The promotional poster for the annual talent show at UAW Local 6856 looked like shit and Elman Waterston thought that was probably inadvertent truth in advertising.
The show was a fundraiser for the Acadia Heights Food Bank and everyone was guilted into attending because the food bank had kept laid off Local 6856 members from starving during the layoffs of 74, before Elman was even born.
Elman took French in college to spend more time with a blonde from Woodhaven who thought that as a boyfriend Elman made a good foot splinter.
So Elman remembered that Acadia meant “place of plenty,” and the talent show, every year, had plenty of Motown. Too much Motown. Almost exclusively Motown, with a smattering of The Beatles. Kerry South did a decent sleight of hand magic routine if you weren’t too close or too sober, and Elman sold 50/50 raffle tickets, green and blue bandoliers of tickets rolled over his shoulders, a fading Knights of Columbus money apron at his waist.
Elman would occasionally forget the blonde’s name, like one forgets the 15 minutes leading up to a car accident.
Sometimes he would mistakenly call her Cindy when drunkenly recounting the story, but she went by Sissy, which he believed was shortened from Christine by a younger sibling.
The event was a potluck and the food was usually great, more of a draw than the talent, except for the year everyone found out too late that the chicken nuggets Hawk Hawthorne brought were made out of squirrel meat.
Elman heard a noise behind him,
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