Brutal Youth: A Novel by Anthony Breznican

Author:Anthony Breznican [Breznican, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250019363
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2014-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

“Why did he kill the albatross?”

Davidek was staring out the window. He didn’t notice Mr. McClerk walk over and stand in front of him, holding his book open, and he didn’t hear the English teacher’s question until the second time he asked it. By then, the other kids in the class were already giggling.

“Mr. Davidek, why did he kill the bird?”

Davidek’s mind was still in a Jeep underneath the Tarentum Bridge. He couldn’t think of a thing to say except, “Who?”

Mr. McClerk snapped his book shut with one hand. “The protagonist in Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Did you read it this weekend?”

“Of course.” He hadn’t.

“Then please tell me why he killed the bird.”

Davidek looked at Stein, who shrugged. He hadn’t read it either. “Umm,” Davidek said. “Because the bird was evil?”

Mr. McClerk removed his glasses and wiped his forehead with his jacket sleeve. “Mr. Davidek, I rarely say any interpretation of literature is flatly wrong—but that’s a very, very stupid answer.”

Davidek sucked on his top lip and stared at the desk. Across the room, Seven-Eighth’s hand shot up. “He killed the bird because it was a Christ figure,” she said. Davidek winced for not thinking of this. Everything was always a Christ figure with Mr. McClerk.

The English teacher confirmed this by triumphantly pointing his glasses at Seven-Eighths. “Yes, that’s one answer. But is there something more to it? Something universal to all of us that would motivate self-destruction?” No one answered him, so he walked to the chalkboard and wrote: IMP OF THE PERVERSE.

“Mr. Davidek, do you remember this from our reading of Poe last fall?”

Davidek thought he had read that story, but right now he could remember only one thing, and it involved a yellow disposable camera. “Um, yeah,” he said.

Mr. McClerk put his glasses on. “Then please remind us from our readings of ‘The Black Cat’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’: What did Poe mean by the term ‘Imp of the Perverse’?”

Davidek took a deep breath.

* * *

Stein was still laughing at lunch as he imitated Davidek’s answer: “‘Is it, like, a perverted midget?’” he said, falling against Lorelei, who was cracking up, too.

They were standing out in the parking lot, though Davidek had left his winter coat inside and was freezing in just his blazer. “I couldn’t remember!” he said, opening his arms to the cold. “I thought the imp was maybe the dude who got buried under the floor.”

March had struck the Valley, and the weather turned schizophrenic: sunny one day, freezing the next. The daffodils and tulips in the school’s gardens were fooled. Lured by the spring sun, they popped their heads from the earth only to have them bitten off by frost.

When the day was warm, and students who hadn’t left to eat off-campus gathered again in the parking lot, Stein and Lorelei stayed inside the basement cafeteria. When it was bitter cold, and everyone was huddled indoors, they bundled into their winter wear and lingered outside. Davidek hadn’t told them about Hannah and the Jeep.

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