Free A Plague Year by Edward Bloor Page B

had a big red welt on my neck. She started right in, as if nothing was wrong. “I was talking to Mrs. Cantwell about the academics here. I’ve been trying to convince my dad that Haven’s not so bad. He calls it ‘a school for coal miners.’ ”
    I choked out, “Oh?”
    “She started telling me about her top students. Guess who’s the number one student, academically, of all the incoming freshmen.”
    I shrugged.
    “Tom Coleman.” When I didn’t reply, she added, “That’s you, right? The kid who works at the supermarket?”
    Trying to be funny, I flipped open my notebook. “Let me check.”
    She laughed. “Does everybody know this but me? Does everybody know you’re number one?”
    I shrugged again. “
I
didn’t even know.”
    “Well, congratulations! You stay number one, Tom Coleman!”
    I said, “I’ll try.” And suddenly I felt a lot better.
    Mr. Proctor started class by pulling out a poster, unrolling it, and taping it to the whiteboard (Coach Malloy–style). It was a movie poster with screaming teenagers on it. It was black and white except for the slime-green title:
Night of the Living Dead
.
    Mr. Proctor pointed to the board and explained, “This is the original poster for
Night of the Living Dead
, a cult horror movie that was filmed right here in western Pennsylvania.
    “George Romero, a college student from Pittsburgh, was shooting commercials and bits for a kids’ show called
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
. But he had something else in mind. Something very dark, and noncommercial, and non-kid-friendly—
Night of the Living Dead
.
    “This movie is not set in Transylvania, with some foreign-sounding Count Dracula as the monster. No. It’s set in a town like yours, with regular people as the monsters. Regular people who had been your neighbors and your friends and your family just a week ago, but who are all bloodthirsty zombies now.
    “We will watch this movie over the next two class periods. Then I want you to write an essay comparing and contrasting
A Journal of the Plague Year
to
Night of the Living Dead.
”
    He popped a video into the slot beneath the TV screen. Blaring, evil zombie music filled the room. It was cool stuff, but I thought,
No way is this part of the county curriculum. Mr. Proctor’s going to get in trouble
.
    Near the end of class, Mr. Proctor stopped the video to point out, “Karen, the cute little girl in the movie, is already infected with the zombie plague, but no one knows it. She’ll wind up devouring her own mother and father. That seems pretty bizarre, right? And unbelievable. But let me tell you, I think
I’ve
seen zombies walking around at the college.” Then he added darkly, “Meth zombies.”
    Arthur raised his hand immediately. “Yeah. I’ve seen meth zombies around, too, Mr. Proctor. Around my house. We definitely have them in Caldera.”
    Hands shot up all around the room. Other kids started to say similar things—that they had seen meth zombies around Blackwater. As I listened to their stories, I realized that I had seen one, too. I raised my hand, and Mr. Proctor pointed to me. I contributed this:
    “One night last summer, just after closing time, I was doing a roundup in the parking lot. A guy was sitting next to a cart, just staring at me. His eyes were black, his mouth was hanging open, and he had all these rotten teeth.
    “It was like I was looking into the eyes of a corpse. I went in and told my dad about the guy, but by the time we walked back out, he was gone. My dad said, ‘He was probably drunk. Just sleeping it off.’ But I’ve seen drunks before, and this was something else.”
    Mr. Proctor nodded. He continued to listen to our stories intently.People were still telling them when the bell rang, and he had to say, “Okay. That’s enough for now. I’ll see you all tomorrow for part two of the movie.”
    Arthur walked out behind me.
    He started talking, like to himself. “So, let me make sure I’ve got this right. Dork-man