Susan and Leo drove to the Arizona state oratorical contest finals with the faculty representative. She was allowed to bring two other students with her. She asked Dori Dilson to join them, but Dori was unhappy with her since she changed. So, Dori did not want to go.
Susan reverted somewhat to Stargirl on the two-hour trip. She chattered and chattered. She talked about the large crowd that would be at the school when they returned. She knew how it would be. She remembered the video.
Leo tried to make her consider the possibility that she might not win, but she knew that she would. She had not doubt. Leo stopped trying.
Mr McShane stopped the car at one point because Susan wanted him to
do so. She got out of the car and danced around the desert for awhile.
Then she stopped and seemed to be listening intently to something. When
she got back in the car she asked Mr McShane if he knew of any extinct
birds. He named the passenger pidgeon and the moa. She related to Leo
and Mr. McShane something that Archie Brubaker once told her. Archie thought
that mockingbirds might imitate the sounds of extinct birds as well as
those still around.
Stargirl was able to bring forward the ways of ancient humans just as
Archie suspected that mockingbirds did with the sounds of extinct birds.
Susan, Leo and Mr McShane reached the hotel and met Mr and Mrs Caraway. After they checked in they had lunch and then Susan went with the contestants who were scheduled to give their speeches in the afternoon.
Leo marveled that Susan's speech was not exactly like any of the practice speeches that he had heard. And, it definitely was not memorized. Her speech was called I Might Have Heard a Moa.
Of course, Susan reached the finals. The finals took place in the evening.
The auditorium was full. The other contestants were nervous, but Susan
wasn't. Susan's speech was second to the last. After her speech there
was a pause and then thunderous applause erupted.
I Might Have Heard a Moa must have referred to the sound of a mockingbird.
Susan won. She was not surprised. The people of Phoenix, the city where the competition was held, gave her the star treatment. She shared her glory with her parents and Leo as well as Mr McShane. Everyone in the hotel seemed to know her. And, they all congratulated her. The next morning she made the front page of the Arizona Republic newspaper.
On the way home she put the silver plate in the passenger seat next to Mr McShane and told him that as a reward for telling her about moas, he could touch it whenever he wanted for the next ten minutes.
As they approached Mica where she anticipated a large crowd would be waiting, she became concerned about how she looked. She planned how she and Leo would care for the silver plate. He should be sure to stay close to her so that she could hand him the plate right before she was lifted up on the shoulders of the crowd. She cautioned him about how large crowds can separate people.
They reached the school and found three people waiting for her, two
teachers and Dori Dilson, who was holding a humungous sign that said Way
to go, Susan. We're proud of you. No one else was there.
Dori Dilson did not approve of the recent changes in Stargirl, but she couldn't
stay away from her triumphant return.
Clapsaddle, Diane. "TheBestNotes on A Long Way Gone".
TheBestNotes.com.
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