by David Gane
We shuffle further along and people are telling us a lot about what to do once the ceremony begins and where to go, but there’s so much information all at once, I barely register any of it.
Once we’re organized, they lead us out onto the stage alphabetically by last name. The lights are bright and I can barely see the crowd, but I follow my line and take a seat between a girl from my homeroom and a guy from my basketball team way at the back of the risers. The background music fades, the school band starts up, and Mrs. Johnson walks out on stage.
It takes over an hour, and I’m already exhausted before my name is called. But I feel only gratitude when I walk across the stage and Mrs. Johnson hands me my diploma. Afterward, they have a special dedication to Mike, and she presents an honorary degree to his parents.
Mike’s mom looks my way to whisper thank you to me, and all I can do is nod, choking back the emotion.
When they finally announce that we are officially this year’s graduating class, we all throw our caps in the air. Mike would’ve loved that. Ceremony complete, they usher us off the stage and back into the big room to return our gowns. The cap—if we can find it again—is ours to keep. There’s a lot of celebration and happy tears, and I get lots of hugs and a couple of kisses and I can’t say I mind.
All the grad chaperones look totally done with us, like they want us out of here yesterday, and push us to finish hugging and changing clothes and primping so that we can go to the grad dinner downstairs and they can go home. We line up one last time to grab the envelopes with our phones in them.
I get my envelope and tear it open.
Right away I see the text, already forty minutes old, already too late for me to do anything about.
It’s from Charlie and it’s only one word:
help
acknowledgments
This book has been one of our biggest challenges and it took many people to help us get it across the finish line. We have a lot of questions during the writing process, and our thanks go to Angie’s students, David’s former students, Madame Dryburgh’s class, Jeff Gegner, Kevin Johnson, Mike Park, and Constable Blair Randall of the Regina Police Service for helping to answer some of them. Nial McFadyen gets a big shout out from us for being our numero uno patron. We are indebted to Creative Saskatchewan for their generous assistance in the production of our books, and to Donovan Bergman and the print team at Friesens. We’d also like to recognize our early reader, Kate Gane; our proofreader, Brian Mlazgar; our photographer, Jeff Sawatzky; and our translators, Anna Maria Kontsiotis and Ulyses Rocha, for helping us with final touches; and give a huge special thanks to Heather Nickel, who works with us to bring our books to life.
Angie would like to thank Kevin Leflar for his support, Katerina Voyatzis for letting her play with the elevator, her coffee girl Maria Plastaras, and the Creator for this beautiful, crazy adventure. David would like to thank his wife and kids for their love and support, and the staff and former manager at Starbucks for putting up with him every early morning this past summer. Finally, a big thank you to our friends, family, and YOU (yes, you!), our reader, who picked up our book and bought our book, and maybe shared our book. We’re forever grateful for your kindness and support on our journey.
about the authors
Photo credit: Sawatzky Studios David Gane is a writer, teacher, and stay-at-home dad. He writes film scripts and fiction, and has also composed poetry, plays, and academic film reviews. He occasionally teaches screenwriting at the University of Regina.
Angie Counios teaches by day, and writes film scripts and fiction the rest of the time. When she’s not teaching or writing, she’s packing a bag for another adventure, completing a goal list, playing with her camera or practising yoga.
Find them at
www.couniosandgane.com