A New Term By Jonah
We're once more at the Norwich City Technology College with Simon. Not that there is any such place. None of the people in any of my stories are real. Many of the places are, though the people attached to them aren't, but none of the schools are real either. There are some things you don't want to inflict on real people or institutions by writing stories about them. Although I invented most of the people in this story, one of them - Garret - is the invention of another author - of Jacob Lion in the United States - as are some characters that only get a mention. I want to thank Jacob for his kind permission to use his characters in my story. If you've enjoyed my previous stories from 'A Letter from America', to 'On Sea and Sand', I hope you'll enjoy this one. if you do enjoy it, please spare a thought for the kind man who published it for you. Nifty doesn't charge you to read these stories, and he doesn't charge us authors either, but it does cost money to publish them. He bears this cost from his own pocket and from donations via https://donate.nifty.org/ . Please consider donating.
Chapter 3
Form 1KJC were vaguely awake. It was the last period of the day and they didn't really feel up to the intricacies of the English language. I was using comprehension exercises to try to assess their proficiency, but I already knew that they were likely to be less proficient at three in the afternoon than they had been at ten in the morning. I felt some sympathy, which most teachers wouldn't have done. Even Charles Wright, the deputy head, would have said, I've got to be here and work, so they can.
"Alright 1KJC, you've worked very hard. Well done!" I glanced at my watch. "Put your books away and sit up straight."
Only seconds now. After a quick scuffle every face was turned towards me.
I glanced at Barry and mouthed, "stay there." He appeared to have got the message. I don't know if any of the other children had picked up on it. If they hadn't, they soon would.
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRingggg.
"Go on then 1KJC, off you go"
I believe some American once propounded the principle that the right to free speech doesn't include the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. Saying, "off you go," in a full classroom had the same effect, but it had one advantage. None of the twenty-eight children trying to get through the door at the same time were likely to notice that one of their number was still sitting at his desk. I remained seated at my desk too. They had started the scrummage, they could sort it out.
I reached for the pile of comprehension papers.
"You know 'ruthless' doesn't have a direct opposite, don't you?" I remarked. "'Ruth' only goes with 'less' - you can't have it on its own, or with a different suffix".
"I was just yanking your chain," Barry replied.
I'd only just glanced at his paper as he handed it in. The offending sentence had leapt out at me.
"Yes, you can do that because you're clever," I replied, "but what happens when you try it on a teacher who hasn't got a sense of humour?"
I was really just wasting time. I thought I'd let most of his classmates get away from the premises before Barry had to walk out in my company.
Barry flicked his mousy couloured hair from his eyes and leaned forward on his elbows. An expression of rapt attention was on his face, and it fooled nobody - the smirk was still detectable.
"What DOES happen when I try it on a teacher who hasn't got a sense of humour?" he said.
"Let's just say you should be glad that we no longer have corporal punishment."
I suddenly realised that, if anyone deserved corporal punishment at that moment, it was me. Barry had taken a few beatings when he was younger, and I wished I had bitten off my tongue before I reminded him of them.
"Did you used to do that?" he asked, apparently just curious.
"Never," I replied. "It was discontinued long before I became a teacher. In fact, it was gone before I went to school. You still hear some horror stories from those days though. If we still had it, I don't think I could do the job."
I gathered the papers together.
"Come on," I said. "Time we were on our way home. As soon as we get in, it's homework first before you do anything else. I know I didn't give you any, but I'm sure you'll have some"
"Yes I have. Mr. Sooty gave us some maths homework"
"His name's Mr. Sutcliffe. We can't stop you from calling him Sooty, but not in front of teachers."
It hadn't taken Dave long to acquire a nickname. I'd had one for a few years. Nobody used it to my face, but the kids all called me 'Inky' behind my back. I suspect that was because Ito is a fairly short surname and begins with I. It's also possible that it was racist, but I didn't think so. I knew Grev didn't agree with me. He'd been quite upset when he first heard about it. I assured him that making an issue of racism is one of the most racist things you can do. In any case, most of our children prided themselves on having principles. I'm sure that racism would have offended their principles.
In fact, eating was the first priority when we got home, since Garret and Lloyd had already put together a creditable ham salad. After dinner both Barry and Philip had homework. We had realised that, still being at primary school, Lloyd would be the odd-man-out in that respect. We both contrived to find him work about the house while homework was being done. Far from complaining, Lloyd accepted these new responsibilities with pride.
I settled back in an armchair and opened my briefcase. It contained a set of workbooks from 2GGJ that I needed to mark. 1KJC's comprehension papers could wait.
"Dad says do you want a cup of coffee while you're doing that," said Lloyd coming downstairs.
"Yes, thank you Lloyd", I replied. "That would be nice".
He disappeared into the kitchen. The second-year work was in the form of a short descriptive work - the Old Church - to include at least three paragraphs and to show imaginative use of adjectives and verbs. It should be challenging to have to find plenty of verbs to ascribe to a building. I expected full use of passive verbs, the building possessed, had, stood, etc. but was surprised to note that Clive Horden had found a loophole. His building "appeared to hover", "seemed to lurk", and in his minds eye actually "leaped out", at him. Now that's using the imagination. Blaming it all on his imagination had enabled him to use almost any active verb he wanted. At one stage the churchyard literally "shouted" spookiness; I didn't know if I could let him get away with "literally" but it was still a creditable effort. I recalled that Charles Dickens had used a similar tactic in 'A Christmas Carol' - a house was in a courtyard where it had so little business to be that 'one imagined' that it had crept in there when it was quite a young house and been unable to find its way out again. If Clive, at twelve years old, was emulating Dickens, that was laudible
Lloyd put a mug of coffee on the occasional table next to my chair.
"Are you all going to have homework every night," he asked.
"Yes, and so are you," I replied. "There are loads of things that need doing around here that we can't do because of our homework".
I was ready to rebuff the pout that never came.
"Cool!" he remarked. "Can we get the train out when you've finished it?"
Lloyd had always been irrepressible. I shouldn't have been surprised.
"I think we might tonight. Tomorrow it'll depend on how much homework everybody has. We'll do it as much as we can for the next few weeks though because, after that, it'll be too cold and dark to get it out before Spring".
"OK" said the cute little fellow as he returned to his kitchen. I took a sip of coffee and returned to my marking.
"Dad's been on the phone", said Garret, coming downstairs.
"He doesn't want us in the States for Christmas again does he?" I said warily.
"No, he never mentioned that,"replied my partner. "I think he knows that we'd never afford it. He says Jake's got his old farm back though. Planning to use it as a holiday home so he reckons. He's gonna let Liam build a place down the field, so he won't be wanting Dad's place. "
"I thought your dad had it all worked out".
"So did he, but I don't think he's especially upset about it. Says it'll be nice to see Jake back in Ashfield, though I don't suppose they'll see much of each other."
"I wonder if Jonah knows about it."
"Why would he?"
"I shouldn't think he would", I admitted. "He and Jake used to exchange e mails all the time, but I don't think they have since Kori grew up. Kori used to e mail me a lot too, but not for a few years now. How's the homework going?"
"Nearly finished. They'll be down in a minute or two"
I put the pile of books to one side and picked up my coffee.
"Good!" I said, "I'll tell Lloyd he can get his train out. The marking can wait till after dark."
Even in early Sepember darkness doesn't become obtrusive until nearly nine o'clock. The railway operations had come to an end and the train was packed away before then. By ten o'clock the boys were in bed and had been kissed Goodnight by both of us. Garret had gone to bed and I was sitting downstairs with a glass of whisky and a pile of exercise books.