The Graduation Read Online Free PDF

anything!”
    “Forget Russ and the shower. Bubba will do it with you no matter how many clothes you have on and no matter how flabby your ass is. What did he say?”
    Sara sucked in a breath. “I wish, Jessie, for the sake of our long and warm association that you would please change the goddamn subject.”
    “OK. But you’re right—the grease just sweats off that guy. Can you imagine why any girl would go to bed with him?”
    “I try not to think about it.” Sara stared at the ground, thinking, chewing on her lower lip.
    “What’s the matter?”
    “Nothing.”
    “What?” Jessica persisted.
    “I was wondering if I should tell you this.”
    “Don’t tell me. Play it safe. Keep it to yourself.”
    “All right.”
    “Sara?” she said, getting exasperated.
    “Mike was here about half an hour ago.”
    “Michael?” The strength went out of her. She had not been thinking of winning and losing. Only of losing. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “You just got here.”
    “But where is he?” She quickly scanned the courtyard, almost afraid to find him. “Where did he go?”
    “I don’t know,” Sara said.
    “What do you mean, you don’t know? Which direction was he heading when he left you?”
    “He went after Clair.”
    “Clair’s here, too?”
    “Yeah.”
    She swallowed. “I don’t care.”
    “Jessie, of course you care.”
    “I don’t. So she’s got her stupid face on the cover of some stupid magazine?”
    “We’re talking about Mike. You might be able to find him if you go look.”
    “First period’s going to start in a minute. I don’t have time.” She shielded her eyes from the bright sun—it was going to be a cooker of an afternoon—searching harder. “Why was he here?”
    “He came to pick up his yearbook. He’s going to be at the ceremony. He’s valedictorian.”
    “ What? When did this happen? What happened to Jensen?”
    “All I know is Mike is going to be giving the speech.”
    “Since when have you known this?” Jessica pressed.
    “Since yesterday,” Sara said.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “You didn’t ask me.”
    “Why should I have to ask you?”
    “Because you keep telling me you don’t care.”
    “I don’t care. I mean, what’s there to care about? He left school early. He didn’t even say good-bye. I hardly knew him. How did he look?”
    “Great.”
    Jessica smiled. “Did he?”
    Sara smiled, too. “Yeah. His hair’s longer. He’s got a tan.”
    “I always wanted him to grow his hair.” She scratched her own hair. “He wasn’t with Clair, like in with her, was he?”
    “No.”
    Jessica bounced on her feet. “I’ve got to find him. Talk to you later.”
    “Good luck.”
    Unfortunately, she had no luck at all. She was hurrying down the first hallway when she ran into Bubba. He had on a straw hat so huge it was causing traffic jams.
    “Bubba, have you seen Michael?” she asked casually.
    “He left already.”
    “But he’s coming back, right?”
    Bubba showed a flicker of uncertainty. “I hope so.” Then he grinned and reached out his hand. “May I sign your yearbook, my dear?”
    “Yeah.” She clasped it to her chest and looked at his fat ink-stained fingers. “Later.”

Chapter Four
    Ray Bradbury had written a short story called “ Rocket Man .” Michael had read it in junior high. It told of a man who piloted a rocket for a living. Most of the time he worked alone in space, but occasionally he returned home to earth. He had a wife and son, and although the story was largely told through the son’s eyes, it was the wife’s point of view that had stayed with Michael. It came to him as he stood in the cemetery at the foot of Alice McCoy’s grave.
    The wife always worried that her husband would crash into the moon, or die on Mars, or Venus, or on any other planet in the solar system. Then she would never again be able to look up when the moon was in the sky, or when the particular planet was close to the earth. For that