by Kai Holloway
Must be nice. Some of us have to actually do the work.
But now Logan had his hand up, too, so maybe she was wrong about him.
Or maybe he just watched the movie.
He glanced over at Rae and gave her a smile which made her realize she’d been staring right at him. Hot blood rushed to her cheeks. She looked away a bit too quickly, and let the hair fall over her face to hide her annoyance.
“Wrong answer,”the teacher said, frowning at some of the kids who didn’t raise their hands.“You all had a chance to finish it. Looks like only a few of you did.”She sat down at her desk.“Okay, who wants to tell me what the book is about?”
Everyone put their hands back down.
“Jenny?”
“Erm, I was…sick.”She punctuated her excuse with a cough.
“I tend to get morereading done when I’m sick. All that time in bed. How far did you get?”
“Not very far. Sorry.”
“Gabriel, did you finish it?”
“Most of it.”Gabriel was a short kid with acne and glasses. A slow reader but he liked monsters, and Rae had heard him yesterday in the hall talking about one of the movies, the one with Kenneth Brannagh, which he didn’t think was any good, but was supposed to be more like the book than the black and white movies.
“Dr. Frankenstein is the crazy guy who builds a monster and brings him to life, and then the monster terrorizes and kills people.”
“Okay, good. Who is the hero?”
“I guess the doctor. Victor Frankenstein.”
“And who is the antagonist?”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“We talked about it last week. Protagonist and antagonist.”
“I was out,”Gabriel said.
The teacher checked her roll sheet.“Right.”
Mrs D locked eyes with Rae. Time seemed to freeze, and she felt her heart skip. She hated being the centre of attention.“Rae, do you remember what an antagonist is?”
Okay, I know that one.
Her heart started working again.“The bad guy,”she said.
“Yes. The protagonist is the good guy, and the antagonist is the bad guy. Usually. So who do you think is the antagonist is this story?”
The teacher was still talking to Rae, so she answered, with more confidence this time.“The monster.”
“Is the monster a bad guy?”
Rae felt nervous again. But she thought she was right, so she continued.“Well, he kills people.”
“Why does he kill people?”
“Well…”she started, but before she could find the words, Logan jumped in.
“Because he doesn’t know his own strength.”
That’s not why, Rae thought annoyed. The creature was angry.
He continued.“I don’t think the monster’s a bad guy. I mean, he was made that way, built that way. If he’s a bad guy, you can’t really blame him, you have to blame the doctor. The doctor created him. If the monster is evil, then it came from the doctor.”
“Go on…”the teacher urged.
“The monster is basically a child, but in a grown man’s body.”
Mrs D stood and began to walk around the room.“Let’s talk about this idea of a monster. What is a monster?”
Logan went on.“He’s got pieces of dead people. He’s a corpse but now he’s alive.”
“I mean in general,”the teacher clarified.“Not this monster, necessarily but the idea of a monster. That’s what Mary Shelley is trying to get at, isn’t it? The central question, the theme. What is a monster?”
“The monster is life after death,”Logan said, with a cocky smile, like he owned the room.“He’s like a walking version of hell. Like a punishment or something. It’s unnatural to die and be brought back to life.”
The teacher nodded.
Wow, she’s falling for it.Rae couldn’t believe it. All Logan Suttor had to do was smile at the teacher, and get an easy A.
“So the monster is anything that’s unnatural?”Mrs D asked.
“Yeah basically. I mean, if you believe nature is good, then going against nature is bad. The doctor goes against nature. He brings the dead back to life, but that’s not natural, and it’s not good. So he’s punished for it, like sinning against the laws of nature or something.”
“Is a car natural?”
“No, not really. It’s artificial.”
“Is a car evil?”
Logan laughed.“Hell, no. Cars are cool!”
“But they also kill people.”
“Drivers kill people.”
“Well then are cars good or evil?”
Logan shrugged his broad shoulders.“Neither. They’re just a thing, a tool. It’s what you do with it that matters. Shelley, the author, is emphasizing death. The creature looks dead, like in a horror movie. You see this dude walking down the street, you know he’s a monster. He can’t hide it. He’s a creature of death, and death is evil, and he’s a walking evil dude of death.”
“Dude of death!”someone echoed.
It was Caleb, one of Logan’s best buds. Caleb always agreed with Logan, but never had any ideas of his own.
“Okay,”Mrs D said, keeping the conversation on track.“So the monster is evil. He’s the creature, and he’s the antagonist. And the author is telling us that this is what evil is. So what does she mean? Mary Shelley, what is she trying to say here?”
“The creature is a metaphor,”Rae said boredly.
“Yes, but for what?”
“For evil?”another student suggested.
“But it’s not that simple is it? Let’s dig a little deeper. This book was written two hundred years ago, and people are still reading it today. Why?”
“Cause it’s an assignment?”Caleb blurted out.
Logan turned around and gave him a high five.
Oh, brother.
“Why else?”the teacher asked.
“Because of the movies probably,”Jenny ventured.
“So why does Hollywood keep making Frankenstein movies, or why do schools keep putting this book on their list. Because it’s the best book ever written?”
“No!”came a chorus of voices. The class was really getting into it now.
The teacher smiled.“Okay, maybe not the best book ever. The style is a little dated, I’ll give you that. But there’s something to the ideas in the story. Something else to the monster, something that troubles us and compels us and makes us think about this question of evil. The author is playing with the idea of evil, and I think she has her own ideas about it. What are those ideas?”
“Well…”Rae started, but then hesitated.
“Yes?”the teacher encouraged.
“I don’t know.”She had an idea swimming in her thoughts, but she couldn’t quite put it into words.“There’s a kind of connection.”
“What do you mean?”
“Between Victor Frankenstein and the creature. I think they’re, like two sides of the same coin. Or like mirror images, but dark and light.”
“Excellent, yes. Go on.”
“Well, that’s it really,”Rae said.“Victor Frankenstein has all these dark things about him. He’s separated from society, he’s vengeful, alienated, all these things. But he’s sort of repressed, isn’t he? And then he creates this creature who acts out all these dark impulses. Who scares people and kills people. And the creature isn’t exactly stupid. He’s pretty smart, not dumb like in the old movies, but he has a real mind of his own, and a curiosity about the world, and he knows how to read and study, and he’s also passionate, but he’s too strong and he doesn’t fit in anywhere and people are afraid of him, and he ends up giving into his passions, unlike the doctor who is maybe colder, you know, and more repressed.”
“It’s death. That’s the whole point.”It was Logan speaking up again.“The doctor is alive, and the creature is dead.”
He keeps interrupting me.Now Rae was losing her train of thought. She was trying to get to something, trying to th
ink it through out loud, and now she was losing the thread. She countered his argument:“But the creature isn’t dead. He’s more alive than the doctor, almost. He acts out. He rages, he wonders about things.”
“He’s a serial killer,”Logan pointed out.“He’s death.”
The teacher said in a mediating tone,“It’s kind of a similar point, though. The monster acts out the doctor’s passions, and it ends in death. What does that say about the society the doctor lives in?”
“It’s totally repressed,”Rae said.“And that’s the danger. Society has to keep these passions contained or—”
“Hey it’s not a romance novel,”Logan joked and the boys all laughed.
Rae felt her cheeks redden.“That’s not what I meant by passion. I meant anger and fear. Emotion. Something you clearly don’t know anything about.”
The teacher stepped in.“Okay easy now. Let’s not get personal here.”
“Looks who’s getting all emotional,”Logan said.
Ugh…I could wring his neck…
“Logan, that goes for you too,”the teacher said.“This is a civil discussion. But I think the point is well made on both sides. The Gregorian era, the society of that time was starting to become more controlling, more regulated, more industrialized. It was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain remember, and science and technology are starting to break down the old structure. Society changes slowly and how are people reacting emotionally when there’s no release from these new pressures? And so the doctor creates a creature that is the id, the seat of the primal human emotions, as Freud might say a generation or two later, and the creature, this primal force, wreaks havoc with society, burns down buildings and kills people.”
“So the monster is man.”Rae finished. This was what she’d been trying to put her finger on.“Only man can create monsters. That’s Mary Shelley’s theme.”
“Nope. It’s death.”
Rae glared at Logan and continued addressing the teacher. “In "Frankenstein," the monster is a menace to most people, except for a little girl. She doesn't see a monster. She sees a friend.
“Death is nobody's friend. Your grim reaper attitude represents everything that's wrong with the world.”
“Logan, don't make this personal,”the teacher warned again.
This time Rae addressed Logan.“You're in denial. Being aware of our mortality is not a bad thing.”
Mrs Doucette glanced up at the clock.“Okay, I think we’ll have to leave it there for now. But what a great discussion. Thanks everyone, you all made excellent points. Now I want you to go home tonight and finish the book if you haven’t, and think about it if you have. You have a paper due tomorrow, and a test first thing, which reminds me by the way—”
The bell rang.
Everyone started to rise, and collect their belongings.
“Wait, hold on,”the teacher continued.“We have a birthday girl today. Rae, happy birthday, sweet sixteen. Are you excited about your cryptograph?”
“Not particularly as I’m not doing it,”Rae murmured glumly on her way out the door. And then she was out in the hallway, in the mad rush of kids going up and down, some pausing for conversations, other hanging at their lockers and generally causing a traffic jam.
“Rae–wait.”
She felt a tug at her arm then turned and saw Jenny. The two of them stepped aside out of the flow of student traffic and leaned against the row of lockers.
“What did you mean?”her friend asked.
“It was a stupid argument.”
“No, about the cryptograph.”
“I’m not doing it.”
A look of shock washed over Jenny’s face.“Are you serious? I thought you were just thinking about that. I didn’t think you were serious.”
“I was. And I decided.”
“When?”
“Last night. I’m not taking the test. Not today, anyway.”
“It’s really not a big deal,”Jenny said.“I took it, everyone does.”
“Just because everyone else does, doesn’t mean I have to,”Rae groaned, irritated.“I don’t want to know. Why would I? What’s the point? Maybe I die tomorrow. Maybe I die in a hundred years. Either way, I’d rather just go on like every day mattered.”
“Well at least I know I’m going to live to sixty-four. And every day does matter.”
“That’s what I mean,”Rae said.“I don’t want to schedule my death on some calendar. I don’t want to be waiting for it, planning for it. I don’t even want to think about it.”
“But you have to.”
Rae started walking again.“We’re going to be late.”
Jenny didn’t say anything for a while. And then she spoke again.“It’s like Logan was saying in class, about death -”
“Don’t even go there, Jenny. Logan was just being a jerk.”
“Rae yo! Wait up.”
Speak of the devil…
“Oh man,”Rae muttered exasperated.“Just keep walking.”
“Wait—”
Logan caught up with them and kept pace.“I like what you said about the mirror, and the alter ego. Dark and light. You were onto something there.”
Rae stopped, turned to him, and crossed her arms.“You’re admitting you were wrong?”
He flashed his famous jock smile.“No, I think maybe we were both right. Why don’t we talk about it some more? We have that paper due tomorrow and thought maybe we could catch up after class or something, and put our heads together.”
“Put our heads together?”She couldn’t help but imagine Logan’s head literally next to hers, him staring into her eyes, his face leaning towards hers. She blushed and the heat of it made her embarrassed, then angry.“I don’t have time.”
“Oh right, you’ve gotta take the cryptograph today.”
“No.”
“You’re not taking it?”
“Not until I have to.”
“But you’re sixteen.”
“Stop telling me I’m sixteen. I know how old I am. Jeez. Everyone keeps saying it like I don’t know, but it’s all I’ve been thinking about for like a year now, and now it’s here, today, and I don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it, except I’m not taking the stupid test, and I’m not hanging out with you after, and we’re not banging heads.”
She stormed off, leaving Logan in her wake.
Jenny was laughing when she caught up with her.“That was amazing. You’re not banging heads. Wow! Nice one. Believe me, if there’s any guy I’d like to bang heads—or any other body parts—with, it’s Logan Suttor.”
“Oh, just stop it.”
“He likes you, Rae. You should go bang with him. Heads, I mean. It might do you some good.”
“As if Logan Suttor ever did any girl any good.”
“Well, if you don’t want him…”Jenny replied with a knowing smile.
Rae rolled her eyes.“You can have him.”
Chapter 3
Rae avoided her friends at lunch. Normally she sat with Jenny and the girls at one of the tables outside the cafeteria, near the door with a view of the football field, where some of the boys would spend the lunch hour tossing the ball around.
Jenny liked watching the football players, and Rae didn’t mind. Chloe was going out with Spencer, the kicker for the team and she knew all the jocks, and would let the girls in on gossip about the team. She wasn’t the most reliable source, but she was full of stories about wild parties and crazy away-game adventures. The girls like to gather and listen as Chloe held court and they all watched the footballers from a safe distance.
Not today.
Today Rae wanted to be alone. Birthdays were supposed to be a happy time, but today wasn’t turning out so well, what with the morning drama with her parents, the argument in English class, and then Logan Suttor practically stalking her.
What was that about? Probably just wanted to use her to get his homework done.
Typical jock.
Wasn’t that
what Logan always did, charm other people into making things easy for him. Whatever he wanted, Rae wasn’t going to make it easy. She wasn’t going to fall for the campus golden boy just because he smiled at her. Logan smiled at all the girls, and any one of them would be happy to write his English paper, just for a little extra attention from a hot boy and the bragging rights that went with it. Logan was hot all right, tall and cute and chiseled as a roman statue, but looks weren’t everything.
Rae didn’t have anything against jocks, necessarily, but she didn’t like being used or conned or charmed into cheating some boy into an A he didn’t deserve.
She didn’t want to be pressured into anything, either. If the rumors were true, at least half the guys on the football team were already sleeping around. Chloe said Brandon, the running back, had gotten a girl at Crosstown pregnant and she wasn’t even sixteen. Supposedly her parents had paid for an abortion and hushed it all up. But you could never really hush up a secret like that. Rae didn’t know the girl and the story might not even be true, but Chloe sure believed it and didn’t mind spreading the news around, so long as it was kept a secret.
Yeah, right.
Rae didn’t want anyone spreading any so-called secrets about her; that was for sure. And she didn't want to hang with the girls today. She didn't want to talk about her birthday, the cryptograph, or Logan, or any of it.
She didn't even go into the cafeteria, but got some chips and a soda from the vending machine in the gym, and then made her way up the hill behind the school to sit in the grass by one of the trees.
She ate and thought and threw some chips at the squirrels. They seemed to appreciate it, and soon she had a dozen squirrels inching close, nervous but hungry. Rae could hear the other school kids talking and laughing and arguing and playing in the grass. She looked back down the hill and saw her normal lunch table. Jenny was there and Samantha, and they were chatting. Holding a tray, Chloe went to the table to join them. They were looking around.
Wondering where I am. Well, let them wonder.