Thankfully, the rest of the day was bearable. The rest of the week … not so much. I came home with Claire on Friday after school, and we were both excited to try some meditation exercise that she was dying to do since Christmas break started. She never had time though, since she was busy going on a mission trip with our church. Oh, yes, church. Let me give you a little more background. I am from the extremely conservative part of Mississippi, so you can wonder how Christian my family is. Everyone at my school — and I literally mean everyone — was from a Christian background. I never understood my religion. I mean, I pretended to, but I'm not sure if I actually believed the things I was told. I went to church every Sunday, I listened to the prayers people sang, and I always looked around to see people following along with their lips and with their hands. I sort of just copied them so it seemed like I knew what I was doing. I didn't
* * *
“Maybe everyone was just pretending to know what they were doing.”
“I’m sorry?”
“What if everything that happened was only spontaneous?”
“You mean not planned? That’s a tough argument. They’d have to try to find a way to get to him. He had a lot of supporters, Summer Paige,” Mrs. Sheely did not sound that interested in what Summer Paige had to say.
“He had a lot of enemies too. Yet he still forced himself into power. Nobody likes a man like that. But to be able to do that to a whole group of people? He must’ve known what he was doing.”
“I see your point. That’s not really the one I’m trying to make, though.”
“He killed himself. He knew what was going to happen if he didn’t kill himself. He was the only person who knew what he was doing; nobody else was paying attention until later. That’s how he started the whole thing. That’s how he got in power. People then abided to his rules — as if he was some sort of messiah. If people wanted to overthrow him, they would have done it a lot sooner. Nobody really understood what was going on until all the Jews died, and all of his secrets were finally poured out because that’s when people really start to care.”
“Summer Paige, this really isn’t part of the lesson.”
“But it still teaches something, doesn’t it? Hitler was a horrible person, of course, but doesn’t that make everyone else horrible too for realizing it so late? Nobody was paying attention because if they were, they would have done something about it. He was paying attention this whole time, and when everyone found out, he did something about it.”
“By killing himself,” Mrs. Sheely finally seemed to be listening.
“Exactly. So why the hell does it matter what happened? We’ve all learned this story at least five times. Everyone knows who Adolf Hitler is. They all know what happened. So what are we really learning? He’s dead,” Summer Paige sounded as if she was trying to teach the teacher her own lesson.
“Yes, but his story really affected world history.”
“That’s because nothing truly affects us until it’s gone.”
For a second, everything was silent. Once Summer Paige’s words left her mouth, we were all speechless. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she, too, was known by everyone at the end of the year. She was unforgettable.
* * *
I didn’t like how outgoing she was. Throughout the small week, I’d kept on thinking about the weird things she would say in class and how interested everyone was in them. Even Mr. Branson liked her. I was jealous. I used to be the Summer Paige Fallacero of my school. Now I was just Bo. She was a better version of me. I wanted her to leave so I could stay being the only person that everyone knew and loved. Selfish? Maybe. I just hated Summer Paige Fallacero for being so interesting.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
