آخرین همایش

CHAPTER 11 - The Last Rally

‘I have something to tell you about the Wave’ Mr Ross told his history students the next day. ‘At five o’clock today there will be a rally. It will be for Wave members only.’ David smiled and looked at Laurie.

‘The Wave is not an experiment in your history lesson,’ said Mr Ross. ‘It’s much more than that. All across the country there are now Wave members. The Wave is getting bigger and bigger.’ Laurie looked very afraid and David stopped smiling. He jumped out of his place. ‘Mr Ross, Mr Ross!’ ‘Sit down, David!’ said Mr Ross.

‘But, Mr Ross, you said —’

‘Sit down, David!’

David sat down in his place. ‘Now listen carefully,’ said Mr Ross. ‘This afternoon we will see our leader on the television.

He is going to start the Wave in every school in America!’ David and Laurie jumped to their feet. They ran to the front of the room.

‘Don’t listen to him!’ said David.

‘We must stop the Wave,’ said Laurie.

The room was very quiet. ‘Go back to your places,’ said Mr Ross. ‘I’ll speak to you after the lesson.’ After the lesson Mr Ross spoke to David and Laurie. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘I know what I’m doing. You must believe in me.’

‘We did believe in you,’ said Laurie. ‘And believed in the Wave. Now we don’t know what to believe.’ ♦

School finished at four o’clock. Laurie and David did not want to wait for the rally. They left together.

‘I don’t know why I believed in it,’ said David. ‘And I don’t understand why the others believe in it now. Perhaps we’re wrong about the Wave.’

‘No, David, we’re right,’ said Laurie.

‘Then why do the others not see it?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Laurie. ‘They don’t want to listen. Perhaps they’re afraid.’

For a minute they did not speak. Then Laurie said, ‘Do you remember that film about the Nazis, David? The Wave is dangerous! We can’t walk away from this. That’s what the people in Germany did. We must go back to school. We must go to that rally.’

♦

There were more than two hundred students in the room. At the front there were two televisions. Above the televisions there were the Wave pictures.

Mr Ross walked to the front. The Wave members all stood up and gave the Wave salute.

‘We’re all in the same team. Winners need discipline,’ they all said together.

Mr Ross put his hand up. The students were quiet.

‘In a minute our leader will speak,’ said Mr Ross. ‘Robert, turn on the televisions’

‘Mr Ross, yes.’

Robert turned on the two televisions. Two hundred Wave members waited to see their leader.

But nothing happened. The televisions showed no pictures.

David and Laurie came into the room. ‘What’s happening?’ asked David quietly.

‘I don’t know,’ said Laurie.

The Wave members waited and waited. Then one student jumped up. ‘There is no leader!’ he said.

Ben walked over to one of the televisions. ‘Yes, you have a leader!’ he said.

Suddenly there was the same picture on the two televisions.

‘There is your leader!’

‘But it’s Adolf Hitler!’ said one of the students. ‘How can Hitler be the leader of the Wave?’

That photo is from the film we saw in Mr Ross’s history lesson.

The film about the Nazis!’ said Laurie.

The room was now very quiet. The Wave members did not understand. Was Hitler their leader? But Hitler was the worst man in history!

‘Now listen carefully,’ said Ben. There is no Wave outside this school. There is no great leader.’ Ben pointed to the picture of Hitler. ‘Men like Hitler lead things like the Wave. You all thought you were better than the other students. The Nazis thought they were better than the Jews.’

Ben stopped and looked down at the students. ‘I’m sorry that I started this. I didn’t want to be your “Hitler”. But that’s what happened and I’m very sorry. Perhaps we alt learned something from the Wave.’

David and Laurie walked slowly out of the room with all the others. Nobody spoke. Amy looked up and saw Laurie. She began to cry. ‘I’m sorry, Laurie,’ she said.

Behind her, David saw Eric and Brian. The three footballers stood together without a word. David felt bad for his friends. ‘We must try and forget the Wave,’ he told them. ‘But we must not forget what it did to us. Do you understand?’ Eric smiled. ‘I knew that it didn’t work when we lost to Clarkstown,’ he said.