Chapter 16: Cap and Gown

Graduation was on the last Sunday of May, in the high school gym, with folding chairs on the basketball court.

The principal had made one decision about the seating, and she'd made it without telling anybody.

My parents sat in the last row, by the exit, under the scoreboard.

I saw them as I came in with my class, my mother in a navy dress and my father looking straight ahead.

Nobody sat next to them.

The front rows were full of other people.

My grandfather had the aisle seat in the third row, with his cane across his knees.

Faye was beside him in a cap with a paint stain on the tassel, and Mabel was on his other side in the navy blazer she'd lent me for the panel.

She was fanning herself with the program, and she gave me a thumbs-up when I passed.

The counselor stood at the side of the stage and nodded once.

I was the last speaker.

The principal had asked me three weeks ago, and I had said yes before I thought about it.

I climbed the steps with my notes in my fist and put them down on the podium.

Then I didn't look at them.

"Good afternoon," I said. "I'll keep this short, because the air conditioning is broken."

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