Skipping School: A Teen At City Hall
While I enjoyed college very much and graduated summa cum
laude, something about high school just didn't agree with me. Yes, I was one of
a handful of students who wrote and edited our high school newspaper, but at
the time my family life left a lot to be desired. One night I went with friends
to see the movie FIVE EASY PIECES. (Curiously, in an earlier post I had said
that I didn't think a film could move me to the point of personal change, yet
here's one that actually did).
After watching FIVE EASY PIECES I was never the same. I went
back the next night by myself. The film was even better a second time around.
It's probably a safe bet that I saw something of myself and my circumstance in
Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Robert Dupea. The existential man living in a
world with no purpose, no meaning or hope.
I started reading Camus. I bought a movie camera and began
making my own films. But even more, I started skipping school to go to movies
in downtown Philadelphia. This went on for more than a year until one afternoon
I realized I'd seen every movie playing in town. For some impossible reason, I
walked by a movie theater and ended up at City Hall. At the time, the Criminal
Justice Center hadn't been built, and criminal and civil cases were tried in
the courtrooms here at the hall. I sat through two murder trials before
catching a train back to the suburbs. The first trial would have been horrific
for anyone. But for a teenager on the run, it changed everything: a man had
come home from work and caught his wife in bed with his best friend. He kept a
shotgun in the closet. He surprised them. He shot both of them before they
could even get out of bed. He shot them dead, and from the crime scene photos
the prosecutor was showing to the jury, there was blood everywhere.
I took a deep breath and settled back in my chair. I could
see the murderer sitting at the table with his attorney right in front of me.
He must have sensed that I was staring at him. He turned and our eyes met. This
was real life, not a movie. I was a seventeen-year-old boy.
I went home, my mind reeling, and wrote a short story based
on the trial. And then I made a huge mistake. I turned the story into my
English teacher! Today, I would have been kicked out of school, and who knows
what else would have happened? My teacher, a very gentle woman, read my story
and gave it an A, but said that it would require a parent teacher visit. In
fact, she had already made the arrangements, and would be stopping by my house
that very night.
After an hour of listening to my teacher, and then my
parents, all trying to figure out if I was okay or not, they reached a final
judgment. I had to agree to stop skipping school and would now be attending a
class at the University of Pennsylvania. In turn, my teacher agreed to give my
future stories an A but said that it was unlikely she would ever read one
again. After she left, my parents seemed to shake it off. They'd read the story
I'd written, and thought it was good.
City of Stones
on Amazon
ROBERT ELLIS WRITERS BLOG
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