SWNOVELS Chapter 17 Remembrance
The bus route to our next destination was… you guessed it, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. Josh tried to talk some sense into Ally on the ride there, but she didn’t want to hear his “excuses” and begged him to let her be “left alone”. Josh didn’t like that one bit and pursued much to my and Ally’s discomfort and pleasure.
Luckily it didn’t add more salt to this gaping wound of their friendship as the tour bus parked just in the nick of time. We were now on the lovely trail outside to go to the Lincoln Memorial. But that didn’t stop Josh from trying to speak to her. I had to physically block myself between them, trying to either lead him away from her while Al was by my side instigating him. As we were in the middle of this mess and far from our group, we all heard someone awkwardly ask, “Umm, excuse me?” Startled, we all stopped what we were doing and looked around and that’s when we saw this tall black bald man with three distinct wrinkles on his forehead wearing Jeans, blue running shoes, and a black North Face all zipped up standing there. He awkwardly smiled at us and continued saying,
“Don’t mean to interrupt whatever you were doing, but can one of you kids take a photo of me and my family at the Lincoln Memorial?”
To get out of their bickering, I pounced at the opportunity by saying,
“I’ll do it.”
“Great, thank you so much.”
The man then handed me his camera and instructed me how to use it, then as they were getting ready into position I said, “Say DC, everyone.” which I could tell made them burst out laughing and as I took the photo they had real smiles. I took a few photos of them. All of them laughing of course and the two of the Lincoln Memorial behind them. After that, the man thanked me again and said that he was “Gonna be using that every time we come here from now on.” As for me, I was partially embarrassed but along with Josh and Al waved goodbye at them and as we were waving, Al turned to me and said,
“Say DC?! Really?!! That—”
Suddenly Josh interrupted her to voice his own opinion by saying,
“That was so bad dude, you are never allowed to make those jokes with us ever again.”
To my and Al’s surprise that he actually agreed with her for once, she said,
“Uhh I was gonna say that sounds like something my dad would say but yeah, I totally agree with you on this one.”
“You do?” Josh asked, surprised.
“Mhmmm”, suddenly she turned to me then rather harshly blurted,
“Your jokes suck.”
They both left in a huff trying to catch up with our fellow classmates who were about halfway up the Lincoln Memorial by now.
“Hey! Wait for me!” I hollered, running up the steps to try and catch up with them. When I did manage to catch up with them, they were with our group as our teachers announced to us,
“Welcome to the Lincoln Memorial, class.” All of a sudden, a kid right next to me that clearly looked like a clone of that kid from the movie Stuart Little, raised his hand. Mr. Goodman, seeing his hand, asked,
“Yes, Bobby?”
“Is this where MLK gave his famous speech?”
Our other teacher chaperone Mrs. Andrews, surprised by his question, answered,
“Yes, where we are standing is where Martin Luther King Jr. stood as he gave his famous
‘I Have A Dream’ Speech 39 Years ago!”
She then paused and said, “You can ask your parents or grandparents where they were when he gave his speech… any other questions?”
No one did, so we all headed inside the Lincoln Memorial where I couldn’t help but blurt out loud in astonishment as in that moment I forgot how enormous the statue of Abraham Lincoln was.
“Woah, that’s huge.”
Few classmates chuckled while others simply laughed loudly at my remark of stating the obvious. Mr. Goodman shushed them all down as our teacher, Mrs. Andrews with a big smile that was plastered on her face, said,
“Don’t laugh at Ben. Woah is right, Abe Lincoln here stands over 19 feet tall. That’s as tall as our school gymnasium.”
The rest of the class then oohed and awed at the delight. We were then let go to explore for a bit before heading over to the gift shop. While exploring, I spotted Al, but before I could say anything other than “Hey”, Mrs. Andrews came up to us but hollered for Josh to come here and asked, “Do you mind if I take a photo of you three posing at the Lincoln Memorial for the yearbook?”
Yearbook must’ve been the magic word for Al as she suddenly interrogated her with piercing enthusiasm,
“Yearbook? Did you say yearbook?!”
“Oh, you did it now.”
I overheard Josh mutter under his breath with a look of either pain or regret.
“Yes-s?”
Mrs. Andrews had asked with a slight concern as her voice shriveled at the last syllable,
“Uhh actually I–-I” Josh began to stammer before I coughed to get his attention. He noticed me with a death glare where he backtracked on that and simply said,
“Uh nevermind, let’s do it.”
“Wonderful.”
She then, like some wedding photographer, told each one of us where to stand, which was just a couple of feet in front of the statue. When we got into our places, we weren’t exactly all happy and smiling when the first photo was taken. The teacher when taking the photo said, “Come on guys, smile, hug or give me something that looks like you three are the best friends that you are.” With that, Josh and Al were forced to put their differences aside and for once they genuinely smiled, leading me to do the same.
Allison, apparently being the short one in the group, was in the middle having her arms on each of our shoulders as me and Josh were on opposite sides. I was on the left while Josh was on the right. As the picture got taken, the teacher commented, “I’m definitely going to use that one for the yearbook. But real quick, how about a silly one for the last one?” Us three all laughed as we made goofy faces with our heads really close to each other. Mrs. Andrews thanked us for being such good sports and mentioned that when we’d get back home, she’d make some copies of the photos and send them to our parents.
I would, if I could reminisce about this moment with Josh and Al when they are both older, but not now for obvious reasons. After that she guided us to join the other students at the giftshop. It was there that Allison whisked me away from the teacher and Josh where she begged and begged for me to choose a shirt so we could “both match” where reluctantly I agreed.
Adorable, isn’t it?
Inside the giftshop there were a lot of shirts, maps, magnets. But my body was turned towards the t-shirt aisles. I saw a teal one with the Abraham Lincoln statue along with some quotes of his behind it that had caught my eye as I didn’t remember seeing something like that when I first came here. What I do remember though is asking Allison what her thoughts were about it. She liked it, she liked it a lot actually. So I picked one up and it didn’t fit me at all and I asked her, “Hey, do you see any in a larger size?” She squinted her eyes, confused if she heard me right and asked,
“A larger size?”
It was there that I forgot how short Ben was as I looked to my right in the glass reflection of the magnet aisle seeing Ben’s stature and he was definitely not a size large. I backtracked and said, “Okay, maybe not a large one but like a medium or small one?” With the help of Allison I was able to termine that I was a medium. After I paid for mine with the money I had or still had left, I was outside the giftshop waiting for Allison when Josh found me and asked,
“What’s in the bag?” pointing to the brown paper bag.
I showed Josh the shirt that I bought where he to my surprise said,
“Oh, you got that one? I just bought that not that long ago.”
“You did? I don’t believe you.” I asked calling his bluff.
“It’s true.” He replied, putting his brown handle bag down and pulled out the exact same shirt that I picked out and proudly showed the shirt off like it was some show dog. I was shocked because this takes “Great minds think alike” to a whole other level. Josh was not MY friend but Ben’s. That didn’t explain how or why he picked out the shirt like mine... but my silence on the issue was not the answer apparently because the moment he put his shirt back in the bag, Al had coincidentally walked by and that’s when this whole friendship really got tested.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked Josh, pointing at me.
“Oh, he might be still amazed how we thought of the same thing.”
“How?” she asked with a look that could turn someone to stone as if she was offended.
Josh, looking like a deer in the headlights, stuttered “I-I-I may have accidentally… coincidentally uhhh… had bought the same thing as you two.”
Al raised an eyebrow and said, “No you didn’t. I don’t believe you, show me.”
“Are you sure, Ally, cause I really—”
“Just do it.”
Josh groaned and complied.
Al was quite emotional to say the least when Josh brought the shirt out of the bag. Not in a good way though as with tears in her eyes, she blubbered, “That’s our thing, not yours. You are not supposed to match with us.”
Josh’s mouth was open as he was shocked about this revelation and looked at me, then at Ally stuttering, “I-I-I didn’t know, I swear to god, I didn’t know. I had checked out before you.”
“LIAR! You did it on purpose. I can’t believe you!” and ran off crying.
“I didn’t know, Ben. I swear to god.” Josh said and ran off somewhere. My guess was to talk to Ally which was not the best thing to do. I am really at a loss for words right now standing in the middle of this memorial staring up at the ceiling wondering how am I going to get myself out of this mess and make them friends again. I SHOULD HAVE said SOMETHING by NOW or EARLIER. Or maybe it was THE Ben in me taking over by convincing me that this mess would solve itself out by keeping me quiet. Well, that ain’t gonna slide this time as I know that I have one shot of this getting through to Allison somehow, so I better not waste it and nothing is going to stop me.
Of course I was the one that was first stopped by the chaperones before getting on the bus as they wanted to know why Allison suddenly exploded at Josh. I then very carefully had to “DUMB it DOWN” as I had to explain to these adults in kids’ terms what the heck was going on. Hell, I was not even sure why she acted this way myself. It’s just a shirt. But I knew that’s not what these “grownups” wanted to hear from an eighth grader.
“Dumbing it down” had to be one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life and I never want to experience it again. The shock factor was not what I was going for so I tried to simply explain to them that Al got upset because
“Josh got a shirt that I just got but Me and Al like to dress alike.” Seeing the confused look on their faces, I clarified further by explaining that, “It’s our thing and Al thought he did it on purpose. But it was just an accident.”
They thankfully understood my lingo, thanked me for explaining it and went to go get him to corroborate my story. I was then free to get back on the bus. On the bus everyone was giving me stares but they were strangely out of sympathy. Sympathy that I didn’t deserve. In fact, the only person I believe deserved more than anyone here was Josh. But when he made his grand entrance, everyone and I mean everyone made those expressions you make when you see a bully take it too far.
It was there that I had spotted Allison being comforted by a few other girls in our group C with Brittney being one of them who looked like she wanted to tear me and Josh limb from limb. Especially me. But before the bus departed to go to the last memorial before the restaurant, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to tell Al what I knew that would change everything. So, I walked to where she was being comforted and shielded by the other girls and the moment I walked to them, like the snap of your fingers, they turned to me and looked as if they were an angry pack of lions. I ignored their glances and begged them to let me talk to Allison. One of them said, “No. You and Josh did enough already” and another added, “Get out of here.” I ignored them and just begged Al to hear me out as what I had to say was “pretty important” and “It’ll be quick.”
The girls upon hearing this were of course giving me the benefit of the doubt, but it was Allison who silenced them and I barely heard her say “It’s okay… let him talk.”
PHEW! That’s the one good news I needed to hear today. But I couldn’t have a pack of hungry lions watching so I asked them if they could get out of here. They didn’t move a muscle until Ally had ordered them while Brittney was showing some attitude about it. Anyway, when they were finally gone I told her that,
“I’m sorry for what happened an—” to which she interrupted,
“Ben, I’m not blaming you, you had nothing to do with it. So please drop it and tell me what’s so important?”
“I-I-I just wanted to tell… well, actually show you something that will change your mind about everything tomorrow, even Josh completely. But I can’t show you now.”
“Why?”
I looked off to the side in Brittney’s direction and answered,
“Too risky. Do you trust me?”
“Ben, you know the answer to that. Of course I do. When and where?”
She asked, sounding very eager, which was good, but this was the tricky part. I had gotten this far and was so close to getting out of here, but I didn’t know at the time where we were going at all tomorrow. Our chaperones never told us as I think it was “common knowledge”. Knowledge that I didn’t have, so the only way I could make her still listen and believe I was serious and planned, was to allude to this mystery location by saying,
“Well, it can’t be the morning, I was thinking sometime later before lunch.”
“So sometime during our trip to the Smithsonian?”
Smithsonian? That’s perfect. I thought.
I said, “Yes, we’ll just pretend to go to the bathroom and sneak away from the group. I’ll give you a heads up before we do. But you can’t tell anyone about this. It’s got to be our little secret.” She crossed her heart and pinky-promised, and then she gave me a quick hug. I think that made her feel better, because she thanked me and sat back down in her seat. I had to sit down too, because the headcount was about to start. So I sat next to her and stayed by her side the whole time we were at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, on the bus, and at dinner. She still didn’t want to go near Josh, and I was okay with that.
When we got to the hotel room, I found out that my other roommates were Bobby, who looked like the kid from Stuart Little, and Murphy, another nerd. While we were all unpacking, Josh asked me if he could see the note. He acted like his life depended on it, but little did he know that my life depended on it too. So I showed him the note, and then Bobby and Murphy wanted to see it as well.