书城文学在鹰眼的那些记忆
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第25章 “Mock”accident at West High

Today wasn’t a good day.The dark and grey clouds covered theen tire sky.Anyway,my mood Wasn’t affected by such a blue weather.I was excited this morning.A week ago,the school had already an-nounced the so-called mock accident on Friday.What is called a mock accident is a bogus traffic incident arranged by school or community.The main purpose was to edueate the students about the preciousness of lives and the importance of obeying the rules of road.I think the activi-ty is necessary and would reach its goal fully because American stu-dents are“wild”in driving.The rate of over speed and the alcoholism was the highest among those teenagers.As for me,that could be no more than a joke,I thought,because I never drove.

At exactly 9:30,a rich male voice was heard in the broadcast and the whole school began to be ordered to move out.Soon,the massive crowd could not let me through.I followed those Koreans and eventually got out.I enjoyed walking in such a drizzle time.My glasses had gotten all wet.I tiptoed wanting to see the cars,the people and the ambulance,things as many as I could.Two cars crashed severely.Their shapes have changed entirely.I was not sure whether there was a student in the car,but my ESL teacher firmly told us there should be.A graduated student might be invited by West High to take part in the act.So would his parents do if in that case.The funeral has been planned to hold eonse-quently.The police and the ambulance soon came with their cars twin-kling upon.The fill fighters and the officers got out of the cars at once and went straight to the damaged cars.They were busy keeping there cord and checking the car problems.To me,everything was so exag-gerated and unbelievable-a helicopter even came for this mock acei-dent!It was my first time watching the helicopter so close.It landed in large grassland ahead and the staffs jumped out consequently.They joined the working with those policemen.After a while something wrapped by the white fabric was camed out from tile ear.I guess it was a real person.Then we were told to move into the auditorium to watch the funeral.All the while,I was wondering why the school chooses sucha way,a so practical way to educate students.It sounded kind of ridiculous-everyone knew the whole truth but still had to pretend that itwas true,wasn’t it? I was pushed,jostled and pulled into the audioriumby the crowd.To tell the truth,it was my first time entering the audito-rium for these several months I"ve gotten here.The auditorium was sobig.The two stages aside were high.I spotted a middle one and settled down.It was noisy.It seemed that everyone was chatting to each other happily.I couldn’t sense any atmosphere of a funeral.After all the stu-dents had entered,the light was suddenly turned off.Only the centerpart was highlighted by a sheave of light.The soft sad music was played.I was stunned that the students turned into a total silence mo-mentarily.No one was talking;no one was laughing,and no one was making fun of it.Only the“shi-shi”sound was heard.A coffin that was covered by a bunch of lilies was being pulled by a group of people wearing the black suits gradually.They solenmly walked around the au-ditorium with the trace of tears on some of the faces.I had already heard the sound of crying in the audiences.As the group of people stood at the right center of the floor,a middle-aged lady went ahead to the speaker and began to read her papers in hands.I guess it was the mom of tha“dead”student.From her deep eyesight,I saw the countless sadness and miseries.She emotionally recalled those happy memories etched into her mind about her lovely daughter Rachel.Hertone was so sincere and honest.I was powerfully moved by her lively description of Rachel’s interesting stories.A lovely and energetic figure of a girl emerged in my mind.At the end of the speech,the woman sobbed.She said that she would miss the daughter perpetually.Still with the music going on,the people bowed to the coffin.Then they pulled it back just as the way they went originally.Everyone was glaringat the coffin and showing their greatest respects to the dead girl.Fol-lowing the leaving of those people,a PowerPoint project was shown onthe big screen.The photos of Rachel were delicately edited.She was truly beautiful.At the end,it was amazingly silent as if the air had be-come frozen.A sudden applause broke up the silence and much more passionate applauses followed.Everyone was clapping their hands en-thusiastically to show their appreciation and thanks to the organizers.I thought those students were realizing and understanding the values of human lives and feelings of their parents.The applauses sustained for along time.After getting out of the auditorium,I found the rain almosts topped.The sky became crystal clear.Some of the students smiled watching the lovely day of the spring.Everything remained same.In-cluding me,we all felt the niceness and sweetness of owning a complete and loving family.For the first time,I felt the proud and pleasure of being loved and cared by the parents.

I no longer considered the mock accident a joke from which I ben-efited a lot.I realized the importance of being surrounded by full rela-fives,the necessity for one to take care of oneself for the sake of familyas well as him or her.Hopefully,every student would have the same thought as mine or benefited more of the things than I did.