Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French

Author:Jackie French [French, Jackie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730491941
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

chapter nine

Questions

Mr McDonald was sitting at his table marking homework when Mark looked through the door.

‘Mark, what’s up?’ he asked.

‘Nothing…I just wanted to ask you something.’

Mr McDonald looked a bit nervous, thought Mark. Maybe he’d asked him too many questions lately, the sort that Mum and Dad couldn’t answer like, ‘How fast could God ride a bicycle?’ and ‘How did life begin?’ But he put his book to one side anyway.

‘Sure. Fire away,’ he said.

‘I just wanted to know…’ began Mark slowly. ‘I mean it’s silly but I was thinking. Do kids have to be like their parents?’

Mr McDonald frowned. ‘I’m not sure I get your meaning,’ he said.

‘Well, say someone’s father did something really evil like Hitler, or Pol Pot,’ he added hurriedly. ‘Would their kids be evil too?’

Mr McDonald looked relieved, as though he’d expected the question to be more difficult.

‘That’s a good question, Mark. No, they probably wouldn’t be evil too. I can’t think of anyone really bad in history whose children were as bad as they were. In fact, sometimes the opposite is true. Bad people often have good kids, and good people have bad kids.’

‘But we’re like our parents, aren’t we?’

‘Yes and no,’ said Mr McDonald. ‘Kids often inherit the same sort of temperament as their parents, and maybe the same talents. Like music for instance, or painting. But usually they do something different with it. A painter’s kid might become an architect, for example, if they inherited the same talent. Maybe that’s the best way to put it—you inherit your talents from your parents, but what you do with them is your own choice. And mostly kids do things their parents never thought of.’

‘So…so Pol Pot’s kids for example. They wouldn’t go round killing people?’

‘I don’t know if Pol Pot had any kids,’ said Mr McDonald.

‘But if he did?’

Mr McDonald hesitated. ‘Well, if they were in the Khmer Rouge—Pol Pot’s army—I suppose they might do the same sort of things. But if they were brought up somewhere else, then no, they probably wouldn’t do the same sort of things at all.’ Mr McDonald looked at him sharply. ‘Why do you ask Mark?’

‘I was just wondering,’ said Mark.

‘There isn’t any trouble at home is there?’ asked Mr McDonald carefully.

Suddenly Mark realised what he meant.

‘No! I mean, no, I’m not worried about Dad or anyone.’ Mark nearly laughed. As though Dad could do anything so wrong or evil that he’d be worried about it.

He thought quickly. ‘I saw something on Pol Pot on TV that’s all, and I wondered if he had a son and what he’d be like.’

‘Maybe he’d have decided to be a chef…or a banker…But he’d probably feel guilty and confused if he realised what his father had done,’ said Mr McDonald.

‘It wouldn’t be his fault, would it? All the murders his dad did?’

‘No,’ said Mr McDonald slowly. ‘It wouldn’t be his fault at all. Not unless he felt the same way as his dad did. Or maybe if he refused to face up to the evil things his dad had done…that would be wrong.

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