A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School

98the tree did it by itself. It's an impression I've had. Almost as though the tree shook me out byitself."The acoustics in the Assembly Room were so poor that silences there had a heavy hum oftheir own."Someone else was in the tree, isn't that so?""No," said Finny spontaneously, "I don't think so." He looked at the ceiling. "Or was there?Maybe there was somebody climbing up the rungs of the trunk. I kind of forget."This time the hum of silence was prolonged to a point where I would be forced to fill it withsome kind of sound if it didn't end. Then someone else on the platform spoke up. "I thoughtsomebody told me that Gene Forrester was—""Finny was there," Brinker interrupted commandingly, "he knows better than anyone.""You were there too, weren't you, Gene?" this new voice from the platform continued."Yes," I said with interest, "yes, I was there too.""Were you—near the tree?"Finny turned toward me. "You were down at the bottom, weren't you?" he asked, not in theofficial courtroom tone he had used before, but in a friend's voice.I had been studying very carefully the way my hands wrinkled when tightly clenched, but Iwas able to bring my head up and return his inquiring look. "Down at the bottom, yes."Finny went on. "Did you see the tree shake or anything?" He flushed faintly at what seemedto him the absurdity of his own question. "I've always meant to ask you, just for the hell of it."I took this under consideration. "I don't recall anything like that . . .""Nutty question," he muttered."I thought you were in the tree," the platform voice cut in."Well of course," Finny said with an exasperated chuckle, "of course I was in the tree—ohyou mean Gene?—he wasn't in—is that what you mean, or—" Finny floundered with muddledhonesty between me and my questioner."I meant Gene," the voice said."Of course Finny was in the tree," I said. But I couldn't make the confusion last, "and I wasdown at the bottom, or climbing the rungs I think . . .""How do you expect him to remember?" said Finny sharply. "There was a hell of a lot ofconfusion right then."