The Wave (12 page)

Ben did not appreciate the sarcasm in his wife’s voice, but again he knew she was right. The students in The Wave had made him more of a leader than he had ever wished to be. But it was also true that he had not resisted. In fact, he had to admit that before the experiment had gone bad, he had enjoyed those fleeting moments of power. A crowded room full of students obeying his commands, the Wave symbol he’d created posted all over the school, even a bodyguard. He had read that power could be seductive, and now he had experienced it. Ben ran his hand through his hair. The members of The Wave were not the only ones who had to learn the lesson power taught. Their teacher did, as well.

“Ben?” Christy said.

“Yes, I know, I’m thinking,” he replied. Wondering was more like it. Suppose there was something he could do tomorrow. Suppose he did something abrupt and final. Would they follow him? At once, Ben understood what he had to do. “Okay, Christy, I’ve got an idea.”

His wife looked at him uncertainly. “Something you’re sure will work?”

Ben shook his head. “No, but I hope it will,” he said.

Christy nodded and looked at her watch. It was late and she was tired. She leaned over her husband and kissed him on the forehead. The skin was damp with perspiration. “You coming to bed?”

“Soon,” he said.

After Christy went into the bedroom, Ben went over his plan again in his mind. It seemed sound and he stood up, determined to get some sleep. He was just shutting off the lights when the doorbell rang. Rubbing his eyes with weariness, Ross trudged to the front door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s David Collins and Laurie Saunders, Mr. Ross.”

Surprised, Ben pulled the door open. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “It’s late.”

“Mr. Ross, we’ve got to talk to you,” David said. “It’s real important.”

“Well, come in and sit down,” Ben said.

As David and Laurie entered the living room, Ben could see that both of them were shaken up. Had something even worse happened because of The Wave? God forbid. The two students sat down on the couch. David leaned forward.

“Mr. Ross, you’ve got to help us,” he said, his voice filled with agitation.

“What is it?” Ben asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s The Wave,” David said.

“Mr. Ross,” said Laurie, “we know how important this is to you—but it’s just gone too far.”

Before Ross could even respond, David added, “It’s taken over, Mr. Ross. You can’t say anything against it. People are afraid to.”

“The kids at school are scared,” Laurie told him. “They’re really scared. Not only to say anything against The Wave, but of what might happen to them if they don’t go along with it.”

Ben nodded. In a way, what these students were telling him relieved him of part of his concern about The Wave. If he did as Christy told him and thought back to the original goals of the experiment, then the fears Laurie and David spoke of confirmed that The Wave was a success. After all, The Wave had originally been conceived as a way to show these kids what life in Nazi Germany might have been like. Apparently, in terms of fear and forced compliance, it had been an overwhelming success—too much of a success.

“You can’t even have a conversation without wondering who’s listening,” Laurie told him.

Ben could only nod again. He recalled those students in his own history classes who had condemned the Jews for not taking the Nazi threat seriously, for not fleeing their homes and ghettos when rumors of the concentration camps and gas chambers first filtered back to them. Of course, Ross thought, how could any rational person believe such a thing? And who could have believed that a nice bunch of high school students like those at Gordon High could have become a fascist group called The Wave? Was it a weakness of man that made him want to ignore the darker side of his fellow human beings?

David yanked him from his thoughts. “Tonight I almost hurt Laurie because of The Wave,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me. But I do know that it’s the same thing that’s come over almost everyone who’s in The Wave.”

“You’ve got to stop it,” Laurie urged him.

“I know,” Ben said. “I will.”

“What are you going to do, Mr. Ross?” David asked.

Ben knew he could not reveal his plan to Laurie and David. It was essential that the members of The Wave decide the matter for themselves, and for the experiment to be a true success, Ben could only present them with the evidence. If David or Laurie went to school the next day and told the students that Mr. Ross planned to end The Wave, the students would be biased. They might end it without really understanding why it had to end. Or worse, they might try and fight him, keeping The Wave alive despite its obvious destiny.

“David, Laurie,” he said, “you have discovered for yourselves what the other members of The Wave have not yet learned. I promise you that tomorrow I will try to help them toward that discovery. But I have to do it my way, and I can only ask that you trust me. Can you do that?”

David and Laurie nodded uncertainly as Ben rose and showed them to the door. “Come on, it’s too late for you kids to be out,” he told them. As they went through the door, however, Ben had another thought. “Listen, do either of you know two students who have never been involved in The Wave? Two students who Wave members don’t know and wouldn’t miss?”

David considered for a moment. Amazing as it might be, almost everyone he knew in school had become a member of The Wave. But Laurie thought of two people. “Alex Cooper and Carl Block,” she said. “They’re on
The Grapevine
staff.”

“Okay,” Ben told them. “Now, I want both of you
to go back to class tomorrow and act as if everything is fine. Pretend we haven’t talked, and don’t tell anyone that you were here tonight or that you spoke to me. Can you do that?”

David nodded, but Laurie looked concerned. “I don’t know, Mr. Ross.”

But Ben cut her short. “Laurie, it is extremely important that we do it this way. You must trust me. Okay?”

Reluctantly Laurie agreed. Ben bade them good-bye, and she and David stepped into the dark.

CHAPTER 16

T
he next morning in Principal Owens’s office, Ben had to pull his handkerchief out of his pocket and pat the perspiration off his forehead. Across the desk, Principal Owens had just slammed his fist down. “Damn it, Ben! I don’t care about your experiment. I’ve got teachers complaining, I’ve got parents calling me every five minutes wanting to know what the hell’s going on here, what the hell are we doing with their kids. You think I can tell
them
it’s an experiment? My God, man, you know that boy who was roughed up last week? His rabbi was here yesterday. The man spent two years in Auschwitz. Do you think he gives a damn about your experiment?”

Ben sat up in his chair. “Principal Owens, I understand the pressure you’re under. I know that The Wave went too far. I …” Ben took a deep breath. “I realize now that I made a mistake. A history class is not a science lab. You can’t experiment with human beings. Especially high school students who aren’t aware that they’re part of an experiment. But for a moment let’s
forget that it was a mistake, that it went too far. Let’s look at it right now. Right now there are two hundred students here who think The Wave is great. I can still teach them a lesson. All I need is the rest of the day, and I can teach them a lesson they will never forget.”

Principal Owens looked at him skeptically. “And what do you expect me to tell their parents and the other teachers in the meantime?”

Ben patted his forehead with his handkerchief again. He knew he was taking a gamble, but what choice did he have? He had gotten them into this and he had to get them out. “Tell them that I promise it will all be over by tonight.”

Principal Owens arched an eyebrow. “And exactly how do you intend to do that?”

It didn’t take Ben long to outline his plan. Across the desk, Principal Owens tapped out his pipe and considered it. A long and uncomfortable silence followed. Finally he said, “Ben, I’m going to be absolutely straight with you. This Wave thing has made Gordon High look very bad, and I’m very unhappy about it. I’ll let you have today. But I have to warn you: If it doesn’t work, I’m going to have to ask you for your resignation.”

Ben nodded. “I understand,” he said.

Principal Owens stood and offered his hand. “I hope you can make this work, Ben,” he said solemnly. “You’re a fine teacher and we’d hate to lose you.”

Outside in the hall Ben had no time to dwell on Principal Owens’s words. He had to find Alex Cooper and Carl Block, and he had to work fast.

In history class that day Ben waited until the students had come to attention. Then he said, “I
have a special announcement about The Wave. At five o’clock today there will be a rally in the auditorium—for Wave members only.”

David smiled to himself and winked at Laurie.

“The reason for the rally is the following,” Mr. Ross continued. “The Wave is not just a classroom experiment. It’s much, much more than that. Unbeknownst to you, starting last week, all across the country teachers like myself have been recruiting and training a youth brigade to show the rest of the nation how to achieve a better society.

“As you know, this country has just gone through a decade in which steady double-digit inflation has severely weakened the economy,” Mr. Ross continued. “Unemployment has run chronically high, and the crime rate has been worse than any time in memory. Never before has the morale of the United States been so low. Unless this trend is stopped, a growing number of people, including the founders of The Wave, believe that our country is doomed.”

David was no longer smiling. This was not what he had expected to hear. Mr. Ross didn’t seem to be ending The Wave at all. If anything, he seemed to be going more deeply into it than ever!

“We must prove that through discipline, community, and action we can turn this country around,” Ross told the class. “Look what we have accomplished in this school alone in just a few days. If we can change things here, we can change things everywhere.”

Laurie gave David a frightened look. Mr. Ross went on: “In factories, hospitals, universities—in all institutions—”

David jumped out of his chair in protest. “Mr. Ross, Mr. Ross!”

“Sit down, David!” Mr. Ross ordered.

“But, Mr. Ross, you said—”

Ben cut him off urgently. “I said, sit down, David. Don’t interrupt me.”

David returned to his seat, unable to believe his ears as Mr. Ross continued: “Now listen carefully. During the rally the founder and national leader of The Wave will appear on cable television to announce the formation of a National Wave Youth Movement!”

All around them students started cheering. It was too much for Laurie and David. Both rose to their feet, this time to face the class.

“Wait, wait,” David pleaded with them. “Don’t listen to him. Don’t listen. He’s lying.”

“Can’t you see what he’s doing?” Laurie said emotionally. “Can’t any of you think for yourselves anymore?”

But the room only grew quiet as the class glared at them.

Ross knew he had to act quickly, before Laurie and David revealed too much. He realized he had made an error. He had asked Laurie and David to trust him, and he had not expected them to disobey. But instantly it made sense to him that they would. He snapped his fingers. “Robert, I want you to take over the class until I return from escorting David and Laurie to the principal’s office.”

“Mr. Ross, yes!”

Mr. Ross quickly walked to the classroom door and held it open for Laurie and David.

Outside in the hall, David and Laurie walked
slowly toward the principal’s office, followed by Mr. Ross. In the background they could hear steady, loud chants emanating from Mr. Ross’s room: “Strength Through Discipline! Strength Through Community! Strength Through Action!”

“Mr. Ross, you lied to us last night,” David said bitterly.

“No, I didn’t, David. But I told you, you would have to trust me,” Mr. Ross replied.

“Why should we?” Laurie asked. “You were the one who started The Wave in the first place.”

The point was a good one. Ben could think of no reason why they should trust him. He only knew that they should. He hoped that by evening they would understand.

David and Laurie spent most of the afternoon waiting outside Principal Owens’s office to see him. They were miserable and depressed, certain that Mr. Ross had tricked them into cooperating with him so that they could not prevent what now appeared to be the final hours before The Wave movement at Gordon High joined the national Wave movement, which had been growing simultaneously at high schools all over the country.

Even Principal Owens seemed unsympathetic when he finally got around to seeing them. On his desk was a brief report from Mr. Ross, and although neither of them could see what it said, it was obvious that it must have stated that Laurie and David had disrupted the class. Both of them pleaded with the principal to stop The Wave and
the five o’clock rally, but Principal Owens only insisted that everything would be all right.

Finally he told them to go back to their classes. David and Laurie were incredulous. Here they were trying to prevent the worst thing they’d ever seen happen in school and Principal Owens seemed to be oblivious.

Out in the hall, David threw his books into his locker and slammed the door shut. “Forget it,” he told Laurie angrily. “I’m not hanging around here anymore today. I’m splitting.”

“Just wait for me to put my books away,” Laurie told him. “I’ll join you.”

A few minutes later, as they walked down the sidewalk away from school, Laurie sensed that David was getting depressed. “I can’t believe how dumb I was, Laurie,” he kept saying. “I can’t believe I really fell for it.”

Laurie squeezed his hand. “You weren’t dumb, David. You were idealistic. I mean, there were good things about The Wave. It couldn’t be all bad, or no one would have joined in the first place. It’s just that they don’t see what’s bad about it. They think it makes everyone equal, but they don’t understand that it robs you of your right to be independent.”