Summer Break Assignment

by Charles Arnold

It was around 7 am when I got the call. Well 7:01… “It’s the first day of Summer break! Why wake me up so early?” I realized it was my Principal. “Yes, I’m Jewish.” I was confused with the question. “What about the scientists”. This conversation was so confusing I almost hung up on him…until he said these following words in this “Anne Frank is going to be with you this Summer”. “The Anne Frank who wrote the diary?”. I almost pulled out my hair and screamed. I mean I knew scientists were saying that they were going to bring people back from the dead, but I thought that they were lying for publicity (like politicians). “Why is she coming to me instead of a teacher? Why to this random town in Ohio”. His response of “you will find out” made me press the mute button on my iPhone and scream. I un muted the phone and said “I’m only fifteen” I know she was or is fifteen but you see my frustration. It’s not when he said “she can speak fluent English though she doesn’t realize it” that made me break the pencil on my desk, it’s when he said, “she doesn’t know it’s 2017 so you basically have to teach her everything”. “Think of this as your summer break assignment,” he told me. I had been asking if I could do anything over the summer. I like school, but this ‘assignment’ is not the kind of thing I asked for. 2 days ago I asked the principal “Can you please give me something to do over the summer? Like an assignment!” How could he have thought this is what I meant! I had so many questions I could have asked but all I said was “When” the answer made me punch a hole in the wall “tomorrow?” I said in the calmest voice I could make. “Does she have PTSD, allergies, luggage, my house does have enough room but- it was then I realized my phone died.

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 4, 2017