she states, Anyone who shops at Wal-Mart is a coward . Principal Stuart stares at the pulpy pages of the Midway in disbelief. He calls to his secretary, Angie, a cheery, overweight assistant with at least four different pens stuck in her red curly hair, shaking his head. “Tell Wick to get his ass down here. And pronto.” He sits behind his desk and almost has a heart attack when he flips to an editorial page from last month, where, in black and white, Amelia Casper writes, Historically, white men are the cause of most of the trouble in the world.
A MELIA, STANDING BESIDE Mr. Wick, who is pale and shivering with sweat, agrees to print a retraction in regards to the white-men-are-the-cause-of-trouble piece. She does not argue. She stares down at her dark black shoes, unafraid. She decides for next week’s paper to take up a new cause: the cafeteria workers’ unjust treatment.
T ODAY, W EDNESDAY, the thirteenth, Amelia is finally suspended from school for trying to incite the cafeteria workers to strike. In her latest school newspaper column, she has written:
Why are all the cafeteria workers in this school black? Or Hispanic (Maribel)? What message is the school trying to send to its students? That privileged people should be waited on by people of color? I say to the cafeteria workers, who prepare our lunches with such care, such attentiveness, the time for a change has come! Demand better hours, better pay, new uniforms, and an end to class segregation!
When Amelia steps out of Principal Stuart’s office, the suspension a yellow piece of paper clamped in her hand, she expects the students in the crowded hallway to begin clapping. She imagines Heather and Max will have constructed a banner celebrating her bravery. But no, no one has even noticed. No one. Amelia watches the students hurrying through the hallway and when she finally spots Max and Heather, they stare at her, their heads down, slightly embarrassed for her. A girl, some poor freshman with a purple headband, accidentally bumps into Amelia. The girl stumbles, tripping over her own feet, and tumbles to the floor. The girl instinctively calls Amelia a bitch. Immediately Amelia begins shouting. “You are all savages! Why don’t you go home and plug your brains into your stupid computers and do whatever MTV tells you to do!” She collects her things and is forced to wait in the lobby of the principal’s office while he makes a big deal out of calling her folks. Her neck has begun to blister, a swell of red hives running up and down her throat.
W HILE SHE IS WAITING for what seems like a century, Amelia notices a silver digital wristwatch resting atop the receptionist’s vacant desk. Its segmented band is coiled beneath its blank-looking face as it sparkles desperately. Free me , the watch quietly whimpers. Free me . Amelia stands, pretends to be wandering around the tiny lobby, glancing over at the principal’s diplomas, which have been framed along the far wall, and then lunges for the tortured object, feeling its cold heft in her hand. Quickly, she slips it into her purse and returns to her seat with an enormous, self-satisfied smile.
M ADELINE GETS A CALL on her cell phone from Amelia’s school about her suspension. It’s just after lunch and she still has another few hours to go, observing the birds’ reaction to predatory stimuli, which are, after all, only a few tape recordings and a plastic owl. Madeline hears her cell phone ringing and quickly steps out of the enclosure to answer it. She does not receive the news of Amelia’s suspension very well. She immediately calls home, and after the fifth ring, Jonathan answers distractedly.
“Jonathan. I need you to go get Amelia from school. She’s in trouble for something.”
“Oh, hell, what happened?”
“I don’t know. They wouldn’t say. I think she insulted the principal or something.”
“Should I go right now or should I wait for school to
A MELIA, STANDING BESIDE Mr. Wick, who is pale and shivering with sweat, agrees to print a retraction in regards to the white-men-are-the-cause-of-trouble piece. She does not argue. She stares down at her dark black shoes, unafraid. She decides for next week’s paper to take up a new cause: the cafeteria workers’ unjust treatment.
T ODAY, W EDNESDAY, the thirteenth, Amelia is finally suspended from school for trying to incite the cafeteria workers to strike. In her latest school newspaper column, she has written:
Why are all the cafeteria workers in this school black? Or Hispanic (Maribel)? What message is the school trying to send to its students? That privileged people should be waited on by people of color? I say to the cafeteria workers, who prepare our lunches with such care, such attentiveness, the time for a change has come! Demand better hours, better pay, new uniforms, and an end to class segregation!
When Amelia steps out of Principal Stuart’s office, the suspension a yellow piece of paper clamped in her hand, she expects the students in the crowded hallway to begin clapping. She imagines Heather and Max will have constructed a banner celebrating her bravery. But no, no one has even noticed. No one. Amelia watches the students hurrying through the hallway and when she finally spots Max and Heather, they stare at her, their heads down, slightly embarrassed for her. A girl, some poor freshman with a purple headband, accidentally bumps into Amelia. The girl stumbles, tripping over her own feet, and tumbles to the floor. The girl instinctively calls Amelia a bitch. Immediately Amelia begins shouting. “You are all savages! Why don’t you go home and plug your brains into your stupid computers and do whatever MTV tells you to do!” She collects her things and is forced to wait in the lobby of the principal’s office while he makes a big deal out of calling her folks. Her neck has begun to blister, a swell of red hives running up and down her throat.
W HILE SHE IS WAITING for what seems like a century, Amelia notices a silver digital wristwatch resting atop the receptionist’s vacant desk. Its segmented band is coiled beneath its blank-looking face as it sparkles desperately. Free me , the watch quietly whimpers. Free me . Amelia stands, pretends to be wandering around the tiny lobby, glancing over at the principal’s diplomas, which have been framed along the far wall, and then lunges for the tortured object, feeling its cold heft in her hand. Quickly, she slips it into her purse and returns to her seat with an enormous, self-satisfied smile.
M ADELINE GETS A CALL on her cell phone from Amelia’s school about her suspension. It’s just after lunch and she still has another few hours to go, observing the birds’ reaction to predatory stimuli, which are, after all, only a few tape recordings and a plastic owl. Madeline hears her cell phone ringing and quickly steps out of the enclosure to answer it. She does not receive the news of Amelia’s suspension very well. She immediately calls home, and after the fifth ring, Jonathan answers distractedly.
“Jonathan. I need you to go get Amelia from school. She’s in trouble for something.”
“Oh, hell, what happened?”
“I don’t know. They wouldn’t say. I think she insulted the principal or something.”
“Should I go right now or should I wait for school to
Similar Books
