A Look At The People Living Down There In Town Below
Ian puts his hand into the dark warm soil and reaches down into the past. His eyes begin to fill with tears as he imagines what the future might be. He wishes everything could stay as it is now. Or as it was. A Hawk fighter jet screams over head ducking under the radar. Ian looks at the soil in his hand and tries to name all the shades of brown.
Regret Russet
If only things could have been different ochre
Timid Taupe
Never had a Tan
Raw and unedited umber
Her Auburn Hair
Blah blah blah … blah blah blah blah. Blah. Blahbetty blah.
That’s what Simon heard in his English Lit A level class this afternoon. It was actually Wuthering Heights … Miss Pountney was reading it, but all Simon heard was blah blah blah. Blah blah blahbetty blah. Miss Pountney was trying her best though, giving it loads of Yorkshire passion (even though she’s from Mountain Ash in South Wales). It became quite soothing after a while, in the overheated room – a bit like being in a car at night with the heater on and the hum of the tyres on the tarmac sending you off into a dreamy head nodding slumber. He fought to keep his eyes open – bit his lip, dug his fingernails into his palms, stabbed his pencil into his thigh … but even these diversions became tiring in the end and his eyes shut down. After what felt like hours of sleep but can only have been seconds Simon woke to a terrifying shout of “You said I killed you, haunt me then!”. Simon stood bolt upright sending his copy of Wuthering Heights flying into the air and his arms into a defensive sort of kung fu stance. Miss Pountney stopped, Kerri and Aaron laughed. The others were silent. They knew how scary Miss P could be, if she put her mind to it. Miss Pountney rested her book on her lap. Kerri and Aaron stopped laughing. There was silence.
“I’m glad you were so emotionally involved Simon” she said
“what? … Yes, yes … I was … involved …” he replied
“There was me thinking for a moment that you were nodding off but actually you were engrossed”
“I was … yes … I was transported …”
“You will be transported if you fall asleep in one of my lessons again boy. What’s the matter with you?”
Simon was a bit scared now and made up something about not sleeping very well and feeling tired all the time. This was sort of true but was mainly because he’d been watching the telly in his bedroom that his Mum and Dad bought him for his birthday. Then Miss Pountney suggested he might have something medical wrong – like anaemia – she told him he should go to his doctor to have a check up.
“You shouldn’t be nodding off at your age. You’re supposed to be in your prime … and this book is exciting stuff for a young man …”
“Blah…blah…blah… “
