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She shook her head. “No, shower or whatever. You look like you didn’t get much sleep.”
John rubbed his face. “Yeah. I was reading.” He stood and stretched, then looked at her. “If you make breakfast, does that mean I have to make dinner?”
She laughed. “No, this is a freebie. But I’m just making bagels. There will be a lot to eat at the street fair.”
“Okay. I’ll go shower and change.”
John was feeling better after his shower and when he went to the kitchen, Ember handed him a cup of coffee. “Mmm. Yeah. This will complete the transformation from zombie John to reanimated John.” He sat at the table and she set a bagel with cream cheese spread in front of him. “Thank you.”
“Eat up. We need to get a good place to stand.”
“How crowded could it be?”
“You’d be surprised.”
“Okay. Eating.”
They finished eating and left the house. John drove Ember’s car, and they parked on a side street near the parade route. As they left the car and headed for Main Street, Ember’s prediction proved to be true. The street was lined with people. Probably double the population of Schaeffer Mills.
Ember took John’s hand. “Come on. I know a spot.”
They made their way through the crowd and found an opening in front of the city hall building. There was a balcony above them where the announcer stood.
“Why don’t people stand here?”
“Being right under the balcony, you can’t hear the announcer.”
John shrugged. “So?”
She smiled. “Exactly.”
The parade started ten minutes later and there seemed to be a float from every businessin town, plus the schools, churches, and police and fire departments. To John, it seemed to go on forever, but it was reminiscent somehow and he enjoyed it. The crowd was appreciative and every float and group of people in the parade stopped right in front of them, since the announcer had the parade judges with him on the balcony.
As the high school band stopped in front of them to perform, Ember leaned into his ear. “What do you think?”
“Loud.” She nodded and put her hands over her ears. He pulled them away. “You’ll hurt their feelings.”
When the final float passed by, Ember took John’s hand again, and they went down a narrow space between city hall and the library, then came out into the alley.
“We’ll avoid some of the crowd this way.”
“Good thinking.”
They walked slowly down the alleyway and Ember continued to hold John’s hand. He didn’t mind. In fact, it was nice and he hoped she kept doing it. They talked about the various floats and which ones they liked the best.
John shook his head. “You liked the boy scouts float the best?”
“Yes. All the boys in their uniforms.”
“No way. The animal shelter one had all the dogs on it. If that’s not cool, I don’t know what is.”
Ember laughed. “Are we an animal lover?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“It’s just cute. Horses and dogs. I wonder what else you like.”
“Well, if I’m from a ranch, maybe cows. Or maybe I hate cows. I don’t know. Currently, I have no feelings for cows one way or the other.”
