Page 98 - The Mending Season

eleven“She’s not coming back,” Laura informed Dirusha in class after lunch, speaking loudly so that everyone could hear, but not looking in Veronicas direction, where all the Black girls sat. Beths parents were keeping her at home, she said, because her father would “not allow her to be in school with uncivilised, dangerous people”. This story we’d already heard from a girl whose family was close to Beths. She was in a dif­ ferent class but one of the biggest gossips in the school, so everyone knew her. She had come to our class to tell no one in particular, just hoping that we would all hear and be shocked.Veronica did not react. Trish said “Good riddance” and Tamz agreed. I hoped Beth would just become a distant mem­ ory, that her parents would keep her out of our school and maybe even take her to another one.Mrs Aleixos class was the first one after lunch. When she came in, she looked solemn. We took turns reading a few paragraphs from a prescribed book. Everyone was silent and tense. Marianne, in an attempt to break the ice, looked up when it was her turn to read and asked, “Miss, hows the home life? Are you keeping the fires burning? What’s that expres­ sion again ... keeping the home fires ...?”Mrs Aleixo did not smile as she usually did when the sub­ ject turned to her marriage. She looked up from her book and glared at Marianne. “There are more important things tothink about, Marianne. Please pick up from where the person before you left off.”98