It's Only Temporary (15 page)

‘Would that be possible?’ I asked.

‘Don’t see why not, there’s loads of room.’

This was great; yet again I was on the receiving end of an unexpected and unconditional act of kindness. My employers, colleagues, peers and what I assumed where friends had cast me aside and out of my home without a hint of remorse. Yet people I had known for about a week, Alfie, Dave, Yu and Stacy had all made an effort to help me.

What a contrast, having spent my entire adult life in academia it had never occurred to me that this would be the case. As a university we believed we benefitted society by creating its scholars. Perhaps we were missing the point somehow?

‘There is going to need to be, I have quite a few boxes. In fact I have no idea how I will get it from Luci to here?’

‘Who’s Luci?’

‘Actually it is more a case of what, or even where is Luci.’ She looked confused and I explained the universities title.

‘So I am a bit stuck,’ I said. ‘Your offer is fantastic and would really help me out but I can see no way of getting it all here.’

‘I do.’

Before I could get her to elaborate further she went to the kitchen door and called Paul. As he entered she said, ‘Paul and Dolly.’

Paul and I looked at each other, ‘Pardon?’ I said. ‘Dolly?’ Paul asked.

‘Yep. Saturday you, me and Paul are going to get your gear in Dolly. You don’t mind do you Paul?’

‘Err, no. Where we going?’

‘To get Marcus’ gear from the university.’

‘Ok, cool. On one condition.’

‘What’s that?’ Stacy asked.

‘He has to come out with us clubbing Saturday night,’ he said looking at me.

‘I can’t afford it Paul.’

‘Yes you can. Me and the girls have chipped together to pay you in. Stace here will buy you a drink, so will I and the girls. That’s your ticket and four cocktails, sorted! What you reckon Stace?’

‘Sounds good to me.’

Oh god. It seemed fate on one hand created problems whilst with the other offered solutions, only to make your life miserable by insisting you pay some form a penance. In this case a night club.

Chapter 12.

I walked in on Friday feeling fairly upbeat, the good weather had returned and the warm air felt pleasant as I made my way there. I had bought myself a cheap radio and was gratified to be able to tune into Radio Four and Classic FM which I had happily listened to as I got ready, lifting my mood even further. There had still not been any update from Hank by Thursday evening but I assumed that the bureaucratic wheels which were indigenous to any university were slowly turning.

‘Morning!’ Stacy called as I entered. ‘Ready for round three?’ she asked.

‘Oh I am sure it will be alright,’ I said.

‘Well, the power of positive thinking as they say.’

Why? Did she doubt that I could carry on? A successful day today and I was one quarter of the way there, which reminded me… I slipped into her office and checked my emails. Hank had responded.

Hi Buddy,

Good News the board want to meet/interview you! The plan is for you to fly over here for a few days, have a look around and informally meet the board. Then there will be a more formal presentation / interview to seal the deal.

Off the record you have no competition, so just don’t blow it and your home free!

I need to know your address so I can write to you officially and send you the airline tickets and itinerary etc. Let me know some dates that you are free but the sooner the better as far as we are concerned.

Regards,

Hank.

Had I been warned that this email was coming I would have anticipated feeling a sense of euphoria, however I simply felt satisfied, why was I not more excited? On reading back through the email I was confident about delivering a presentation on any aspect of my area of expertise. Yes, as immodest as it sounded I
was
that good.

Hopefully that would carry me in good stead for the interview. I hated interviews mainly because I was as bad at them as I was as good at presentations. Even the few I had been forced to undertake as my career at Luci developed had been dreadful. They were a necessary evil I rationalised and I was sure my presentation and reputation would precede me.

I wrote a response which contained my address and initially told Hank that I was free anytime, I then found myself editing it to suggest I travel in three weeks, after the bank holiday, then I hit send. Why had I done that? It seemed a strange thing to do, to put off the one thing I was waiting with baited breath for, oh well it was done now and at least I would be able to finish the course with my group, I thought to myself.

‘Sorted for moving day?’ Stacy asked.

What? Did she know? How could that be I had communicated with no one but Hank? However the dastardly Richard knew, as did Trudi who had been speaking to Sharon and Jon. My god was confidentiality a forgotten concept!

‘Well, errr. I erm….,’ I had no idea what to say and felt embarrassed and a little ashamed of my behaviour.

‘Don’t worry it will be fine.’

‘You’re sure?’ I was amazed she was taking it so well.

‘Oh yeah. I’ll pick Paul up first and get to you for about Ten. Do you think we will need more than one trip?’

“Moving day”, of course! My belongings that were still at Luci, the sense of relief I felt was so powerful that I was sure it would be virtually visible.

‘Sounds great. Thanks.’

‘Don’t forget,’ she warned. I waited wondering what was coming next, ‘We are clubbing tomorrow night!’

I was in fact trying to forget, desperately trying.

‘Morning Guy’s ‘I said as I entered the classroom.

‘Alright Prof,’ a variety of voices called out.

‘Now then, last day of the week.’

‘Can we go early?’ Tommo asked.

‘Maybe….maybe. Now then who wants to know more about Nefertiti?’

‘Yeah, but I’ve got a question.’ Tommo said.

‘What’s that then?’

‘Was she fit?’

All the boys gave me their undivided attention whilst Jade sighed and said ‘Gordon Bennett!’ as she rested her forehead on her desk’

Recalling that Stacy’s “are you fit then” comment was related to being ready to leave I could not fathom out why Tommo would want to ask such a question. I decided to hedge my bets.

‘What a strange question, she tended as queens do, to come as go as she pleased in her own time,’ they looked puzzled by this response. Realising I was on the wrong tack I changed direction ‘Also… she was young and although no records of physical fitness were kept by the Ancient Egyptians she did give birth six times, successfully I might add. Child birth was potentially fatal five thousand years ago, so she must have been fairly robust.’

‘No Prof,’ Jade said lifting her head from the table. These idiots wanna know if she was nice looking.’

‘Oh I see. Well, Nefertiti means “The Beautiful One Has Come,” so I assume she was.

‘Got a picture?’ Zeke asked.

Well there are hundreds of paintings and images of her in museums all over the world.’

‘Any photo’s?’

‘It was fiv
e thousand years ago Dumbo!’ Jade shouted.

T
hey all laughed, including Zeke and I found myself joining in. We talked about Nefertiti’s early life as a queen, the battles that were fought and the intrigue of the Royal way of life. I was surprised to see that we had reached the mid-morning break without any serious disruption.

‘Ok, after break you are going to write me a short piece on her, making sure that you don’t make the same mistake that we talked about individually last time, ok?’

‘What no film?!’ Zeke was a picture of indignation.

‘Yeah afterwards. It is important you can try to write down what you hear as well as what you see. Then we will put the film on after lunch.’

As the day drew to a close I was satisfied to see that all of them had attempted to write something about Nefertiti. The boys with the exception of Kurt had focused on the battles, seemingly revelling in the bloodshed.

Jade had been captivated by the social changes that had occurred and had written nearly a whole side of paper. Kurt however was the one that surprised me the most; he had focused on the political intrigue and the ramifications of the various forms of deceptions I had told them about. He had not written as much as Jade but it was an insightful and concise summary.

‘Can I show you something?’ I asked Stacy.

‘Sure.’

‘Ok, I’ve been working on English with them and these are some of the first pieces they did for me,’ I handed over Tommo, Zeke and Sam’s first writing exercises.

‘After a bit of tutoring they each attempted to correct one aspect of their writing,’ I handed her that day’s work for the three boys.

‘Yeah, I can see. They still have a long way to go but it looks a bit better.’

‘Ok, now compare them to these two.’

She read the work I had given her before she looked up, ‘Well yeah, but it’s not really fair to compare these kids to university students.’

‘I’m not.’

‘So why are you showing me these two then?’

‘Because one was written
by Jade and the other by Kurt, today.’

‘No!’

‘Yes and although they are nowhere near university standard they clearly show a level of ability that is seemingly untapped at the moment.’

‘I honestly thought they were pieces of course work
or something from your university job.’

‘No, as I said nowhere near. But they show me that Jade and Kurt need to go somewhere else.’

‘Where?’

‘College.’

She looked at me with an incredulous expression on her face. ‘You’re serious?’  I nodded. ‘Well good luck with that mate!’

‘Why what the problem?’

‘Even if you could convince them to go, because they wouldn’t believe you. No college is gonna touch em with their school record.’

‘Oh,’ I had not thought of that.

Saturday morning dawned warm and bright, I was waiting outside for Stacy and Paul to arrive when Alfie appeared.

‘Wotcha mate,’ he said.

‘Hi Alfie.’

‘How’s it hanging? What you doing out here?’

Hanging? No, no idea. I had learnt to quickly move on from some of Alfie’s more confusing comments without exploring them too deeply, mainly as I was afraid of what I might find.

‘Oh, I am waiting for a lift. I am collecting some of my belongings and moving them to be stored somewhere else. Listen I wanted to thank you for the TV, it was really generous and immensely helpful. The guys I teach and the centre altogether really benefit from it.’

He just stared at me for a bit then simply said ‘No worries.’

I was surprised at his low key response, understated and Alfie where two words I would not normally have expected to be in the same sentence.

‘I’ve had it for years and it was just lying around upstairs doing nothing. Least it’s being used now, course you could’ve just banged the DVD’s into a PC or laptop and they would have probably played ok.’

‘Haven’t got any of PC’s either,’ I said.

Our conversation was broken by Dolly the VW lurching to a halt, oddly Paul was sitting in the rear and Stacy could look across the front seats to grin at us. A switch was flipped in Alfie.

‘Hiya gorgeous! Ya never gave me your number,’ he said.

‘That’s right,’ Stacy replied, leaning across to open the passenger door. She did not offer the expectant Alfie any further comment as I climbed in. I looked at Paul quizzically and Stacy saw my confusion.

‘Ah, it’s ok. He’s just a big Jessie, doesn’t like the front seats. Too close to the windscreen, scares him!’ Paul made no comment so I just smiled at him.

‘I could make you a model!’ Alfie persisted.

‘
Airfix?’ she called back. ‘Thanks for the TV!’ she added as we pulled away.

We arrived at the college and collected my boxes nearly filling Dolly to the roof, Paul was very concerned that he may have had to sit in the front as a result but after some logistical trickery and a bit of contortionism thrown in he managed to seat himself in the rear.

We returned to the centre and carried a box each upstairs as Stacy unlocked the various doors that led to the top floor apartment. I could not believe she chose to not live there; the whole apartment was painted white with high ceilings and large windows that matched the church style downstairs. As I walked in and put my box down I was overwhelmed by the sense of space and light. There was an almost tangible sense of tranquillity about the four rooms, a stark contrast to my current abode.