait for school to start. I can't believe you said yuck about it, you're such a weirdo. Bye for now.
