Memories of Emily: The Power Brokers

Master Jeong-ui

Powerful, invisible guardians barred exit from that tasking place filled with lies and prepared to wage a great war for the simple act of leaving, and resolute in their greed and power, they readied to die for that place’s lies, willing to waste all the precious time and ether before falling into the void of the forgotten. 

The school bus proved to be the most ingenious invention for allowing travel and torment. In a perfect marriage of bureaucratic service with class favoritism, the school bus efficiently transported kids while maintaining the caste system. Paper balls, spit, insults, and of course, physical assault were many of the school bus’s oppression methods. Ninth grade introduced this new experience when the distance to Fradkin Senior made walking difficult and proved inconvenient for my parents to drive before work. 

My heart sank upon boarding the bus and seeing Gil Bare and other jocks sitting in the rear. Sitting in the bus's center allowed easy listening to Gil telling the high school jerks about Jo, the snot, and DS. A new torturer, Lathan Ive, assumed leadership of the popular people as demanded by his twenty-five-year-old physicality, being eighteen in the tenth grade, lacking the skill to spell his name, and excellence in sports. Lathan led the daily pain sessions standing on the seat behind me, pointing and jeering as he led the bus kids in a monologue of threats and ridicule.