My mother's powers of mental recall are astounding. Last night she told me that she ran into an old friend of mine at the library. As everyone knows, my mom works at the library. Apparently a young lady came in and my mom must have recognized the name on her library card or something, because acting on instinct, my mom asked her if she grew up in (same-town-I-grew-up-in) and if she had gone to (same-elementary-school-I-went-to). When both questions were answered in the affirmative my mom told her "you knew my daughter", which resulted in much cheerful reminiscing of our friendship and ended with my mom getting her business card and promising her that I would send her an email. My mom was truly enthusiastic about the whole thing asking me, "do you want me to tell you what her email address is so you can email her tomorrow?" to which I replied, "that's o.k., I don't have to email her tomorrow" and my mother protested, "but she seemed so happy that she'd be hearing from you!"

O.K., first of all? I was friends with this girl for several months in the fifth grade. Granted that friendships at that age can be really intense - I went to her house almost every day, we had many slumber parties, etc. However, that was literally and figuratively, twenty years ago. How my mom recovered this information from deeply hidden vault in her brain, I'll never know. What I remember is that this girl and I were really into barbies, mad libs, and stickers.

And here's where the story takes a dramatic turn for the ugly. In fifth grade we periodically got to order books and whatnot from a little catalog that was sent home with us after school. I don't know the exact details, but they aren't important in this case. The thing that is important is that I happily ordered a page of stickers that looked like stamps with little faces and words on them called, I think, Lickety Stickers, or something. I was so excited to get my lickety stickers. They seemed like so very many stickers to have at one time - a whole page! Of small stamp-like stickers!

Finally the longed for day came to pass when my lickety stickers arrived. I looked at them briefly and then tenderly put them in my backpack to take home and enjoy later to their full lickety stickerness. And then sometime after recess I noticed something terrible. My lickety stickers were gone. They weren't in my backpack any more and I was so upset. It was heartbreaking really. I told the teacher but we couldn't find them. Of course I told my dearest-sticker-loving friend how sad I was and she was ever so understanding.

The lickety stickers were never found. Several days later, I was sleeping over at that friend's house and casually flipping through her sticker book (a large photo album full of stickers). There, on one page, was a whole sheet of lickety stickers that I hadn't noticed before. I asked her sister (who happened to be in the room at that time but my friend wasn't) if it was possible my friend had stolen my lickety stickers. The sister replied, "oh yeah, she does that all the time." She does that all the time! When my friend returned to the room I confronted her - "are these MY lickety stickers?" She assured me they were hers but I wasn't buying it. I think I may have right then and there called my mom to pick me up.

After that night I stopped speaking to her. A couple weeks later, a girl had brought in a huge, fabulous sticker book to show the class. She started to cry when later in the day the book went missing. I discreetly asked the teacher if I could go to the coatroom for a moment where I then, acting on a hunch, took a sneak peak into Sticker Stealer's backpack. Sure enough, there was the prized sticker book belonging to the other girl. I was able to explain the whole thing to the teacher without causing a big to-do and the other girl was eternally grateful to me. I was so happy I saved someone else from the trauma I had experienced but even that heroism wasn't enough to bring back my lickety stickers.

And this Sticker Stealing girl is the very same girl my mom ran into last night who seemed thrilled by the idea of getting back in touch. I gently reminded my mom that I believe she had stolen some lickety stickers from me two decades ago and my mom said, "really? She mentioned something about how SHE had given some of her stickers to YOU." She what?? Are you even kidding me?

So my question for you is this, what do I do? My mom was so pleased with herself and I simply can't let her down by not emailing this girl. Especially because my mom might run into her again and that would be embarrassing. But silly as it sounds, I'm still a little angry. Is it worth holding a grudge for twenty years over stickers? Or is she now a fine upstanding citizen who deserves a chance? And if we do get together to catch up on old times, how can I be sure my valuables will be protected?  ¶ 4:35 PM