The inside of the arena reeked of sweaty bodies, and despite the air conditioners laboring overhead, the air was thick and moist. I sat amongst my fellow classmates. We had all survived. Not just the universe shrinking; we had survived high school. Lua sat a row ahead of me, Calvin way up front where I could barely make out the back of his head.
And Dustin stood onstage in his blue graduation cap and gown addressing the Cloud Lake High class of 2018.
“I went skydiving yesterday. I’ve been skydiving a lot lately, actually. I didn’t tell my friends or my parents—surprise!—and yesterday was my first solo jump.” Dustin was so far away that I could barely make out his face, but I knew he was sweating and nervous. I hadn’t known he’d gone skydiving, but it didn’t surprise me. It was a very Dustin thing to do.
“Falling isn’t the scary part. You’d think it is, what with the falling and screaming and plummeting toward the ground. But a moment after you begin to fall, you reach terminal velocity, and you realize that you’re not falling. You’re flying. Maybe it’s an illusion created by wind resistance, but that’s okay because you’re still flying. You can hold your arms out and soar or pin them to your sides and shoot forward like a rocket. How you descend is totally up to you.
“No, the falling isn’t the scary part. Falling is easy. Jumping is hard. Jumping is scary. Until yesterday, I’d made all my jumps tandem, with an instructor strapped to my back. I couldn’t really screw anything up because she was there to correct my mistakes—to tell me what to do if my brain froze—but yesterday, I jumped alone.
“I stood outside the open hatch, holding onto the rails, my feet planted on something solid, and I knew that I’d need to push off. To jump into the open and unforgiving air. Alone.
“There was this moment where I was like ‘Oh, hell no, I am not doing this.’ And I could have climbed back into the plane and ridden it down, but I didn’t. I’d taken the right courses; I’d listened to my instructors. I possessed all the knowledge necessary to make it to the ground safely. Sure, it was still dangerous. My chute might not have opened or I might have freaked out and forgotten all the things I’d learned. Skydiving isn’t without risk, but flying is totally worth it.
“So I took one last breath, I let go of the railing, and I jumped.”
Dustin wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. He paused and stared out at us. I wasn’t sure he could pick me out of the ocean of caps and faces, but I liked to imagine he could.
“Graduating seniors of Cloud Lake High: It’s time for us to jump.”
? ? ?
I stuck my tongue out at the camera as I shielded my eyes from the sun.
“Come on, Ozzie, don’t be such a spoilsport.” Mom stood with her hand on her hip while Dad tried to snap a picture. “This is for posterity.”
“You’ve already taken a million. How many more does posterity need?”
My parents hadn’t fought since Mom had arrived earlier that week for my graduation. She’d tried to get a hotel room, but they’d all been booked by relatives who’d traveled to see their nieces and nephews and grandchildren graduate, so she stayed with me and Renny and Dad. I wound up sleeping on the couch while Mom took my room. I liked to think that their newfound friendship was repayment for my having to camp out on the most uncomfortable sofa bed in existence. But maybe this was the new normal for them. Now that they were no longer husband and wife, they’d found a way back to the friendship they thought they’d lost.
“Ozzie,” Mom started, but Renny jumped in and said, “How about one with me?”
I took a knee beside Renny and slung my arm around his shoulders. “This is super lame,” I said.
Renny grinned, all teeth, and whispered, “Suck it up, brother. If I had to suffer through this shit when I graduated, so do you.”
All around us, kids in blue gowns were being similarly tortured by their parents. Graduation had been a grueling three hours, but now that it was over, I almost wished it had lasted longer. Almost.
Mom and Dad started arguing about how to work the camera, and all I could do was sigh. Okay, so maybe they had a way to go still, but I’d take what I could get.
“When’s Mom going back to Chicago?”
“Tonight,” Renny said. “You know Dad planned a party back at his place for when we’re done here, right? Aunt Lila and the brats will be there. Mom tried to convince Uncle David to leave the cabin, but you know how he is.”
“He has a phone now?”
Renny shook his head. “She’s been writing letters to him for months.” Renny snapped his fingers. “And you’ll never guess who else is coming.”
“Then save me the effort and just tell me.”
“Aunt Mary.”
My mouth fell open.
“I had the same reaction,” Renny said. “She and Mom buried the hatchet, and neither one ended up with it in her back.”
“That’s unexpected.”
Renny furrowed his brow. “Promise me we’ll never stop talking like that.”
“Oh lord,” I said. “Are you getting emotional? Are you going to cry? I don’t think I could deal if you cried. At least not until Mom and Dad get the camera working so I can record photographic evidence of it.”
Renny slugged me in the shoulder. “You’re such a dick, but promise anyway.”
“You’re my brother, Renny. My dumbass, gimpy brother. And I’ll be around to annoy you until the day you die.”
“Yay me.” But Renny was smiling. Even though my brother had only been in the army for a few weeks, those weeks had changed him. He might have lost the use of his legs, but he still looked taller to me. More confident. Skinnier, too, which Mom and Dad seemed hell-bent on correcting.
I bit my lip. “So, about the party,” I said. “Think anyone will notice if I don’t show?”
Renny’s smile morphed into a disapproving frown. “Does this have anything to do with the packed duffel bag I saw this morning?” He waved his hands to cut me off. “Actually, don’t tell me. I’d prefer to maintain plausible deniability.”
“I’ll be back in a few weeks.” Renny raised an eyebrow. “Don’t worry. I’ll call Mom and Dad and let them know when I’m on the road and they can’t try to stop me.”
“They’re going to kill you.”
“Maybe. But I still need to do this.” I stood and stretched my legs while Mom and Dad continued bickering over the camera. At this rate, I’d never escape. “How about you, Renny? Think you can survive without me for a few weeks?”
“I’ll manage.” I might not have believed him before, but this new Renny was easy to believe. “Did I tell you I signed up for a couple of classes at community college?”
“I’m surprised you have any space left in your schedule, seeing how much time you spend sucking face with Emilia.”
A blush crept into Renny’s cheeks. “Shut up about it.”
Yeah, Renny was definitely going to be all right.
? ? ?
“Nice speech,” I said.
Dustin kept looking over his shoulder at where his parents stood chatting with Principal Brzezinski under a shady palm tree. “Yeah.”
“Skydiving?”
Dustin offered a halfhearted shrug. “Let’s just say I wasn’t handling the news about my parents’ financial situation as well as I’d led you to believe.”
“No judgment here.”
A burst of rowdy laughter erupted from Dustin’s parents and stole his attention.