CHAPTER 9

“Holy crap, Dad, look at Spirit,” Allyson said, pointing as Gord drove past. Spirit was the large, black bronco statue that a local artist had built and donated to the town when the town was created.

“Can you stop the truck?”

Her father idled the truck near a crowd of people gathered around Spirit. Spirit was the town mascot. The local hockey team was called the Mustangs. Town businesses featured Mustangs in their logos. Allyson had asked Gord about the history once, but he couldn’t remember if there had been a famous mustang in town, or if it was something the town had just adopted. No one knew why the horse was named Spirit. Spirit’s sculptor had made sure the animal was anatomically correct, with a large scrotum and pendulous balls. It was popular for townspeople to get visitors to have their photos snapped beside Spirit’s oversized genitalia.

Allyson rolled down her window and leaned out of the truck.

“I can’t see,” Gord said. “My eyes aren’t as good as yours.”

“The grads must have done it as a prank,” Allyson said. She started to laugh. “If you get out of the truck or drive a little closer, you’ll see it,” she said. “Spirit’s balls are bright gold.”

Her father started to laugh too. “It would save us a lot of trouble if good stock had gold balls.”

Gord parked the truck. “I need a better look at this.”

Mabel Jacobson was among the crowd of people gathered at the base of the statue.

“It’s a crying shame,” Mabel said as Gord and Allyson approached. “Who would take Spirit’s dignity like that?”

“Yes,” Gord said, trying to keep a straight face. “How could they do such a thing?”

Allyson couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen her father laugh or smile. The Klassens watched as an RCMP officer joined the crowd. This officer had only been in town for a few months, but there were already rumours flying that he was gay. He was a good-looking single man who lived alone. Allyson had overheard a bunch of women talking about him one day when she’d been at Joe’s.

“We better get going,” Gord said. “Much as I’d like to stay and watch this, I don’t want you to be late for practice.”

Allyson nodded. They walked back to the truck and drove towards the school.

“Break a leg,” Gord said. “You’ve been practicing a lot. “I’ll see you soon. I’ll be so cleaned up that you won’t even recognize me.”

Allyson grabbed her trumpet case and unbuckled her seat belt.

“See you in a bit,” she said, and started toward the school.

*

The gymnasium was too hot. Allyson could feel sweat gathering under the armpits of her white blouse. She should have ­listened to her mother and worn short sleeves. It was so warm on the stage. Thank God no one was looking at the band. The audience was all staring at Mr. Warsylewicz, the principal, as he talked to the graduates and their families. The band had finished the overture and only had to play Pomp and Circumstance while the graduates accepted their diplomas from Mr. Walrus. The principal had earned his nickname because of his huge belly and multiple chins. Mr. Walrus had been droning on for several minutes, so Allyson looked at her family in the third row. Her dad was wearing his black Stetson and a red plaid short-sleeved shirt with a black bolo tie. He’d even cleaned his cowboy boots. Her mom looked pretty in her peach dress. She looked less tired than she normally looked. Colton sat beside her, his long legs stretched out in front of him as he leaned back, contemplating the ceiling. Allyson had heard her mother and Colton arguing last night. Colton had wanted to bring Lily Stevens to grad but Donna had forbidden it. Allyson heard the whole argument from upstairs.

“She’s my girlfriend, Mom,” Colton said.

“I don’t care,” her mother said, sounding like a petulant child. “She doesn’t get to sit with us.”

Then Colton started in on how his mother didn’t like Lily and didn’t accept her. The argument wasn’t anything Allyson hadn’t heard before. She knew her mother didn’t want Lily to become anything serious. It was weird that her mother seemed to want Colton to be single, and Clay to get a girlfriend. When he was in high school, she’d look at the pictures of the girls in the yearbook and point out the pretty ones to Clay.

Clay dated a girl named Nadine for a few months, but it had never gone anywhere. Nadine wore a lot of pink and giggled when she and Clay sat in the TV room, stealing kisses when they thought no one else was around.

Allyson didn’t like Lily either. There was something about her that was dark. She looked at people down her nose, with her eyes slightly closed as if she knew something you didn’t.

Clay sat on the other side of Colton. His white shirt showed off his arms. He had a bit of reddish stubble and wore a white cowboy hat. Allyson caught his eye and he raised his eyebrows at her and smirked a little with one side of his mouth. Uncle Craig, looking stoic and serious in his tan cowboy hat, sat beside Clay. Allyson looked forward to the day when she could go to an event and not be surrounded by cowboy hats. Seriously, her family looked like a bunch of hicks. It was like they thought they lived in Texas or something.

Aunty Linda dabbed at her eyes with a crumpled pink Kleenex that she had pulled from her purse. It couldn’t be easy for Linda, now that her only child would be heading off to Edmonton in the fall. She and Craig would be rattling around their house, just the two of them. Linda’s parents were sitting behind the rest of the family, but they weren’t doing ­anything interesting. At that moment, Allyson missed her grandparents. If they had been there, they would have both been beaming at the stage. Linda had asked Abby if she wanted to come, but she said she didn’t want to. Chloe hadn’t visited her for months. Donna had told Abby they would take lots of pictures for her. She would bring the pictures to the lodge and give Abby a recap of the entire night. Allyson wondered why they kept on pretending that Abby cared about these things, when she clearly didn’t. It was like Abby was looking at the world through a very thick pane of glass. She could look if she wanted, but there was no way she could touch or interact with anything, so there was no reason for her to bother.

“This is the time when our children become adults,” Mr. Walrus said. “They will be moving forward, growing into men and women. And who knows what these young men and women will become? Do we have a Nobel prize winner in the bunch?”

He gestured his arm, pointing along the rows of graduating students. “Look at this group, ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “One of these people could discover the cure for AIDS. We could have future doctors and lawyers in this group. One of these fine young people might write a Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel. Another could be the next Shania Twain.”

Oh, please, Allyson thought. Half of the guys would end up in the oil patch. A number of the girls would end up pregnant by next year and would never leave town. They’d be talking about soaps, popping out the next bunch of townies and gossiping about their children and who was screwing who. Some of them would join the parent teacher council, and others would organize the curling bonspiel and decorate floats for the town rodeo parade.

Laura, the trumpet player who sat beside her, nudged her foot. “How much longer?” she whispered, ducking her face behind her music stand. “If he goes on for another ten minutes, I might pass out.”

Allyson nodded. She could see Amber’s long brown braid a few rows in front of her. Amber and her oboe sat right in the middle of the front row. Like her, Amber would leave town as fast as she could.

Mr. Walrus announced the valedictorian, Emily Chin. As Emily walked to the podium, Allyson scanned the crowd, looking for Jeff and his parents. Jeff sat a few rows from the front. Next to him, Joe and Winnie Chin beamed. Winnie wore a red sundress with white polka dots. Her red lipstick looked elegant. Joe wore a suit. He shuffled a little and hunched his shoulders up and down, adjusting his jacket as if he wasn’t quite comfortable in it.

Emily started her speech with a clear, calm voice. Allyson had never really spoken to her. But Emily was well-liked, did well in sports, and got good marks.

Emily was talking about their future, how they were all going to go out into the world and make it this amazing place. Why were grad ceremonies supposed to be life-changing events? After today, the graduating class would take off their gowns and fancy suits and go back to being their pimply, smelly selves. Why did people need to talk about how amazing everyone was? The world wasn’t so simple. These people weren’t going to change it.

Allyson looked at Jeff. He was bent forward, listening to his sister’s words. Emily was headed to the University of Alberta in the fall, Jeff said. She’d be a doctor or a lawyer. She would have degrees that she could hang on her walls. Allyson wanted to be one of those people too.

Jeff caught her eye and winked. She pointed to herself. “Me?” she mouthed. He nodded. She could feel her face getting hot. Did he like her? When people liked each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, things got messy and complicated.

The audience applauded and Emily walked off stage. Her pink sweetheart gown looked beautiful on her. Mr. Walrus came up to the microphone and started calling the graduates to the stand. They each walked to the middle of the stage to shake his hand, and then on to shake hands with Miss Shandler, the vice-principal. There were forty-five students to go through. People in the audience whooped and hollered when Tim Coates got his diploma. He pulled his arm down in a fist pump and yelled “Yeah!” waving at the crowd like he was a movie star. Allyson looked over at Jack, Connie and Tracy Coates. They were laughing and Connie Coates put her head in her hands and shook it like she was embarrassed. It was more of a joke than anything. Everyone loved Tim Coates.

Allyson watched as the rest of graduates paraded by. The Gs went by and then the Hs, including Josh Hutchinson, a guy Chloe had probably made out with. Allyson couldn’t understand what her cousin had seen in him. He looked like an ugly, red-headed version of Matt Damon. He was good at hockey, though, and would probably get recruited by the WHL someday.

Chloe’s name was called and she walked across the stage, her smile a little too big. Chloe walked like she had a stick up her butt. She did look pretty, though. Her strawberry blonde hair was piled on top of her head in an updo and her blue dress fitted her perfectly. She looked like a real grown-up, like someone who was going to go out and do something. This fall, Chloe was going to be able to floor her car, squeal out of town and leave a cloud of dust behind her.

Uncle Craig and Aunty Linda beamed from the audience. Craig, Linda’s mom and Clay stood, cameras in front of their faces as they snapped away. Chloe reached Mr. Walrus and Miss Shandler, shook their hands and walked off stage with her piece of paper.

That was it, Allyson thought. Two minutes to cap off three years of hell. Those minutes on the stage meant that Chloe could leave now. She zoned out as the rest of the grads walked across the stage and took their diplomas. The whole thing reminded Allyson of the Miss America pageant.

As the last grad, Jordan Zebot, accepted his diploma, Mr. Taylor, the band teacher, walked onto the stage and stood in front of the band. He waved his baton around, cueing them. It was time to play “Pomp and Circumstance” as the grads departed.

With her trumpet raised to her mouth, she waited, poised. Mr. Taylor brought his baton up and they started the regal march. Allyson couldn’t wait until she could march out of the room with the rest of the group. Once everyone in the auditorium had left, Mr. Taylor stopped them, and the sound of the song faded out, until the band members were left silent and alone in the empty auditorium.