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MANE EVENT

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The night before, I found myself at the en

trance of lower Manhattan’s most well known

speakeasy. I have often wondered,

“How is it a

speakeasy if it is so well known?”

I keep my

thoughts to myself though. Nolan doesn’t think girls

have minds. Nolan likes thinking he’s the sense be

hind our relationship. I knocked on the brick door

and a metal sliding grate slid open.

“Mr. Smith sent me,”

I said.

The door was opened, and a rough hand

caught hold of mine.

“Good evening, Miss Malloy.”

I was escorted through a long dark passage

way and entered the bar room of

Juanita’s Cabana.

It was dimly lit with cigar smoke floating in the air. I

looked across the room. There sat Nolan Brown.

“So he hasn’t forgotten,”

I thought. I

made my way over to him without being noticed.

“If it isn’t Nolan Brown,”

I said silkily.

“It can’t be Miss Molly Malloy,”

Nolan

replied.

“You look wonderful!”

He led me to a

small table in the corner.

“Would you like a

drink?”

I shook my head.

“You know I don’t

drink, Nolan.”

“I had almost forgotten. It has been so

long since I last saw you. What have you been

doing?”

“I was visiting a cousin in the Witness

Protection Program,”

I replied.

“Since he has

been enrolled in it, it has been awful trying to

organize a family reunion.”

I smiled.

Nolan gave me a quizzical look.

“How did you know where he was?”

“I have my ways, Mr. Brown.”

Nolan started fidgeting with the tablecloth.

“Is there something on your mind,

Nolan?”

I could tell he had something serious to

say.

“I was talking to Eddie earlier this

evening. He’s a stockbroker on Wall Street. It’s

going to happen tomorrow, Molly. Everyone is

going to lose everything.”

“What is, Nolan?”

“It took a lot of prying into informa

Shadows In The

Light Contiues

To be continued (again!)...

tion, but Eddie told me the stock market is go

ing to crash the day after tomorrow. The roar

ing twenties will be over. I have an idea about

how we can escape it together.”

“Together, Nolan?”

“Well, I thought we could leave for

Scotland before the crash and once there, buy

a castle and make it our home.”

Nolan looked

satisfied, but I had another question on my mind.

“Where are we going to get the money

to go to Scotland?”

“I have an idea about that too.”

Nolan’s

eyes danced with excitement as he explained his

extravagant plan.

“You know what that means,”

Nolan concluded. I nodded.

“Would you like to dance, Molly,”

asked

Nolan.

“Why the sudden change in conversa

tion, Nolan?”

“I want to clear your mind of all of this.

We will be safe from the crash together and on

our way to Scotland tomorrow night. Until

then, let’s enjoy ourselves.”

Without another word, Nolan whisked me

off to the dance floor. Besides wonderful conver

sation,

Juanita’s

was famous for her jazz band. After

all, it was still the 1920’s and jazz was at its pre

mium. At two o’clock in the morning, Nolan and I

finally stopped dancing.

“We should get going. We have a lot to

do tomorrow,”

said Nolan.

“Will you walk me to the train station,

Nolan,”

I said. I had to return to my apartment in

Yonkers for the rest of the evening.

We stepped onto the corner of Fifth Av

enue and stood under the streetlight. The fog had

disappeared.

“It is such a wonderful evening for

walking,”

said Nolan.

“The stars look like sil

ver coins gleaming in my pocket.”

“It’s funny how money always seems to

make a man smile.”

I glanced into the shadows

on my left and had the funny feeling that someone

was watching me. I grabbed Nolan’s arm and held

on tight.

“What’s wrong? We’re not afraid of the

dark, now are we?”

Nolan smiled.

Gregory Maddock , Sophomore

Considering this is my number one pet peeve,

there is plenty to write about for me. In the many

long years I’ve been in school, I’ve seen and en

dured countless, ignorant incidences of stereotyping

and ridicule. Most of this ridicule is based on mun

dane, insignificant things. It’s basically driven me to

the breaking point, so I ask, why is it so amusing? I

admit that I am guilty of shelling out some nasty in

sults and rumors in my time but all were based on

knowledge of that specific person. Teens these days

seem to charge blindly into a raging battle of which

they know nothing about. To put it simpler, every

body seems to make fun of anything that moves or

acts differently these days.

Allow me to use myself as an example. Last

year my study hall was basically chaos, for I was

stuck in it with two ignorant middle school kids. It

was there I earned the idiotic nickname

“Devil Girl”.

Why? Because I wear black. Dumb, I know. I’ll have

you know my real favorite color is blue. I’m also ag

nostic, so that ousts the religious part of being a so

called

“Devil Girl”

. See what I mean? Complete

and utter ignorance. What scares me is most teens

pick up these habits from their parents. Seriously, if a

parent can’t drill the concept of tolerance into their

kid’s minds, who will? It’s people like this who cause

wars. It’s people like this who murdered that poor

Matthew Shepard.

I am also ridiculed by people in my gym glass,

usually when they

think

I am out of earshot. Heaven

forbid if I’m more of an artist than an athlete. At least

I’m starting to get my sporty pep back and trying for

once. Honestly, put yourself in my shoes, in the place

of any kid who’s different. How would you feel? The

number one answer I get to that question is,

“I

wouldn’t care what anyone thinks about me.”

And at that, I laugh. Because how can anyone know

how they’d react if they’ve never felt it before? More

than half of these people are popular, babied, pam

pered, and so on. I doubt they’ve ever been made

fun of enough to let it actually get to them. I used to

say I could care less of what people think of me, and

I still do, but that doesn’t mean it won’t hurt when

someone starts throwing stones. It’s mentally impos

sible to block all of it out.

I found it somewhat funny that people who

hated me before came up to compliment me after the

first issue of the paper was put out. Actually, it more

than proves my point of ignorance. In my articles I

voice my opinion; therefore, readers tend to get to

know me without actually talking to me. People who

hated me before begin to think,

“Hey, she isn’t so

bad I guess.”

It’s a smaller scale of what I like to

call

The Lottery Effect

. Someone wins the lottery,

and all sorts of

“relatives”

come out of the wood

work. Of course, it’s not all me. I have friends who

are constantly bombarded with ridicule on a daily

basis. I have witnessed a fight involving a good friend

who apparently did something wrong, but all he did

was walk back to school with his girlfriend and me.

Those people who shall not be mentioned had no

other motivation than ignorant hatred. They didn’t

know him personally, yet already decided he’s on

their hit list. I could honestly ramble on and on about

this, and I think I already am starting to. I just hope

I’ve opened some eyes because the whole subject is

so ridiculous. And so, my readers, I leave you with

this final thought: When you graduate, all the grudges,

all the enemies, all the insults and ridicule you either

dealt out or received isn’t even going to matter. Say

ing you owned soandso in a flame war on a re

sume won’t get you that promotion. Telling your boss

that you were better than soandso in gym isn’t go

ing to get you any closer to that free cruise. Sooner

or later, all the popular kids who made fun of every

one else are going to have to quit feeding off other’s

misery to sustain their own illgotten reputation and

learn to actually work for a place in the food chain

for once.

Now, not all popular kids are nasty little

things. I am friends with more than a few. Most are

very kind. It’s the ones who let it get to their head

who are dangerous. Remember that, because I’m

not out to invoke persecution on people who don’t

deserve it. That’s called stereotyping, by the way,

and I’m sure you all know how much I hate that.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Ranter

Stereotypes, Ridicule, and Intolerance

(Oh my!)

Get Involved!

Our Friends and

Neighbors Need Help!

The Salvation Army is recruiting volunteers

for the Red Kettle Campaign. The Army needs us

to help bring in money for local programs and emer

gency assistance. This is a great way to remember

what the holidays are all about, a reason to sing out

oftune holiday songs, and Seniors, listen up you

may be able to gain credit for Government Partici

pation class. Check with Mr. Barr. Get your clubs

involved, get your families involved! Challenge rival

schools and groups to collect as many donations or

ring as many hours. When we compete for charity,

everyone wins.

The Salvation Army uses the donations col

lected during the Red Kettle Campaign to fund pro

grams throughout the entire year. This means our

country’s families in crisis can benefit from Salvation

Army programs. Call tollfree 18777336041 or