Between the Prison and the Sewage Works - Maryline Suchley (read aloud books .TXT) 📗

know about the affair you having with T,’ Mara said, not quite believing she could be so barefaced. She also knew it was probably not a good idea to wait for a response and walked away with a mixture of elation and apprehension.

It was Friday afternoon and she had a fee period because the year tens had gone on careers field trip to the sewage works. Mara took the opportunity to finish her reports on the department laptop in the teacher’s workroom.

‘I suppose I better save this on disc, knowing my luck it will be wiped of the hard drive.’

She searched her bag and found a blank disc. Trying to put the disc into the laptop she noticed there was already a disc in the slot. She took it out. Written on the front were the initials S.Piles. That must be the disc he was looking for, she said to herself. Not being able resist, she put the disc back in to the computer and opened it. The only file listed had the title Babes.

‘I bet its porn,’ she said loading the file. Pictures of mannequins came up on the screen, mannequins with underwear and some with nothing on. This is to weird, thought Mara, it must be some sort of phillia?

‘Mara.’

Mara turned to see Jim beaming at her like a donkey who’s just seen a juicy carrot.

‘Hi Jim,’ she said clicking over the screen on the laptop.

‘I’ve just been speaking to Alan and he says that he’s underestimated his workload and can’t continue with your probationary year assessment, he’s also lost all the documentation. This means we’ll have to start again. Unless you have copies?’

‘Uh no, I lost them, accidently dropped them in the Thames,’ Mara replied; trying not to cheer.

‘Okay; well sort something out next week. Have a nice weekend,’ said Jim as he walked away.

Finally things are starting to go my way. She grinned to herself.

She remembered Piles’ disc still in the machine and took it out to return it to his pigeon hole.

I have a better idea; I’ll put it in Jim’s pigeon hole she said to herself mischievously. That will serve him right, the filthy pig, if anyone’s going to take him to task it will be Jim.

Mara shot out of the building hoping to catch the bus before any kids got on. She knew there was a bus that left fifteen minutes before the end of school; this meant she could get back to her flat at a reasonable time and relax.

She had decided to have an alcohol free night tonight as she was going out with James tomorrow. However the left over wine from the night before was too tempting and she couldn’t let it go to waste.

The first week of the second term had probably been the best week there so far, there were only five weeks until Easter break and then shortly after that the year eleven students would be finishing for study leave. It was then just a waiting game for the end of the school year.

A couple more weeks passed and Mara and James were getting on well. Daniel was returning to his old foul habits and customs but this didn’t seem to bother Mara as much. Jim had done a couple of assessments which had gone well. She no longer had to go to the retaining classes for incompetent teachers as Jim said that he rechecked the inspector’s reports and she was deemed a satisfactory teacher, so it was not necessary for her to continue. Mat seemed to be keeping a low profile after she had talked to Mark.

Unfortunately Mara was teaching her year seven class again as the student teacher had decided not return to the school and had left his teaching course.

Mara was now starting to think about what to do next year. There was no way she wanted to stay in London and was adamant that she would be putting in her resignation. Hong Kong may have been an option but now that James was in the picture decisions were harder to make.

The school had just received notification that after Easter they would have another inspection. Unlike the first inspection Alan’s was not as enthusiastic with his leadership and staff generally didn’t seem to have the heart to put in the effort required; There seemed to be a quiet resolution that it would probably be better to close the school.

Gordon had gone on permanent stress leave and the Nigerian teacher Grace had taken over full time from him. This meant that the science department was even more chaotic than usual.

The surviving RE teacher seemed to be at school more often, however he would still disappear at least once a week.

The only upset was the sexual harassment claim against Piles and Boyo by Steffi; but most of the staff just raised their eyebrows at the news and put it down to yet another attention seeking exercise. Although Mara was inclined to believe Piles was capable of this kind of perversion, she was convinced Steffi probably moved around too much for his liking. The head of science’s waistband was increasing exponentially. He was now having problems walking, getting in and out of chairs and falling asleep in lessons.

Mara had made the decision not to pursue the Joyce issue; she had had enough drama for one year.

The Easter holidays came around quickly and although there was still some stress associated with the looming inspection it was nothing on the scale as the first one.

Mara was now spending a lot of time with James who had also asked her if she wanted to come and stay with him in Belfast during the Easter holidays. She had never been to Northern Ireland before and said yes with a mixture of delight and apprehension; checking with James about the regular news items concerning bombs and terrorism. James assured her that it was fine and he lived outside of Belfast, so the risk of being kidnapped was slim. So it was decided they would catch a flight to Belfast on the first Monday of the holidays.

There were Friday night drinks at the Pigs Gut as usual, Mara went to fill in time, as James was going out with Daniel, apparently Daniel needed cheering up.

Boyo and Piles were propping up the bar when Mara got to the pub. Bill served Mara with his usual finesse. She took a seat next to a smiling Roger, as the choice of talking companions was pretty limited and there was no way she was going near Steffi or Mat.

After talking about the usual topics of conversation Mara started to probe Roger again about Joyce. He didn’t have much to add and Mara didn’t really care anymore, after all things were looking up for her.

Looking around the pub, Mara could see Steffi dramatically getting up from her seat and waving what looked like a tampon in her hand. Then loudly telling a red faced Mat she was off to the powder room. At this point Mara decided it was time to go home.

‘Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offense. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and endurance. In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love,’ said a gentle female voice. It was ten o’clock Monday morning. Pastor Cosmos had obviously finished his preaching and it was the turn of another priest.

That’s actually quite lovely thought Mara, feeling excited about flying out in the afternoon. She had had two alcohol free nights so was feeling full of energy. Mara was meeting James at Lewisham station and they were going to get the train to Heathrow. The flight was a six in the evening.

They arrived at the Belfast airport and caught a cab to James parents’ home mid-evening. As the taxi slowed and pulled over. It suddenly occurred to Mara that they might have separate rooms, as she knew that his mother was quite religious.

Arriving at the house they were greeted by James’ mother, father, older sister and younger brother. All were welcoming and made her feel very comfortable. That evening they stayed in for a family meal at his parents’ place.

Mara woke up before James and looked out the window; she hadn’t seen much of the area as it was starting to get dark when they arrived. The estate was as you would expect from urban British architecture, uniform, mono, bleak and unimaginative. There were the usual mixture of people taking pride in their homes and others not caring. The only real difference between here and the mainland were the pockets of red white and blue union flags and obvious protestant graffiti.

Nice Mara thought as she read ‘Protestant Sunnylands’ sprayed on a nearby fence.

James took Mara to Belfast City centre for a look around. They had lunch at one of the oldest pubs in the city. It was a remarkable building and definitely more authentic than the Irish bar in Blackheath, which still made Mara shudder; remembering the after events.

During lunch James said to Mara that while he was in Belfast he wanted to get some hurly bats.

‘What are they?’ Mara asked.

It’s an Irish game. I was thinking of taking it up again when we get back to London, I know someone who plays and said I would get him a bat as well.’

‘Yep, no worries,’ said Mara.

‘It’s just the place were going is a bit different from where my parents live and the city centre.’

‘Yeah that’s fine; this Guinness is great I wouldn’t mind another one,’ she replied.

James just smiled.

‘I’ll get a couple more, you may need it!’ he said quietly.

‘What was that?’ Mara called after James.

‘Do you want peanuts?’

‘No thanks we’ve just eaten!’

Mara had drunk four Guinness and was feeling a little tipsy.

‘So, we’ll go get those bat things now?’ she said putting on her jacket.

‘Yep, it’s a short walk to the bus stop.’

Mara didn’t pay much attention to what he was saying as this was his home town and she just wanted to be a tourist.

The bus pulled in to the inlet and James got on followed by Mara. It then drove in and out of areas coated with either red white or blue, or green white and gold. The bus turned up a road which was heavily clothed with green, white and gold and various frescos plastered on the sides of buildings, even the kerb sides and lampposts were painted green white and gold. Mara could sense that this street was a little different from the other roads which only tended to have smatterings of colour.

‘Uh James where is this?’ Mara asked quietly.

‘The falls,’ James said casually.

‘What like that falls road we always see on the news with people in balaclavas throwing petrol bombs?’ Mara whispered.

‘Yep, but were probably a bit early to see the petrol bombs! Why are you sinking in your seat?’

‘It might have escaped your notice but I don’t exactly blend in!’

‘You’ll be fine’, said James, ‘we’ll say you’re from South America,’ he said mockingly.

‘I can’t do a South American accent!’ Mara replied.

‘Look it’s our stop soon,’ James said pressing the button.

Mara followed James closely as they got off the bus. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.

‘We’ll walk down here and it’s just there on the right,’ he said grabbing Mara’s hand.

The street itself was not busy and the place James was looking for was close by. The shop was dusty and untidy and looked like an offshoot of the workshop behind, which had an array of bats. Mara had never seen hurly bats before, she thought they looked like hockey sticks with a large flat club shaped end. A normal looking man in his forties came out and greeted them with a warm smile.

James talked to him for a few minutes and he went out the back. He returned