They found Miguel without any difficulty since his head towered above the spectators around him.
“Are you sure that chair can hold you both?” Charlie whispered as Miguel reached out to take Mari onto his lap, making his flimsy folding chair creak ominously.
“You’d think with the billions of dollars in their endowment, Princeton could afford decent chairs,” Miguel said. “But if it collapses, it will relieve some of the solemnity of the occasion.”
The music began, a joyous but dignified processional. The graduates entered, led by another orange-robed marshal. Jack strode down the aisle as though he’d been doing it all his life.
“All got dopey hats,” Mari said, causing the people around them to muffle laughs.
“Yeah, but Dad makes the hat look good,” Sallyanne whispered loyally.
By the time all the speeches were made, including one entirely in Latin, Mari was squirming in Miguel’s lap. Charlie shifted the little girl onto her own.
The day before, in a more intimate ceremony, the Ph.D.s had individually received their orange and black “hoods,” which were worn around the neck and down the back, over their academic robes. As the graduate school dean had called, “Jackson Burke Lanett,” Charlie had marveled at how far her husband had come from the boy who created a new identity for himself from the name of a bus stop. Now Jack wore “Lanett” as proudly as he did his hood.
“Would the candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy please stand?” an official announced from the podium. “Watch, sweetheart,” Charlie said to Mari.
She reached over and took Sallyanne’s hand, pressing it as she exchanged a smile with her older daughter.
As the group of scholars rose, the orange in their hoods flashed brilliantly in the sunshine. Jack stood tall and straight, making the other Ph.D.s around him seem pale and puny. President Stillman intoned a Latin phrase that declared that they were now officially Doctors of Philosophy.
Tears spilled down Charlie’s cheeks. Jack had done it! He had found the legitimacy he had craved for so many years. Her husband had earned the respect of his fellow academics. Although Charlie didn’t need any of those things to love him, she rejoiced in his accomplishments because they made him happy.
As the rest of the new doctors sat, he remained standing, searching the crowd behind him until his eyes met Charlie’s. Smiling, he put his hand to his lips and blew her a kiss.
“Dad looks stoked,” Sallyanne whispered.
After the ceremony, they made their way to a previously appointed rendezvous by one of the tiger statues at the edge of Cannon Green. Mari climbed around the tiger’s paws as they waited for the graduate to join them. Then they were going to meet Isabelle, Rhonda, Mike and Ernst at Mediterra for a celebratory lunch.
Charlie waved as she caught sight of Jack and Peter cutting through the crowd of students and proud parents.
As Jack walked up, she grinned and said, “Congratulations, Doctor Lanett! I’m so proud of you!”
As she reached up to kiss him, he swung her off her feet and spun her around, laughing. As he lowered his mouth to hers, he murmured against her lips, “Are you going to call me ‘Dr. Lanett’ later tonight?”
“Jack! Behave!”
“Hello, President Stillman,” Charlie heard Sallyanne say. She elbowed Jack under cover of his robe and turned to face the university’s president.
“Jack, I had to come say congratulations before the reception begins. You are seriously considering our offer of a position here, aren’t you?” the tall, dark-haired woman asked as she shook hands.
“Don’t kid yourself, Jack, she doesn’t really care about you,” Peter said. “She just wants to keep her most popular visiting lecturer of journalism.”
The president laughed. “I need to persuade Charlie to teach more classes. We’re getting too many complaints from all the students who can’t get into her course.”
“That’s just because they think it’s going to be a gut,” Jack teased his wife.
“Aren’t you concerned about having these two in the same department?” Charlie said, gesturing to the brothers.
“The prospect is a bit daunting,” President Stillman said, as she eyed the two tall men standing shoulder to shoulder. “However, a little sibling rivalry is healthy in a faculty. It spurs them on to greater efforts.”
“President Stillman! The receiving line is forming already!” another gowned man called as he jogged up to their group.
As the president was escorted away, Miguel shook Jack’s hand. “Well, amigo, now you’re way too smart for your own good. Congratulations!”
Jack gripped his friend’s hand fiercely. “I wouldn’t be here without you. You know that.”
“Just remember that when I need a meteorite authenticated,” the big man said, giving Jack a staggering clap on the shoulder. “Since Sahara-Mars didn’t give us the definitive proof we crave, I’m still searching for that sign of life in a space rock.”
“Won’t you miss it, Jack?” Peter asked. “Traveling all over the world, tracking down leads, wondering if the next meteorite you find will be the big one, the scientific breakthrough?”
“Not at all, little brother,” Jack said, wrapping an arm around Charlie’s waist as he watched Sallyanne helping Mari duck under the bronze tiger’s chin. “I’ve got all the stars I need right here.”
The End
Nancy Herkness Page 27
