Chapter 6
The next day in school Milton was still full of frustration and hostility. He felt a void in his life, in his future, and was being treated like a criminal just for having a basic question that he believed should be asked by everyone on earth. But it seemed like Sleepy was right; asking other humans was the only way he would ever find out anything he could believe in about God.
Milton asked Norton Burton, who he thought to be the smartest kid in his class, “Do you believe in God?”
Norton looked nervous. He said, “Um . . . What do you think?”
Milton couldn’t get any kind of commitment out of Norton one way or the other. It seemed like Norton was just trying to guess what Milton wanted to hear.
Dave and Dale Urbano were a set of identical twins in his class who were good in sports. He had always heard that twins and clones were good to use in experiments because they had the same DNA. Besides, clones went to separate, more demanding schools than freeborn, and he didn’t know any clones personally.
So he asked the Urbano twins separately if they believed in God. Dave shrugged his shoulders and said, “I dunno.”
Dale just made a face and walked away, so the twin thing was inconclusive.
Milton did not want to get a bad name among the girls in his class by asking them awkward questions, but he was not doing well with the boys. So he approached Norma Blanchester, the one whom he admired greatly, and asked her if she believed in God.
Norma panicked and ran away.
He saw Sylvia Gonzalez. She should be good because she liked to talk all of the time. So he asked her the same question. Sylvia looked a little startled and she said, “Yes, I do.”
Milton said, “You do? I mean, thank you, Sylvia. He wished he had thought out this impromptu survey better, but he could not think of what to say next, so he said, “Thanks again,” and he walked away.
Milton looked behind and heard Sylvia laughing and talking to other girls, so he concluded that she was just playing him with her answer. He was not so glad that she talked a lot anymore.
As he made his way down the hall, he ran into Mr. Chang, the social studies teacher. Mr. Chang told Milton to report to Principal Stafford’s office at once.
*******
Mr. Stafford said, “Okay, Milton. So what is this all about, you going around imposing harm on your fellow students?”
“Imposing harm? I’m not imposing anything on anyone.”
“Look, Thomas. Don’t act all innocent with me. I know you are playing games with the minds of our children here. I promise you that I will not stand for it. So you better decide right now to give up this nonsense.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong, and I am not changing my mind about what I am doing at all. All I did was to ask my friends if they believe in God.”
“No. You need to stop and think, Milton. What if these children don’t feel good about themselves? What if you disturb them to the point they take their own lives? Do you want to be responsible for that?”
“I’m not responsible for anything like that, Mr. Stafford. I just want to know what they think.”
“That’s the problem. You can’t expect people to start thinking about troubling things like that. It bothers them. There is such a thing as separation of Church and State and hate speech. That’s why you can’t talk about it at school. Read your history; people who used to believe in God were not tolerant of others. God was just their excuse to hate people. Your little game puts a lot of stress on people and makes them feel like others disapprove of them or hate them for no reason.”
“Maybe they need to be bothered with it. I just want to know if God is real. That’s all. If there is a God, then maybe there is life after death. If there is life after death, and you have to live a certain way or do something to get it, then that is the way I will live, no matter what anyone else says. Maybe those other kids wouldn’t feel so weak if they knew for themselves why they believe what they believe. But all I see are people who feel threatened by the thought of God. To me, everyone ought to be asking the same questions I am.”
“Think about what you just said, Thomas. You think everyone else should think the way that you do. They don’t, and you should realize by now that how you are imposing your views on them is selfish and hateful. You are violating their right to privacy. You are just passing your own terrible thoughts and emotional instability on to others. It won’t continue here. I think you have a lot of mental and emotional problems you need to work out; probably because your father is in reeducation camp. Since you are having problems understanding the meaning of your freely conceived life, or some other nonsense, I’m going to tell your mom that you need professional help for your clone envy. Otherwise, I’ll have to suspend you from school. Now why don’t you just forget about all of that and join one of the sports teams or clubs we have here?”
Milton asked, “Don’t you care about people?”
“What do you mean by that, Thomas?”
“Everyone says I am the one doing harm, but all I am trying to do is find out about God. Knowing about God would be good for everyone, but nobody really cares about that part of their lives.”
Principal Stafford said, “I don’t know who is feeding you this stuff, but I want it to stop. Got it?”
Milton felt more anger than ever at Principal Stafford. For the first time he felt like lashing out at him. But that imagined situation would have ended extremely badly. Milton still believed that he had not done anything wrong to anyone. “I know that to you I’m just another stupid kid, except that I don’t agree with everything that you are paid to tell me to believe.”
“Get out of here Thomas. And you better watch yourself. I’m being real serious here.”
*******
That evening, things got progressively worse for Milton.
“Mom!” Milton objected to the idea she of having to go to counseling with a psychiatrist.
“What do you want me to do, Milton?! I’m not going to have my son kicked out of school for out-of-control behavior!”
“I’m not! All I did was asked some kids if they believe in God!”
“I’d rather you keep that at home. People take that sort of thing personal.”
“No,” Milton said, “that ain’t it! At school we talk about personal stuff all the time. They are just afraid to talk about God. It makes no sense at all.”
“Milton, all you have to do is tell the counselor, or whoever, the same thing you just told me. Just do it and see what they say.”
“Okay! Fine! Maybe everyone will just get off of my back then! All right?! Daaa!”
*******
Later, Beth had to get her daily dig in on Milton. She said, “Hey dummy! I hear you were going around and asking the girls a bunch of personal questions and getting them all embarrassed and mad. Way to go.”
“No, I wasn’t!” Milton said. “I mean, they took it all wrong.”
“That’s not what that Norma chick was telling everyone online.”
“Don’t believe everything you see.”
“I don’t. I just believe what Norma said.”
“Whatever,” Milton said. “It’s not my fault if they get mad.”
“Duh! Whatever!” Beth mimicked. “Everyone keeps asking me what’s up with my weirdo brother. I don’t like it.”
Milton was just grateful that his mom didn’t tell Beth about his appointment with the counselor.