The meeting of a long but not forgotten friend can make you feel so excited you can't keep a smile off your face. The short story by John Cheever "reunion" is about a son meeting his father for the first time in 3 years. The shortcomings of a person having preconceived notions of how a person has evolved can be traumatic. I too had a similar situation with an old friend from high school just recently.

In the story Charlie looked so forward to seeing his father that he wrote to him asking to visit in a very short window of time of 11/2 hour during a layover. He received his response back from his father's secretary, not his father. Although I have never been blown off that bad I could see Charlie's face drooping as he read the note. When Charlie saw his father walking towards him he felt...