Talk Santa to Me by Linda Urban

Author:Linda Urban
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2022-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

25

NOVEMBER 28

Because we missed two days of school last week, we are told that last Friday is now this Monday, and as a result I am starting first period in Mythology Today. Ms. Colando (blue T-shirt with Wonder Woman punching a Nazi on it) has put us in our groups again. Ellie is going on about Heathers which, she would like us to know, was made in 1988 and presents a version of teenage social structures that is more Lord of the Flies than Lord of the Rings. I don’t know what she means by this. Both seem pretty violent.

“It’s not about the violence,” she says. “It is about how social groups are structured and what holds them together. The mythology of Lord of the Rings suggests these groups are united by a common understanding of good and evil, that a small group of people united for good can overcome whatever unthinking, hoardish evil the world puts forth.”

“People and elves,” says Hector.

Elves. I shudder.

“Are you cold?” asks Hector. “I have a jacket.”

A jacket suited for those amazingly perfect shoulders. “Um. No, thank you.”

“People. Elves. Hobbits. Et cetera,” says Ellie. “In fact, that makes my point all the more. The Heathers-slash-Lord of the Flies value system cannot posit a world with any believable unity of different classes, races, or interests united for good. Remember Martha Dunstock?”

I have seen Heathers. Martha Dunstock used to be friends with one of the Heathers, but got ditched when the Heather got popular and started dressing like the other girls did.

“Lord of the Flies is more about forming bonds for self-preservation and that these bonds are only as strong as our self-interest,” says Ellie.

She’d go on, but Ms. Colando interrupts to say that we have only five minutes of class time left and we should finish our discussions.

DeKieser goes next. “My last, like, exploration or whatever was about the whole college brochures thing. My brother, Lincoln, is getting, like, stacks of them and they all kind of look, like, the same or whatever even though each one says they are, like, distinct and unique and the very best place for the individual he is and stuff. So that’s, like, an opposition and, like, I’m kind of analyzing that.”

Despite the whatevers and the likes, DeKieser’s exploration sounds super smart and I tell her so.

“Thanks,” she says.

The bell rings before Hector or I get our turn, which doesn’t bother me too much because I have been so busy writing letters to Santa that I haven’t been able to think about writing anything else. But then Hector says how he’d like to talk out his subject a little and maybe we could find some time to do that together.

And just like that—knees wobble, heart booms, hair at the base of neck prickles. “Yes,” I say, because it is a short word and longer words would take more focus than my brain currently has available.

“You live by your family’s Christmas store, right?” he says in his rumbly voice-over voice. It is the voice of the movie of my dreams.

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.