Free Sing Like You Know the Words by martin sowery Page B

anywhere,
why not make use of that condition?
    Already, university life seemed
like a fading memory. He had almost forgotten that he would have to
go back for graduation, although the day was never far from his
mother’s thoughts. In her mind she imagined a carnival of
celebration that would acknowledge her son’s achievement. No words
of his about what would really happen at the modest ceremony could
prick that bubble.
    Ali Abbas knew very well what
was involved. They would be dressed up like pantomime scholars and
crowded into the great hall. When your name was called, you walked
up in front of everyone, shook hands with some important person and
received a scroll of paper. Then you had your photograph taken to
prove that you had been there. That was it: the whole thing would
be a huge anticlimax and perhaps he would be embarrassed by the
family, but there was no way to avoid it.
    At least it so happened that his
congregation date would be the same as Patricia and David’s, and
David’s two friends, so he might have a familiar face to show his
parents. Maybe Steve Kirk would be there as well. If he could say
hello to one or two people, he wouldn’t come across as such a
loner. It was just another day to be got through, somehow.
Afterwards he would need to take a hard look at his life: something
in it had to change; of that he was more and more certain.
     
    ***

    The degree ceremony was a pain
for everyone, not just Abbas. Attendance wasn’t compulsory and many
recent graduates expressed a real or pretended reluctance to show
up. But then there were the parents, insistent or nagging, and the
irritating sensation that the whole three or four year experience
had not been properly punctuated. There ought to be something more
at the end of it than those hurried goodbyes exchanged after the
final exam. In the end most of the students decided or were
grudgingly persuaded to congregate.
    David had no romantic illusions
about college and his life was already moving forward. Given his
father’s undemonstrative nature, the ceremony might have passed him
by, except that it was an opportunity for David to bring his family
and Patricia’s together.
    In any case, his Uncle Bobby
somehow found out that each student could be accompanied by two
adults, and from that time on Bobby was determined to join the
party and make sure that they all made a fine day of it. There was
never any doubt that Patricia’s mother and father would be there,
so the meeting arranged itself.
    Matthew’s mother and father had
not spoken for years. Even if she’d had any idea where he might be,
mother would see no reason why father should be welcome at her
son’s graduation. There was an understanding that Matthew’s elder
sister Brenda, three years married and pregnant again, would
accompany her.
    No one had heard from Tim so as
usual no one knew what to expect from him, but on the day he did
turn up, unaccompanied. He gave a vague explanation about his
parents having intended to accompany him but something urgent had
come up at the last minute. By the time Matthew and David met him,
he’d already attended his own ceremony earlier that day. He had no
time to talk as he wanted to return the hired gown as quickly as
possible and be done with the whole sorry business. They had barely
arranged a time and place to meet later before Tim was gone.
    The formalities of the day were
every bit as perfunctory and unsatisfying as expected, but
afterwards the hired photographer seemed to be determined that at
least his own part in the day should not be quickly over. David
quickly tired of his attentions. After a while, even his father
commented that it was getting a bit much.
    -Finish taking the snaps and
let’s get on, David instructed him, but the man behind the camera
was used to fractious clients and not to be hurried.
    Nothing could dampen the spirits
of Uncle Bobby. Eyes shining, grinning, with a friendly comment for
friends and strangers alike; he was in a