The Wave. Part 11

"You thought you were so special!" Ross told them. "Better than everyone outside of this room. You traded your freedom for what you said was equality. But you turned your equality into superiority over non-Wave members. You accepted the group's will over your own convictions, no matter who you had to hurt to do it. Oh, some of you thought you were just going along for the ride, that you could walk away at any moment. But did you? Did any of you try it?

"Yes, you all would have made good n.a.z.is," Ben told them. "You would have put on the uniforms, turned your heads, and allowed your friends and neighbors to be persecuted and destroyed. You say it could never happen again, but look how close you came. Threatening those who wouldn't join you, preventing non-Wave members from sitting with you at football games. Fascism isn't something those other people did, it is right here, in all of us. You ask how could the German people do nothing as millions of innocent human beings were murdered? How could they claim they weren't involved? What causes people to deny their own histories?"

Ben moved closer to the front of the stage and spoke in a lower voice: "If history repeats itself, you will all want to deny what happened to you in The Wave. But, if our experiment has been successful-and I think you can see that it has-you will have learned that we are all responsible for our own actions, and that you must always question what you do rather than blindly follow a leader, and that for the rest of your lives, you will never, ever allow a group's will to usurp your individual rights."

Ben paused for a moment. So far he'd made it sound like they were all at fault. But it was more than that. "Now listen to me, please," he said. "I owe you an apology. I know this has been painful to you. But in a way it could be argued that none of you are as at fault as I am for leading you to this. I meant The Wave to be a great lesson for you and perhaps I succeeded too well. I certainly became more of a leader than I intended to be. And I hope you will believe me when I say that it has been a painful lesson for me too. All I can add is, I hope this is a lesson we'll all share for the rest of our lives. If we're smart, we won't dare forget it."

The effect on the students was staggering. All around the auditorium they were slowly rising from their seats. A few were in tears, others tried to avoid the eyes of those next to them. All looked stunned by the lesson they had learned. As they left they discarded their posters and banners. The floor quickly became littered with yellow members.h.i.+p cards and all thoughts of military posture were forgotten as they slunk out of the auditorium.

Laurie and David walked slowly down the aisle, pa.s.sing the somber students filing out of the room. Amy was coming toward them, her head bowed. When she looked up and saw Laurie she burst into tears and ran to hug her friend.

Behind her, David saw Eric and Brian. Both looked shaken. They stopped when they saw David and for a few moments the three teammates stood in an awkward silence.

"What a freak-out," Eric said, his voice hardly more than a mumble.

David tried to shrug it off. He felt bad for his friends. "Well, it's over now," he told them. "Let's try and forget it ... I mean, let's try not to forget it ... but let's forget it at the same time."

Eric and Brian nodded. They understood what he meant even if he hadn't exactly made sense.

Brian made a rueful face. "I should've known it," he said. "The first time that Clarkstown linebacker broke through and sacked me for a fifteen-yard loss last Sat.u.r.day. I should've known it was no good."

The three teammates shared a short chuckle and then Eric and Brian left the auditorium. David walked down toward the stage where Mr. Ross stood. His teacher looked very tired.

"I'm sorry I didn't trust you, Mr. Ross," David said.

"No, it was good that you didn't," Ross told him. "You showed good judgment. I should be apologizing to you, David. I should have told you what I was planning to do."

Laurie joined them. "Mr. Ross, what's going to happen now?" she asked.

Ben shrugged and shook his head. "I'm not sure I know, Laurie. We still have quite a bit of history to cover this semester. But maybe we'll take just one more period to discuss what happened today."

"I think we should," David said.

"You know, Mr. Ross," Laurie said. "In a way I'm glad this happened. I mean, I'm sorry it had to come to this, but I'm glad it worked out, and I think everyone learned a lot."

Ben nodded. "Well, that's nice of you, Laurie. But I've already decided this is one lesson I'm going to skip in next year's course."

David and Laurie looked at each other and smiled. They said good-bye to Mr. Ross and turned to leave the auditorium.

Ben watched Laurie and David and the last of the former members of The Wave leave the auditorium. When they were gone and he thought he was alone, he sighed and said, "Thank G.o.d." He was relieved that it had ended well, and thankful that he still had his job at Gordon High. There would still be a few angry parents and incensed faculty members to smooth over, but in time he knew he could do it.

He turned and was about to leave the stage when he heard a sob and saw Robert leaning against one of the television sets, tears running down his face.

Poor Robert, Ben thought. The only one who really stood to lose in this whole thing. He walked toward the trembling student and put his arm around his shoulder. "You know, Robert," he said, trying to cheer him up, "you look good in a tie and jacket. You ought to wear them more often."

Through his tears, Robert managed a smile. "Thanks, Mr. Ross."

"What do you say we go out for a bite to eat?" Ben said, leading him off the stage. "There are some things I think we should talk about."

end.