TEENAGE ARGUMENT by Nelma Ward

(This was a writing exercise from our August meeting. We were to write a piece which was mainly dialogue. This was to be between a teenager and an adult and the piece could be set in any period of time.)

“Isaac, how could you! Leon speak to him, tell him,” his mother said, tears standing in her big brown eyes.

Isaac put his head down and listened. ‘Yes, Papa,” he said. Secretly he had no intention of listening.

“Isaac, Isaac, Isaac,” his father said. Quiet desperation was in his voice and his very stance.
“Isaac, you must have friends, yet, but this boy – oy vay, this boy! You know what’s been happening lately, these people, people like him, hate us. Now, now, my boy, don’t interrupt”.

“But Papa, hes a friend, he doesn’t do those things. He doesn’t throw stones through windows and spit on us. He likes me and I like him. Please, Papa?”

“No, no, no”, Papa said. “I have spoken. That’s it – you are not to see him again!”

“Never again,” his mother added. “Isaac, you know hes not one of us, not of our faith, our culture..”

Isaac pulled away from her reaching hand, “But Mama, hes not like that, I said. He wants to come and visit us and see how we live.”

“No, no, no – other friends, yes. But this boy! This German boy! Why his family – his father, and probably brothers, are most likely the ones who stoned your father’s shop window. Do you prefer this over your father, who has given you everything?”

“These are dangerous times, my son,” his father added. “You don’t know, you’re young and carefree, but bad times are coming, and as your mother says, this is an unsuitable boy to be a friend, this…this… whats his name – Adolf someone?”

“Adolf Hitler, Papa, and hes not dangerous, hes not. I really like him and I trust him. Adolf is my friend.”

©Nelma Ward