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142 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine When they get around to remaking the juvenile delinquent movies of the 1950s Rudy will be cast as a brooding loner in a tight T-shirt who gets shot accidentally when a zip gun battle breaks out at the Pu- laski Day Dance. hile Rudy slumped at his desk and scowled Ms. Stein her forearms seiz- ing up put the file down and said You know kids I was just think- ing. So much of William Shakespeares life is unknown to us but his lifes work is familiar to people all over the world. Isnt that something He wrote Mac- beth 400 years ago and here we are today at Parkside High beginning our study of that very play. Mr. Talbot looked just a tad put out. Back to the file already But Ms. Stein pressed on extemporane- ously probably glad to give her arms a rest. I remember one of the themes of this play is ambition and now that Im thinking about it it seems to me that Shakespeare who was a playwright trying to forge a career in an iffy business must have understood what a powerful drive ambition can be and that probably helped him write the Macbeth character as a fully-formed human being. I made a note of that. Camden famous school-wide for her flowing mane of perfect blonde hair and for using people and then throwing them away like dental floss must have heard that tid- bit even though she was watching a horror movie on her iPad with her earbuds plugged in underneath all the hair. She snapped her fingers. Taylor her top handmaiden leaned forward from the desk behind her. Camden said Write that down. Write that down Oh. Ah. I see. Camden wanted to give the impression to Mr. Talbot and Ms. Stein that she was paying attention and she wanted to keep Taylor on her toes. Just last year all she was allowed to do for Camden was give her her dessert at lunch and now this year she picks out the horror movies that Camden watches in school. If that isnt the American Dream in action I dont know what is. Of course dim smile perking up his saggy face. She said Really I didnt know. Oh yes. said Mr. Talbot. Macbeth. Ev- ery year at this time. Ms. Stein said Its been a while since Ive read it so Im going to need some time to prepare. Oh theres no need dear. No need at all. Did I noticetheskinoverMs.Steinstem- ples tighten ever so slightly when she heard dear How would you know You werent there. Forget I asked. Mr. Talbot opened a squeaky drawer low on his vintage oak desk and lifted out a tome that looked like a Bible with a water reten- tion issue. He said You can use my Mac- beth file and dropped itthwomponto his desk narrowly missing the iPad. Ms. Stein gulped.Thank you. Im sure itll be a big help. Mr. Talbot said Well lets see. You mean now No time like the present. I just meant I thought Id have a day or two to get settled in and Oh give it a try. Jump right in. Ill intro- duce you. And within a minute Ms. Stein picked the Macbeth file up from Mr. Talbots desk and started reading to us. What fun. Noth- ing else quickens the pulse like listening to someone read unfamiliar material written in aleadenstyle.Whenshegottothepartabout the play being written in iambic pentame- ter Mr. Talbot clapped the five-beat rhythm looking happy that he could still clap. I scanned the room from my observation post in the back to see how the lesson was going over Thirty-two kids looked ready to go nighty-night. Ms. Stein kept reading. The Bard ar- ranged words to suit his needs and desires whether to create rhythm or to highlight phrases or to make a characters speech pat- tern unique. At times he inverted the typ- ical word order of English speech. For in- stance a character might say Goes he instead of He goes. Rudy lifted a well-muscled arm and said Ms. Stein Ive got to go. Ms. Stein said Go You mean to the Bad. Mr. Talbot said Youre a sophomore in high school now Rudy and its time you learned self-control. See if you can hold on. her face. She pushed her Clark Kent glasses up too while her hand was in the area. She was wearing clunky motor- cycle boots a colorful batik skirt or was it a tablecloth a powder blue mens dress shirt from the dollar rack at Goodwill and a fuzzy pink cardigan she inherited from her great-aunt after the 23 cats that lived with the old girl ganged up on her one night and smothered her while she slept. She looked fabulous. Old Mr. Talbot bent over his desk like Bob Cratchit was squinting at his iPad and trying to do something mind-blowingly complicated like check his school email. She said Mr. Talbot Nothing from him. Not now. He was busy. Intense concentration re- quired. Barely breathing. Emergency call.Bomb squad. Tick tick tick. Got to defuse it. She said Im your intern and smiled. Snip the blue wire. Waitmaybe the green. She advanced on him with her hand ex- tended and finally he blinked and said Who Sue Stein. Your intern. As they shook hands he said Oh my goodness. Welcome to Parkside High Ms. Stein. Im Milton Talbot. Id been paying attention to what was going on in the front of the room and hadnt noticed my English binder sliding down the desktop. It tipped over the edge and slapped the floor which made Ms. Stein look my way. Oh she said. Hello there. Hi. This is one of your sophomore English students Schuyler Watson. Its Spencer Wilson. Nice to meet you Spencer. Right I said. Spencer. Nice to meet you too Ms. Stein. Other kids were showing up for English now but she kept talking to me which was refreshing. She said Im a student at the university and Im going to be here for a while doing an internship teaching Macbeth said Mr. Talbot a