William's Tale Read Online Free PDF

while being compelled. Her responses seemed ripe with attitude. She remained compelled, and her sassy demeanor impressed him.
    He undid the compulsion, while compelling her to forget she had ever been compelled. Then, following protocol, he planned to detain her for the remainder of the President’s stay.
    “Why were you angry when you saw the President?”
    It was as if he’d opened a can of worms. Jackie shared her concerns with the current administration, childhood education, and the way minorities were being treated in the workforce. Overall, she gave a verbal tongue lashing to the current administration.
    “I just wish I had said it to the President himself,” Jackie huffed as she took a few steps around the room. “Instead, I only smiled, laughed at his joke, and let him walk right on by.”
    And that’s when William pinpointed the source of her anger. “So, you’re upset with yourself?”
    Her hand extended as she turned back around to face him. “Don’t get me started.”
    William leaned against the nurse’s desk and studied Jackie as she continued voicing her concerns. She was so passionate about her job and about teaching. He could tell the kids she taught meant everything to her. He’d had no idea teachers taught curriculum towards certain state and national testing — that their job had been reduced to seeing how many kids could pass certain tests, regardless whether the teacher could reach them or not. The facts about subpopulations and testing within the schools fascinated him, as did the ways in which schools got ranked. A ranking that affected a school’s budget within each district. It was a whole new world to William.
    He allowed her to rant a bit about the school district. He realized she had picked up on the same racial concerns he had when he first laid eyes on this school. The selection of a beautiful building in the middle of rich suburbia, a far cry from one of the poorest school districts, seemed a bit contradictory to the selection of students and teachers assembled to meet the President. Regardless of whether the President had chosen this school for safety, or for a another reason, he couldn’t allow her to continue to believe her allegations.
    “The President isn’t here on any ruse to increase his popularity with minorities,” he said doing his job.
    Her eyes narrowed and a scowl appeared on her face. “Of course you’d say that. You’re a mockery of equality in this country.”
    His jaw nearly hit the floor. He was a mockery? He had lived through the heart of the equal rights campaigns of the 1960s and had fought —and died— for equality for all. Jackie had spent less than five minutes with him. She had no right to jump to such conclusions. “Explain.”
    She looked at him and explained the racial distribution of not just the kids in the library, but also with the agents on duty near the President. William himself, with his dark colored skin, being one of the problems.
    William glanced down at his dark skin. He had felt awkward about this entire school setup, and he thought, perhaps, he might be one of the problems. Regardless, he needed to have her believe the school, and the children, were picked at random. “Juan, the agent who brought the kids into the library, is a friend of mine,” he lied. He had met the man once or twice, but really had kept his distance since Juan was a human agent. “I assure you, his selection was random,” he added for good measure.
    It was a stock answer, and William hated saying it. Oh sure, the diversity of the selected kids was fabulous, but it felt wrong. The selection went against the odds and it ate at him—not just the selection process, but lying to her. Still, he added, “Please believe me the selection of kids was not a calculated result of a President hoping to seem compassionate towards minorities.”
    “Compassionate?” She rolled her eyes at the very idea.
    “I also know the other agents on duty today.” Overall, there