Chapter 22: One True Set

The Teen Showcase was held in the county fairground hall, under a ceiling of metal beams and about two hundred folding chairs.

I stood behind a curtain made of two gym mats, last on the list, with nothing in my hands.

Dot stood beside me with the stopwatch.

"No props," she said. "No costume. One stool."

"I know."

"Two minutes."

"I know."

"If you start a bit, I'll cut the lights myself."

"You can't reach the lights."

"I'll throw the stopwatch," Dot said.

Before me a girl with a ukulele had sung a song about her cat's funeral.

The crowd had cried, and then clapped for a long time.

I took my sunglasses out of my pocket and held them in my fist.

Then I put them on the stool, and walked out, and sat down behind them.

Row F was full of Halvorsons.

Mom, Dad, June and Colin sat in a line with their coats on their laps.

The seat at the end of the row belonged to the man from the Academy.

He had a notebook open.

I looked at the empty row in front of them, where nobody was stuck.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Bobby."

A few people clapped.

"I'm the family's emergency contact. Not the contact. The emergency."

That got a laugh, a small one, from the left.

"I was adopted at seven. I've always said it was a bargain."

I let that sit.

"They got a free smoke alarm, and the smoke alarm got a bedroom."

The laugh was bigger now.

I felt it land, and I felt the old pull in my chest.

Keep reading free with an account. Start No Longer the Family Clown from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.