Rescue - By Anita Shreve Page 0,87

go to graduation first with Tommy because they have to put on their robes and line up for the procession. They will march out onto the field to the notes of “Pomp and Circumstance,” just as Webster once did. He feels for the parents of the one student who won’t be there. When Webster told Rowan about Kerry, she cried for an hour. He worries that Rowan might not be able to handle the inevitable moment of silence. He worries about her standing in the hot sun. The doctor has warned both of them to be aware of the possibility of seizures. For the next two weeks, Rowan cannot be alone.

Webster and Sheila will go a bit early to graduation as well in order to snag a pair of seats near the front. Metal chairs will be set in rows before the stage. As soon as Webster sits down on his, one leg of the four will sink into the soft grass. Webster has his camera and has charged it for pictures afterward. He wants one of Rowan up against the bare patch of wall, but she might be embarrassed with her odd haircut and in Sheila’s presence. And wouldn’t Webster then be obliged to ask Sheila and Rowan to pose together, a request riddled with mines? He’ll get Rowan after the ceremony, in her gown and in her dress.

“That’s clever,” Sheila says, noticing the silver box on the windowsill over the sink. “It really tells the weather?”

“It was my birthday present to Dad,” Rowan says, lifting it from the sill. She explains its various features. She gives it a little shake and sets the cube on the table. “This side shows the future,” she says. She tilts her head to read it. “Go slowly and be careful,” she reads. “Bummer. I already got that one. Whose future is it, anyway?”

“Yours,” Webster says. “You shook it.” He thinks it good advice for his daughter.

“But the box belongs to you,” she counters. “I gave it to you.”

“OK,” he says, relieved that the liquid produced nothing worse. “I’ll take it.”

Rowan shakes the cube again. “Treasure awaits if you can find it,” she reads. She looks puzzled. “What does it mean?”

“I think it means exactly what it says,” Webster replies. “Something wonderful is out there if you can recognize it.”

“But what is it?”

“That’s for you to discover,” he says.

“You do it,” Rowan says, holding the box out for Sheila. Sheila takes a step backward. “No thanks,” she says. “Maybe some other day.”

Surprises don’t work for her either.

Sheila and Webster make their way across a field of green. They aren’t as early as Webster imagined they would be. The front rows are filled already. Sheila’s heels sink into the sod, and once they have to stop so that Sheila can extricate a shoe.

Webster chooses a seat on the aisle. Always the need for the quick getaway, a habit from years on the job. Sheila sits beside him as he waves to Gina’s mother, Eileen, who isn’t hiding her curiosity about Sheila. Webster scans the large crowd. Grandparents and siblings next to parents his age and older. He’ll know which clan belongs to which student when the seniors cross the stage. The family will shout and cheer and make catcalls to single out their child. Webster is glad he has Sheila with him. How much noise can a single father make?

His parents once sat here, as he is doing now. He remembers wanting only to get away with his friends and go to a series of parties that left him so wiped out by the end of the night that he fell asleep on a stranger’s floor.

A woman he doesn’t recognize approaches from the side. Beside her is a young man in black glasses. “Mr. Webster?” the woman asks.

“Yes?”

“This is the baby you helped bring into the world nineteen years ago. Aaron and I are here for Joshua, Aaron’s younger brother.”

“No kidding!” Webster says as he stands. He glances from mother to son. He’s tickled and amazed. “Hello, Aaron.”

The boy shakes his hand.

“I was so afraid that night,” the woman says.

“You and me both. I was just a rookie.”

“I’ve wanted to thank you for years, but our paths have seldom crossed, and when they did, you were always with someone else.”

“Well, it was a great experience for me.”

“The thing you said that made me not afraid? You said, ‘This baby’s going to come out hollering his head off. I can hear him already.’ And that