Page 118 - The Mending Season

same time it reported that the principal had pleaded with Beths parents to bring her back. Rumour had it that the school had not made any attempt to communicate with Veronicas family.“I spoke to Vies last night,”Trish told me in class. “She says she doesn’t see herself coming back until after Easter break - if at all. Her mom called the school and they told her what Vies had done was unacceptable. She says Mrs Allison was quite rude on the phone.”“What do you think will happen?”I asked Trish, hoping for reassurance.“I don’t think anyone knows. Mrs Allison is probably inter­ viewing for other jobs right now. Do you know that Williams cancelled?”“We’re not playing them any more?”I was not completely surprised. I had already heard that another school had can­ celled a tennis match with the younger students, saying parents had asked that they not play with us.“And,” Trish continued, “netball’s been cancelled for the rest ofthe season.”While the whole country debated the topic, we continued to attend to school as before. “Who should be punished for this?”was the question most people liked to ask on the radio and in the newspapers.Every morning I prayed for just two things: first, I would be allowed to stay the whole of that school day and, second, that Veronica and Beth would soon be back at school. I thought that if they let me stay then that would prove that my part in the incident was insignificant.Had I done anything wrong? Before speaking to Tihelo, I had insisted that I had only heard something and I had done nothing. After I spoke to her, I maintained that what I had heard needed to be told and whatever people did with it was not for me to decide. Now I felt helpless.118