蜜芽传媒

MY SCHOOL DAYS
Barry Stared at the blank sheet of paper, with an equally blank expression on his face, although, his heart burned with a strong desire to write. It was painful to sit through the entire lesson with his pen hovering over the paper, and occasionally dipping the nib in the in the crock inkwell set in the solid, oak, school desk.
鈥淲rite an essay,鈥� were the teacher鈥檚 instructions, but Barry hadn鈥檛 got a single idea that he could express, and no words came into his head.

鈥淥w鈥檚 your Barry getting on in his new school?鈥� asked the next-door neighbor, her lips struggling to hold a cigarette when she spoke. They met over the garden fence when both came to hang the washing out.
鈥淭o tell you the truth Floss,鈥� as she plucked the pegs from her apron pocket, 鈥淚鈥檓 very concerned for him. They aint learning him anything there. It seems the war is to blame, because most of the best teachers have been called up for the army, and the substitutes are hopeless. Barry brung his English book home last week, to show me, and all he had in it was lelelele over the page, and he said it was joined up writing. I can鈥檛 see where that will get him, except to keep him bored.
鈥淲here do they dig em up from?鈥� asked Floss, as she fidgeted with her feet drawing attention to her wrinkled stockings, and then ash dropped from her fag into her apron pocket, sending a whiff of smoke up into her eyes, causing her to squint.
鈥淗e aint happy at school!鈥� she continued, ignoring the question. 鈥淗e carnt wait to get out and go fishing, or chasing rabbits in Sutton Park. But what can we do?鈥� as she pegged the last article on the line.

The English lesson moved on, and Barrie鈥檚 interest in the subject grew. At last they where learning about sentence structure, and linking them together, besides adjectives, verbs and nouns. He became enthused with a test they had been given, so far answering all ten questions. For several days he could hardly contain his impatience waiting to see the results. He waited eagerly, but in vain, until one day as they where going home, he spotted all the test papers in the waste paper basket, unmarked. His disappointment grew painful. Hurrying home, he cut through the junior school as a short cut, an act that was punishable by cane, from the head master, but he didn鈥檛 care if he got caught, as he hurried to get home, head hung low.
He didn鈥檛 plan anything or complain to anyone, but he could have been brooding internally, because, on the last day of term his opportunity materialized, as if by impulse, when the coast was clear, he gathered the English exercise books together and tore them up leaving the remnants in the waste paper basket.

After the holiday when they returned to the 鈥淗ell Hole鈥� he was over the upset and back to normal. However, as the work they where given wasn鈥檛 in any way challenging, his mind turned to hunting and fishing. The desk top served his purpose, since he could take a length of wire, twist it, using the hinged top of the desk as a vice, hence forming a slip knot for his rabbit snares. The desk was also useful for storing other items, such as fishing hooks etc.

Unfortunately his malignant teacher caught him in the act and confiscated the wire. Notably, this teacher had a weird habit of walking backwards and forwards, up and down the desk isles during lessons, with his head down and his hands crossed behind his back. On one such occasion, Barry noticed his piece of wire hanging from the teacher鈥檚 coat lining. The twisted blighter had purloined it!

The next hateful event happened when Ivan, for that was his nickname, caught him playing with his tackle. This was a piece of fishing tackle in the shape of a fish with hooks hanging from it. For this act Barry was caned severely on the hand, so brutal that it fetched blood, clearly this was when the hate set in, for he knew he wouldn鈥檛 get any of his property back, and moreover he knew that Ivan would keep it for his own bizarre reasons.

Then there was the episode with the twins. Two small boys, with nothing worse than a playful nature. Ivan told the one lad to stand in the corner as punishment by humiliation, but alas, all the lad did was to walk around the room. Taking hold of him in a rough manner, he attempted to cane him, but the boy wouldn鈥檛 keep still. Next he took his cane and began to thrash him on every part of his body, consequently the other twin joined in, thus the class witnessed a ruthless and vicious conflict of kicking punching and whacking. The twins where finally removed, but the scene was set.

Barry took his penknife to school. He moved his seat to a front desk, which the teacher was too blind to notice. When Ivan turned his back to march up the isle Barry slipped out of his seat towards the black board, where the cane was kept, and began cutting through it. It was a short, stiff and sturdy cane, but it only took him a few trips before he thought, that is enough for it to break the next time he flexes it. I guaranty, that there wasn鈥檛 a single boy in the class, who wouldn鈥檛 gladly be caned that day.

Unfortunately, our poor sacrifice had the perilous task of going to the woodwork room to borrow Mr. Woodlouse鈥檚 cane, the most dreaded cane in the school, it was willowy, flexible, with a fearful cutting swish, furthermore the wood was hard, and Barry realized that his knife wouldn鈥檛 cut this one, but he wasn鈥檛 to be perturbed. It had to go! There鈥檚 no quarter now! He had just recently been put into long trousers, and sometimes fate deals all the right cards, hence, he waited till a few seconds before the bell sounded for home time and snatched up the cane stuffing it down his trouser leg. It would have been a strange site to see a gang of lads wrestling with the willow under Mr. Wood house鈥檚 workshop window twisting and mangling into a shredded ball.

At length the tyrant left. Some say he went mad, while others said he had a nervous breakdown. Never the less, Barry said that he walked out of the classroom never to return, but most important, he left the class unattended for a long time, and then fate paradoxically delivered another lucky card, when inevitably a fight broke out, Barry being the most significant protagonist. At the height of battle, who should walk in but Rubberneck, the strictest, but ironically the teacher considered to be the best in the school. From then on, for the rest of his time at school, this teacher nailed him. He was to remain in his class and to sit at a front desk immediately in front of the teacher鈥檚 desk; in fact they could shake hands without moving they where that close.

However, from that time on Barry was inspired by this teacher, the only one ever to motivate him. He began to soak up logarithms and decimals insatiably, unfortunately, there only remained a few more weeks of his elementary education, consequently, this teacher who he fully respected gave him a very good report, remarking on his above, average intelligence, also suggesting how he needed a measure of supervision and discipline.

鈥淥w鈥檚 your Barry doing now?鈥� from the fag, still with her hair in curlers, and wearing wrinkled stockings round her ankles.
鈥淗e鈥檚 left school now, but he is so passionate over learning.鈥�
鈥淎nd still full of ate I suppose.鈥�
鈥淗e ought to go to versity by rights,鈥� ignoring Floss鈥檚 remark.
鈥淥r prison,鈥� Floss said next.
鈥淭o tell the truth Floss I鈥檓 more concerned about Heaven or Hell.鈥�

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