Now. We have us another treat here tonight. Big Bill Jones is going to sing a selection for us now.
Up in the booth a tall man took the microphone and began to sing “Some Gave All, All Gave Some” over an instrumental recording. When he was done singing people applauded. He had a good voice. Then the announcer said, Big Bill, wait right here if you would and get us started on “America the Beautiful.” People sang along with him and they all sang the National Anthem. For that, people stood and men took off their caps. On the football field Willa stayed seated on the blanket. It’s too hard to get up and down, she said. Never mind me. She smiled and looked around at them through her thick glasses.
They sat down again and the announcer said, Now will somebody shut off these field lights for us? They waited. Will somebody shut off these lights so we can start? Folks, we can’t get started till the lights are turned off. After a while someone pulled the switch and they all sat in the faint light of the evening, the afterglow of sunset still showing to the west but everything dark now in the east. They waited and then suddenly the first rocket shot up and it broke overhead.
There was a loud explosion and strings of light spurted out and dripped down and winked out and white smoke drifted slowly away. Then another rocket exploded. The young boys in front of them named each one as it went off. Come on, bust, they said, and then the rocket burst and they said, Comet. Chandelier. Pixie Dust. Parachute. Silver rain. Carnation. Chinese Night.
After a while, Lorraine lay back on the blanket. Then Alice did too, and presently the Johnson women stretched out on the blanket next to them and the fireworks fired up into the cool summer night and the ghostlike trails of smoke drifted away in the sky, the pure blue stars far over them, all shining, above the football field on the high plains. The boys went on with their running account. Alice slid over closer to Lorraine.
Are you doing all right, honey? Lorraine said.
The girl nodded.
Are you cold?
A little.
Lorraine pulled her closer.
I wish my mother could have seen this, Alice said.
Yes. Raise your head for a second, honey.
Lorraine laid her arm down on the blanket and Alice lay back and Lorraine pulled the loose end of the blanket up over them both. Alene looked over and watched Alice for a moment. A rocket went off and she could see the girl’s face in the shimmering light. Her eyes clear and serious. Her smooth soft girl’s cheeks. Alene’s eyes welled up with tears, looking at the girl, but immediately she wiped the tears away. Next to her, her mother went on watching the fireworks.
At the end there was a long chain of explosions with a final cannon boom that echoed across the town out into the country. Then it was dark, the smoke drifting away above them, and then the high field lights came on again. Everything seemed brighter than ever.
The announcer came on again. That’s it for tonight, folks. Take care going home now. Mind your step now.
On the field they stood up and folded the blankets and people came down out of the grandstands and they all went out slowly in a crowd, not talking much, tired now and satisfied, moving out through the gate.
Good night, dear, Alene said, and without prompting Alice went to her and hugged her and then she hugged Willa. Afterward she walked home with Lorraine, back on the west side of town along the gravel street under the corner streetlights past the quiet houses, a few of them with lamps on inside, and once they saw an elderly woman let a little white dog out and then she called it back in and shut the door.
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