“Revenge.” Mr. Newstrom’s voice rang out over the classroom. Mason heard him take a seat in his squeaky rolling chair before the class erupted into debate. Above all of the clamor, only a few voices were clear.
“Of course revenge is a good thing! In Hammurabi’s day, it was law that revenge was taken!” Johnny Wilson’s tenor reasoning floated through the air. His sister Savannah was next.
“Don’t be stupid; how would revenge benefit anyone?” Mason couldn’t help the half-smile that tugged the corner of his mouth at her tone. He could practically hear her cross her arms over her chest defiantly.
“How would it benefit? Okay, let’s pretend that someone kills…oh…say, me for example—” Johnny was interrupted by Savannah’s snort.
“One could only hope!” she laughed. Ignoring his sister’s gibe, he continued.
“Wouldn’t you want to hunt that person down and make them pay? Wouldn’t that give you some sort of peace?” he pleaded his side, albeit poorly.
“For a moment, but then what about the guilt that would plague me for the rest of my life for killing that person?” Savannah did have a point, and it took a little too long for Johnny to respond. Mason turned his head to listen to another argument. Kirsten and Noel were having it out nearby.
“No! Every comic book plot ever deals with revenge. It’s so deep rooted in our society that I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of it. It doesn’t matter what I think, it’s simply a case of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.’ There’s nothing we can do.” Kirsten argued.
“Is that what you think? Are you so concerned with conforming to society that you’re not even willing to try to make a difference?” Noel sounded incredulous.
“Stay on topic ladies.” Mr. Newstrom warned.
“Right. So I agree that you should get revenge on people.” Kirsten said matter-of-factly.
“And I disagree. So we must agree to disagree.” Noel ended the conversation. Mason frowned. That argument wasn’t even entertaining, and now it appeared to be over. He decided to wait before throwing his piece in. Instead, he sat and rolled a pencil around on his fingertips. He felt the smooth dome of the eraser, the cool metal ridges, the slick coating of the wood, then the rough, raw wood at the tip, and then his fingers danced back up it again. When he had a mental image of what the object looked like, he put it back on the desk; he had no use for it.
“Well, look at it less drastically then: If Noel stole your only pen, you’d take her pen to replace it, yeah?” Johnny was still trying to reason with his opinionated rock of a sibling.
“I don’t think that quite counts as revenge.” Savannah corrected. “Now, if someone stole my sandwich, then I may change my mind.” Mason laughed quietly to himself.
“See? There you go; you agree that revenge is okay.” Johnny exclaimed triumphantly.
“O-only in minor cases.” Savannah reluctantly admitted. Okay, so maybe she’s a hard lump of clay instead of a rock. Mason thought amusedly.
“Yes! I told you: revenge is good!” Johnny cheered. Mason clenched his jaw; he couldn’t stand it when people presented their opinions as fact. He wanted to save his line for later on in the class, but he decided to use it now. Slowly, he rose to his feet. His hand knocked his cane, and it clattered to the floor, drawing everyone’s attention. He turned his head to where he last heard Johnny’s voice, and spoke.
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” The corners of his lips curled up slightly at the stunned silence that ensued; his point had been made. He sat back down, satisfied. As the kids digested what he’d said, he reopened his novel and ran his fingers over the pages.
