2007 (cont)

So Max nodded, and continued to believe everything.

Until school started.

Almost immediately, Max was thrown out of her element. Her parents hadn't adequately prepared her for what school would be like. Nobody understood why she always wore dresses. Max didn't understand why other girls were allowed to wear such short shorts, or even denim jeans. Or why their sleeves were so short. Or how their parents could just let them show off their stomachs with short shirts.

Or why the boys were allowed to say and do the things they did. She even heard a few of them using curse words in front of teachers, who didn't bat an eye. One of them, she'd even seen smoking around the side of the school. She couldn't believe these children could be so... full of sin. And she could barely handle the thought of being around them.

People made fun of her, of course. The weird religious girl who didn't have any friends. They were merciless; snickering behind her back, pushing her in the hallway, and chanting insults as she went to catch her bus home.

"God tests all of us, Maxine," her father said after she complained. "This is one of your tests. Stay true to our faith, keep to yourself, and you'll be just fine."

So Max did. She isolated herself. Ignored the others students, and focused all of her efforts on her schoolwork.

Or tried to, anyway. She excelled at reading, history and math, but when her father found out what some of her science assignments were, he was not happy. When one such assignment covered the theory of evolution, Max thought the roof of their house was going to blow off.

"LIES!" he would scream. Max had never heard him yell before, and she cowered as he waved her science textbook. He ranted for two hours about all the devil's falsehoods within, and finally threw the offending textbook into the trash.

Max had no idea what to tell the teacher when he asked for her homework the next day. When she did quietly stutter her nervous answer out, Mr. Grayson nodded, ignoring the other student's snickers, and told her to see him after class.

"What church do you go to, Maxine?" he asked when they were alone.

"First Light of Christ," Max explained nervously.

"I see. Well, Maxine-"

"Max," she said quietly.

Mr. Grayson blinked. "You prefer Max?"

"Only my parents and Pastor Roger call me Maxine." She shook her head. "I like Max."

"Ah. Well, Max, I've heard of your church before." A cloud passed over Mr. Grayson's face, but it passed quickly. "What do they tell you about evolution?"

"That it's made up by scientists, because they don't have faith that we were made in God's image." Max parroted what she'd been taught by her old teachers.

"Well, then, Max." Mr. Grayson leaned back. "I'm going to give you a different assignment than the others. Do you think you're up for it?"

Max nodded.

"I want you to write a paper." He nodded. "A research paper."

"What's that?"

Mr. Grayson spent a little time explaining what it meant, to cite her sources, and properly evaluate where she got her information from. "I want you to write a research paper on why evolution is wrong," he finally explained.

"My, uh..." Max's face turned red. "My dad threw away my textbook."

Mr. Grayson pulled a new one out of his desk and held it up. "This one needs to stay at school," he told her as he placed it in front of her. "But I think you'll have better luck doing your research on the computers at the library."

Max's face got redder, and Mr. Grayson tilted his head quizzically after she didn't reply. "Do you know how to use a computer, Max?"

"We don't have one in our house," she answered, embarrassed.

"I see." He sat back and interlaced his fingers across his chest. "Then tomorrow, instead of coming to this class, I want you to go to the library instead and see Mrs. Hoida."

"Why?"

"So she can show you how to use a computer." Max's eyes got wide, and Mr. Grayson leaned forward. "I understand that you're nervous, Max, but computers are going to become more and more commonplace. You need to know how they work, and how to use one. You can't hide from them, I'm afraid."

So Max didn't.

The next day, she went to the library and met with Mrs. Hoida. The librarian, clearly having been told about her by Mr. Grayson, was very kind as she sat Max down in front of the strange machine and showed her how the computer worked. She taught her how to use the internet, and how to use a search engine to find what she needed.

Max's father wasn't happy when Max told him what she was learning at the dinner table. She left out the assignment; she didn't want to hear him yell again. He was, however, very against Max learning to use the internet in general.

But Max's mother, in an INCREDIBLY rare show of disagreement, sided with the school. "Computers are everywhere these days, Ryan," she argued. "They use them at church, remember? Pastor Rogers has one in his office to write sermons."

"We both know what they can expose children too, Vanessa," Max's father replied crossly. "The internet is a dangerous place."

"Well, if we had one at home, honey, we could monitor her use." Max's mother took another bite of dinner. "And, quite frankly, having a computer around the house might be nice. Beth is always going on about the web sites that sell her knitting supplies, and where she gets her new recipes. And I'm sure you could use it for work, too."

"Hmm..." Max's father stroked his beard, in thought.

A week later, her father was reading the instructions to set up their new computer at a desk in the living room.

"You are not to go on the internet without your mother or I knowing first," he lectured to Max when he was finished. "The world wide web is like your science textbook; it's full of lies and deceit, and much, much worse. We don't want to see you hurt by any of it."

True to his word, Max's parents monitored her home internet use closely.

Her internet exposure at school, however, was unchecked, and Max began researching her paper.

And that was when her belief started to shake.

She sometimes imagined the smug look she could give her science teacher when she handed a paper in, explaining that she was right and he wasn't. Evolution couldn't be real; her parents, her church, and her old teachers had said so. So she entered what she'd learned into Google, and hit the search button.

And the entire page of results was all the proof that she was wrong, and Mr. Grayson was right.

She even found a page detailing the EXACT lesson she'd been taught in her old school, complete with pictures of her textbook, and a full list of counterpoints. Her parents and teachers had just explained that evolution wasn't real, and Max had accepted that as a fact, but The Internet had lists of reasons why it was real. There were pictures of all the different skulls, showing the small steps between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. More pictures, from Sabre-Toothed Tigers to housecats. Charts. Simplified explanations that Max could understand, even with her lacking scientific knowledge.

And it all made sense. Max spent days reading everything. The few sites that agreed with her, on the stance that evolution wasn't real, were all religious, and only cited bible passages. No pictures, no charts, no scientists. And they all repeated themselves, over and over. Even when she tried to cite them, she couldn't meet the page requirement Mr. Graham had given her.

That was the first night Max cried. Not because she was upset, but because she was scared. Scared of what her parents would say when they found out she knew that evolution was real.

So she didn't tell them.

She begged Mr. Grayson not to tell her parents, and she started doing her science classwork at the library after school. She told her family that she was walking home later than usual because she was studying her history homework, and her father didn't question it.

When her report card came in, and showed her good grades in Science, he accepted the answer that she'd just copied what was in the textbook, and nothing more.

He never suspected that she was using the internet at school to learn what else the church was wrong about.