{ TEN-G ALLON TIAR A}
ing room with an extra pair of socks, and now she’s leaning in to help Charli with her “wings” — the flutters of hair that curl out over a rodeo queen’s ears, the bet- ter to show off her sparkling chandelier earrings. “Oooh,” Maegan says, touching Charli’s dress. “It’s denim. Cool.” A denim dress is a rarity here, but
Charli couldn’t afford another leath- er gown, so she had this one made of something cheaper. It’s edged with lav- ender leather, and Charli spent nine hours sticking on — with “Bling and Beauty Glue” — an additional 1,500 rhinestones, until the dress threw light like a disco ball. (Goes another pageant adage: “Never too many stones for the stage.”) “It is denim,” Charli tells Maegan now,
scurrying to her night’s final appearance onstage. “It’s called ‘budget dress.’ ”
doing excellent. … Everything I’m hear- ing is that she’s top five. Word on the street.” Ryan adds that he just talked with one vendor, and “he loves Charli!” They’re in a distant corner of the
“W
Las Vegas Convention Center, and the queens are fanning out, walking — some running — into the audience. They’ve been granted a reprieve. After days of isolation, they can finally talk with their families. “Hi, Mommy!” one woman sobs.
Others are sniffling and quietly crying. They are exhausted. They are discour- aged. The competition is over, even though they must all still perform one more time: Tomorrow morning they will put on the Coronation Show, a final hurrah at which they will discover, on- stage, who won — and who didn’t. “Are you glad it’s done?” Charli’s
mom is asking Charli and Miss Rodeo Wyoming as they approach. “We want more time so we can get
more points,” Charli says, frowning. She is drained, and it shows. It has shown for the past three days, which is worrisome: As MRA executive di- rector Raeana Wadhams has pointed out, “When you send a girl out for two,
ord on the street,”
says
Ryan Spencer, Kathy’s son, “is that Charli’s
Charla’s aunt Connie Hodges, left, and mother, Andi Belisle, visit with their exhausted queen after the pageant.
three, four weeks at a time, she has to be as good at the end as at the begin- ning.” The pageant schedule, while not designed to “run them into the ground,” Wadhams adds, “helps to see which of the girls do have some stamina.” Charli leans miserably against her
mom. “I’m starting not to feel so well.” “And it showed onstage,” her mom
says. In her last appearance, Charli spoke convincingly and with a welcome injection of humor, but she did not smile, and she did not work the crowd. “Did it?” Charli asks, newly alert.
She’s shaking her leg. “It’s starting to sink in that it’s almost over,” she adds. “It’s hard for all of us girls. Now what?” Tara has said that the worst part of
losing Miss Rodeo America — and she was a top 10 finalist — was that it felt like “the equivalent of a sports athlete suffering a career-ending injury.” An hour later, the queens are back at
the hotel, back onstage rehearsing for tomorrow, depleted and with a grim set to their mouths. “Okay,” calls production coordinator
Jeana Allen. “First runner-up — when that name is announced, we know who the winner is. It gets very loud and very crazy. But don’t get lost in that.” She adds, menacingly, “And no ripping your crown off.” Now it’s Saturday morning. Corona-
tion Day. Seven hundred people have come to watch because the pageant it- self is neither televised nor livestreamed online. Bob Tallman, the legendary rodeo announcer emceeing the pro- gram, has arrived onstage. His voice is
16 THe WAsHingTon PosT MAgAzine | november 14, 2010
tire tracks on a mountain road; his face is ragged and wise. “Are you nervous?” he asks the span-
gled queens surrounding him. “You have a right to be.” He tells them to relax, then calls this moment “one of the last moments of a career — but the be- ginning of a new life.” Silence stills the auditorium. Tall-
man begins to cull. “Okay! We’re gonna work our way
down to No.1,” he cries. “And now — step forward — Miss Rodeo — Arizona!” He’s naming the Top 10 finalists. “Miss Rodeo — Minnesota! Miss
Rodeo — Mississippi!” Charli’s family sits near the stage,
watching Charli’s face, trying to listen, trying to keep count and waiting to hear MISS RODEO — VIRGINIA! “Miss Rodeo — Wyoming,” Tallman
continues. The states start sounding the same. Miss Rodeo — Colorado. Idaho. South Dakota. Charli’s family waits. How many left
to call? When will he say “Virginia”? Utah. Tennessee. New Mexico. He stops. Now he is saying, instead,
“That takes a whooping out of it for somebody.” He is saying, to those whose names he did not call, “Before you leave — you did good.” Pause. “You did good. You did good.” With the others, Charli files offstage.
And though her mother wants nothing more than to run backstage and be with her baby, she must wait, instead, in her seat and listen to Tallman next name the top five. And now the winner: Miss Rodeo Mississippi.
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