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

Ángelmí looked lost when he had gone and she felt sorry for him.

She fell asleep during the James Bond movie, her dad waking her up and telling her it would be better if she went to bed because she was snoring.

The remainder of the Christmas holidays pasted quickly, with Declan a frequent visitor to the house. Samantha had called around and given an account of her Christmas Day which was very similar to Mara’s without, the demon child. Ángelmí still had a few more weeks left in the UK and said he would come up and visit her in London before he flew back to Hong Kong.

Mara caught the train back to London on the Saturday before the start of the second term. When she got back to the flat she was hoping there would be a message from James. There wasn’t.

‘Maybe he’ll ring later, she convinced herself.

James didn’t ring.

 

Chapter Eight

8

 

The radio crackled as it switched itself on; Pastor Cosmos was passionately giving a sermon to his flock.

‘Do not judge or you too will be JUDGED. For in the same way you will be JUDGED, with the measure you use, it will be measured to grow. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye; when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

YOU HYPOCRITE, FIRST TAKE THE PLANK OUT OF YOUR OWN EYE, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.’

‘At least if had a bloody plank in my eye I wouldn’t have to go in to work!’ Mara groaned as she dragged herself out of bed.

‘DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?’ the pastor bellowed.

No one in his flock seemed to reply.

‘LOOK AT HOW YOU BEHAVE BEFORE YOU JUDGE OTHERS ON THEIR BEHAVIOUR!’

‘He seems to be in a shouting mood this morning! I don’t want to go in,’ she moaned turning off the radio as the pastor was in mid-bellow.

The turbulent preaching of the pastor had at the very least been successful in getting Mara out of bed. As well as dreading the prospect of school she was also feeling despondent that James had not rung her for that drink he promised.

‘It’s no biggie,’ she said flicking her hair and tugging at her collar,

‘Perhaps he got tied up with something else, besides he has a lot on his plate; starting at a school with an OFSTEAD inspection,’ she reassured herself checking her hair and makeup again.

It still felt like the middle of the night when Mara left the flat. The rain bombarded her umbrella and the wind pulled and tugged at the material blowing it inside out as she battled her way to the bus stop.

‘Bollocks,’ she yelled as a car drove past and splashed her new aqua blue coat, covering her from head to toe in grimy road water.

She was the first one in the building, apart from the caretaker who had switched on the lights and heating. She went straight to the toilets to assess the mess she was in having spent the bus journey looking at her reflection in the window and swearing continually.

‘Why did I even bother getting ready this morning? I look like a wet effing poodle with an Alice Cooper makeover,’ she said trying to patch up the damage.

In the staffroom the boards were full of notices; Joyce had obviously been in on Sunday to write them up.

That woman’s got no life! Mara thought, reading the notes with half hearted disdain.

OFSTEAD inspector’s next Monday ­ Friday.

Like we need to be told that! That’s all everyone been harping on about for the last six weeks!

Memorial service to Tony in assembly on Wednesday; anyone wanting to Speak, see JC.

I wonder is that Joyce Crest or Jesus Christ?

HOD’s hand in BUG forms to JC.

All Staff to attend staff meeting Thursday (v. imp).

List with new student teachers in p.holes of teachers affected.

I hope I get one, so I can palm off some lessons.

All FUC data written on pale pink forms.

Library is closed for the week – cleaning.

How much cleaning can you do in a Library?

Mara riffled in her pigeon hole hoping for the piece of paper informing her she had a student teacher.

Excellent, she said to herself grinning.

‘What are you smiling about?’

It was Daniel.

‘I’ve got a student teacher.’

‘What’s happened to your hair?’ asked Daniel.

‘I wonder if I’ve got one too,’ he said looking in his Pigeon hole.

‘Looks like I have. How was your Christmas?’

‘Good and yours?’

‘Great.’

Daniel took this as a cue to ramble on about what he had done over the holidays. Meanwhile Mara continued to look through her pigeon hole. It was basically full of junk. There were a few pieces of paperwork to fill in. A generic framework for lesson plans and a memo informing staff to change their passwords and not let students see them type in the passwords.

Curtly finishing her conversation with Daniel Mara left for her classroom; she had a lot of work to do this week in preparation for next week’s scrutiny of her teaching. She might even have to do the unprecedented and take work home with her! But such measures were drastic and she was hoping to get everything completed by Friday.

Mara returned to the staffroom for morning briefing, feeling edgy as she knew James would be there and was uncertain how to approach him; should she act as if she had forgotten about their drink and it was no big deal, or look slightly aggrieved that he had not phoned.

Mara caught sight of Mat and averted her eyes; he was staring right at her. Looking away she saw James.

All is forgiven, she thought.

She took a seat next to Gordon, who now looked like he was balancing precariously on the edge of life; he had lost weight, his skin was pallid and he looked deflated.

‘Are you alright?’ Mara asked.

‘My nerves are shot to pieces cause of this place!’ he answered.

Alan paraded in through the archway, shadowed by Jim pushing Joyce in a wheel chair. He coughed loudly to broadcast that he was ready to start. Once he had everyone’s attention he gave a speech outlining what teachers should be doing to make sure lessons ran smoothly. This was then followed with Jim’s long list of commands which carried on past the bell. Joyce then informed the staff that she would be out of action for the day because her man Chris was doing something to her programme.

‘I bet Chris is actually her gimp and she’s got him strapped to her desk! Mara whispered to Gordon.

‘Gimp?’ asked Gordon puzzled.

‘Never mind,’ Mara replied, realising Gordon was too tense to recognise humour.

As a result of the briefing over running teachers were late back to lessons causing restlessness amongst the students, who were hoping that their teacher was absent, so they could spend the period misbehaving and if they were really lucky, have a supply teacher to aggravate.

During morning break the door to her classroom opened.

‘Good morning Miss,’ James said smiling.

‘Hi, how were your holidays?’ Mara asked casually.

‘Good but unfortunately I didn’t come back early enough, I ended up getting the ferry back late yesterday, because I missed the plane on Saturday, and there were no other available flights until tomorrow. How was your holiday?’

‘Excellent. Come in,’ now elated at the fact he had a genuine reason for not calling her.

‘How’s your first day going?’

‘Not too bad, but because I did nothing over the holidays I’ve got a shit load to do now.’

‘I know the feeling!’ remembering her first week here, when she vaguely gave a dam.

‘Listen are you still up for that drink?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, of course.’

‘Well this week is out because of the stack of stuff I’ve got to do, and I’m going to have to work all weekend, plus I promised Daniel I would go to Soho with him Saturday night; he seems to have taken a liking to the bar with the self service beer. But how about the weekend after that?’

‘Yeah, sounds good.’

‘Great,’ he glowed. ‘I better get back to the art room; I’ve still got to plan lessons for this afternoon.’

‘Art teachers plan stuff?’ she mocked.

James laughed as he shut the door.

This put her in a good mood for the rest of the day; even the kids noticed she was happier.

‘Are you okay miss?’ a student asked.

‘Yes why?’

‘You’re smiling!’ he replied.

‘It’s the joy I get from teaching you lot!’ she said sarcastically, ‘now get on with your vegetable word find and remember cabbage starts with C!’

The next few days were hectic in preparation for the inspection. Mara had spoken to James a few times during the course of the week but both were so busy she hadn’t seen much of him at all. She saw Mat at the morning briefings and did her best to avoid his obvious gaze.

Mara was not the only one coming into school early. Quite a few teachers were showing up trying to get work finished, Joyce was amongst these early starters and to Mara’s total irritation would always ask if she had completed various forms that had been left in her pigeon hole. True to form Daniel was in early every morning umbilically attached to the computer. He would however habitually walk over and talk to Mara, asking her how she was. His friendship with James meant she was now finding him more agreeable. However one morning Daniel reverted back to his usual crudeness.

‘Hey Jeremy I’m guessing I shouldn’t shove a tennis ball in the mouth of any kid who smart mouths me while OFSTEAD are watching?’

Disturbed by Daniel’s comment Jeremy agreed it probably wasn’t a good idea, just in case he ?was actually considering it.

‘What about spanking?’ Daniel added.

He can’t help himself, Mara thought as she put her hand over her eyes.

Gordon bore the appearance of a sick rabbit and was willowy and jumpy. Mara was sure he was going to phone in sick for all of next week. The person Mara was expecting to be shitting himself the most was Roger, but he seemed calm and unaffected by the prospect of a government inspection. Piles was noticeably distracted and repeatedly asked if anyone had seen his disc.

Alan appeared through archway in the staffroom for the after school meeting duly followed by his deputies. Joyce had now swapped her wheelchair for Zimmer fame and took her place by the board ready to write, whilst Jim uncharacteristically sat down.

‘Good afternoon. This will be the last meeting we have before Monday, so it’s a time to get the final bits and pieces sorted out. It is vitally important that you rest this weekend, after all we don’t want anyone phoning up sick on Monday,’ he chuckled hesitantly.

Alan talked unbrokenly for another twenty minutes, superseded by Jim with his notices.

‘Richey Simmons will be starting back on Monday, apparently he’s on some kind of juvenile remand order and we have to accommodate him. However he will be going straight on report and I will be dealing with him directly. If there are any problems with Richey, send him straight to me with a note.

Please be extra vigilant with your computer password, a student or students, have managed to get a couple of teacher’s passwords and have been looking at unsuitable material on the internet. Students are probably trying to watch you when you type in your password. Be careful!

Finally, it is imperative that students are not allowed outside of class unless they have a note. Please do not let them go to the toilet during lesson, as there has been another spate of faecal tagging on the toilet walls. Good luck on Monday. Meeting closed,’ said Jim.

Mara eyes felt itchy and heavy. She had done a lot of work this week and it was now starting to affect her. Rubbing her eyes she looked over at