Tony Bannis looked up at the building he hated. But there was a girl inside who had smiled at him, so he stamped out his cigarette and started up the steps.
He was not alone. Most of the teenagers from the milltown neighborhood went to this school. Friends and enemies sort of called a truce and with cold shoulders went into the same classrooms.
The girl who had smiled, sat across the aisle from him in history, his worst subject. He didn't give a damn for any of the classes the counselor had told him he had to take if he ever wanted to graduate. He didn't much go for education but he had sense enough to know that the boys who got out the front door got the best jobs, while the boys who didn't make it got the crumbs, or ended up getting an education while doing time in the hoosegow.
He slept through social studies, some new all-around class that was supposed to introduce students to other ways of thinking about things.
Finally, trying his best not to let Mr. Allen notice, he slipped into History and slumped down in his seat. Mr. Allen never seemed to miss a chance to make fun of him, but the girl, Melissa, was there flipping through her history book as if she liked what she was reading.
He coughed and cleared his throat, but she didn't look across at him. He began to wonder why he hadn't skipped. He kept count, he had three more skip days before he would fail.
Mr. Allen got things going by telling the class that history repeats itself. Tony frowned wondering what he meant when he said that if you didn't study history you were bound to make the same mistakes men had made in the past.
He figured he was pretty dumb, his alcoholic father had told him so, many times. But his drug addicted mother didn't say much of anything to him. He wondered if he didn't study his father and mother he might repeat their lives and become an alcoholic or drug addict.
Tony was daydreaming, looking at the girl across the aisle, when the teacher asked, "Tony, what year did America declare independence from England?"
Tony stiffened and sat up. He looked around. The other kids were looking at him. What the hell, he thought, old man Allen is after me again. Finally he squared his shoulders.
"America has always been America. What has that other country got to do with it?"
The class laughed. Tony smiled. He liked to tell jokes.
"The question was not a joke, Tony," Mr. Allen sneered. "The colonies declared their independence from England in 1776."
Tony shrugged and hoped that was end of it.
On his way to work where he had a job sweeping up in a store after school, he pulled his jacket closed and stuffed his hands in he pockets, wondering why it was so cold, it being sometime in May already. Walking along, he started calculating how much money it would take to date a girl like Melissa. Ten dollars for a movie, then another ten for hamburgers and Coke afterward.
Mr. Barstowe was standing in the store door and announced, "Tony, I got another boy. He quite school and can work all day. Don't need you any more."
"Please, I got this girl I want to date."
"Here's what I owe you. Now run along and don't bother hanging around."
The threat was there. The man didn't want bad feelings hanging around. Tony pocketed fifteen dollars and wandered off down the street, cursing the whole damn world.
A sign on a window advertised minimum wages paid and Tony stopped to read it.
"If I could get a job paying that much, what with I already got fifteen bucks, I'd make enough in a hour to ask her to the movies."
The sign over the door read, "Sampling Systems, Inc."
He watched a woman, wearing a worn coat and worn face, look at the sign in the window. She breathed, "That's for me," and pulling the door open hustled herself inside.
A lady in a white coat like they wear in the emergency room at the hospital where he got a knife cut stitched, stepped to the window and picked up a sign that said four openings available. When she changed it to three, Tony stepped in and asked her what kind of job they got they pay so much money for.
"Just sit at the table and wear a hood. You can play cards, read comic books, talk quietly to others, whatever."
He looked at a long table, with maybe a dozen people sitting along the sides, each wearing a hood on their heads with a black cable going up to the ceiling. Some were shuffling cards, some were chatting with their neighbors, and some were dozing.
"I gotta wear one of them things?"
"The hoods are very comfortable and you'll soon forget your wearing it. Now if you'll sit here," she pulled out a chair for him.
Tony shrugged, if those other people are doing it, it can't be nothing wrong. So he sat down and looked up when she pulled a hood down from the ceiling.
"Just look at the table," she said and fitted it down over his head like a motorcycle helmet.
Tony shrugged. It didn't hurt none. Was kinda nice, warmed his cold ears.
She pulled a little stool up beside him and sat down and put some papers on the table.
With pen in hand, she asked, "Now, what is your name?"
"Tony Bannis."
"You are quite young. Do you go to school?"
"When ever I can't think of something else to do."
"What are your favorite subjects?"
"Are you kidding?"
"Well then, what do you dislike most?"
"That's easy. History. American history."
"Why?"
"It's boring and the teacher is always asking me questions he knows I don't know just to show how smart he is."
"Do you live at home?"
"Where else?"
"What do your parents do for a living?"
"You asking too many questions." Tony stiffened.
"Well, we need your social security number so we can pay you."
Tony pulled out the wallet he had found in a trash can and showed her the little card with his name and the numbers on it.
"Do you know how to play solitaire?"
"Sure, and poker, and...."
"No gambling here, please."
"You mean you're gonna pay me for sitting here just fooling around?"
"There are things to do, books and magazines to read. And you can help yourself to some of those doughnuts. They are low fat and are good for you."
"Okay, thanks."
"Would you prefer tea or decaf coffee?"
"Coffee, I guess."
This ain't so bad, he told himself and shuffled the cards. He noticed the other people were doing things slowly and carefully. He played solitaire and was amazed when two hours had passed.
Tony Bannis walked out with two hours pay and a receipt. She said I did real good and made me promise to come back tomorrow after school. This could be like a regular job. Kinda nuts though.
Next day, in his hated history class Mr. Allen was asking the students questions. Tony was daydreaming, looking at the girl across the aisle, when he heard, "Tony, what year did America declare independence from England?"
"1776," popped out of his mouth.
The girl across the aisle smiled at him.
The teacher looked at him, looked around at the other students, then said, "Tony the history genius. I'm surprised you remembered yesterday's lesson," and went on with questions to other students.
Another two hour session. Then another. Tony was making money and kept going to class to look at the girl across the aisle, wondering how to go about asking her to a movie.
He heard Mr. Allen ask a student, "What was the name of the home of Thomas Jefferson."
The student stammered and finally said, "Mount Vernon."
Tony whispered, "No, It was Monticello."
"What was that smart remark?" The teacher turned on him.
"I think it was Monticello."
"Well, when did you pick up that little gem of wisdom?"
Tony shrugged.
Finally, a dreaded history test.
He had always flunked or got a "D" by guessing. When he saw the girl across the aisle writing on her test paper, he looked at his. The first question was how many states signed the Declaration of Independence -- he wrote 13 and went on to read the next question.
What were the last two states admitted to the Union? That's easy, Hawaii and Alaska.
A stupid question, Who was president when the stock market crashed in 1929? Tony wrote Herbert Hoover.
Then another, and another, until there were no more. He scratched his head when he realized he had answered every question. He closed his paper and looked across the aisle at the girl who was staring at her paper and biting her pencil.
When class was over, he ducked his head and bashfully handed his paper to the teacher and followed the girl out of the room.
"That was a tough test," she said when he caught up and walked along beside her.
"Yeah, maybe." He smiled when she smiled.
"You did a lot of writing for someone doesn't like American History," she prodded.
"It gets kind of interesting now and then," he said and wondered at his own remark, then frowned as if surprised.
"Tony Bannis wrote a perfect paper, answered every question correctly, even spelled things right," Mr. Allen announced in front of the class.
When everyone turned to look a him, Tony slide down in his seat and wished he could hide.
"Now, just how did a dumb kid like you manage to such a high mark?"
"I just wrote down what came to mind."
"Brilliant. But we all know better than that, don't we?" Mr. Allen cast his eyes over the grinning students who were waiting for him to barbecue Tony Bannis.
"Now, Tony, fess up? How did you cheat so remarkably?"
"I didn't cheat, sir. You just asked easy questions."
Ignoring him, teacher said, "I thought you might have copied from Melissa, but the questions she got wrong, you got right."
Tony seethed silently.
"You couldn't have seen the test before class, so you must have used crib sheets, things written on scraps of paper you could copy from."
"No sir. Like I said, you just asked easy questions."
"Okay, if you're so smart, who said a democracy will work fine until people discover they and vote themselves money?"
Tony looked around at his classmates, he looked at the girl across the aisle. He knew the teacher was trying to make him look like a dumb cheater.
But he had to answer and shrugged, "I think it was Benjamin Franklin."
"Well, I'll be damned," teacher said, adding, "Maybe you do know something after all."
The girl across the aisle smiled at him.
But Mr. Allen couldn't take defeat. He pressed on.
"When did the French fleet arrive to help in the war of independence?"
Tony bit his lip, he looked around again. Then, surprised that an answer came to mind, he whispered, "July 1778."
"I'll be damned," Mr. Allen blurted. Then he looked at Tony and said, "Try this one. Cornwallis surrendered to Washington near Williamsburg in Virginia on 19 October 1781. But wasn't Washington in New York?"
"No sir. Washington got down to Williamsburg in August, before Cornwallis got there."
"I don't believe it!" The man was dumbfounded.
Tony shrugged, surprised himself.
"One more question, Mr. Bannis."
Tony winched. Allen had never been polite to him and knew he was in for it now.
"What was the name of the Hessian commander that was killed in the Trenton New Jersey battle?"
"Johann Rall," came out of Tony's open mouth.
The girl smiled at him and the teacher scratched his head, and asked, "Tony what have you been reading?"
"Not reading, it's like I saw it in a movie or someplace."
After class the girl hung around waiting for Tony and he told her he had a job at a crazy place called Sampling Systems. "All I have to do is wear some kinda hood while I play cards."
"Can I go with you? You think I could get a job? I like to play cards."
As they walked together, Tony warned her. "Melissa, the lady will ask you what you don't like about school."
"That's easy. I hate my French class."
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