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Happenings in Paradise – The Talent Show

happenings-with-title-boldSo this was what it’s like to be a reporter, Norma thought, as she sat in the middle of the Paris Theater, with her notepad on her lap, and her stack of pens beside her on her seat, ready to assess the local talent. She had arrived early, in order to get a good seat, and the room was finally filling up, so she wasn’t “sticking out like a sore thumb”, as her mother would say.

She had a big job to do tonight. Mr. McCaskill had gone to a conference in Edmonton, and it would be up to Norma to “put the paper to bed,” to take the brown envelope containing the display ads, the classifieds, and the articles to the bus, so that in the morning it would go on to Peace River to be printed. McCaskill had given her so many instructions, her head was spinning. Make sure you number the ads, he said, and check my articles for spelling. And be on time at the depot. They won’t hold the bus for you.

This article would be the last to be slipped into the envelope—it was to be written tonight, after Norma saw the show. McCaskill had already told her how to do it, reminders about what to write and who to interview.
“Remember, to spell the entrants’ names correctly,” he’d said, “It’s important for the winners. They’re a bunch of exhibitionists, with big egos.”

Norma is ready for action

People started to file in—parents, students and teachers from the school, farmers and their families, business owners and their wives. Norma didn’t know a lot of the townspeople, but she knew a few: neighbors she saw as she walked to school, owners and clerks in the stores, friends of the Jason’s.

Norma wrote “The Paris Amateur Contest, April 26, 1955” across the top of a page. She shivered a little and took deep breaths as the lights dimmed and the master of ceremonies took his place in front of the stage, waiting for the noise to quiet down. Just then, Norma realized that she had made a serious error—she was in the middle row, and even though she could see all of the stage, she couldn’t see her notepad.

Norma stood as if her skirt was on fire, bumping knees and stepping on toes as she made her way to the aisle. “Hey!”, people hissed at her as she pushed by, “What do you think you are doing?” As she stood in the dimly lit aisle, she quickly assessed her situation. Yes, she had her notepad, yes, she had her pens, clutched in her hand in their zippered container. Quickly, she found a seat on the aisle, closer to the back, where the light filtered in from the back hall.

The first entry was a group from school, chanting the well-known skipping ditty, ‘Ruben, Ruben’. It was silly, and she had no idea what to write about it.

“Rubin, Rubin, I’ve been thinkin’
What on earth have you been drinkin’
Smells like beer, tastes like wine
Oh, my gosh, it’s turpentine.
How many bottles have you done drank?”

1,2,3,4, they chanted and skipped, until someone missed.

Norma sat through more skits and songs, trying to frame her impressions. They were all boring, she decided, as she made some hasty scribbles on her notepad. The fifth act came and went, people around her shuffled their feet, Norma stifled a yawn. “Is this entertainment?” She asked herself.

At last, something worth seeing

Suddenly there was a disturbance offstage, a pause, and then a clown barreled onto the stage, erupting into three somersaults before stopping, arms raised in a dramatic arc. Norma sat up. She couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl, but it didn’t take too long for her to realize it was Sally Napper, Sally of the late nights in the pick-up truck, making out with Alan Burmey.

This was strange. Sally’s sudden appearance was completely out of context. Norma hadn’t seen her for years, remembering how she and Doreen used to gossip about her and how everyone expected her to be sent away in disgrace. Maybe she was sent away and now she’s back, Norma speculated. But here she was, as audacious as ever, putting on this bombastic show. Moving to the music, she switched from somersaults to cartwheels, with a few rapid dance moves in between, and then ended with a showy display of hula hoop artistry. Norma was impressed, and joined the audience as they stood and clapped. It was the only act worth seeing in that sad line up, so she wasn’t surprised when, at the end of the show, Sally won first prize.

It was dark by the time Norma left the theater, but the moon was full, lighting her way home. With only five blocks to go, she slowed down, stopping briefly on the bridge over the Paris river, a place she loved to come in the daytime, to look meditatively at the rushing water. The spring runoff had raised the level of the water, and the river was higher than she had ever seen. Norma’s weariness lifted as she paused to take in the moonlit water, the depth and mystery of the darkened sky.

She thought about her mother, who she hadn’t seen in some months, wondering how she was coping with spring planting season, helping her demanding father now that she and James were no longer there. Was she getting some rest? Some time to herself? Her mind wandered to Doreen, and the last letter she received. She suppressed her envy as she thought about Doreen’s life, and how exciting it must be.

Norma stepped off the bridge and hurried along the roadside, careful not to twist an ankle on the gravel. She had so much to do before going to bed! In the morning, on the way to school, she would drop off the brown envelope at the bus depot, and the waiting would begin. Where would they place her article? Would they change the title? How would it look in print?

There was nothing better than newspaper work, she decided. More power to Doreen, she thought. She was glad Doreen was happy, living an exciting life in Peace River. It struck her then, as she arranged her notes and rolled a blank page into her little typewriter—her life would be different. She would never be a typical teenager. She would never wear bobby socks, and pencil skirts, and flirt with boys until she found one that would marry her and take her off to some farm, or a boxy house on the outskirts of town. There was something else out there for her to do.

Carefully, she proof read her article. She loved the ending,

“Sally Napper deserved the first prize, in fact, she deserved a medal for her exciting act, and especially for entertaining us so well.”

To be continued on August 14

12 thoughts on “Happenings in Paradise – The Talent Show”

  1. Norma was given a lot of responsibility for a brand-new employee. Wow! I hope the brown envelope gets to where it needs to be on time. I’m going to stay tuned for the next part of the story.

    1. Still the Lucky Few

      Teenagers grew up quicker in those days, and responsibility was learned early. Families were usually larger, although Norma’s wasn’t, and older children helped with their younger siblings—so it was expected that as soon as you entered your teens, you could be responsible.

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