Part 13 (2/2)

Nina laughed. ”Corners of the earth,” she said. ”What kind of talk is that for a scientist? I bet it's out of the Bible.”

She would take a chance, once in a while, to tease him on this subject. But she had to be careful not to go too far. She had to watch out for the point at which he might sense the deadly threat, the dishonoring insult.

Now and then she found a pamphlet in the mail. She didn't read them through, and for a while she thought that everybody must be getting this sort of thing, along with the junk mail offering tropical holidays and other gaudy windfalls. Then she found out that Lewis was getting the same material at school- ”creationist propaganda” as he called it-left on his desk or stuffed into his pigeonhole in the office.

”The kids have access to my desk, but who the h.e.l.l is stuffing my mailbox in here?” he had said to the Princ.i.p.al.

The Princ.i.p.al had said that he couldn't figure it out, he was getting it too. Lewis mentioned the name of a couple of teachers on the staff, a couple of crypto-Christians as he called them, and - 130*

the Princ.i.p.al said it wasn't worth getting your s.h.i.+rt in a knot about, you could always throw the stuff away.

There were questions in cla.s.s. Of course, there always had been. You could count on it, Lewis said. Some little sickly saint of a girl or a smart-a.r.s.e of either s.e.x trying to throw a monkey wrench into evolution. Lewis had his tried-and-true ways of dealing with this. He told the disrupters that if they wanted the religious interpretation of the world's history there was the Christian Separate School in the next town, which they were welcome to attend. Questions becoming more frequent, he added that there were buses to take them there, and they could collect their books and depart this day and hour if they had a mind to.

”And a fair wind to your-” he said. Later there was controversy-about whether he actually said the word ”a.r.s.e” or let it hang unspoken in the air. But even if he had not actually said it he had surely given offense, because everybody knew how the phrase could be completed.

The students were taking a new tack these days.

”It's not that we necessarily want the religious view, sir. It's just that we wonder why you don't give it equal time.”

Lewis let himself be drawn into argument.

”It's because I am here to teach you science, not religion.”

That was what he said he had said. There were those who reported him as saying, ”Because I am not here to teach you c.r.a.p.” And indeed, indeed, said Lewis, after the fourth or fifth interruption, the posing of the question in whatever slightly different way (”Do you think it hurts us to hear the other side of the story? If we get taught atheism, isn't that sort of like teaching us some kind of religion?”), the word might have escaped his lips, and under such provocation he did not apologize for it.

”I happen to be the boss in this cla.s.sroom and I decide what will be taught.”

”I thought G.o.d was the boss, sir.”

- 131*

There were expulsions from the room. Parents arrived to speak to the Princ.i.p.al. Or they may have intended to speak to Lewis, but the Princ.i.p.al made sure that did not happen. Lewis heard about these interviews only later, from remarks pa.s.sed, more or less jokingly, in the staff room.

”You don't need to get worried about it,” said the Princ.i.p.al- his name was Paul Gibbings, and he was a few years younger than Lewis. ”They just need to feel they're being listened to.

Need a bit of jollying along.”

”I'd have jollied them,” Lewis said.

”Yeah. That's not quite the jollying I had in mind.”

”There should be a sign. No dogs or parents on the premises.”

”Something to that,” said Paul Gibbings, sighing amiably.

”But I suppose they've got their rights.”

Letters started to appear in the local paper. One every couple of weeks, signed ”Concerned Parent” or ”Christian Taxpayer”

or ”Where Do We Go From Here?” They were well written, neatly paragraphed, competently argued, as if they might all have come from one delegated hand. They made the point that not all parents could afford the fees for the private Christian school, and yet all parents paid taxes. Therefore they deserved to have their children educated in the public schools in a way that was not offensive to, or deliberately destructive of, their faith. In scientific language, some explained how the record had been misunderstood and how discoveries that seemed to support evolution actually confirmed the Biblical account. Then came citing of Bible texts that predicted this present-day false teaching and its leading the way to the abandonment of all decent rules of life.

In time the tone changed; it grew wrathful. Agents of the Antichrist in charge of the government and the cla.s.sroom. The claws of Satan stretched out towards the souls of children, who were actually forced to reiterate, on their examinations, the doctrines of d.a.m.nation.

- 132*

”What is the difference between Satan and the Antichrist, or is there one?” said Nina. ”The Quakers were very remiss about all that.”

Lewis said that he could do without her treating all this as a joke.

”Sorry,” she said soberly. ”Who do you think is really writing them? Some minister?”

He said no, it would be better organized than that. A masterminded campaign, some central office, supplying letters to be sent from local addresses. He doubted if any of it had started here, in his cla.s.sroom. It was all planned, schools were targeted, probably in areas where there was some good hope of public sympathy.

”So? It's not personal?”

”That's not a consolation.”

”Isn't it? I'd think it would be.”

Someone wrote ”h.e.l.lfire” on Lewis's car. It wasn't done with spray paint-just a finger-tracing in the dust.

His senior cla.s.s began to be boycotted by a minority of students, who sat on the floor outside, armed with notes from their parents. When Lewis began to teach, they began to sing.

All things bright and beautiful All creatures great and small All things wise and wonderful The Lord G.o.d made them all- The princ.i.p.al invoked a rule about not sitting on the hall floor, but he did not order them back into the cla.s.sroom. They had to go to a storage room off the gym, where they continued their singing-they had other hymns ready as well. Their voices mingled disconcertingly with the hoa.r.s.e instructions of the gym teacher and the thump of feet on the gym floor.

- 133*

On a Monday morning a pet.i.tion appeared on the Princ.i.p.al's desk and at the same time a copy of it was delivered to the town newspaper office. Signatures had been collected not just from the parents of the children involved but from various church congregations around the town. Most were from fundamentalist churches, but there were some from the United and Anglican and Presbyterian churches as well.

There was no mention of h.e.l.lfire in the pet.i.tion. None whatever of Satan or the Antichrist. All that was requested was to have the Biblical version of creation given equal time, considered respectfully as an option.

”We the undersigned believe that G.o.d has been left out of the picture too long.”

”That's nonsense,” Lewis said. ”They don't believe in equal time-they don't believe in options. Absolutists is what they are.

Fascists.”

Paul Gibbings had come round to Lewis and Nina's house. He didn't want to discuss the matter where spies might be listening.

(One of the secretaries was a member of the Bible Chapel.) He hadn't much expectation of getting around Lewis, but he had to give it a try.

”They've got me over the b.l.o.o.d.y barrel,” he said.

”Fire me,” said Lewis. ”Hire some stupid b.u.g.g.e.r of a creationist.

The son of a b.i.t.c.h is enjoying this, Paul thought. But he controlled himself. What he seemed mostly to do these days was control himself.

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