Margaret turned to walk back into her World History class, where she had just been talking to her teacher about the Magna Carta paper that was due the next week. As she sat down at her desk, she was oblivious to the events unfolding as a direct result of her unintentional wish. Really, all she was thinking about was how excited she was that Al Gore was going to be speaking at Branson University across town this evening, and that she'd be sitting right there in the audience, watching him live.
As the late bell rang, Mrs. Salsipuedes wordlessly marched towards the front of the classroom and turned on the television that was sitting there on top of a cart. The bitch from Bogota, as some students liked to call her, started all of her history classes with five minutes of CNN, followed by ten minutes of class discussion, so she didn't need to tell anyone what to do.
As the old CRT screen whistled awake, Margaret perked her head up and paid attention. Mrs. Salsipuedes graded based on participation in these discussions, so following what was said on the news was important, but Margaret had no idea precisely how important to her the news would be.
After a blurb on North Korea's latest missile test, the anchor woman shuffled her papers and said "This just in, former Vice President Al Gore has filed for a legal divorce from Tipper, his wife of forty years. Speaking before a small crowd at Branson University, where he is scheduled to speak later today, Gore said that it was simply time for he and the former second lady to go their separate ways. So far there has been no public comment from Tipper Gore, or any of their four children. The former vice president did state that he still intended to continue his speaking tour exactly as scheduled."
Margaret didn't listen to the rest of the news reports. What? Al Gore couldn't get a divorce. He and Tipper had a strong, loving relationship. She would know, she'd developed a near-obsession on the global warming activist. Margaret could barely hold back crying out in protest, and she absolutely knew that every eye in the classroom was aimed directly at her. Through another news story, Margaret fumed, repeating in her head all of the reasons why the news story just couldn't be true. Her normally-bright face was clouded in concentration, as she shut out the world to re-justify her beliefs.
Mercifully, Mrs. Salsipuedes turned off the television early, having some idea what sort of effect the news had had on Margaret. Somewhat less mercifully, she turned her gaze directly on the student and said, "So, Margaret, what do you think about the stories you just heard?
