Expo 50 contest runner-ups: Olivia Wolf’s story and Mia Ressa’s art
To mark Expo ’74’s anniversary, The Spokesman-Review, in partnership with Spokane Public Schools and Expo 50, held a writing and art contest for high school students.
The contest was open to anyone in grades 9-12 from the newspaper circulation area in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.
The runner-up entry was written by Olivia Wolf, a sophomore at Lewis and Clark High School.
Expo
The first thing that I saw was your eyes. The spark of joy that encapsulated them as you laughed, a laugh that seemed so familiar to me. A familiarity like I had heard you laugh my entire life. You tossed a piece of kettle corn into the air, and so easily it dropped into your mouth. The next minute I blinked, and you were gone. The memory disappeared in an instant, like waking up after a good dream. The only thing you want is to go back, to go back to the fantasy that is dreaming. All I wanted was to hold onto that memory, to hold onto it for just a moment longer.
I have spent 50 years waiting, waiting to see you again. I see a spark in someone else’s eyes, and it takes me back to that moment, that moment at the world’s fair. The pounding in my chest as I am watching you all over again, watching you laugh and everything around you goes silent. A spark of hope electrifies my body, and for a moment, I actually believe it is you.
Sometimes I try to imagine what you must look like 50 years older, I image wrinkles and grayer hair, but in all of my imaginations, your laugh is always the same. It is something that in my mind will always stand the test of time. It is everything when there is nothing, like a star in a desolate sky.
That day was a day that changed my entire life. My dreams of going to space, inventing the new greatest form of technology, or marrying some really rich girl all went out the window. Nothing mattered except for you, you were my everything and I was nothing.
I remember the crowds as I walked into the fair. There were more people than I could have imagined: 5.2 million visitors crowded the streets of the tiny city of Spokane. The motto, “Progress Without Pollution,” was on signs everywhere you looked. I remember the lights and the noises as everyone was trying to urge you to go this way or that, to see this attraction or the next. It fascinated me to see so many different people trying to stay with their families or friends, others with a look of defeat dragging down their faces because there was no way they were going to be able to find their group again. The atmosphere was electric as people moved constantly in a desperate hurry to get somewhere, who really knows where.
I was standing and watching people around me, telling people that, “No, I would not like to learn about sustainable ways to clean up the land along the Spokane River,” or, “volunteer to help solve the traffic problem that has been caused by the railroads,” when I saw her. She was sitting with a group of friends, and the moment she caught my eye, all the chaos around me disappeared. I watched her for a few minutes, some guy walked up to me and asked me something, but I wasn’t paying attention, and in a moment he just walked away. It took me a few minutes to get up the courage to talk to her, but I finally did.
The entire day, she wouldn’t tell me her name. I followed her around as she went from one place to the next, not really stopping anywhere long enough to actually learn anything about the environment. I just smiled as I watched her curious expression turn to boredom and then happiness as she went on to the next place. I think she liked the attention as I asked her questions about her life that she chose not to answer. The mystery of her was what pulled me in. It was a lock, I just had to find the key.
As the fair started to close down for the day, I wanted to go see the falls of the Spokane River. I watched as the water plummeted down with such a force that it would be certain you would die if you fell into it.
She had been standing right by my side and at this moment I decided to ask her her name again, but I looked to my side, and she wasn’t anywhere to be found.