Ben K.'s lecture

Ben Kxxxxxky was a child who attended temple with Jared, Audrey, and Toby. He was intelligent, quiet, and neurodivergent. As he was a few years younger than the three of them and a bit insane, they never spoke to him and did not have any sort of relationship with him.

But Jared was suddenly forced to have at least some sort of indirect relationship with him around the time that Ben was preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. Sunday school students were supposed to organize a charitable project to help the community, and Ben's topic of focus was bullying (allegedly). He held a lecture at temple to advocate against it (allegedly), and as a show of support, Memo forced Jared to attend (allegedly).

If Jared did attend, the lecture was utterly unremarkable. If it did happen, there were only a few students and a couple of their parents there. Ben simply spoke about the harm of bullying, possibly, and gave tips on how not to be a bystander. He may have answered a few questions. Then it was over — in some timeline.

In the many years since, Toby has become fascinated by whether the entire incident happened or not. For years, she believed it did. Then Jared told her the whole thing was made up, which seemed to be the final word. But years after that, Jared reiterated that it was actually real the whole time... only for him to then admit that it wasn't.

Either way, if the whole story seems extremely plausible, it makes perfect sense that it would. Because it did happen. As far as Jared says.  ❒

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