Behind closed doors.

All discussion was useless.

Sentence had been passed.





Fat reddened neck, sweat glistening, opened shirt collar, tie slightly to one side, beige suit,  I watched between my legs as he raised his arm high.

Time seemed as if suspended.

I was taken aback by the severity of the impact of the metre long bamboo cane.

Then he did it again.

My confidence in school justice took a hefty wallop.

My mates were pretty impressed at the heroic bruising which lasted two months.

I was one of the fortunate ones.

I met a fellow victim of gratuitous violence a few years on.

In retrospect, it is amazing that he survived.

Over a period of four years, the red-neck beat the child over 145 times.

I do not apologise for opening the door.

Heavy petting

There were a number of us who brought their pet rodents to school.

One even had a snake.

I must have been captivated enough in Latin class.

I called my gerbil twins Romulus and Remus.
.
They accompanied me in their cage to school.

I was somewhat envious of the kids who were invited on the boat in the Lake District.

I was one of the fortunate ones.

The science teacher didn't seem to go for me.

Pet grooming led naturally to heavy petting.

I do not apologise for opening the door.


Painting and decorating

The kids were not the studying types.

The kids were not keen apprentice painters or decorators.

They were docile, drugged and compliant.

They had, as far as their teachers' reports read, completed the English program.

They had, as far as their student exercise books read, copied the English program.

They had, as far as I could make out, understood nothing of what they had spent so many hours copying.

They had decorated the space.

There was one kid who always arrived late.

He appeared incapable of any sort of concentration.

He was blind in one eye.

He had problems of balance due to a deformity of his inner ear.

He clearly didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on.

Apparently nobody bothered to mention to him that being forbidden from climbing up ladders or on scaffolding might some day handicap any attempt of his at finding meaningful employment.

I gave up with English, we listened to the kids speaking Arabic, Portuguese, and Wolof.

They seemed to enjoy speaking their languages.

I didn't follow the copying program.

I was one of the untrustworthy ones.

English teaching seemed to be superfluous.

I don't apologise for opening the door.