I gazed at Catherine.

"It has to be there," she offered. A horrid thought occurred to me. I returned to the bathroom and threw open the stall next to the one I had used. There was my speech, floating in the toilet.

"Oh, no!" I cried and dipped into the water to retrieve it. Many of the words had been washed away. I wiped down the paper as carefully as I could with a towel and then went out to take my place at the head of the procession.

"You found it?" Dr. Foster asked.

I held up the soggy sheets.

"How did that happen?"

"Yes," I said loud enough for everyone in my class to hear. "How did it happen?"

My heart was pounding so hard I thought I was sure to make a fool of myself in front of all the families and guests. I don't know how my legs carried me down the corridor and out the door, but I had no choice.

I really didn't have time to worry about myself. We marched to the stage that had been erected outside for our graduation exercises and took our seats. I tried not to look at the audience. There was so much noise—laughter, chatter, babies crying, small children being warned to sit quietly—that it sounded like bedlam. No one would hear my speech anyway, I thought. Why worry?

We had a warm, bright day for our ceremony with a light breeze that made the flag flutter and strands of hair dance over our shoulders. The sky was turquoise with patches of fluffy clouds. In the distance I could hear the bellow of the steamboats preparing to carry tourists up the Mississippi.

After the introductions and some short remarks by our principal, I was called to the lectern. My legs wobbled as I stood up. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and walked to the lectern. My classmates were dead silent, all wondering what I would do. I searched the audience until I found Mommy gazing at me confidently, and then the words just came. I didn't need to look at the paper. The words were printed in my head.

To my surprise, everyone had grown quiet. I raised my head, took a deep breath, and began. I thanked the principal and then, addressing the faculty and our parents, families, and friends, began in a voice that grew stronger and stronger as I delivered the speech I had composed over the past few days. Amazingly, once I started, the words flowed. From time to time I gazed at the faces in the audience and saw that people were really listening. Most wore sweet, appreciative smiles. The twins were staring up at me, both with their mouths slightly open, neither fidgeting.

When I concluded, the applause boomed in my ears, and when I looked at Mommy and Daddy, I saw the glow in their faces. Even Pierre and Jean looked impressed. They stopped clapping at the exact same moment, and when I returned to my seat, I gazed at Claude and saw him smiling proudly and elbowing his buddies to make them jealous. Diane Ratner and her friends looked devastated, but Catherine hugged me quickly.

"That was great. I knew you could do it, no matter what. I actually listened to the whole thing, even though I didn't understand some of it."

"Thanks," I said dryly. I didn't want her to think I was satisfied with her weak demonstration of friend-ship. She had disappointed me.

I sat back as the principal and our class adviser went to the lectern to hand each of us our diploma. When I rose to get mine, the audience gave me another thunderous ovation. Daddy was snapping pictures, and the twins were waving and cheering.

"Nice job, young lady," the principal said. "Good luck."

I thanked him and smiled at my parents one more time for Daddy's camera.

After the ceremony I was inundated with compliments on my speech. All of my teachers stopped by, as did some of my classmates and their parents, to offer their best wishes. I was happy to see that my aunt Jeanne—the sister of Mommy's half brother, Paul—and her husband, James, were there and were waiting to congratulate me, too.

Aunt Jeanne was the only member of the Tate family who had anything to do with us. She was about an inch or so taller than Mommy, with dark brown hair and almond-shaped eyes. Mommy said that Aunt Jeanne looked more like her mother, Gladys, than her father, Octavious, because she had her mother's deep, dark complexion, sharp chin, and nearly perfect nose. I liked her because she was always pleasant and sweet to us and especially sweet to me.

"I loved your speech, Pearl honey" Aunt Jeanne said, hugging me.

"It was something," Uncle James added, nodding. He shook Daddy's hand. "You have a lot to be proud of, Beau."

Mommy and Daddy were beaming so brightly, I got chills up and down my spine.

"How is your family, Jeanne?" Mommy asked, a dark shadow crossing her face.

"Mother's got the gout on top of her arthritis. Daddy never changes. He buries himself in his business." Aunt Jeanne smiled. "My sister Toby's youngest turned sixteen, you know. I'll be going to another graduation soon."

Aunt Jeanne and Uncle James had never had any children. I wasn't sure why not. If Mommy knew, she never said.

"You're coming over to the house, aren't you, Jeanne?" Mommy asked her.

"Of course. We wouldn't miss the party for the world," she said. "You knew I would be here, Ruby," she whispered, but loud enough for me to hear. I saw the way the two of them gazed into each other's eyes, and I felt the unspoken words that passed between them, words I knew were all about my mother's half brother, Paul, the man in my strange dream. "Paul would have been so proud of her," Jeanne continued. Tears came to Mommy's eyes as she nodded. They hugged again.

Mommy turned to look for the twins, who were amusing themselves by weaving in and out among the crowd and teasing some of my girlfriends. For once, I was happy about their behavior. Mommy shouted for the boys to come along. It was time to go home and get ready for the party. Mammy threw her arm around me, and we all went to the limousine.

"I'm so proud of you," she said.

I didn't want to tell her about the prank my so-called friends had pulled on me in the bathroom. "I was so nervous. Didn't it show?"

"Not a bit. I told you that once you got started, the words would roll off your tongue. And they did," Mommy declared.

In the limousine, the twins teased me about the way I had shifted my eyes after certain phrases in my speech, but Mommy chastised them, and they smothered their giggles. My stomach wasn't filled with butterflies anymore. Now it felt positively cavernous. I couldn't wait to get something to eat. I had been too nervous to eat much of anything all day.

Some of our guests were already at the house, and the musicians had already begun to play by the time we arrived. The atmosphere was festive. I hurried upstairs to change into my party dress and repair my hair. By the time I descended the stairs, the other guests had begun arriving, all bearing graduation gifts. A corner in one of the sitting rooms had been designated for the presents, and the twins eyed the pile, eager to satisfy their curiosity by tearing through the wrappings. Mommy warned them to stay away, and they shot off to play with their friends.

An army of servants began to serve hot and cold hors d'oeuvres with glasses of champagne. Daddy's business friends gathered in the ballroom, and Mommy greeted some of the important members of the art community, including other artists and gallery owners. The crowd was a Who's Who of the society pages.

My portrait remained covered on an easel, near the four-foot-high layer cake with "Good Luck, Pearl" written on it in red icing. Both the portrait and the cake were under a spotlight. Daddy wanted to make the unveiling a special moment after all of the guests had arrived.

Claude came late with Lester Anderson and some of his other friends, and I knew immediately why they were delayed. I saw from the way they swaggered and laughed that they had already had something alcoholic to drink, and when Claude came over to kiss me, I smelled the whiskey on his breath.

"Is the punch spiked?" he asked me.

"Of course not," I said. He winked at Lester, a tall, lanky boy who always looked as if he had just done something mischievous. Lester idolized Claude and would do most anything he suggested.

"Should I?" Lester asked me and revealed a pint of rum in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Lester Anderson, don't you dare," I warned. All the boys laughed. Claude put his arm around my waist and tried to kiss me on the neck.

"Claude, stop. Some of my father's friends are looking at us."

"Let's step into the den for a few moments," he whispered. "I haven't congratulated you properly."

"No. Just be patient," I said. He was disappointed, but he retreated and behaved.

A short while later, Daddy asked the musicians to stop playing for a few moments, and he took center stage to announce the unveiling of my portrait.

"We have a special present for Pearl tonight," he began. "Actually, this is all my wife's doing, but one of the reasons I married her was that I knew she was talented and would be able to do these sorts of things."

Everyone laughed. I gazed over at Aunt Jeanne, who appeared to be exchanging secret glances with Mommy. Daddy took hold of the cloth covering the painting, and I felt my heart pounding. It was almost as nerve-racking a moment as I'd had rising to make my graduation speech.

"Pearl," Daddy said. I stepped out and the guests applauded. Mommy stayed beside Daddy when he went over to the portrait and, with a little drum roll from the band, slowly pulled away the cloth to reveal a painting that took my breath away. Mommy hadn't just painted a portrait of me in my graduation outfit. Behind me she had painted another portrait, this one with me dressed as a doctor, a stethoscope around my neck.