Echoes of the Past

Chapter 4: New School

This principle of socializing with one's own people was not only true for the non-American students, for there were also some English-speaking children among the disparate groups, whose speech, however, also differed — at times it was British, at time — American, and sometimes even the local Toronto dialect, but none of them even looked in the direction of Lincoln and Lucy, walking alone down the school corridor.

«Truly, that was the school of triumphant individualism!» — Lincoln came to that very thought as he grew up and rethought the whole situation. At that time he was confused and did not understand what was the reason for their behavior. Could it be that they had been so engrossed in their conversations that they had not noticed them? It was not clear to him. There were some guys who were walking alone, like he and Lucy, and they were eager to make contact. Lincoln asked them what was going on at the school, what interesting things were going on at the school, what clubs were available, and so on and so forth. Lucy stood off to the side, silently drawing her own conclusions from what she had seen.

Lincoln looked at the time and called Lucy over:

— Come on, Luce, we're gonna be late.

When they entered the classroom, the teacher greeted them and introduced them to the class, then assigned them a seat at a desk in the third row. Many people looked at them curiously, but they silently sat down at their desks, took out their textbooks, notebooks, and other supplies, and then the lesson began.

Mr. Friedman, a slender middle-aged man, delivered his lessons to the children quite clearly and with great interest, making it so that kids could fully enjoy listening to his explanations. Lincoln was so interested in listening to him that he was inspired by him and for a while even considered becoming a geographer-archaeologist. Of course, after encountering the first difficulties and realizing that it was not his thing, he abandoned the idea. And yet, some curious facts that Mr. Friedman told in class, were well remembered by many of his students and were not forgotten even after many years.

The thing was his charisma, enthusiasm, with which he approached the subject he taught, he was fully invested in each of his lessons, constantly showing something, drawing on the blackboard and sometimes conducting a small blitz asking children questions to consolidate the material already studied. He really loved children, never shouted at them and never punished them, which attracted their attention to himself, and especially to his subject.

He also attracted the attention of his detractors. Mostly among those students who systematically skipped class, or who studied well but were very toxic to their peers. There was some very bad gossip about him among some particularly bad kids. There was talk that he was «crazy» and was taking psychotropic drugs (Lincoln learned the meaning of these words later from Lisa, who knew more than anyone else about such terminology) and really hated such children to the core, but couldn't quit his job because school was the only place he could go with his education. They even talked of things that shouldn't even be mentioned here at all.

Either way, when Lincoln came to Geography class, he knew that the next forty minutes would brighten his day. Nowhere else than in Geography did he receive knowledge in such an interesting way. Usually, during the lessons, Mr. Friedman shared not only his subject knowledge, but also his personal practical experience, which he had gained working as an archaeologist in various parts of the world. He often told kids his stories both during and after classes.

The memory of his first day at Toronto High School was abruptly replaced by the transition to high school, a period that was marked by even greater anxiety, boredom with home and old friends, conflicts and digestion of unpleasant thoughts that overwhelmed him. It lasted an agonizingly long time, but when it was over, and Lincoln looked back, the distance seemed to him as nothing, as if it had been only a day or a part of a day.

But what surprised him the most was the change in the way he looked at things. He no longer had negative feelings, no hatred, but rather quite the opposite — he treated everything that had happened to him in the past with philosophical calmness, and sometimes even with laughter.

Next in his dream, Lincoln saw the prom, his parents, his younger and older sisters attending this prom (including Lori, who had traveled from Mexico with Bobby for the occasion). He remembered spending that day all alone, shutting himself in his room when he got home right after the event, and with it all his school studies, were over. But he hadn't asked anyone to dance. However, he did not regret it and did not worry about it, realizing that they were not worth it. And in general, he was not as lonely as he imagined, because behind him were still his sisters and parents, who always supported him in his life.

Then, other events of his life began to appear before Lincoln, passing one after another. A memory was replaced by a memory, the episodes, regardless of how old they were, whether it was one day or five years ago, appeared suddenly, and just as quickly disappeared, and all this «brain digestion» continued until his consciousness was completely dark.

Finally, he woke up. When he yawned deeply upon awakening, stretched on the floor, and only then opened his eyes, the first thing he saw, or rather who he saw, was Ronnie-Anne standing over him, staring at his face.