Chapter IV / The Yellow House 2D anime film
The announcement was made for the group to gather in the dining hall for dinner. Place cards denoted where each was to sit and as everyone searched the table for their name, Ethan was delighted to see Sarah's card next to his. Miles and Lou were sitting across from one another with Miles next to Ethan, and Whitney and Celeste also were seated across from one another, beside Sarah. The gang was back together, if only for a night…this would be fun!
With seventies music playing in the background, the conversation was filled with talk of the past ten years, each taking their turn and the others laughing and ribbing the experiences of each one. Miles was seated next to his wife, but glances were passed between him and his old flame. Lou, who had almost daily contact with Miles through their respective jobs, knew that Marley was coming, but it was unsettling to see how beautiful she was. Still, first loves die hard.
As the dessert was served, conversations turned to the other members of their class as everyone gossiped about so and so and with their coffee, whispered with hands veiling their mouths about the sordid affairs and failures of their classmates. While the others danced, Sarah and Ethan remained at the table. The two caught up on each other's lives and Sarah, always knowing that Ethan would have rather gone into the landscaping business than law school, talked about how beautiful the dogwoods outside the hotel were. Avoiding their attraction to one another, they awkwardly laughed and talked until almost everyone was gone. Turning down offers to go to "Smoky's" tavern with the rest to cap off the night, Ethan and Sarah walked the grounds of the hotel. When they reached the sea side of the hotel, the wind picked up and Ethan offered Sarah his jacket. Realizing that he was treating Sarah like a woman and not his frogging partner, he took notice of her deep, dark eyes. They seemed to say something, but he couldn't tell what. Sitting on the beach, the waves rolling in with the tide, the two childhood friends relived some of their funny adventures and talked about where life had taken them. Apart was all Sarah knew. Apart because she couldn't stand to hear one more sob story about Ethan's stupid girlfriends and because if she didn't leave, her life would be spent pathetically, pining after someone she could never have.
Ethan's mother hadn't been around a lot when he was a child. Work took most of her time and with trips that lasted weeks, even months, his dad was his only parent it seemed at times. Adapting Ethan into their home for numerous dinners when the hotel was busy, Sarah's mom had passed two years earlier from cancer. Ethan wasn't home to know about it and wasn't at the funeral. Charles had told Ethan the day after the funeral and Sarah, somewhere in Tanzania, couldn't be reached. Having flown out immediately following the funeral in order to keep her sanity, Sarah left her brothers to mind the will. She didn't want anything she told them and boarded a plane.
The two friends talked way into the night and, when it got too cold to stay on the beach, each thought it best to head in. As Ethan walked Sarah to her door and said goodnight, he thought about how much had changed, and stayed the same. Sarah was still his favorite person to talk to and maybe he finally understood after all these years! What a fool he'd been to miss the clues, the smiles and the touches.
As Ethan walked through the door of his father's house (mom was never there), he slipped off the shirt he was wearing and went into his room. His foot touched something, a piece of paper. Having thought it belonged to his father, he placed it on the dresser and went to bed. It was the first of many notes that would force Ethan to relive his past.