Anthony Nguyen...
Yesterday at 3:00pm, I left school in Dad's car, my mind overflowing with worries and bitching about homework and school and about free time. We passed a small shopping center next to the school that pretty much everybody has to pass or go through in order to go home, by feet, bike, or automobile.
Oddly enough, this time, there were police cars all over the area. Not one or two, but at least half a dozen. Policemen where standing guard around several latino and asian men, others prowling around. Dad and I expressed some curiosity, but moved on.
About 5 blocks later, an small ambulance rushed by, it's siren piercing the air, heading in the opposite direction. I didn't make any connection.
Today, at roughly 9:35, the principal made an announcement. Anthony Nguyen, a student from my school last year (now going to another), was fatally stabbed and killed at around 2-3 pm. the principal gave us no other information, other then that they would be bringing around a box to all the classes so that people could donate and help the parents properly bury their son. This was a bad day to forget my wallet at home. All I had was several quarters and a nickel to drop in the box when they came around 7th period.
What disturbs me the most was the fact that none of my friends mentioned it. None of us recognized his name, or came up with a face, but still. He was a fellow student. Our age. And the stabbing occurred next next to our school. Yes, our school is know in the district as one of the poorer, drop out, gang ridden, fighting and violence and teen pregnancy occurring a lot, but still, we have a library, we have the IB program, we have AP classes, we have decent kids and some great teachers.
Can't you guys react even a little? Show some sympathy or sorrow? Annie and Trang just kept right on reading their shoujo manga while Ivonoe flipped through her celebrity magazine, commenting on Tom Cruise's new look, while Kathy watched on.
I read aloud (yes, I know you can hear me, you're only seated across the table from me, and all the freshmen in the library are not that loud!) from the newspaper article that said he was stabbed and left on the sidewalk of the laundromat. That the school got a call at 2:05, that the manager of the laundromat said kids get rowdy and fights break out all the time over there, and gang related activities have been happening a lot. Considering that school ends for 95% of the students at 2:00pm, and 3:00pm is when those who don't have tutorial get out....
At least Dad lended a more sympathetic ear as he managed to look at me and turn his head while I was talking, and asked questions about what happened. Mom was very much like Kathy and Annie and the others. She stayed home today because she was sick, but she kept right on reading her magazine while I told her about the stabbing, didn't even turn her head.
Then said she'll give me money to give to the family, and that she's been doing the same thing or years. she said she and her friends have been sending money to Viet Namese Viet Nam war victims in Viet Nam, and that the magazine she was reading told their stories. Maybe it was just me, but she had that 'holier then thou' undertone.
This is like that story Mr. Dee wrote and had us read in Freshmen year, where a little girl fell down a mine shaft and they were trying to get her out, and some people in a bar were watching this on the news (it was based on a true event) and when they failed to rescue the girl in times, all the people in the bar just shrugged and went back to watching the basketball game.
This is going to sound very odd, but compared to any other day, this was one of the better day. I finally finished The sound and the fury last night. I did well in my classes today.
I actually managed to share information twice, one in English and the second in TOK, a rare achievement for me. There's also the fact that I volunteered to read from my "I am" poem, and there were some ooos when I presented my Bhuddist ornament with my poem hanging on the end.
I managed to get through the poem without shaking or stuttering too much, got a round of applause when I finished. Then that joy shattered when my English teacher presented us with a list of "Outside reading" and I just wanted to take my stack of "to read" books and toss them at her, nervous laugh and all.
Oh, and Dad got me a cell phone. I'm half torn between hating myself for joining the cult of cell phoners, and relief that now, I can finally call on Dad to pick me up when events end early.
R.I.P.
Anthony Nguyen
If ghosts are a delusion, then let me be deluded. Let me believe in the limitlessness of love, the beauty of contradictions, the miracle that is an ordinary part of life. (Amy Tan, The Opposite of Fate 266)