The Wave

Brad blushed. "Look, Laurie," he said in a low voice. "Just do the stupid salute now."

But Laurie was adamant. "No, this is ridiculous. Even you know it's ridiculous."

Brad squirmed slightly. Then he looked around again and said, "Okay, don't salute, just go ahead. I don't think anyone's looking."

But all at once Laurie didn't want to join the people in the stands. She had no intention of sneaking anywhere to join The Wave. This whole thing had just gone insane. Even some of The Wave members like Brad knew it was insane. "Brad," she said. "Why are you doing this if you know it's stupid? Why are you a part of it?"

"Look, Laurie, I can't talk about it now," Brad said. "The game's starting, I'm supposed to let people into the stands. I got too much to do."

"Are you afraid?" Laurie asked. "Are you afraid of what the other Wave members will do if you don't go along with them?"

Brad's mouth opened, but for a few seconds no sounds came out. "I'm not afraid of anyone, Laurie," he said finally. "And you'd better shut your mouth. You know, a lot of people noticed you weren't at The Wave rally yesterday."

"So? So what?" Laurie demanded.

"I'm not saying anything, I'm just telling you," Brad said.

Laurie was aghast. She wanted to know what he was trying to say, but there was a big play on the field. Brad turned away, and her words were lost in the roar of the crowd.

Sunday afternoon Laurie and some of the staff of The Grapevine turned the Saunders' living room into a news­room as they put together a special edition of the paper devoted almost entirely to The Wave. Several members of the newspaper were not there, and when Laurie asked those present why, they seemed reluctant to answer at first.Then Carl said, "I have a feeling a few of our comrades would prefer not to incur the wrath of The Wave."

Laurie looked around the room at the other staffers, who were nodding in agreement with Carl's assessment.

"Snivelling, spineless amoebas," Alex shouted, jumping to his feet and raising his fist above his head. "I pledge to fight The Wave until the end. Give me liberty, or give me acne!"

He looked around at the puzzled faces. "Well," he explained, "I figured acne was worse than death."

"Sit down, Alex," someone said.

Alex sat and the group returned to the job of putting together the newspaper. But Laurie could sense that they were all acutely aware of the absent members.

The special edition on The Wave would include the story by the anonymous junior, and a report Carl had done on the sophomore who'd been beaten up.

It turned out that the boy had not been hurt badly, only roughed up by a couple of hoods. There was even some uncertainty over whether it was over The Wave, or whether The Wave was just an excuse the hoods had used to start a fight. However, one of the hoods had called the boy a dirty Jew. The boy's parents told Carl they were keeping him out of school and planned to visit Principal Owens personally Monday morning.

There were other interviews with worried parents and concerned teachers. But the most critical article was an editorial Laurie had spent most of Saturday writing. It condemned The Wave as a dangerous and mindless move­ment that suppressed freedom of speech and thought and ran against everything the country was founded on. She pointed out that The Wave had already begun to do more harm than good (even with The Wave, the Gordon High Gladiators had lost to Clarkstown 42 to 6) and warned that unless it was stopped it would do much worse.

Carl and Alex said they'd take the paper to the printer first thing the next morning. The paper would be out by lunchtime.

14

There was one thing Laurie had to do before the paper came out. Monday morning she had to find Amy and explain to her about the story. She still hoped that as soon as Amy read it, she would see The Wave for what it was and change her mind about it. Laurie wanted to warn her in advance so she could get out of The Wave in case there was trouble.

She found Amy in the school library and gave her a copy of the editorial to read. As Amy read, her mouth began to open wider and wider. Finally she looked up at Laurie. "What are you going to do with it?"

"I'm publishing it in the paper," Laurie said.

"But you can't say these things about The Wave," Amy said.

"Why not?" Laurie asked. "They're true. Amy, The Wave has become an obsession with everyone. No one is thinking for themselves any more."

"Oh, come on, Laurie," Amy said. "You're just upset. You're letting your fight with David get to you."

Laurie shook her head. "Amy, I'm serious. The Wave is hurting people. And everyone's going along with it like a flock of sheep. I can't believe that after reading this you'd still be part of it. Don't you see what The Wave is? It's everybody forgetting who they are. It's like Night of the Living Dead or something. Why do you want to be part of it?"