The last class

( With Apologies to Emile Zola )
By RICHARD BANKS
Illustrated by ADKINS
Many years ago Emile Zola wrote a tale, by this same title, of a French schoolmaster who was forced to leave his pupils by the victorious German troops after the Franco-Prussian War. The schoolmaster's last words were: Vive la France! Miss Hippiness, in this story, had no final words. But if she had, they might have been :
Long live the 20th Century!
And now, children, said Miss Hippiness, her smile shooting deep wrinkles across her face like the cracks up the scarred sides of the ancient, empty sky-scrapers of New York.
The twelve children in the cozy classroom came to attention. It was not her words, it was the tone, the creaking smile.
And now, children, said Miss Hippiness again, sitting down on the old-fashioned straight chair she affected, have you all put away your atomic blocks?
Yes, teacher, came the chorus of sweet young voices.
Your electronic jackstraws? Your pencil-mnestics?
Yes, teacher.
And have you all put the pretty little activator pills in your mouths?