Ben looked at the dress.
Then at the flower.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
Aaron’s expression hardened.
“You didn’t ask.”
Ben swallowed.
“I thought you were trying to make some kind of statement.”
“I was.”
Aaron looked down at Mary’s dress.
“Just not the one you thought.”
Ben’s eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
Aaron didn’t immediately forgive him.
Some apologies deserve to sit in the air for a while.
Then the principal stepped down from the stage.
The auditorium was nearly silent.
She approached Aaron.
“This morning, we asked you to consider something more appropriate.”
Aaron said nothing.
The principal took a breath.
“I’m sorry.”
Several parents heard her.
So did the students standing nearby.
She turned toward the audience.
“We’re going to pause for a moment.”
No one objected.
Then she looked back at Aaron.
“Would you be comfortable telling them who the dress belonged to?”
Aaron glanced toward me.
I nodded.
He returned to the front of the auditorium.
This time, nobody laughed.
He stood beneath the same lights where people had mocked him only minutes earlier.
His hands trembled.
His voice didn’t.
