same speeches, and he is missing men in orange hats standing around the edge of the crowd with walkie-talkies, and he is missing other men, these in suits, walking quickly from group to group and talking and nodding and pointing at the men in orange hats and talking.
âCan I have a Coke? Lee says.
âNo, the machines are all empty. The bad guys did it on purpose to try and weaken us with dehydration.
Lee is crying.
âWhat the hellâs the matter?
âIâm tired.
âChrist Almighty.
Lee knows he is disappointed in him, even disgusted, but he must sleep, his face burns with exhaustion. Gets up, walks out past allthe energetic men in orange hats and frazzled, confused men in suits, carrying all his stickers and pins he has collectedâhis favorite sticker bears an image of a skeleton clutching a wood-and-iron rifle and the words You can have my gun... when you pry it from my cold dead hands. It is proud and manly and heroic. He passes the pool. There are no kids playing in it now, it is dark and empty and the water is still and the door to it is locked. Goes to the penthouse, there are two suites; he and his father have both, each his own. Lee falls instantly, embryonically asleep, shoes still on.
His father is nudging his back. âLee, Lee. Wake up. Ice clinks in his fatherâs glass. Now it is he who is weeping. âWake up, Lee. We did it. Me and Harlon, we did it. We won. We saved the country. We took it, itâs ours. No compromise! Never any compromise! Things will be good now, Lee. And know what Harlon said? He said Daddy was essential , that he played a vital role in our success. Thatâs what he said, Lee: Essential. Vital.
He listens to his father on the phone with the General. âWhere is everybody? We said oh-six-hundred hours and itâs damn near eight. He listens, says, âGeneral, this is the third time weâre rescheduling this muster. Itâs like herding cats. I understand people have prior commitments but weâve got to commit to this. This needs to be the prior commitment.
When he hangs up, his face is red and tight, but he looks more sad than angry. He scoffs to Lee, âGeneral! Heâs not a real general. Never fought in a war. Never served a single day in the military. Heâs a daggone junior high school math teacher.
And soon the army men stop coming to the mountain and Lee and his father are not soldiers anymore.
For ninth grade he has to go to a special school for the stupid, because his father homeschooled him for seventh and eighth grade and he did not learn anything. After the special school for the stupid, his mother wants him to go to an elite boarding school in New Hampshire where, she says, people go on to Harvard and become senators and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and AcademyAward winners, but his father says Abraham Lincoln went to school in a one-room cabin in the woods of Illinois and went on to teach himself how to become a lawyer and then a great president; those people at those schools think theyâre better than everybody and above everything even though they havenât earned their station, and he wonât raise Lee to be like that, he wonât have Lee thinking that way about himself, he will continue to be self-taught at home. His mother says the authorities wonât allow that because what Leeâs father seems to consider homeschooling they consider neglect. They fight about it through the lawyers. As compromise, Lee has to go to the local public high school. His father says it is an ultra-liberal hellhole, the machine of machines. âJust donât let them brainwash you, he says. âDonât let them corrupt you.
The school is terrifying. These strange people all seem so much bigger than he is and live in a chaos of unwritten social codes and arbitrary rules. How is he to know not to wear his Remington hat inside? Where was it stated that he would be laughed at for his clothes, which
âCan I have a Coke? Lee says.
âNo, the machines are all empty. The bad guys did it on purpose to try and weaken us with dehydration.
Lee is crying.
âWhat the hellâs the matter?
âIâm tired.
âChrist Almighty.
Lee knows he is disappointed in him, even disgusted, but he must sleep, his face burns with exhaustion. Gets up, walks out past allthe energetic men in orange hats and frazzled, confused men in suits, carrying all his stickers and pins he has collectedâhis favorite sticker bears an image of a skeleton clutching a wood-and-iron rifle and the words You can have my gun... when you pry it from my cold dead hands. It is proud and manly and heroic. He passes the pool. There are no kids playing in it now, it is dark and empty and the water is still and the door to it is locked. Goes to the penthouse, there are two suites; he and his father have both, each his own. Lee falls instantly, embryonically asleep, shoes still on.
His father is nudging his back. âLee, Lee. Wake up. Ice clinks in his fatherâs glass. Now it is he who is weeping. âWake up, Lee. We did it. Me and Harlon, we did it. We won. We saved the country. We took it, itâs ours. No compromise! Never any compromise! Things will be good now, Lee. And know what Harlon said? He said Daddy was essential , that he played a vital role in our success. Thatâs what he said, Lee: Essential. Vital.
He listens to his father on the phone with the General. âWhere is everybody? We said oh-six-hundred hours and itâs damn near eight. He listens, says, âGeneral, this is the third time weâre rescheduling this muster. Itâs like herding cats. I understand people have prior commitments but weâve got to commit to this. This needs to be the prior commitment.
When he hangs up, his face is red and tight, but he looks more sad than angry. He scoffs to Lee, âGeneral! Heâs not a real general. Never fought in a war. Never served a single day in the military. Heâs a daggone junior high school math teacher.
And soon the army men stop coming to the mountain and Lee and his father are not soldiers anymore.
For ninth grade he has to go to a special school for the stupid, because his father homeschooled him for seventh and eighth grade and he did not learn anything. After the special school for the stupid, his mother wants him to go to an elite boarding school in New Hampshire where, she says, people go on to Harvard and become senators and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and AcademyAward winners, but his father says Abraham Lincoln went to school in a one-room cabin in the woods of Illinois and went on to teach himself how to become a lawyer and then a great president; those people at those schools think theyâre better than everybody and above everything even though they havenât earned their station, and he wonât raise Lee to be like that, he wonât have Lee thinking that way about himself, he will continue to be self-taught at home. His mother says the authorities wonât allow that because what Leeâs father seems to consider homeschooling they consider neglect. They fight about it through the lawyers. As compromise, Lee has to go to the local public high school. His father says it is an ultra-liberal hellhole, the machine of machines. âJust donât let them brainwash you, he says. âDonât let them corrupt you.
The school is terrifying. These strange people all seem so much bigger than he is and live in a chaos of unwritten social codes and arbitrary rules. How is he to know not to wear his Remington hat inside? Where was it stated that he would be laughed at for his clothes, which
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