Temporal Exploring 101 - Cultural Immersion

II.15 Living in dark times

There was some major commotion when Ms Jefferson entered the classroom. Being a few minutes late myself, I came in two steps behind her, but with everybody upset like this, nobody noticed it.

"What is going on here, girls?" our class teacher inquired. "What's the matter?"

"Langden and Burns' applications for membership with the Galads got rejected," Erin Morgan told her. "They heard about it this morning."

"Come on, what else did you expect?" Ndemba muttered angrily.

I immediately felt sorry for Helen and Jessica. As they had told me recently, they had applied for membership with our school's elitist student society, the Galads, hoping that this might deter other students at our school from badmouthing and bullying them.

"Why don't we all of us sit down and talk about this," Ms Jefferson proposed.

Reluctantly, everybody returned to their seats.

"Now, you implied that this rejection did not come unexpected, Ndemba. Would you care to elaborate on that?" our teacher asked.

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" the black girl replied sullenly. "Everyone of us here knows that the Galads are a bunch of narrow-minded bigots. With those rumors about Langden and Burns running wild, they did not stand a chance of being accepted."

"But those rumors are false," Helen Langden cut in, heatedly. "How dare they reject us based on mere hearsay?"

"It is not customary for the committee to give any explanation for the acceptance or rejection of a candidate," Dorothy Barnett pointed out. Like her friends Bradford, Mellon and Lane, she was a member of the Galads herself. "I am sure the rejection of Langden and Burns' application for membership had nothing to do with those rumors."

"Just as their rejection of Ndemba's application had nothing whatsoever to do with the color of her skin," Erin Morgan remarked sarcastically.

Barnett shot her a dirty look.

"Slow down a bit, everybody. What exactly are those rumors we are talking about here?" Ms Jefferson asked.

Both Helen and Jessica  were blushing furiously.

"I don't know where they got that idea, but some people seem to think that Jess and I are like, in love with each other or something," Helen muttered.

"They claim that we are lesbians," Jessica elaborated. "Which, for the record, we are not," she added.

There was a heavy silence. I was beginning to feel very puzzled and very angry.

"I am sorry, but I don't understand," I said. "I mean, even if you were, what would it matter? It's nobody else's bloody business, or is it?"

"While I have to admit that I rather sympathize with your sentiment, Hart," Ms Jefferson observed, "nevertheless I must ask you to kindly mind your language."

"Yes, Miss. I am sorry, Miss."

"As for myself, I will kiss any person I like, boy or girl," Mallory Carmichael loftily told us.

This elicited quite a few giggles from my classmates.

Dorothy Barnett glared at her. "That comment of yours is so not helpful, Carmichael."

"Perhaps not. But, you know, it was never intended to be helpful, Barnett," Mallory cheerfully replied.

Barnett looked as if she had bitten into something that tasted bad. She turned towards me.

"May I remind you, Hart, and a few other people here as well, that in this country we have laws against homosexuality?"

"What? Are you saying that being a homosexual is illegal here?" I looked at her incredulously. "You've got to be joking."

"She is not joking, Hart," Barbara Lane cut in. "We do still care about things like decency here in England." She regarded me with thinly veiled contempt. "I can't say how such matters are handled in the States, of course."

"As it happens, those laws only apply to male homosexuality," Mallory remarked.

Dorothy Barnett gave her an annoyed look.

"Indeed there exists such a law in this country," Carol Mellon unexpectedly joined in. She shuddered. "A horrible, disgusting law." She uttered a small sound, almost like whimper.  "It ... it drove him to kill himself," she added, in a near-whisper.

Everybody was looking at her. I was shocked to see that there were bright tears in her eyes.

Eleanor Bradford leaned over towards her friend. "Carol, what's wrong?"

Carol shook her head. Ms Jefferson walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Why don't you tell us what happened?"

The girl took a deep breath. "I was little then, perhaps four or five years old, and I did not understand." She sniffed. "He used to come visit us, on weekends. Not on every weekend, but often. I think it was because he had no family. He was one of my father's co-workers, I believe. A mathematician. Sometimes, he would talk to me about math puzzles."

"Then, suddenly, he stopped coming to visit. When I asked about him, my parents told me that he had died. It made me sad. I learned the truth about that only much later. Apparently, he had been convicted of performing," she hesitated, "acts of homosexuality. So, according to this law, his options were to go to prison or to accept some kind of aggressive chemical treatment. Anyway, he chose the treatment. And then he killed himself."

She had stopped crying. Talking about it seemed to have helped.

"The poor guy," she whispered. "He was such a nice, friendly person. I can't even remember his name now. Something like Toring, or Turing."

For a second or two, I was too shocked to speak. I closed my eyes. I could see red sparks in the darkness, dancing in front of my eyelids. This could not possibly be true, or could it?  I opened my eyes again.

"Turing?" I burst out. "They drove Alan Turing into committing suicide, because they could not bloody well let him be who he was?"

"Yes, I think that was his name." Carol frowned. "Do you know anything about him?"

"Do I know anything about him? Why, he only was instrumental in helping your country defeat the Germans in World War II. What is this, the dark age? Do you still burn people at the stake here, too?"

It was very quiet in the classroom. They were all staring at me.

Suddenly, it was as if all that angry energy had left me. I sank back into my seat, feeling deflated.

"I am sorry," I muttered. "Don't mind me."

"Never forget that laws can be changed, girls," Ms Jefferson observed. "For what it is worth, over the past few years there has been an ongoing effort to abolish that particular law, or at least to modify it."

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