EPILOGUE (EARTH)

EPILOGUE-(EARTH)

Just over a year later earth-time…

Emma sat straight-backed on the metal folding chair in her royal blue gown and mortar board cap with gold tassel. She was watching Cash, like a proud mother, as he gave their Valedictorian speech. They were actually graduating, they had made it! 

He did not seem nervous at all as he described their less-than glowing last four years socially at Eastside Mountain High and how none of those experiences really mattered now. They were all receiving the degree they had come day in and day out to walk away with. Students in the audience vacillated back and forth between chuckles and uncomfortably squirming on their seats. She did not know Cash could be so humorous. He was nailing it. Cashias Benedict Burton continued on encouraging their classmates to look to the future and not rest on the laurels they felt they may have accomplished in high school’s microcosm of real life. Each member of class of 2017 could go on to make a difference in the world, even if that difference was to just one person it would be enough. 

He shared John F. Kennedy’s quote, “One person can make a difference and everyone can try.” And also quoted Albert Einstein, one of his heroes, “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” It was classic Cash at his best. Emma felt emotion well up inside her, he really was something pretty wonderful. She was so glad he came home from Amsterdam for their senior year and would miss him so much next year at college. 

Emma had been awarded the Salutatorian Scholastic Award having earned a 3.97 grade point average and she felt fine about that. She knew it should have been much worse with all the struggles she had waded through. Cash had been accepted at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the University he had always dreamed of attending, but had decided to attend Stanford instead. Stanford University awarded him a full ride scholarship partly because he aced the ACT test. He would be closer to Emma at Stanford since she had been accepted into U.C. Berkeley’s writing program, probably due to her entrance essay. She openly poured onto pages the experience of her mother’s aneurysm, life in bed and ultimate passing, painting a hypnotizing picture with her words. Mrs. Dudley had returned to teaching this last semester and was able to help Emma fine tune the entry assignment. She even was awarded a partial scholarship which would help and Berkeley was close enough she would be able to go home on long weekends and holidays. 

Over on the bleachers to the right side of the gymnasium sat Emma’s cheering section. Her father, Joy and Arty. She was pretty sure her mother was in attendance too even though she could not see her sitting amid the others in the stands. Arty was dressed in a bright yellow t-shirt Joy had given him with the acronym S.M.I.L.E. on it. SMILE stood for “See Miracles In Life Everyday”. It was a good reminder for Emma and made the little group easier to spot. Joy had stayed on after her mother’s departure to work with Arty and had become like a favorite aunt. Her dad let Joy use a room in their house for her growing Ayurveda based healing business she had started on the side, as long as it didn’t interfere with her care of Arty. It seemed to assist Arty more than interfere so it worked out for everyone. She would miss them all too. 

Father Jack had oddly seemed to gain some life with Maggie’s death. Like the energy that left her body infused into his or something. He was still the same reserved man he had always been, but better. He seemed less alone than when Maggie’s body had been lying near in the bed. He made an effort to be home more and Emma even saw a slight smile occasionally brighten his countenance. On the date of his and Maggie’s wedding anniversary he told Emma to put on something nice and dressed up Arty too, then surprised them by going to a top-rated restaurant for dinner together.  His explanation was that if it had not been for this date he would not have the two of them so they needed to celebrate.  

Weekly one could find him at the small local cemetery placing fresh flowers on her mother’s grave and visiting with her tombstone. Jack had donated a cement bench with attached plaque in Maggie’s name for people to sit and spend time with their deceased loved ones when he was not. Emma made an effort to also go check in with her mom as often as she could. But it was a private time, so neither father nor daughter wanted to attend together. 

Cash finished speaking and there was a huge round of applause followed by a standing ovation. He was sure sending them off in style. The rest of the graduation ceremony went by in a blur besides the part when they called her name, “Emma Grace Lanrete”, as she walked across the elevated platform for her diploma. She could hear Joy’s whistle and Arty’s laugh from the crowd and Cash’s “way to go” as she walked by him. It was all surreal. 

As a concluding song for the ceremony an ensemble of juniors from her choir class sang their class song for the graduating class of 2017, “Rise Up” by Andra Day. The familiar words felt like Emma’s anthem for her last few years of high school here at Eastside Mountain High. 

You're broken down and tired

Of living life on a merry go round

And you can't find the fighter

But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out

And move mountains

We gonna walk it out

And move mountains

And I'll rise up

I'll rise like the day

I'll rise up

I'll rise unafraid

I'll rise up

And I'll do it a thousand times again

And I'll rise up

High like the waves

I'll rise up

In spite of the ache

I'll rise up

And I'll do it a thousands times again

For you

When the silence isn't quiet

And it feels like it's getting hard to breathe

And I know you feel like dying

But I promise we'll take the world to its feet

And move mountains

We'll take it to its feet

And move mountains

And I'll rise up

I'll rise like the day

I'll rise up

I'll rise unafraid

I’ll rise up…

Yes, she had risen up to the occasion called life and here she was graduating….one small step up in the much longer journey.

After they had moved the tassel to the other side of the mortar boards and tossed their caps in the air, Emma started to exit the gym engulfed in the flow of bodies. She had arranged to meet her little group outside the south door near a large oak tree. But before she could press herself through the throng, a familiar hand grabbed her arm and guided her to the side out of the way under the bleachers. 

“I just needed a moment with you to myself before all of this is over. There is only one goal I have not accomplished in High School that I still need to take care of.”  

With those words, Cash gently cupped Emma’s blushing cheeks in his large hands pulling her face incredibly close to his. Soft, warm, slightly open lips made smooching contact with her still shocked ones. It did not take long however for hers to respond in like fashion, as if they knew just what to do as long her mind would stay out of the way. 

Regrettably, both paused for a breath aware reciprocal feeling were exploding their friendship to a new graduation level that they did not need a diploma for. Others were waiting to congratulate them, so they responsibly separated with an unspoken promise of more to come. Their commencement had been sealed with a kiss …highlighting the beginning of their happily forever after…