Between the Prison and the Sewage Works by Maryline Suchley (snow like ashes txt) 📖

Mat to wallow in his own misfortune.

Monday of the Last week of term, both students and teachers were hanging out for Friday and the Christmas holidays; they just wanted out!

Mara had still not done anything decisive about Mat. She had just taken the coward’s way out, by being really casual towards him, hoping he would read between the lines.

It was only Wednesday; the days seemed to be dragging. Mara had gone up to the staff room afterschool to use the computer to check her emails. Tony was asleep on the sofa as usual.

I suppose at least he turns up to work! Mara thought as she walked past him into the staff work room. She sat down at a computer and typed in her username and password. Clicking onto Yahoo she logged into her emails and started reading her messages.

Not fair!

Her friend Hazel was travelling around the world and they were going to be in New Zealand for Christmas, and then Fiji for New Year. All Mara could feel was envy. She finished reading her emails and signed out. Then the thought occurred to her. Why didn’t she try a search on the internet for information on the dead guy Frank?

Mara typed in the name Frank Frawley. The search came back with twelve hits. She clicked on the first hit. It was an old BBC webpage which had information on the body that was found at school. Carefully reading the information she found there was nothing new on the page.

The second hit was about an Irish writer called Frank Frawley with no connection to the school or the area.

The remaining web suggestions were just as useless as they were either about someone called Frank or Frawley. Mara then typed in Thamesmead Polytechnic School.

The search came up with a list; the first hit was about the new school building and its architecture. There were a few photos of the school but nothing very interesting. The second hit was a link to the Ministry of Education web site which had statistical information on the school including an old OFSTEAD report.

I may as well have a look at this, she thought clicking the mouse.

The statistical data showed that there was a sixty nine percent level of special needs within the school; the highest in the Borough of Greenwich. This seemed strange to Mara, because although most of the kids she taught were brainless or lazy, there didn’t seem to be a lot of special needs cases. Needless to say Mara understanding of special needs was very limited having missed the series of lectures at University on special needs in the classroom. The lectures had been scheduled at nine o’clock Friday mornings and Thursday evening was always, who wants to be a millionaire quiz night at the Crown public house, making it very difficult to attend the lecture or focus in the lecture.

The OFSTEAD report on the whole was surprisingly good with the exception of Science and Religious Education, which had been categorized as unsatisfactory. The headmaster had a good report for leadership and administrative skills; this of course was contradictory to what she was experiencing. In her eyes he was nothing but tyrant.

There was nothing of interest in these reports. She decided to look at one more site suggestion. The hit read; Old school friend’s of Thamesmead polytechnic school.

‘Who would bloody want to be a friend of this place?’ she whispered to herself.

It was a school reunion website listing past pupils and a message board.

This is worth a laugh, she thought scanning the list of students.

She clicked on a few surnames she recognised thinking they might be the parents of the kids at the school. Most of the former pupils were either banged up in Belmarsh prison or working at the sewage works. She then clicked onto the message board section. This was a whole new kettle of fish; stories about Roger Judd, with students reminiscing about things they had got up to in his lesson.

Even when there was the threat of the cane they still played up. Mara thought.

One former student gave an account of Boyo’s attempts to chat up a nineteen year old girlfriend of an ex-student in the Pigs Gut one night. To Mara’s surprise there was a reference from a former student referring to a Mrs Frawley: I remember masturbating in Roger Judd’s class so I could have a look at my sperm down the microscope. Mrs Frawley caught me and blew her stack .

Although some of the anecdotes were entertaining, she wasn’t finding out anything useful and it was nearly five, which was far too late to be in the school. As she logged off the computer Daniel came into the workroom. He looked bemused.

‘This is late for you?’ Daniel laughed.

‘Oh I’m just checking emails. What about you?’

‘I’ve just got to download some stuff onto a disc. That’s dedication for you!’

‘Is Tony still asleep?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, makes a change! ’ laughed Daniel.

‘Should we wake him and tell him it’s home time?’

‘Nah, he does it all the time, he’s just waiting for his wife to pick him up, and she usually wakes him. Besides I woke him up once by licking his ear and he told me to piss off!’

‘I better go Daniel,’ Mara said shaking her head.

Sure enough Tony was fast asleep on the chair.

Bless his little cotton socks! Mara laughed to herself as she left the staffroom.

‘Thursday. Only one more day after this!’ Mara said to herself as she emptied her pigeon hole into the bin. She found another note from Alan.

Bloody hell, I’ve got an observation tomorrow. On the last day again, I thought he had forgotten! With year eleven this time; shit they’re just as bad as year ten.

Mara looked around expecting to see Daniel on a computer.

That’s odd? She noticed that the tables and chairs had been stacked to one side. She then glanced at the notice boards.

Nothing of interest here! Thank God no cover today.

She walked back to her classroom to do some preparation for the lesson observation.

Twenty minutes later Daniel opened the door to her classroom looking excited.

‘Hi Daniel.’

‘Oh hi. You know after you left, you never guess what happened?’

‘I’m not going to be able to guess, why don’t you just tell me,’ Mara said blandly. She was expecting some tale about geisha waiting by his car.

‘While I was on the computer I could hear Tony’s wife in the staffroom trying to wake him. But she had trouble getting him to come round.’

‘Why?’

‘Cause he was dead!’

‘What?’

‘Yep, no, dead as a Dodo. Looks like a heart attack. He’d been dead all day. No one noticed they just assumed he was napping again, and when he didn’t turn up for lessons the kids were just glad, so they didn’t bother to report they had no teacher.

‘No way! How could a person die in the middle of the staffroom without anyone noticing? Surely someone would have tried to speak to him during the day?’

‘It seems that everyone just ignored him, like they usually did, although Gordon just told me that he did see his arms move at morning break but just thought he was dreaming about table tennis.’

‘Poor bugger. That’s terrible.’

The news that the RE teacher had died in his sleep at school spread rapidly. Although nobody found it strange that he died in his sleep, they were however embarrassed and dismayed that no one noticed he wasn’t breathing and a bit pale. The students on the other hand were overjoyed; they were finally getting a new Religious Education teacher.

Despite the death of Tony, Mara had to focus on preparing for her observation, determined to make her lesson so good that he couldn’t find a great deal to criticise. Deep down though, there was the underlying feeling that whatever she did he would find something wrong.

Period one Friday, Alan strode in to her lesson with his clip board and pen. The year elevens looked up astonished. Mara did her best and the kids were better behaved and slightly more responsive than usual. Alan again gave nothing away when the students left the room; just nodding and walking out.

Well at least its Friday and the end of term. Mara shrugged. Just the staffs Christmas function to get through, then back to Somerset, she comforted herself.

The benefits of being a Government employee meant that staff had to pay for their own food and drink. But at least it was a night out. Something Mara had not had in a long while; apart from dinner with Mat. But that didn’t count!

The bell rang at two fifteen; school was finishing an hour earlier than usual; the Christmas bonus!

A real gift would have been if it rang at nine fifteen. Mara thought sarcastically.

Daniel called into her classroom on his way out.

‘Hiya, are you going tonight?’

‘Yep.’

‘Great. Guess what?’

‘I couldn’t possibly guess?’

‘James is coming. He thought it would be a good opportunity to meet his new colleagues.’

‘Great, I can’t wait to meet him.’ Mara replied.

‘See you later.’

Daniel’s doppelganger! What a treat.

The function was not due to start until seven thirty. Mara decided to have a couple of glasses of wine before she went out to try and get into the party mood. She had however made up her mind to drink white wine instead of her usual red. Her reasoning being that white wine was not as potent as red, and she wouldn’t get pissed so easily!

Getting ready for the dinner was mission in itself, she wanted to look her best but not over the top; she settled on a simple black shirt dress with knee high brown leather boots and a denim jacket.

The Thai restaurant was simple to find and she walked in to the restaurant with alcohol confidence.

The first person she clocked was Jeremy sat at the bar eating peanuts. Piles and Roger were stood next to him but Jeremy’s size seemed to dwarf them out of the picture. She approached the bar and waited to be served. Piles looked her up and down then told her she looked lovely. The complement made her skin Crawl.

‘Hiya Ma.’

Mara turned around.

‘Hi. Daniel.’

‘This is my mate James, our new colleague.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ said Mara stunned.

‘Hi, I’ve heard so much about you,’ he replied.

‘I’ve heard a lot about you too,’ now immersed.

James was not what she was expecting. He spoke with a charming Northern Irish accent; had dark hair just long enough to reach the top of his shoulders, the most stunning blue eyes and a breathtaking smile.

‘So are you looking forward to working at the school?’ she asked trying to sound casual and unflustered.

‘Yeah, should be good, but I think I started at the wrong time, what with OFSTEAD coming!’

Mara continued to chat to James for about twenty minutes. To her annoyance Daniel was also involved in the conversation, but unlike Daniel, James didn’t come out with any crude and annoying remarks.

Why on earth would someone like James hang around with a degenerate like Daniel! She asked herself.

The waitress came out to tell everyone that the tables were ready. Mara knew she was sticking close to this one, even if she had to put up with Daniel. She had managed to seat herself next to James with Daniel on the other side. She had not however noticed Mat sitting on the other side of the table, until he leaned over and said hello.

‘Hi, how are you?’

‘Good,’ she replied.

‘This is going to be an awkward little triangle! Mara thought.’ No. Make that quadrangle’. Steffi had just perched herself next to Mat who seemed to sink with disappointment.

‘Marvellous to see you all,’ she said scanning the table in her usual manner, spotting James and flicking her hair back whilst holding her hand out towards him.

‘My name is Steffi.’

‘James,’ he replied shaking her hand.

Mara felt a pang of jealousy, adding fuel to Mara’s dislike of Steffi.

Everybody had now seated themselves at the tables and Alan stood up to address the staff.

‘Merry Christmas all. First I would like to say a few words about Tony Rottenfinger