It was incredible, Ben Ross thought as he walked towards the auditorium. Ahead of him, two of his students sat at a small table in front of the auditorium doors, checking membership cards. Wave members were streaming into the auditorium, many carrying Wave banners and signs. Ross couldn't help thinking that before the advent of The Wave it would have taken a week to organize so many students. Today it had taken only a few hours. He sighed. So much for the positive side of discipline, community, and action. He wondered, if he was successful in "deprogramming' the students from The Wave, how long it would be before he'd begin seeing sloppy homework again. He smiled. Is this the price we pay for freedom?
As Ben watched, Robert, wearing a jacket and tie, came out of the auditorium and exchanged salutes with Brad and Brian.
"The auditorium is full," Robert told them. "Are the guards in place?"
"They are," Brad said.
Robert looked pleased. "Okay, lets check all the doors. Make sure they're all locked."
Ben rubbed his hands together nervously. It was time to go in. He walked towards the stage entrance and noticed that Christy was there waiting for him.
"Hi." She kissed him quickly on the cheek. "I thought I'd wish you luck."
"Thanks, I'll need it," Ben said.
Christy straightened his tie. "Did anyone ever tell you you look great in suits?" she asked.
"Matter of fact, Owens said that the other day." Ben sighed. "If I have to start looking for a new job, I might be wearing them a lot."
"Don't worry. You'll do fine," Christy told him.
Ben managed a slight smile. "I wish I had your faith in me," he said.
Christy laughed and turned him towards the stage door. "Go get "em, tiger."
The next thing Ben knew, he was standing near the side of the stage, looking out at the crowded auditorium filled with Wave members. A moment later Robert joined him there.
"Mr Ross," he said, saluting, "all the doors are secure and the guards are in place."
"Thank you, Robert," Ben said.
It was time to begin. As he strode to the centre of the auditorium stage, Ben glanced quickly towards the curtains behind him and then up at the projectionist's booth at the back of the room. As he stopped and stood between two large television monitors that had been ordered from the AV department that day, the crowd burst spontaneously into The Wave mottoes, standing at their seats and giving The Wave salute.
"Strength Through Discipline!"
"Strength Through Community!"
"Strength Through Action!"
Before them, Ben stood motionless. When they had finished their chants, he held up his arms for silence. In an instant the huge roomful of students went silent. Such obedience, Ben thought sadly. He looked out over the large crowd, aware that this was probably the last time he would be able to hold their attention so firmly. Then he spoke.
"In a moment our national leader will address us." And turning he said, "Robert."
Mr Ross, yes."
"Turn on the television sets."
Robert turned on both sets and the picture tubes grew bright and blue, with as yet no image. Throughout the auditorium, hundreds of eager Wave members hunched forward in their seats, staring at the blank blue tubes and waiting.
Outside, David and Laurie tried a set of auditorium doors, but found them locked. They quickly tried a second set, but found those locked also. But there were more doors to try, and they ran around the side of the auditorium looking for them.
The television screens were still blank. No face appeared on the screen and no sounds came from the speakers. Around the auditorium students began to squirm and murmur with anxiety. Why wasn't anything happening? Where was their leader? What were they supposed to do? As the tension in the room continued to build, the same question passed through their minds over and over: what were they supposed to do?
From the side of the stage, Ben looked down at them, as the sea of faces stared back at him anxiously. Was it really true that the natural inclination of people was to look for a leader? Someone to make decisions for them? Indeed, the faces looking up at him said it was. That was the awesome responsibility any leader had, knowing that a group like this would follow. Ben began to realize how much more serious this "little experiment' was than he'd ever imagined. It was frightening how easily they would put their faith in your hands, how easily they would let you decide for them. If people were destined to be led, Ben thought, this was something he must make sure they learned: to question thoroughly, never to put your faith in anyone's hands blindly. Otherwise...
From the centre of the audience a single frustrated student suddenly jumped up from his seat and shouted at Mr Ross, "There is no leader, is there!"
Shocked students around the auditorium quickly turned as two Wave guards rushed the offender out of the auditorium. In the confusion that followed, Laurie and David were able to slip in through the door the guards had opened.
Before the students had time to think about what had just happened, Ben strode to the centre of the auditorium stage again. "Yes, you have a leader!" he shouted. That was the cue Carl Block had been waiting for as he hid backstage. Now he pulled back the stage curtains to reveal a large movie screen. At the same moment, Alex Cooper, in the projection room, flicked on a projector.
"There!" Ben shouted at the auditorium full of students. "There is your leader!"
The auditorium was filled with gasps and exclamations of surprise as the gigantic image of Adolf Hitler appeared on the screen.
"That's it!" Laurie whispered excitedly to David. That's the movie he showed us that day!"
"Now listen carefully!" Ben shouted at them. "There is no National Wave Youth Movement. There is no leader. But if there was, he would have been it. Do you see what you've become? Do you see where you were headed? How far would you have gone? Take a look at your future!"
The film left Adolf Hitler and focused on the faces of the young Nazis who fought for him during World War Two. Many of them were only teenagers, some even younger than the students in the audience.
"You thought you were so special!" Ross told them. "Better than everyone outside this room. You traded your freedom for what you said was equality. But you turned your equality into superiority over non-Wave members. You accepted the group's will over your own convictions, no matter who you had to hurt to do it. Oh, some of you thought you were just going along for the ride, that you could walk away at any moment. But did you? Did any of you try it?
"Yes, you all would have made good Nazis," Ben told them. "You would have put on the uniforms, turned your heads, and allowed your friends and neighbours to be persecuted and destroyed. You say it could never happen again, but look how close you came. Threatening those who wouldn't join you, preventing non-Wave members from sitting with you at football games. Fascism isn't something those other people did, it is right here, in all of us. You ask how could the German people do nothing as millions of innocent human beings were murdered? How could they claim they weren't involved? What causes people to deny their own histories?"
Ben moved closer to the front of the stage and spoke in a lower voice: "If history repeats itself, you will all want to deny what happened to you in The Wave. But, if our experiment has been successful — and I think you can see that it has — you will have learned that we are all responsible for our own actions, and that you must always question what you do rather than blindly follow a leader, and that for the rest of your lives, you will never, ever allow a group's will to usurp your individual rights."
Ben paused for a moment. So far he'd made it sound like they were all at fault. But it was more than that. "Now listen to me, please," he said. "I owe you an apology. I know this has been painful to you. But in a way it could be argued that none of you are as at fault as I am for leading you to this. I meant The Wave to be a great lesson for you and perhaps I succeeded too well. I certainly became more of a leader than I intended to be. And I hope you will believe me when I say that it has been a painful lesson for me too. All I can add is, I hope this is a lesson we'll all share for the rest of our lives. If we're smart, we won't dare forget it."
The effect on the students was staggering. All around the auditorium they were slowly rising from their seats. A few were in tears, others tried to avoid the eyes of those next to them. All looked stunned by the lesson they had learned. As they left they discarded their posters and banners. The floor quickly became littered with yellow membership cards and all thoughts of military posture were forgotten as they slunk out of the auditorium.
Laurie and David walked slowly down the aisle, passing the sombre students filing out of the room. Amy was coming towards them, her head bowed. When she looked up and saw Laurie she burst into tears and ran to hug her friend.
Behind her, David saw Eric and Brian. Both looked shaken. They stopped when they saw David and for a few moments the three team-mates stood in an awkward silence.
"What a freak-out," Eric said, his voice hardly more than a mumble.
David tried to shrug it off. He felt bad for his friends. "Well, it's over now," he told them. "Let's try and forget it ... I mean, let's try not to forget it... but let's forget it at the same time."
Eric and Brian nodded. They understood what he meant even if he hadn't exactly made sense.
Brian made a rueful face. "I should've known it," he said. "The first time that Clarkstown linebacker broke through and sacked me for a fifteen-yard loss last Saturday. I should've known it was no good."
The three team-mates shared a short chuckle and then Eric and Brian left the auditorium. David walked down towards the stage where Mr Ross stood. His teacher looked very tired.
"I'm sorry I didn't trust you, Mr Ross," David said.
"No, it was good that you didn't," Ross told him. "You showed good judgement. I should be apologizing to you, David. I should have told you what I was planning to do."
Laurie joined them. "Mr Ross, what's going to happen now?" she asked.
Ben shrugged and shook his head. "I'm not sure I know, Laurie. We still have quite a bit of history to cover this semester. But maybe we'll take just one more period to discuss what happened today."
"I think we should," David said.
"You know, Mr Ross," Laurie said. "In a way I'm glad this happened. I mean, I'm sorry it had to come to this, but I'm glad it worked out, and I think everyone learned a lot."
Ben nodded. "Well, that's nice of you, Laurie. But I've already decided this is one lesson I'm going to skip in next year's course."
David and Laurie looked at each other and smiled. They said good-bye to Mr Ross and turned to leave the auditorium.
Ben watched Laurie and David and the last of the former members of The Wave leave the auditorium. When they were gone and he thought he was alone, he sighed and said, "Thank God." He was relieved that it had ended well, and thankful that he still had his job at Gordon High. There would still be a few angry parents and incensed faculty members to smooth over, but in time he knew he could do it.
He turned and was about to leave the stage when he heard a sob and saw Robert leaning against one of the television sets, tears running down his face.
Poor Robert, Ben thought. The only one who really stood to lose in this whole thing. He walked towards the trembling student and put his arm around his shoulder. "You know, Robert," he said, trying to cheer him up, "you look good in a tie and jacket. You ought to wear them more often."
Through his tears, Robert managed a smile. "Thanks, Mr Ross."
"What do you say we go out for a bite to eat?" Ben said, leading him off the stage. "There are some things I think we should talk about."