The Graduation Trap novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Cleared

On Saturday morning, on the steps of Alumni Hall, the college gave Sullivan Brennan back his name.

The president of Hollis College stood at a lectern with a sheet of paper that shook slightly in his hand.

Two hundred people had come, because the whole town had heard the recording by then.

Reporters stood at the foot of the steps.

Sullivan's mother sat in the front row in a green coat, with her handbag on her knees and her chin up.

"Seven years ago this institution accepted an account that no one tested," the president said.

"It expelled a student on that account, and told no one it had no evidence."

His eyes went to the paper and stayed there.

"Today the Board of Trustees has voided that finding in full. The conduct file is sealed and the record is expunged."

A woman in the crowd began to cry.

"Mr. Brennan earned his degree in every way but the one the college took from him."

He lifted his head.

"It is my privilege to confer it."

He held out a leather folder.

Sullivan walked up the steps in his black work shirt and took it.

He did not say anything into the microphone.

He only looked down at the folder for a long time, and then at his mother.

Then he found me at the back of the crowd and held it up an inch.

I laughed and wiped my face with the heel of my hand.

That night a lamp was on in the apartment above the bar, and the folder lay open on the table.

I stood in the doorway and looked at him.

He sat on the edge of the bed with his shirt untucked and his elbows on his knees.

He looked thirty-one and seven years tired and entirely at a loss.

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