The Hero Next Time: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 4)

Chapter Thirty-Two: Sunny, Wednesday

"Some of them are downright creepy," said Mark Wong, two over from him. "The whole thing about the girls dancing with the old men. I wouldn't want my daughter doing that, even if it might be perfectly innocent; the optics in today's society are just not good." 

"That's the Royal Lancers you're talking about," said Ed Brisson, five over on the left of him. "They've been around since Queen Victoria's time, and they act as a guard for the May Queen suite. The dance acts as a bridge between generations, what's so bad about that?"

"Has anyone asked the girls in the May Queen suite how they feel about dancing with older men they don't know?" Mark Wong rebutted.

"The May Queen suite is composed of girls who competed for the position," explained Paige Barnston, on his right. "I was in the May Queen suite when I was in school, and it was all well planned and choreographed. We knew exactly what we were getting into, and it was a valuable experience for when I got older. I learned poise, public speaking, and confidence. I'm alarmed that they want to take that experience away from future May Queen suites."

"My understanding is the change they want to make involves replacing the Royal Lancers with boys their own age as dancing partners," Regan interjected. "It's a modern facelift that better reflects the sensibilities of the times."

"Boys don't know how to dance at that age," Paige said with a hint of disgust. "Why are we always making changes because what we had before suddenly offends someone who doesn't understand our traditions?"

Sunny turned to her and said, "So, it's all fine and dandy to rail against other cultures that have practices like child brides, but when your own are called into question, you shout tradition?"

"Who said anything about child brides?!" Paige squawked.

"Mr. Parhar makes a good point," Regan said. "It might not be child brides, but isn't it odd that we continue a tradition in this city celebrating an old European rite of Spring, having our children dance around a may pole, which is clearly a fertility symbol, I won't say what because there are children in this room, and parading young girls, dressed in white, like vestal virgins? For whom are we doing this?"

"The children!" Harvey shouted. "The children have a great time! It's a fun day, why does it have to be any more complicated than that?"

"A great time? Really?" Mark asked. "My daughter had an anxiety attack at the thought of having to dance in front of other people. The teachers had to console her on the sidelines because she was crying so hard."

"I have to admit," Beverly said, "that aside from the kids in that stadium, the only people I see watching the ceremony are the elderly. They're the only ones who can make it out in the middle of the week, so are we just continuing a tradition for them, or just for its own sake?"

"Here's what I don't understand," Sunny said. "Why we take school instruction time to teach public school kids to enact a tradition that appears to only appease an increasingly older crowd. Our school population is becoming increasingly diverse, but our focus is still on Eurocentric traditions."

"I have to disagree with you there," Ed said. "We celebrate all sorts of traditions from around the world in our schools."

"Sure, but we only take school instruction time for one. Why give preference to this one?"

"May Day was first celebrated by the settlers at a time when the city's population was dropping drastically. It was a way to lift their spirits and encourage optimism in building the city."

"I bet no one asked the Qayqayt people who were already there what they thought about settlers building a city on their land. I'm sure they had their own traditions that were wiped out, but we don't sit here debating that. And anyway, New West doesn't need its spirits lifted, its population is growing by leaps and bounds. Shouldn't we be focusing on policies that take advantage of that increased tax base, to help real people, now?"