Wednesday dawned and smiled on the pictures that had been lovingly arranged the previous night on the bedside table. Centre stage were two portraits of the two women which emanated a special glow even through the celluloid medium. Their formal elegance fused beautifully with loving feelings shown by Simone's right hand interlocked with Annabelle's left hand, the suggestion of their heads leaning towards each other and the gravity of the arranged scene giving way to open smiles of pleasure. On either side were Simone's two candid snaps of Annabelle which captured her freely expressed smile of open pleasure at the beauties of the spring holiday break. Only late last night did they have time to look closely at the pictures since they'd gone to the outfitters to hire Annabelle's cap, gown and sash.
"It's unusual for St Theresa's to place this last minute order," the elderly woman has said in her throaty voice, her clothes and hairstyle in a manner that harked back to the certainties of Eisenhower's America. She had peered short-sightedly at two customers who arrived, rather out of breath and windswept. A vague expression of recognition had spread across her face as she had recognised the young schoolmistress who had been occasionally deputised to sort out last minute hitches in the normal graduation arrangements.
"I'm really sorry, Miss Harkness," Simone apologised with an apologetic smile on her face."It's a last minute order so I thought I'd come down specially with Miss Tillman to reassure her and her folks that everything will be all right."
"There's always a last minute hitch so as it happens, you're in luck. I'm down to my last two outfits. I know you'll return them when you're done ," the elderly woman replied, taking pity on the hapless teacher who was landed with this unwelcome errand. The teacher took the graduate of St Theresa's into a plain box-room with a mirror at one end and the young woman had become clearly excited by her outfit. Miss Harkness wrapped it up and stopped the teacher from rushing off without a receipt for cash paid as she would obviously have to square it with the school. The old-fashioned bell tinkled and they were gone.
"Hey, I remember that," exclaimed Simone as Annabelle rifled restlessly through her part of the wardrobe and revealed a portion of an eye catching short red dress in a tastefully designed oriental print."You wore it at the and of year dance. It's beautiful."
Annabelle pulled a face and, before she could speak, Simone's thoughts were there first. Of course, she'd worn it with her hair put up with complementing chopsticks and her typical tube socks and brown boots but she'd first laid sight of Simone in her classic white dress but something had been horribly wrong. She was slow dancing with Michael and smiling at him even if the expression was tacked on and her heart was crying. She knew that Annabelle was not to know at that moment and that image wasn't easily expunged.
"You know I haven't got good memories of that dress. Sure it's pretty but you know we've got enough shit to deal with at the graduation ceremony."
"Darling, you know how the start of that evening was fucked. I've got more happy memories of that red slip but you know even we can't get away with you wearing that."
Annabelle started to laugh at her lover's honesty and humour delivered with inimitable style. It was an irresistible combination.
"If I can feel right about it, I'll do it but I don't ignore my instincts. I know that much about myself," Annabelle said with that direct, intense look of hers that was very persuasive, emotionally and intellectually.
"I'm not pushing it. It's your decision. Just remember it's not Michael's dress but yours. Let's make of it as it should be and exorcise all evil spirits."
The younger woman collapsed into a helpless fit of the giggles at Simone's droll humour. As she clung onto Simone while she shook with laughter, she tenderly wondered how this remarkable woman got her flights of fancy from. It did the trick of treading right across that evil memory and obliterating it. She raised her head from Simone's chest and kissed her warmly and thankfully.
"That does it, I'm wearing it. Better leave out the chopsticks as my hat won't balance right on it."Simone grinned at yet another little victory won between them.
"Companion, hey? I know we'll have to take a step backwards but that word sucks," Annabelle said disconsolately as Simone broke it to her how Father Harris had advised them on how Simone was to present herself. They'd grown so used to being friends, lovers and soul-mates with no trace of any barriers and inequalities between them that it grated on her to be viewed in that way.
"Come on, Annabelle. This is only for a day. We have to talk over what we're letting ourselves in for. The seniors I taught will still see me as Miss Bradley though they'd have heard what went down. Mother Immaculata will loathe the sight of us, me more than you as a brazen perverted woman who only beat the rap as she got scared of the press . As for Sister Claire and the other dorm heads, I just don't know. Their parents will have read the press but nobody will want to come out and mouth off at us. We shouldn't make the first move but believe me when I say that I don't feel like taking any crap off anyone," Simone urged in her persuasive way.
"I get it," Annabelle replied, having weighed and measured her partner's every syllable. She broke into a smile as enlightenment dawned on her."You'll haul out Miss Bradley for one last time, like the way you sent Cat out of the classroom."
"Exactly," Simone said, delighted as she hadn't considered such a precise formulation from this sharp-witted woman. She applied the last touches of lipstick and reached for her handbag without which she didn't feel quite properly dressed at smart occasions. Her lover stuck to essentials in grabbing the bag containing the symbols of her academic status.. They were off and away.
A peculiar sensation crept over the the two women as they drove from their beach house to St Theresa's High School, scene of their first acquaintance, both their the growing love and and growing strains in their relationship as the roles of teacher and student jaggedly bumped against the way they 'got' each other. Most strikingly, this was the journey they'd travelled at the end of the spring break when they faced returning to the roles they were trapped in after Annabelle had gently and lovingly seen Simone through the trauma of finally letting go her lost love of years ago. This time around, they were only visiting or so they thought as they swung into the visitor's car park at the back of the administration block. Alarm bells rang inside Annabelle's head at the way Simone pursed her mouth and her eyes flitted all around the car park which was already filling up. It forcibly reminded her how Simone had looked after driving them back to school after the emotional intensity of their spring break holiday at the beach house for the handcuffs of teacher student relationship to be clicked back on their wrists. Laughing mothers and daughters opened up car doors and chatted and clattered across the tarmac with the odd father in tow who somehow had escaped the all-enveloping workaholic culture. It only served to push Simone back against the implacable wall of conventional expectations once again.
"Hey, you're Simone Bradley," she said, laying her hand on Simone's shapely fingers. "That's something really special. You can teach rebellious seniors, play guitar and sing like an angel, do great artwork with photos and you're one hell of a lover. Just be strong."
"Thank you,"Simone said, exhaling her tensions in one long stream and shining out all the affections of her grateful heart as she gripped the lifeline held out to her."I needed that. OK I'm ready if you are."
"I know we can't hold hands and stuff so let's imagine it. It's a straight ceremony we're going through," Annabelle added gently.
"So I'll be your roadie with your graduation outfit," laughed Simone, her eyes dancing as she reached behind her for the bag and opened the car door.
As soon as they started walking towards the main hall, both women were immediately conscious of the space that separated their hands from each other but they knew that they would have to make do their exchanges of smiles and feelings instead. It wasn't long before they started to approach the other seniors and parents who were making their way towards the door to the Great Hall and both women knew that blind chance would decide which pupil and parents they would happen to meet. It would set up just how they would relate to the outside world. To their delight, Colins came into view. She recognised them and her brilliant smile of welcome temporarily banished her expression of permanent worry and nervousness.
"Miss Bradley, Annabelle, I'm really glad you could make it. You both deserved to be here. Guys, this is my mother. Mom, this is Annabelle who's my best friend and Miss Bradley's my teacher who really encouraged me to write poetry like I do now. Both of them looked after me when I was going through bad times," Colins chattered away with unusual animation, fidgeting with the long sleeve of her white shirt.
The dominant fashionably dressed woman directed a steely controlling glare at Colins until, by sheer chance Kristen Edwards and her parents came into view. The two mothers made a great fuss of each other before Kristen's mother threw a verbal direction over her shoulder, both of them pointedly ignoring Simone .
"We'll let the girls spend some time together. It's customary on occasions like this."
"So you're one of the girls Simone," retaliated Annabelle in a voice just audible, the light of battle in her eye and a dangerous smile on her lips.
"Suits me just fine Annabelle," that soft, easy voice answered, edged with a trace of defiance."In that case, we'll all sit together." Kristen blinked at Simone's easy familiarity but Colins just loved the idea.
With a shock of recognition, the open door to the great hall came nearer. These wrought iron exterior gates were flung back just the way they remembered it except the sun was shining instead of rain teeming down on them. They'd exchanged their first kisses on these steps after Annabelle's desperate appeal through her love song to Simone, performed with her guitar and voice and a backing band finally broken through Simone's confusions. Both women smiled fondly at this sacred spot while, to the others, it was just a hall doorway. When they passed through into the hallway, the same pale violet curtains shaded the windows but the hall was decked out in more formal attire. Where there had been the dance floor were row upon row of chairs. A top table behind which was a line of chairs for the teachers substituted for Cat Pegrum's brother's group group on stage.
Simone and Annabelle stood transfixed as they looked all round them. This room should not have changed since they'd last left it even though they'd moved on. Other mothers and daughters pushed past but the two women were oblivious.
"Miss Bradley we really need to grab a seat or they'll all be gone or we'll be split up," Colins finally said in an agitated fashion. All of them looked for Simone to lead them, even Annabelle as habit took over. Simone blinked and made a determined move towards the extreme left of the hall and managed to grab four seats towards the back. Just before the others caught up, Cat Pegrum and her mother passed by, both glaring at Simone. They'd obviously not forgotten the verbal confrontation in the supermarket when they'd got the worst of it. The fair-haired woman coldly ignored them both in action and thought. They were both redundant to her scheme of things while Annabelle radiated total
contempt as she remembered what an asshole Cat was. She knew only too well that if Cat hadn't spitefully blabbed to the Mother Immaculata, she and Simone might have got away with sleeping together that first night.
"Don't worry. We'll probably never see them again," Colins said with bright reassurance.
"What happens now?"Kristen said to Miss Bradley.
"Father Harris told me the order of events. First there's a speaker to inspire all you good people to go forth into the world and strive to be good citizens of America, whether bringing forth into the world the next generation or striving to be captains of industry, etc etc in these modern liberated times. He said that the speaker they had in mind pulled out at the last minute and they had to get a substitute."
"Oh shit," exclaimed Annabelle louder than she intended. The impact of her sudden interjection could be felt to ripple outwards across the hall, disturbing the passive, tranquillised atmosphere of acquiescence. All around them, row upon row of sleekly turned out parents and daughters dressed up in their finest outfits made for a spectacle of perfection. Simone giggled with her hand over her mouth while Colins and Kristen smiled slightly."My mother can't really be attending. She swore to us she hadn't got the time."
"Just relax Annabelle. They've only found the head of the local Chamber of Commerce, someone quite harmless," Simone replied perkily with a touch of their normal rapport peeking through her polite exterior, while Annabelle sank back in her chair with relief.
"So what happens now? I guess you're the expert," Colins asked quietly, fidgeting nervously with her bag carrying her graduation outfit. .
"I've attended many graduation ceremonies over the years and we'll all listen to long speeches that are supposed to inspire you in the years to come to achieve the conventional goals of success. I'm not going to knock it and be negative but you have to listen to the song in your own heart and follow it without deviation. If it conflicts with whatever society tells you you should want and feel, is that really such a crime? It's all about defining yourself and to feel happy within your own skin and with whoever you relate to in years to come," Simone said in a slow, dreamy tone of voice that made Annabelle's eyes shine like stars as every word was written like a jewel in her own passionate heart. Colins' curiousity was intrigued and the stream of consciousness passed over Kristen's head as too obscure, like an English composition Miss Bradley used to analyse. "After that, you go into the sideroom, put on your gowns, sashed and mortarboards and get presented with your diplomas, have some refreshments and gather outside to talk awhile,"Simone added in a more definite tone of voice.
"Isn't that Sister Clair up on the top table with all the dorm heads?" Kristen asked to change the topic of conversation."Don't you wish you were up there with them?"
"I'm not into competition," Simone said with a soft gentle laugh in her voice."It's interesting to witness this as a spectator rather than as a midwife but I do want to see you guys presented with your diplomas."
What Simone didn't mention was the sight of Father Harris sitting besides the Mother Immaculata, dressed in his usual robes but looking old and lonely besides that concentration of wilful power that was taking charge of events. Kristen frowned with incomprehension because the way Miss Bradley talked was as if they were friends. Annabelle smiled in an easy relaxed fashion as she knew better.
"I think we're about to begin," observed Simone, sensing the buildup of atmosphere and witnessing the subtle movements up on stage of which she was once such a part. That existence felt many times removed from the woman she now was.