Chapter III / The Yellow House 2D anime film
Whitney Hawk and Celeste Ryan arrived a little after noon in Celeste's new car. The Bentley GT was a "gift" from an older gentlemen whose hair needed trimmed on a more than regular basis. Having gone to cosmetology school after high school graduation, Celeste never counted on Mr. Gary Wagner, owner of Wrightway Foods, to fall madly in-love with her. Despite his marriage to the daughter of the founder and CEO of Wrightway, Gary's affections were poured on Celeste, not his wife. Celeste and Gary spent a lot of "after shop hours" rendezvousing and secretly carrying on their affair. While Gary's car was "in the shop" Celeste drove into her home town of Boone. As the nicest car in town was an old Lincoln Continental owner by the mayor, Whitney and Celeste's arrival in town was met with stares and smiles from waving admirers. "This is gonna be great!" the girls decided among themselves. Whitney would embellish a little about her starving artist career and relive the "glory" years with Celeste. The two were inseparable in high school. Always dating the high school football team players, the two co-captains' dreams of renting a small apartment together and owning a salon had collapsed when Whitney couldn't cut a bur out of a bush! Whitney dropped out and Celeste carried on without her. Constantly offering her small jobs in her shop to make ends meet, Whitney's pride kept her eating bread and water and dodging the bill collectors. At age twenty-eight, the girls had looked forward to this reunion for almost a year.
As previously stated in the announcement, everyone was to meet in the hotel's lobby. A large, inviting room reminiscent of the old ball rooms, the Anderson Family Hotel was the only one in town. Ethan's father, Charles, had inherited it from his mother and kept it running in tip top shaped. At the entrance to the town, the sea side hotel served as a staple, something that would always be there. Once subject to destruction in order to build a strip mall, Charles had sought historical landmark status for the 125 year old building in order to save it. His successful venture bred loyalty among the locals. His son, Ethan had no interest in the hotel business and Charles had no interest in Ethan being anything other than a lawyer. Having given up his own dream, Charles felt obligated to keep the family business running and dropped out of Harvard when his mother passed. An only child, Charles had done well for himself. Marrying the daughter of a farmer, Charles and Rebecca had wed young and given birth to Ethan when they were just twenty three. Rebecca, a marketing consultant, had vowed never to return to the country. Hating everything about it, the smell, the out of the way distance from everything, she had at least developed an incredible work ethic that made her a top agent within her firm.
Ethan was the last to arrive. Having walked to the hotel which was situated just feet away from the yellow house he grew up in, a smile flooded his boyish face as he saw the high school friends standing in a circle, each with a drink in their hands, laughing and joking with one another. There was someone else, too. A girl. He wasn't quite sure who she was but couldn't wait until his old next door neighbor showed up! He was excited to see Sarah and remembered fondly the time they shared together doing all kinds of things he didn't do with other girls, frog hunting, shrimping, squishing night crawlers onto a hook to fish in the creek behind their houses. She had been a good friend and Ethan had often sensed that Sarah wanted more. She never said anything, "I guess not" Ethan thought.
As he walked toward the circle, Miles caught him out of the corner of his eye. The two slapped backs and hugged, both telling the other they looked "good for such an old man!" Each taking their turn at welcoming the others, the circle slowly drifted and three in front of him was Sarah. Not that he would have recognized her! Her awkward shape and lanky frame had been replaced with a strong, but feminine frame. Her glasses were gone and the long tangled hair was a short, smooth, beautiful compliment to her tanned skin. They're eyes unmoving from each other's face, Sarah and Ethan exchanged "Hello's".