Mr. Halvorson was still reading.
“After graduation, Kaylee plans to attend Minnesota State University in Mankato, to study nursing…”
Travis took the next step. And the next.
There are four steps from the front row of our bleachers down to the gym floor.
I counted every one of them. Because I couldn’t breathe.
He walked out onto that varnished floor in his work boots and his fleece vest.
Kaylee and Dad were maybe ten feet from center court.
Travis lengthened his stride. And he caught up to them.
He didn’t say anything to them.
He didn’t ask.
He just came up on Kaylee’s other side. Her left. The side away from the cane.
And he offered her his arm. The way you would at a wedding.
Kaylee stopped walking.
She looked at his arm.
She looked up at his face.
I couldn’t see her expression from where I was. But I could see her shoulders.
They went up.
And then they came down.
And she put her hand through his arm.
And the three of them walked the last ten feet together.
Cane, step, step.
Cane, step, step.
Travis matched my father’s pace exactly.
The noise in that gym. I can’t describe it.
It had been loud before. Now it was something else entirely.
Mason was jumping up and down on the bleacher seat next to me, yelling at the top of his lungs.
“That’s my dad! That’s my dad!”
Mr. Halvorson had run out of things on his index card.
He stood there at the scorer’s table with the microphone in his hand, looking at the three of them standing at center court.
And I watched him make a decision.
He walked the microphone out onto the floor.
And he handed it to Travis.
Because it’s a small town, and everybody in that gym knew him, nobody thought it was strange.
And nobody sat down.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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