The year was 1982. The year that there would no longer be a Folcroft Middle School, or a Darby Township High School, a Collingdale High School, or a Central High School. Well, there'd still be a Central High School, but not the one in Delaware County. The infamous merge. The adults on my street swayed onto two sides, one vehemently for the merge and one vehemently against. Carl and Emma, the couple across the street and three houses down from us, were vehemently against. I knew them well, as the O'Seefs. They had three children, Sherri, who was sixteen, Jodie, who was fourteen, and Rachel, who was twelve. My younger sister, Kaitlyn, was best friends with Rachel and as a result we both spent massive amounts of time over the house.
Emma O'Seef was in her thirties, and a rather pleasant woman. Her husband, on the other hand, scoffed often and just wasn't very likable. He held his head as if he knew everything and the rest of us were just a bunch of nothings. I didn't like him much, to say the least. I was over their house with Kaitlyn, Jodie, and Rachel when I heard the O'Seefs' views on the merge.
"Why should we pick up Darby Township and Sharon Hill's taxes?" complained Emma as she flipped through the paper.
"Who's Sharon?" I asked.
"Oh, Marcie, Sharon Hill is one of the merging towns."
"Well, why would we pick up their taxes?"
"Because they can't pay their own."
"Sharon Hill's not the problem," scoffed Carlton O'Seef, "It's Darby Township, all those damned blacks. They want to integrate."
"What's wrong with that?"
"You'll see once you go to that school," he scoffed again, "Thank God my children go to Catholic school."
That night, Kaitlyn turned to me. "Marcie?"
"Yes, Katie?"
"I don't want to go to Ashland Middle School, or whatever it's called! I want to go to Collingdale High School like Willow did!"
"Well, you can't. Look at it as a new experience, meeting lots of new people."
"I don't want to meet black people," she shot back. I stood there, shocked.
"Katie, what did you just say?"
"You heard me."
"Who taught you to think that way?"
"No one needed to! I just do!"
"Just because someone has a different skin color doesn't mean anything. I hope you're not letting that nutty Carlton O'Seef rot your brain with his crazed ideas. And I don't want anything like that coming out of your mouth ever again, Kaitlyn Hook, or I'll tell Mom and Dad."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because it's wrong!"
"You don't know any, so shut up!" she shot back and stomped out. I walked across the street to the O'Seefs. I wasn't going to call in my parents, I needed to do this on my own. I rang the doorbell.
"Hello? Oh, Marcie." It was Sherri at the door.
"Sherri? I need to talk to one of your parents right now."
"Okay."
"What do you want?" snapped Carl O'Seef.
"What did you say to Kaitlyn?" the words shot out of my mouth before I even decided on them. "You had better not be shooting off your racist propaganda in front of her. If you want to destroy your own kids, that's your issue, but MY SISTER IS NOT GOING TO HATE BLACK PEOPLE JUST BECAUSE SHE HEARD YOU SAY IT!"
"I just said the truth." I slammed the door in his face and stomped over to my own house. I closed my bedroom door, flung myself on the bed and wondered if Carl was right after all.

The first day of school was a bright September Wednesday, when the breeze flew through Collingdale like a butterfly just out of its cocoon. I arrived at the new Academy Park High School at seven sharp, gazing around excitedly as I surveyed its campus and halls, the rows of lockers lined up against a light blue landscape wall.
"I'm lost," I muttered aloud, looking for some indication on my schedule of where everything was.
"So am I," said a voice. I turned to see a tall, smiling black girl with long, ebony hair and caramel skin. "I'm Shawna Crahan."
"Marcie Hook," I replied, smiling in return.
"MARCIE!" yelled a voice. Max Edison ran up to us and grinned. (Yes, he was named after "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and readily admitted it.)
"Max, hey, this is Shawna," I introduced them to each other.
"We gotta find an office," said Shawna, leading us to the central of the gigantic school. We walked along to the office. The first day of school.

"You did WHAT?" yelled Carl the next day.
"I introduced Jodie to Shawna," I replied matter-of-factly, "What's the big deal?"
"If you want to destroy yourself, that's one thing, but my kids will not associate with them!"
"You're the one destroying yourself," I shot back, "And your children, and my younger sister. Come into the 20th century. Slavery is over."
"There were days when this wouldn't be allowed," he grumbled.
"Which are OVER! Get over it. Racist."
"And I'm proud of it!"
"Well, I'm not."
"Marcie!" yelled a voice.
"Shawna!" I called in response.
"Hey, this is my twin brother Sean," she introduced a boy next to her.
"Hey, Sean," I replied.
"Get away from my house with that," muttered Carl O'Seef. The merge.

The year is 2003. I am now thirty-four years old. I wonder if it was all worth it. What if, indeed, Carl O'Seef was right after all? He couldn't have been. I turn to my husband, Sean Crahan, and my sister-in-law and still best friend, Shawna, and I look at my two children, Danielle and Colleen, and I know he couldn't have been. I look at the scar that still shows down my leg from when I was eighteen, and I know he couldn't have been.
Max married Shawna. They have two children as well, Kevin and Marie. We all live in San Francisco. We decided if they are so many gay people there, they couldn't possibly be offended by an interracial marriage. Or two. And we were right. They don't really care. Not like the people back home, who always had a comment under their lip, in both Darby Township and Collingdale.
What became of Emma and Carl? I don't know. All I know is what I hope. And what I hope is one day, Danielle and Colleen can go back to Collingdale, and look at themselves as more than what people think they are. A day when I can turn to Carl O'Seef and say "You weren't right." And I can show him my beautiful Danielle and my unbelievably smart Colleen and say, "This is why you aren't right." But I can't. I'm not going to subject them to what I know he'd say. I'll just stand here and wait for a day when everything we hope for comes true.