The Wave

Christy nodded and looked at her watch. It was late and she was tired. She leaned over her husband and kissed him on the forehead. The skin was damp with perspir­ation. "You coming to bed?"

"Soon," he said.

After Christy went into the bedroom, Ben went over his plan again in his mind. It seemed sound and he stood up, determined to get some sleep. He was just shutting off the lights when the doorbell rang. Rubbing his eyes with weariness, Ross trudged to the front door.

"Who is it?"

"It's David Collins and Laurie Saunders, Mr Ross."

Surprised, Ben pulled the door open. "What are you doing here?" he asked. "It's late."

"Mr Ross, we've got to talk to you," David said. "It's really important."

"Well, come in and sit down," Ben said.

As David and Laurie entered the living room, Ben could see that both of them were shaken up. Had some­thing even worse happened because of The Wave? God forbid. The two students sat down on the couch. David leaned forward.

"Mr Ross, you've got to help us," he said, his voice filled with agitation.

"What is it?" Ben asked. "What's wrong?"

"It's The Wave," David said.

"Mr Ross," said Laurie, "we know how important this is to you — but it's just gone too far."

Before Ross could even respond, David added, "It's taken over, Mr Ross. You can't say anything against it. People are afraid to."

"The kids at school are scared," Laurie told him. "They're really scared. Not only to say anything against The Wave, but of what might happen to them if they don't go along with it."

Ben nodded. In a way, what these students were telling him relieved him of part of his concern about The Wave. If he did as Christy told him and thought back to the original goals of the experiment, then the fears Laurie and David spoke of confirmed that The Wave was a success. After all, The Wave had originally been conceived as a way to show these kids what life in Nazi Germany might have been like. Apparently, in terms of fear and forced compliance, it had been an overwhelming success — too much of a success.

"You can't even have a conversation without wondering who's listening," Laurie told him.

Ben could only nod again. He recalled those students in his own history classes who had condemned the Jews for not taking the Nazi threat seriously, for not fleeing their homes and ghettos when rumours of the concentra­tion camps and gas chambers first filtered back to them. Of course, Ross thought, how could any rational person believe such a thing? And who could have believed that a nice bunch of high school students like those at Gordon High could have become a fascist group called The Wave? Was it a weakness of man that made him want to ignore the darker side of his fellow human beings?

David yanked him from his thoughts. "Tonight I almost hurt Laurie because of The Wave," he said. "I don't know what came over me. But I do know that it's the same thing that's come over almost everyone who's in The Wave."

"You've got to stop it," Laurie urged him.

"I know," Ben said. "I will."

"What are you going to do, Mr Ross?" David asked.

Ben knew he could not reveal his plan to Laurie and David. It was essential that the members of The Wave decide the matter for themselves, and for the experiment to be a true success, Ben could only present them with the evidence. If David or Laurie went to school the next day and told the students that Mr Ross planned to end The Wave, the students would be biased. They might end it without really understanding why it had to end. Or worse, they might try and fight him, keeping The Wave alive despite its obvious destiny.

"David, Laurie," he said, "you have discovered for your­selves what the other members of The Wave have not yet learned. I promise you that tomorrow I will try to help them towards that discovery. But I have to do it my way, and I can only ask that you trust me. Can you do that?"

David and Laurie nodded uncertainly as Ben rose and showed them to the door. "Come on, it's too late for you kids to be out," he told them. As they went through the door, however, Ben had another thought. "Listen, do either of you know two students who have never been involved in The Wave? Two students who Wave members don't know and wouldn't miss?"

David considered for a moment. Amazing as it might be, almost everyone he knew in school had become a member of The Wave. But Laurie thought of two people. "Alex Cooper and Carl Block," she said. "They're on The Grapevine staff."

"Okay," Ben told them. "Now, I want both of you to go back to class tomorrow and act as if everything is fine. Pretend we haven't talked, and don't tell anyone that you were here tonight or that you spoke to me. Can you do that?"

David nodded, but Laurie looked concerned. "I don't know, Mr Ross."

But Ben cut her short. "Laurie, it is extremely important that we do it this way. You must trust me. Okay?"

Reluctantly Laurie agreed. Ben bade them good-bye, and she and David stepped into the dark.

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