04 Village Teacher Read Online Free

directly behind me, and the rest of the children were placed on either side, in descending order of height, to create a pyramid of faces. Anne’s children sat cross-legged in front.
    There was a long pause while Raymond disappeared like a furtive ostrich under his black cloak. ‘Now assume a pose, please,’ said a muffled voice.
    ‘Damian Brown, don’t forget to smile,’ said Jo in a commanding voice and I recalled my conversation with Mrs Brown.
    ‘OK, Miss,’ grumbled Damian, ‘but m’face is ’urting.’
    ‘Shall we say “Cheese”, Mr Sheffield?’ asked Tracy Crabtree.
    ‘We said “Sausages” last year, sir,’ said Darrell Topper helpfully.
    Sally started to giggle and Anne joined in.
    ‘Quiet now, please,’ said Mr De ’Ath.
    ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ said Vera, losing patience.
    ‘Are you ready?’ he mumbled with a final twist of the lens.
    Vera could stand it no longer. ‘If he says “Smile for Raymond” once more I swear I’ll—’
    ‘OK, everybody … smile for Raymond.’
    Then, in a split second, everything happened at once.
    Behind the crouching photographer, round the corner of the cycle shed, Big Bertha cleared the blocked drain with a huge bang and a brown geyser of water plumed into the air. This was immediately followed by a loud scream and Mrs Winifred Brown appeared from behind the shed like a drowned rat with a damp cigarette hanging from her lips. Instantly, eighty-seven children, four teachers and one secretary burst into laughter and a camera shutter opened and closed.
    Now, many years later, when I look at school photographs of times gone by, one stands out. In among the serious faces, teachers and pupils that have come and gone, there is one photograph that stands out from the rest. Above a neatly typed label, ‘Ragley School 1980’, it shows the happiest group of staff and pupils you could ever wish to meet.
    They are united in one accord.
    All of them are smiling for Raymond.

Chapter Two
    The Brave New World of Vera Evans
    Miss Evans received training on our new school typewriter. The Revd Joseph Evans took his weekly RE lesson. The PTA Annual General Meeting was followed by a ‘Metric Mathematics’ event to introduce our School Mathematics Project to parents
.
    Extract from the Ragley School Logbook:
Wednesday, 24 September 1980
    MISS VERA EVANS always made perfect scones.
    In the vicarage kitchen all her utensils and ingredients were laid out neatly on the marble work surface. Having taken her faithful
Be-Ro Home Recipes
:
Scones, Cakes, Pastry & Puddings
from the pine shelf of cookery books next to her gleaming Aga cooker, she opened it to page 6, ‘Be-Ro Rich Scones’, and propped the stiff but well-worn pages against her ancient brass weighing scales. Her two-and-a-half-inch-diameter cutter, with which she would press out exactly twelve scones, sparkled in the autumn sunshine that streamed through the leaded panes of the arched kitchen window. Then she picked up her favourite wooden spoon, selected a spotless mixing bowl and began. Puccini’s ‘Humming Chorus’ from
Madam Butterfly
was playing softly on her radio and, appropriately, she hummed along. It was Saturday morning, 20 September, and Vera was content in her world.
    Vera had never married and she lived with her younger brother, the Revd Joseph Evans, in the vicarage on Morton Road. It was a beautifully furnished and spacious house and Vera took pride in keeping it spick-and-span. Her life was one of tidiness and order and even her three cats, Treacle, Jess and Maggie, were well-behaved. Her favourite, Maggie, a black cat with white paws, was named after Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Vera’s political heroine. Hers was a quiet, serene life of church flowers, school administration and Women’s Institute meetings.
    However, little did she know it, but, at that very moment, changes were in store for the secretary of Ragley School. A revolution was about to take place and Vera’s world would