The Day They Came to Arrest the Book Read Free Page B

I’ve probably said too much already. But I did not want you to think that Karen was a wimp. She came through in the end. She came through beautifully.”
    Deirdre Fitzgerald put her fingers together and pressed hard. “And now … it’s my turn, I suppose.”

IV
    “Gordon’s pretty mad,” Barney said as he, Luke, and Kate walked down the front steps that afternoon after their last class. “But he’s missing the point. That’s the way people talked then. Mark Twain is just showing the way it was.”
    “We all know the way it was,” Kate said sharply. “That doesn’t mean Gordon and the other black kids have to have ‘nigger’ shoved in their faces on every page.”
    “Some people are too damn sensitive,” Luke said. “Nobody’s calling
them
that. The book was written a long time ago.”
    “Just like a dumb Swede.” Kate looked at him.
    “Now that’s different.” Luke smiled. “You’re making it personal. But I don’t mind, honey.”
    “You watch that!” Kate glared at him and then suddenly smiled. “Okay, you’re entitled. But I’ll tell youguys something else. That’s not all that’s poisonous about
Huckleberry Finn
. I read the whole thing last night. All the women in it are yo-yos. You’ll see. No, maybe you won’t. In fact, I’m sure you won’t. This book is just going to reinforce your ignorance about women.”
    Striding past them, Mr. Moore waved heartily.
    “And don’t you tell me”—Kate pointed to Barney as he waved back at the principal—“that’s the way it was then. There were plenty of women in the nineteenth century who were strong and brilliant and talked back to stupid men. And who weren’t always going around saying ‘nigger,’ like the women in that book.”
    “Are you saying,” Barney said softly, “that we ought to take all the copies of
Huckleberry Finn
and make a bonfire out of them?”
    “Crude. Sometimes you are very crude,” Kate said. “What I am saying is that Mrs. Baines could have picked a book that isn’t so offensive, that isn’t so—so crude.”
    “Honey,” Luke said, “you just did a great selling job. Now I can’t wait to read that book. Nothing I like better than something that’s real offensive. Keeps me awake.”
    “Do you find it’s really worth all that effort?” Kate started to walk away. “Staying awake, I mean.”
    “Do you know what’s the matter with her?” Luke said to Barney as they walked in the opposite direction. “She takes everything so damn seriously. She never has any fun.”
    “That’s
her fun,” Barney said. “Sticking pins in people. And sometimes she has a good sharp point. But not this time. Still, I like her. She keeps
me
awake.”
    “Because she’s so offensive?” Luke grinned.
    “I wouldn’t put it that way.” Barney, turning around, watched Kate crossing the campus. “I wouldn’t put it that way at all.”
       One wall of the principal’s office was covered with framed photographs—all of them with himself, smiling, standing next to a visiting dignitary. There were at least half a dozen shots of Mr. Moore with the mayor of the town—a small, glowing man who had first been elected to that office before the students at George Mason High were born. Several governors were on the wall, along with judges who had also spoken at school assemblies. And there were a number of authors. You could tell they were authors because they were always giving Mr. Moore a book. Sometimes the book was upside down, but neither the principal nor the author seemed to mind.
    There was even a Hollywood star on that wall. John Wayne. Years ago he had been making a movie in the town, and Mr. Moore had asked him to come talk to the students. Nobody seemed to remember much of what he had said, but everybody was very proud and pleased that Mr. Wayne had actually been inside George Mason High. Almost everybody. In the back of the hall, a few students—this was during the Vietnam War—had been carrying signs