Ruppert
parked in the guest lot at District 118-4 Public Secondary School 171E, a
twelve-story cinderblock building in Brentwood Glen.Cameras mounted on razor-wire fences swiveled
after him as he approached the bulletproof window of the guard station by the
school's front door.The security guard,
a heavyset white guy with a shaved head and drooping eyelids, was engrossed in
a glossy sports magazine.
"Hi,"
Ruppert said. "My name is Daniel Ruppert, I'm here to see my wife, Madeline--"
The guard
looked up, and his eyes flared open.
"Oh, shit!" The guard spoke with a tinny
echo over the loudspeaker.Then a loud,
grinding screech resounded over the same speaker, and the guard clapped his
hands over his ears.It was the school's
voice-monitoring system, punishing the guard for inappropriate speech.
"I mean, shucks, or whatever," the
guard said. "You're the news guy!"
"Yep." Ruppert gave what his
thought of his as his photo-op grin. "Thanks for watching.I'm here to pick up my wife."
"Your wife works here?"
"Madeline Ruppert."
"Madeline..." The guard leaned
forward and tapped at the screen on his console. "Yeah, yeah, I've seen
her.Sorry, first week on the job.We're not supposed to admit unscheduled
visitors during school hours.It's still
ninth period."
"You really want me to stand here
for the next twenty minutes?" "Not up to me." Ruppert waited
while the guard spoke to a supervisor over his earphones. Finally, the guard
nodded, tapped his screen again, and a sliding drawer emerged from beneath his
window.Ruppert lifted out a laminated badge
with his name, the date and time, and a photograph of himself that had
apparently just been taken.
"Mrs. Ruppert is on the eighth
floor--Room 82B," the guard said. "Adults stay to the center lane in all
corridors.The badge is radio-tagged, so
don't go off-course or you'll trigger an alert."
"Thanks."
The front doors opened, and Ruppert
entered a hallway divided into three lanes by thick black stripes on the
floor.More cameras watched him from the
ceiling.Posters lined the walls, many
of them depicting President Winthrop at a flag-draped podium, the image of the
Earth floating in blackness behind him.The pictures showed Winthrop in his
prime, rather than the somewhat decrepit and shriveled old man now serving his
twenty-third year as President of the United States.The poster were emblazoned with some of the
Party’s favorite slogans: "Strength Abroad, Strength At Home;" "America for Americans;" "America: The Revolution Continues"And of course the inevitable cross painted
like the flag, planted in a hilltop and apparently leaking blood into the
grass, with the inevitable slogan: "America Everlasting."
As Ruppert continued towards the
elevator bank, he glanced at other posters, these depicting the homeland's
enemies.One showed a fierce-looking
Latino guerrilla, certainly a leftist, his face painted with black stripes, his
machine gun pointed at the viewer.He
stood in a jungle under a full moon. The caption for this one: "If You Use
Drugs, You Support the Terrorists."Another poster depicted Arabic jihadis huddled in a cave, staring at a
map of the United States: "Where Will They Strike Next?Stay
Alert!"
The elevator automatically took him
to the eighth floor, since Ruppert was not authorized to visit any of the
others.As he walked down a similar
hallway towards Madeline's room, a boy of twelve or thirteen shuffled past in
the lane to his left.The boy kept his
eyes on his own shoes and flashed a hall pass at Ruppert without looking up.
The door to Madeline's classroom
was next to a poster of an adolescent girl in an orange prison jumpsuit, her
lips a corrupt mass of blisters and sores.The poster read, "Remember: Premarital SEX is a SIN and a CRIME."
The door opened, and Madeline
leaned out, smiling, tucking a long strand of red hair behind her hear.
Security must have beeped her.
"We're still in ninth period," she
whispered. "You're breaking school protocol."
"I wanted to surprise you.Surprised?"
"Sh.We're watching a lesson."
He followed her into a darkened
classroom where sixty eighth-grade students watched a standard montage of life
in Columbus, Ohio, before the bomb: kids playing
baseball, families attending church, a farmer driving a pick-up truck loaded
with bales of hay.Whenever Ruppert saw
this one, he always wondered how many farmers had actually driven around downtown
Columbus with a
full load of hay, and for what purpose, but naturally he kept questions to
himself.
"The Fourth of July, 2016.Columbus,
Ohio, was a quiet Christian city
in the middle of the American heartland," the narrator said. It was the deep, twangy
voice of semi-forgotten country music star Olroy P. Toombs. "People lived the
traditional American way in Columbus.The good people of Ohio never expected the horrible fate the terrorists
planned that Fourth of July."A few
video clips illustrated the Fourth of July factor, families in red, white and
blue oohing and aahing at fireworks as they ate hot dogs and waved sparklers.
The movie's background music
shifted from pleasant piano notes to grim, dark oboe and bass tones.Ruppert reclined against the back wall, next
to Madeline, and looked over the herd of kids.They all dressed according to the school's strict moral code: long
skirts and long sleeves for the girls, slacks and collared shirts for the
boys.The moral code also required boys'
hair to remain less than an inch long, preferably crew cut, while all girls had
to grow theirs out to at least shoulder-length.A few of the kids looked bored, but most watched as if the video would
soon show Christ rising from his tomb.
Stark video clips cut into each
other.The mushroom cloud rising from Columbus, captured from one
angle after another.The neighborhoods
blown flat.The twisted black hulk of a
school bus.
Then the soundtrack shifted again,
to a thundering brass orchestra, as hundreds of military, police and FEMA
vehicles swarmed into the city.The
video cut to President Winthrop, the edges of his face still hard and sharp at
age fifty, his steel-gray hair tousled by the wind as he stood under the White
House portico.
"Today, on the birthday of our
nation, we have suffered a horrendous and unjustified attack at the very heart
of our homeland.The entire country
mourns with the good people of Ohio.
"Today, our country has changed
forever.For too long, America has allowed her enemies to
gather in the shadowy realms of the world.We have been generous.We have
been just.We have loved peace; today,
we see we have loved peace too much, been too forgiving of our enemies, too
kind to those who threaten our interests.
"The American people are a
good-hearted people, but after this grievous act of war, perpetrated by foreign
terrorists against innocent lives, we must show the world a new face, another
side, a different view of what our power can be.
"Americans love peace--but we love
justice more."
A roar of cries and an avalanche of
applause poured over the speakers, the recorded enthusiasm of the press corps.
"America
has suffered today, but America
is strong, and America
will grow stronger still.Today, I
pronounce a Second American Revolution, one that will purge the corrupting
influences from our nation and make us pure and upright once again.As we have grown complacent abroad, we have
grown complacent at home--and as we all see now, the enemy is present here among
us.Perhaps in our neighborhoods.Perhaps in our schools.Perhaps even at our churches.
"We are not safe, America.We must band together, now, as Americans, to
fight the enemy in every corner of the Earth.Including our own.Tomorrow
Congress will pass, and I will sign, the Articles for the Continuation of
Democracy.These emergency measures will
grant the executive branch full authority to find every terrorist, to root out every
infiltrator hidden among us, to seek out everyone anywhere in the world who
might intend us harm, and to destroy them all.To defend our freedom, to protect our children, to fight for our way of
life, and--yes, America,
for our God."
After another wave of cheers, the
President continued, "Even in this worst of all tragedies lies
opportunity.We will reclaim America for the
American people, and we will set our nation right.Citizens of America, the Second Revolution has
begun. Together, we will build an America that will stand a thousand years, an America
everlasting."
This time, even the kids in the
room joined in the cataclysmic applause.They'd been trained that way.
Madeline touched a black panel in
the wall and the fluorescent classroom lights came up, while the giant image of
President Winthrop faded into a blank whiteboard.Black words appeared in Madeline's
handwriting:
FOR TONIGHT:
Watch today's lesson again.Journalize your feelings on video.We will evaluate you in class tomorrow.
The bell
rang, and sixty kids jumped to their feet.Madeline shouted after them as they surged out of the room.
"Mark, no
pushing!Keep your eyes on the
ground!Sarah, pull up your sock, no one
wants to see your dirty leg!"
When the
last kid had left, she turned to Ruppert and her hard glare melted into a
smile.
"Hi there,"
she said.
"Hi there yourself." Daniel leaned
in to kiss her, but she kept him at arm's length.
"Not in the gulag, okay?" she said.
He stepped
back from her as she gathered her purse from her desk.
"You must
have the easiest job in the world," he said.
"You try babysitting nine classes of sixty
little hell-trolls every day."
"I thought
you taught history."
"What do
you call that?" She gestured toward the whiteboard as they started towards the
door.
"A movie."
"It's the
only way these pagan brats learn anything.Just try to get one to read a book.Half of them are just waiting to go home and shoot up virtual Muslims."
"That's
what half of them will spend their whole lives doing."
"Right."
They stepped into the crowded hallway, moving quickly into the center, kid-free
lane. "I just hope they carry some respect for history onto the battlefield
with them.They should know what they're
sacrificing for.Did you get the
cookies?"
"Cookies?"
Madeline
froze, and Daniel nearly crashed into her.
"I told you
three times.I have to bring cookies for
the Ladies' Antiquing Society fundraiser.Butterscotch.Daniel, I told you
three times!"Her voice rose an octave. "Do you have Men's Meeting tonight?"
"It's Wednesday, isn't it?"
"Then we have to be at the church
by five!Daniel, I have to get them from
the same bakery.Aunt Frizzie's
Bakery.You know that."She rushed to the teachers' elevator.Ruppert hurried to keep up.
"Aren't you supposed to make them
yourself?" he asked.
"Shut up, Daniel.Now everybody's going to think I'm not
contributing."
In the parking lot, Daniel's Bluehawk
unlocked as they approached.
"I can't believe you're doing this
to me, Daniel." Madeline's voice was knotted with fury.
"Doing what?Hey, what's that on your seat?"
Madeline opened the door and broke
into a smile.A plump white bag, with
the blue-haired caricature of Aunt Frizzie stamped on the front, occupied the
passenger seat.An empty cookie tin,
leftover from a previous Christmas, lay beside it.
"Daniel!" Madeline picked up them
up and slid into the seat.He sat down
beside her.The car doors silently
closed themselves.
"What are those, exactly?" Daniel
asked.
"You're so mean.Now I want my kiss."
As Ruppert pulled out of the
parking lot, Madeline began transferring cookies into the tin.
