The Writers’ Block Fall 2009
So Much They Never Knew By Camille Currey Noah was on the steps of St. Christopher’s Lutheran Intermediate. Every day he took one full moment to think of how odd it was that a Lutheran school should be named St. anything, considering that worship of the saints was one of the reasons Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church. Then he took another full moment to think that intermediate was such an odd word, and why couldn’t they just use ‘middle school’ like every other place in the world. Deciding that this was out of his control, he walked through the large oak doors— obviously meant to look older than they feasibly could have been—to his spring semester of sixth grade. So far, middle school wasn’t that bad. At the very least, none of the eighth graders had beaten him up. But he didn’t really have many people that he considered close friends; he’d left them in Minnesota back in July. Noah walked into his first period Literature class. Everything seemed to be in order, but Noah had that feeling. It was that feeling that you get right before something big happens, like saying your line as the squash in the Thanksgiving play, or right before you go down the big hill on a roller coaster; it was that feeling of cautious excitement. As Noah’s eyes landed on a mop of dirty blond hair, he realized why. There was a new boy. So Noah decided to be that kid, the kid that makes the first move. “Hi, I’m Noah. This is Michelle’s seat, there is an open one by me, though,” he said cautiously. “I’m Jack,” said the boy simply. Noah moved to where they would be sitting and Jack, after a moment of sizing Noah up, followed. “So where are you from?” Noah asked politely. “Nevada,” Jack replied throwing back some of the hair that had fallen into his face. “Cool! Like, Las Vegas?” “No.” “Oh.” Both boys fell into silence and kept to themselves as their ancient, nasal-voiced teacher, Mrs. Zilkey, called the class to order and began the morning’s lesson. They were reading something about Saturdays, and it seemed like nobody was paying any attention. Finally after forty-five excruciating minutes, the bell rang. “People, just calm yourselves for a second. Stop packing up; I have papers to pass out to all of you. Now this is about swine flu. This is very serious, people. People, people, please. I need your attention here, swine flu is a very serious disease,” Mrs. Zilkey said hurriedly, spittle in the corners of her mouth. Jack mumbled something Noah didn’t catch. He turned from the decrepit woman to his new friend and asked, “What did you say?” “It’s all a conspiracy between the news channels, the doctors, and the Anti-Catholicism League,” Jack stated as if were something that everyone knew. “What?” Noah asked, stunned.
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