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We were having a history lesson with Mrs. Lee. She was droning on and many of us
must be feeling utterly bored. I, for one, was wishing that time would pass
faster. Anyhow as she turned her back to write on the blackboard, I saw Becky
throw a piece of chalk at her. The chalk hit her on the head. She turned
round, picked up the chalk and looked at the class. "Who threw the chalk ?" she
demanded.
Her eyes glared at us. "Now who did this ?" she demanded again. There was no
answer.
She looked around the class and finally her eyes stopped on me. She pointed
her finger at me and said, "You, stand up and tell me who did it !"
I was in a dilemma. I did not know what
to do but I remained quiet.
"All right, you, you, you and you," she pointed out some of my classmates,
all boys, "Stand up ! Who did it ?"
They stood up but incredibly nobody said anything. We were all in a dilemma.
To tell the teacher was to betray our classmate, and to not tell her was to
disobey her. Both choices were unpleasant.
Tension rose. A minute later, she said to those standing, "You follow me to
the headmaster's office." So we trudged
behind her to the headmaster's office. Becky was one of us.
We did not wait long at the office. The headmaster gave each of us a cut on
the palm. I did not know whether I had done right or wrong I only knew that I
did not know what to do when faced with the dilemma. Fortunately I never had to
face that again, because Becky stopped his mischief. He had to, for we would
have bashed him up if he repeated it. |
