The Wave by Rhue Morton & Strasser Todd

Author:Rhue, Morton & Strasser, Todd [Rhue, Morton & Strasser, Todd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Classics, Historical, Contemporary, Psychology
ISBN: 9780307979131
Goodreads: 15798926
Publisher: Ember
Published: 1981-09-01T07:00:00+00:00

Ever since the night she had first discussed The Wave with her mother and father at dinner, Laurie had purposely avoided the subject at home. It didn’t seem worth creating any more hassles, especially with her mother, who could find something to worry about in everything Laurie did, whether it was going out late with David, chewing on a pen, or The Wave. Laurie just hoped her mother would forget about it. But that night while she was studying in her room her mother knocked on the door. “Babe, can I come in?”

“Sure, Mom.”

The door opened and Mrs. Saunders stepped in, wearing a yellow terrycloth bathrobe and slippers. The skin around her eyes looked greasy, and Laurie knew she’d been putting wrinkle cream on.

“How’re the crow’s feet, Mom?” she asked in goodnatured humor.

Mrs. Saunders smiled wryly at her daughter. “Someday,” she said, wagging a finger, “someday you won’t think it’s so funny.” She walked over to the desk and peered over her daughter’s shoulders at the book she was reading. “Shakespeare?”

“What’d you expect?” Laurie asked.

“Well, anything except The Wave,” Mrs. Saunders said, sitting down on her daughter’s bed.

Laurie turned to look at her. “What do you mean, Mom?”

“Only that I met Elaine Billings at the supermarket today, and she told me Robert is a completely new person.”

“Was she worried?” Laurie asked.

“No, she wasn’t, but I am,” Mrs. Saunders said. “You know, they’ve been having problems with him for years. Elaine has talked to me frequently about it. She’s been very worried.”

Laurie nodded.

“So she’s ecstatic about this sudden change,” Mrs. Saunders said. “But somehow I don’t trust it. Such a dramatic personality change. It almost sounds like he’s joined a cult or something.”

“What do you mean?”

“Laurie, if you study the types of people who join these cults, they’re almost always people who are unhappy with themselves and their lives. They look at the cult as a way of changing, of starting over, of literally being born again. How else do you explain the change in Robert?”

“But what’s wrong with that, Mom?”

“The problem is that it’s not real, Laurie, Robert is safe only as long as he keeps within the confines of The Wave. But what do you think happens when he leaves it? The outside world doesn’t know or care about The Wave. If Robert couldn’t function in school before The Wave, he won’t be able to function outside of school where The Wave doesn’t exist.”

Laurie understood. “Well, you don’t have to worry about me, Mom. I don’t think I’m as crazy about it as I was a couple of days ago.”

Mrs. Saunders nodded. “No, I didn’t think you would be, once you thought about it for a while.”

“So what’s the problem?” Laurie asked.

“The problem is everyone else at school who still takes it seriously,” her mother said.

“Oh, Mom, you’re the one who’s taking this too seriously. Do you want to know what I think? I think it’s just a fad. It’s like punk rock or something. In two months no one will even remember what The Wave was.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.