Chapter 6

(Clark sits in a stuffy classroom in a highly uncomfortable chair.  Summer fever is in the air, and the advanced European History class can feel it pulsing through their veins.  Leaning back, Clark zones out and stares at the ceiling.  Beside him sits Lana, who is attempting to stay awake.  Her right eye twitches as her head slumps forward slightly, resting on her hand.  Several conversations are going on around the room, all of which are of no interest to Clark.  Turning, Clark smiles at Amandil, who sits behind him.)

Clark: "Hey Aman, Enjoy your first month in Smallville?"

Amandil: "I did, and am still.  There's just something... special... about finally being out of the city..."

(His voice trails off, and he snaps to attention as their teacher enters the room.  Gathering his notes, Mr. Audley steps around his desk and sits on the corner of it, surveying the class.  Persisting in the continuation of their conversations, they ignore him.  Standing from his desk, he lightly takes a text book in his hand and walks up to Pete's desk in the front row.  Pete is slouched down low in his chair, his head lolled back and his eyes closed.  Mr. Audley takes a deep breath, slowly brings the book above his head, and slams it down on Pete's desk.)

Pete (Jumping out of his desk): "WHA-?  Who?!"

Mr. Audley: "Glad you could join us, Mr. Ross."

Pete (Attempting to play it off): "Oh, hey Mr. Audley.  What's up?"

(Grumbling, Pete sits down as Mr. Audley returns to sitting on the corner of his desk.  The class grudgingly turns to face him.)

Mr. Audley: "Now then, though summer vacation is fast approaching-"

(A collective 'yes!' is echoed throughout the classroom from the students, temporarily interrupting him.)

Mr. Audley (Continuing): "We still have work to do."

(Whispers of dissent spread around the class.)

Mr. Audley: "Mr. Kent, please close the shades."

(Clark stands and enjoys one last moment of the sun before dropping the shades.  He repeats this for all three shades on the long windowed wall.  Waiting for their eyes to adjust, the class stares at Mr. Audley as he wheels the overhead projector to the middle of the room.)

Mr. Audley: "Last week, I know I promised you that we would delve further into Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, but there's been a change of plans."

(At this, everyone in the class seems to perk up, even though it was tempting to just fall asleep in the relatively cool darkness of the room.)

Mr. Audley: "You will recall that, back in February, we reviewed your knowledge of the holocaust.  Today, we will be traveling slightly... deeper... than is customary."

Lana (Whispering under her breath): "Not again..."

(Clark smiles to himself at her comment.  She looks over at him and rolls her eyes, secretly reminding herself that he was indeed still there beside him.)

Mr. Audley: "But not your contemporary studies.  We touched upon internment camps and briefly mentioned the great deal of 'mistreatment' which occurred there, but we never even touched upon the practices of scientists of the Third Reich."

Lana (Whispering to Clark): "Another disgusting lecture, I think."

(Clark smiles broadly.  Behind them, they here a soft 'shh!' as Amandil shushes them.)

Mr. Audley: "More specifically, we will be focusing on the research of Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.  That is, if you can even call it 'research'."

(With this, Mr. Audley turns on the overhead and slides a picture on to it.  It is of a Nazi officer wearing a crisp uniform.  His hair is carefully combed back; not one is out of place.  He is attentively cleaning his glasses in the picture.)

Mr. Audley: "The majority of his experiments can be classified as the result of a sick and twisted mind.  However, many of his experiments show profound and complex insights into the workings of the human mind."

(Once again, Mr. Audley changes the overhead to that of a drawing.  Two young men with the Star of David burned into their left forearms are sitting facing each other.  Terror lines their eyes.  Everyone in the class flinches and giggles uneasily when they see that the two young men are naked.  Both are tied down in thick wooden chairs, and four buckets of water sit on the ground, one under each wrist.  Mengele stands in front of them, a clipboard in his hand.  Two Nazi militants stand at attention beside each prisoner.  A gleaming knife is gripped in one's hand, a long piece of ice and a vile of water in the other.)

Mr. Audley: "Now, take careful note of the positioning of the two prisoners.  They are facing each other and can see everything happening to - Mr. Addams, Ms. Dialing, please, restrain yourselves!"

(Trying to hold back their grins, the two settle back in their chairs, but not before exchanging a furtive glance.)

Mr. Audley (Walking up to the screen and gesturing at the two prisoners): "As I was saying, they can clearly see everything happening to the other."

Mr. Audley (Pointing out the small knife and ice): "Here, and here - a knife and a thin piece of ice can be seen.  You will see the implementation of these in a moment.  Alright, here is where this may grow rather graphic.  However, it won't be much compared to what you see in the movies these days..."

(His voice trails off as he grumbles.  He snaps back to attention after furrowing his eyes for several seconds.)

Mr. Audley: "Right, back to the subject.  The guard with the knife would then slit the wrists of the first prisoner.  His blood would then drip into the buckets below, causing an audible sound with each drip.  The second prisoner would watch this happen.  Invariably, the first prisoner would die within ten minutes due to the blood loss."

(Clark can hear Lana's breath grow slightly shallow as she stares wide-eyed at their teacher.)

Mr. Audley: "Here is where things grow interesting.  Wrapping a blind fold around the second prisoner, they would run the ice over his wrists to simulate the cold steel of the blade used on the other prisoner only minutes before.  Then, to simulate the blood dropping into the buckets, they would drip water into them.  Mengele took careful logs of their reactions, and noted them to have 'rasping breaths, immense perspiration, and signs of extreme psychological strain.'  Again, invariably, this prisoner would die within six minutes, a significantly shorter time then their comrade.  If you could turn off the overhead, now, Ms. Lee."

(She complies as he flips the light switch.  Every one shields their eyes from the new addition of light into the classroom.  Their eyes adjust.)

Mr. Audley: "Now, I want us to discuss this.  But first, I will point out one prominent detail which I need to make sure none of you have missed due to lack of attention."

(He glares towards the back row.)

Mr. Audley: "The second prisoner died of his own workings.  There was nothing physically wrong with him.  In essence, his mind killed him."

Mr. Audley (Gesturing towards them): "Please, converse amongst yourselves.  Take ten minutes, then we will convene and discuss this as a whole."

(Lana turns to face ClarkClark rotates in his desk to face her and Amandil.)

Clark (Raising an eyebrow): "Think that actually happened?"

Amandil (His voice soft, sounding pained): "Yes, it did... my grandfather was one of Mengele's prisoner scientists.  He had to see things like that, plus much worse..."

Clark (Sounding stupid to himself): "Oh."

Amandil (Trying to smile): "But it does bring to mind some interesting things, though, doesn't it?"

Lana: "Yeah, just how much could someone do with their mind?"

Clark (Trying to lighten the mood): "Maybe they could fly or dodge bullets?"

Amandil (Chuckling softly): "I think only aliens could do that, Clark."

(Clark smiles awkwardly.)

Amandil (Smiling broadly and gesturing with his hands): "Just picture it, ET, the local superhero!"

(Clark pictures it in his mind, then laughs.  He looks back at Amandil, who gives him a wink out of his left eye so Lana can't see.  Clark glances away, slightly unnerved.)

Lana: "So you two want to come over to the Talon later?"

Clark: "I'll be there.  How about you, Aman?"

Amandil: "Oh, uh.  I'm busy tonight.  Sorry."

Lana: "What're you up to?"

Amandil: "Just a video game engagement.  Several of my friends from the East Coast want to take down Naggy."

Lana: "Sounds... uh, fun!"

Clark: "Is this that game you were talking about before, EverQuest?"

Amandil: "Yup."

Clark: "Well, have some fun.  Tell your friends I said 'hi' for me."

(Clark smiles at Amandil; he smiles back.  Amandil glances down at his watch and his eyes grow wide.)

Amandil: "Oh no, Chloe!  I forgot!"

(He grabs his bag as he quickly stands.)

Amandil: "I'll see you two tomorrow!"

(With that, he rushes out of the room leaving Lana and Clark staring after him.  Lana turns back to Clark.)

Lana: "The Torch, probably."

(Clark nods and begins riffling around in his backpack for a book.)

Lana: "I'm kinda glad he can't come tonight.  I've been wanting to talk to you about some stuff..."

Clark (Looking back up): "What kinda stuff?"

Lana: "Oh, you know... just... stuff."

(Again, Clark smiles.  Lana smiles back.  Looking through the closed window blinds, Clark sees a bird lazily fly by in the summer air.  Taking a deep breath, Clark turns back to the class as Mr. Audley returns to the front of the room to begin anew.)

Mr. Audley: "So, what have you come up with?"

(He looks around the class expectantly.  Bored and disinterested eyes return his gaze.  He sighs heavily and rolls his eyes.)

Mr. Audley: "Guess we'll just do this the hard way..."