Read Online After Sylvia by Alan Cumyn - Free Book Online Page A

diseases all over the world. I think that we, as fellow children, should dedicate ourselves to wiping out disease, malnutrition, poverty and ignorance everywhere. As president of the Junior Achievers, I would spare no effort to aid in the fight for planetary improvement. Even though we are young, we are the future. And without us, there would be none!” She threw her arms out dramatically but dropped her cue cards, which scattered like petals around her feet.
    Nobody clapped, until she finally bent down to pick up her cards, and then Miss Glendon began to applaud and others followed.
    Dan Ruck was next. He had no cards and he stuck his hands in his pockets and shifted from leg to leg as if standing on board a rocking boat.
    â€œI, uh, well, hmmm,” he said, then horked up some phlegm suddenly and looked around, at a loss. Finally he just swallowed it and pushed a hand through his hair nervously. After the hand came down, some of the hair relaxed in front of his eyes, where it had been previously, and some stayed sticking straight up.
    The words rushed out of his mouth. “I thought it might be a good idea to have a dance,” he said. He blew out loudly, twice, in an effort to catch his breath. “With, uh... just fuddle music. I mean
fiddle!
If you want to make me president,” he said in conclusion, “my pa and uncles are fiddlers. That’s all.”
    He bolted back to his chair, and once again Miss Glendon led an uncertain round of applause. Owen found himself gripping his desk in mounting terror.
    Next Michael Baylor walked to the front of the class. He was tall and graceful and held his little cards as if keeping them for someone else who might need them.
    â€œSome people,” he said, looking out at the class and pausing, the thought apparently just occurring to him, “never get beyond our little world in this small part of the country. We,” he said, putting his hands on his hips now and looking down, shaking his head sadly, “might even be among them. Where will we go in our lives? What will we do with ourselves when we get older?”
    He looked straight at Owen for a moment until Owen squirmed, thinking he might be expected to answer.
    â€œChildren, in other schools are taking advantage of these years,” Michael Baylor said, “to see the world as their parents have never dared see it. I’m not sure if anyone here read in the newspaper last week about the class that traveled all the way to Japan?”
    Something lodged in Owen’s throat then and he started coughing horribly and gasping for breath.
    â€œWhy couldn’t we organize something like that?” Michael Baylor asked. “Aren’t we good enough to go to Japan?”
    Owen gasped and struggled in his seat. Martha Henbrock whacked his back with the palm of her hand but he continued to hack and wheeze.
    â€œOwen, do you need to get some water?” Miss Glendon asked.
    Owen nodded his head in panic and fled the classroom. He bolted across the playground and into the main school, then down the hall and thrust his face into a drinking fountain. He drank and drank and tried to think what to do.
    Michael Baylor was saying everything he meant to say!
    Some minutes later Martha Henbrock came to get him at the water fountain. “Michael is going to win,” she said. “He told everyone his father could bring them to Japan like that other class.”
    Owen followed her back outside. The wind had picked up just in the last while, and suddenly the first snow of the winter was being driven against the windows and walls of the tired old school and the shivering little portable.
    Once inside again, Owen brushed the snow off his hair and his jacket. He walked to the front of the classroom, then spent as much time as he could taping Leonard’s banner to the blackboard. Some people tittered. He was hoping that during the delay a massive fire would break out and burn down the