Free Verse by Moses Roth

conflict of interest.”
    “A conflict of interest?”
    Sydney.
    Oh man.
    Sydney.
    Pierson says, “We are going to be investigating the situation. Students will be interviewed. If we find evidence of any wrongdoing, well, we’ll have to discuss whether the consequences will merely be academic or if we’ll be requesting criminal charges pressed.”
    My stomach drops. “Criminal charges? He’s made criminal accusations against me?”
    “These accusations are very serious. Until the investigation is through, the school board has ruled that you may no longer practice your religion or whatever it is on school campus.”
    “You can’t stop me.”
    “Yes, we can. This situation isn’t just about you any more, it could have consequences for the entire school. If the PTA gets involved, things could end up like in some of the other districts, where no one is allowed to talk about religion at all or wear a cross or a yarmulke to school. Also, you could get expelled. Or go to jail.”
    “You think I care about any of that?”
    “Yes I do. And I’m asking you to go along with this, don’t talk about this with your friends, keep the situation from escalating, not just for the school’s sake, but for your and your friends’ sake. To keep it from becoming a witch hunt. Let’s just try to get this situation cleared up, don’t stir up any more controversy, hopefully these accusations are unfounded and this will all go away.”
    “But I didn’t stir up any controversy, whoever’s lying about me did.”
    He says, “I’ll see you tonight.”
    I get up and leave.
    I walk down the hall toward the entrance.
    They can’t tell me what to do.
    I don’t care if I am the messiah or not, this is censorship.
    I go to the payphone and open the white pages. I rifle through them, finally finding the number for the Times , and call.
    I listen to the menu. I don’t hear the correct option, so I hit
     
    0
     
    A woman answers, “How may I direct your call? Are you looking to renew your subscription or start a new one?”
    “Do you have a number to call if I have a story?”
    “Um… let me ask about that.”
    She transfers me. Another woman answers and I say, “Yes, I’ve a started a new religion at my school and my school is trying to stop us from practicing it. I mean, Grant High is religiously censoring us.”
    “You’ve started a new religion? What’s the name of it?”
    “Uh, it doesn’t really have a name. I mean, it’s not really a religion, but it’s a religious group, sort of. But we’re being religiously censored.”
    “Okay, how many members of this religion are there?”
    “I don’t know, around twenty?”
    “Twenty?”
    “Yeah, around twenty.”
    “And you’re the what, guru?”
    “Messiah.”
    “Messiah?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What’s your name?”
    “Manuel. Manuel Kadur. Manuel, spelled like Man-well, Kadur, K-A-D-U-R.”
    “Okay. And now the faculty’s censoring you.”
    “Yeah.”
    “All right. What’s your phone number, Manuel?” She asks a couple more questions before saying, “Okay, I’ll run it up the flagpole,” and we say goodbye.

Chapter 30
     
    Mom and I meet Pierson and Ms. Yang, a woman from the school board, out in front of the school. They lead us into a conference room, turning on the buzzing fluorescent light. We take seats around the table.
    “Thanks for coming,” Yang says.
    “It’s no problem,” Mom says.
    Pierson says to me, “I understand that Louis, Mr. Washington has talked to you a couple of times about what you’ve been doing.”
    “Yeah,” I say.
    Yang says, “Well it seems this situation has been escalating for years. Since your freshman year apparently. And you’ve been warned about this kind of behavior, but you’ve continued on as if there are no consequences to your actions. I’ve been looking over your file and we’ve been receiving complaints about your behavior and your friends’ behavior for years now. I think Mr. Washington turned a blind