by T L Blake
Suddenly a figure, in a simple gown of the brightest red silk, its sheer colourful brilliance an illuminate contrast to the never ending monochrome of everything else, ran barefoot around the corner and out of sight. The silk of the gown flowed out in ripples against the thickness of the air. It was her.
Robyn gave chase, renewed by hope, but when she turned the corner, all she saw were more stones, grey and covered in moss.
Exhausted, she dropped to her knees, despair a heavy burden, and grabbed at tufts of grass in desperation. In both frustration and fear, she clawed at the ground before looking up and screaming.
Deeply carved lettering was immortalised into the stone above her.
R.I.P.
Katherine Harris.
Robyn sat up in bed sharply, a scream echoing off of the walls. Her night shirt was soaked with sweat and plastered to her skin. Her hair, wet from fear, had gone curly from the moisture and was now a tangled mass of knots.
As her heart rate decreased and her breath became deeper and smoother, Robyn sat staring at the window attempting to find her composure. It worked, until a glance at the clock revealed no time to spare.
She’d make first lesson but would just have to miss morning briefing. Her night had been late, waiting ever patiently for Kat to make an appearance, but sense had overridden worry sometime after midnight. Kat must have come in sometime after she’d fallen asleep because Robyn had not heard her friend return.
The dreams had been tormenting Robyn since Wednesday. Every time she shut her eyes the dark churchyard filled her vision. She felt exhausted, as if she had actually run all those miles around the tombstones. Only seeing Kat would break the hold that the nightmares had upon her.
When lesson two finally drew to a close, the bell signifying break, Robyn sighed and sank onto her teaching bench in anticipation. Kat would come to find her, she was certain. She would have many a tale to tell. Life with Kat was never dull.
Minutes ticked by and Robyn told herself that some of the girls must be taking their time changing, making Kat wait. But as the clock hands moved steadily on, a lump of doubt seated itself solidly in her gut. Uncomfortable, Robyn fidgeted on her chair but was unable to clear the building feeling of dread.
Robyn stood and began to pace. The lump was growing as each second ticked by but her animation helped.
The door creaked behind her, the heavy wood opening a fraction against the strong mechanism that automatically shut it. Robyn swirled to the sound, elation and hope bringing a radiant smile to her lips, but it was not Kat who entered her classroom.
“She isn’t here.” Andrew stood just inside the doorway. The collar on his white shirt was unbuttoned underneath an elegant charcoal suit. He stood rigid and concerned. “There is some panic in the office. They are trying to cover her lessons.”
“What!” Robyn stepped toward him, unable to process his statement. She stopped herself from grabbing his lapel and instead thrust her hands to her sides. “Did she call in?” The lump doubled in size and became almost painful. There was no way Kat would miss work. Something was wrong.
“If she did, it was late. Pupils were caught wandering at the end of period one, that’s when they discovered her absence. I thought you knew, but when you turned to me when I came in. . .” He shook his head. “I only came to warn you that the Head’s secretary is out for blood, yours in particular.”
Robyn grabbed her keys, intending to go to the office and find out what they knew but the feel of the cold steel in her hand made her look down. “Her car.”
Andrew took another step into the room, coming close, too close. Robyn’s nostrils were filled with a deep musk and spice scent that threw her for a second.
“What about her car?”
“I didn’t notice if it had moved. She parked it at the side of the cottage before she left and I didn’t look this morning when I left, I just assumed she was ahead of me. I . . . I was running late.” She’d have seen it if she’d had just glanced behind her but she hadn’t had she. She’d run straight to the MG and left without a second glance. “What the hell is happening here?”
Robyn’s gut twisted. Kat had been gone for a week. Where was she?
“I have to go to the office.” Robyn went for the door but Andrew shifted, blocking her way and held the door closed.
“Stay out of it.” His tone was cold, demanding.
Robyn widened her eyes. Was he really doing this?
“Get out of my way.” Kat was unreliable certainly, but not about work, not to this extent. Robyn knew that there was something seriously wrong here and Andrew Obursen certainly wasn’t going to stop her from finding out what.
She sidestepped but he shifted again, blocking her once more. “Don’t go there, Robyn.”
“What the hell has it got to do with you?” She could feel the anger heating her cheeks as she spat the words. Andrew simply stilled.
“As you appear to insist on constantly appearing in my life, it is you who has gotten me involved.”
She looked up at him. “Then I am getting you uninvolved.” Anger competed with panic. She couldn’t think straight enough to argue with him when every atom of her body was desperate to get to the office. Frustration had her shaking as she looked up into his pale eyes. Stepping forwards, she came almost chest to chest with him. “I have to know if she called in.”
The bell rang, unwelcome and calamitous.
“You’ll know, in time. Just don’t go down there now. Allow them time to sort this out first. If you run down there now, the Head’s secretary is going to take it out on you.”
Robyn didn’t care, she had very little thought except to find out what was going on, but her next class had begun to line up outside the room and circumstance had her trapped.
Andrew took her firmly by the shoulders and made her look at him. “Listen to me, Robyn? Wait, please wait.”
Robyn knew she didn’t have a choice, not with her most challenging class filling the corridor, but there was also something in the way Andrew spoke that stopped her from angrily thrusting him out of her way. This was not a demand but a request.
Bewildered, Robyn nodded as Andrew turned and left, allowing year ten to wander in. Difficult, unwilling and filled with raging hormones, the class had to be handled firmly and certainly not left unattended.
Robyn stumbled through the lesson, repeating herself more than once. She then forgot to set the required homework. Robyn was relieved and a little more composed when year twelve strolled in for the lesson before lunch. Knowing that she could trust them, she set work and headed out of the room.
Reception and the office were just a few doors down from her classroom and the receptionist, Emily, was pleased to see her.
“She’s a little busy,” Emily replied when Robyn asked to see the Head’s secretary, “She’s trying to organise cover for this afternoon and get a supply teacher in for the rest of the week, but I’ll ask.”
The office was situated behind reception. Robyn watched as Emily disappeared through the inner door.
Emily returned smiling. “Go through, Robyn, Mrs Young would like to see you anyway.”
Robyn went out the reception door and in the next door along to find Mrs Young at her desk. In her mid-forties, she dressed as if she was much older and currently wore a woollen, A-line, mid-calf length skirt and a shapeless blouse. The outfit was somewhat austere, further enhancing the comparison many of the staff made to the Wicked Witch of the West. Add her attire to the fact that she rode to work on and old-fashioned shopper bicycle, complete with wicker basket, and the similarity was complete.
The two other women, a secretary and the bursar, in the office had their heads down apparently working, but Mrs Young caught Robyn in a direct and cold stare before standing and beckoning her through to the Heads office, which was empty.
“Would you like to tell me what on earth is going on with your friend?” Mrs Young rounded on Robyn as soon as the door was closed. She was a slight woman, bu
t her stare could turn you to ice.
“Um, what?” Robyn stammered, “I came in here to ask you?”
“You cannot tell me that you didn’t know what was going on.” Her frame was a few inches shorter than Robyn’s but she made up for it in sheer presence. Robyn felt like she was being battered down by a larger opponent.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Confused and exasperated, Robyn walked further in the room before turning back to Mrs Young.
“Your friend, Katherine, decided not to turn up for work this morning.” Each of her words were emphasised separately and a little too vehemently. “I have had a nightmare getting her lessons covered on such short notice.”
“I don’t know anything.” Robyn frowned. “She went away at the beginning of half term and was meant to come back on Wednesday, but I haven’t seen or heard from her.”
“Really?” she drawled it out as she raised her brows, leaving Robyn with the feeling that she was on trial. “She didn’t tell you anything? I thought you two were as thick as thieves.”
It was the hands on the hip stance that got Robyn’s back up. This woman was used to being obeyed and Robyn didn’t like her attitude one bit. “I don’t know what you’re referring to, but I’ve been worried about her all week. I thought she would turn up today.” Robyn stepped forwards and gave Mrs Young a stern stare of her own.
“Well, she’s not going to turn up today or any other.” Mrs Young was in full flow now, her voice raised, her candour that of a society Lady looking down on the help. “She has informed me, very late in the day I must say, that she will not be returning to work and has had second thoughts about a teaching career.”
“She did what?” Robyn’s legs numbed and the room seemed to be moving. She slumped into a chair.
“She said she was unhappy, and that she was off to see the world, or something equally ridiculous.” The secretary spat out as she vehemently gestured with her hands
“But she would have told me.” Robyn’s voice had lost all power.
“Well, I guess she’s just a devious little madam who doesn’t care who she hurts. Now I’ve got to get cover for her lessons and find a replacement as quickly as possible. Do you know what kind of task that is at this time of year? God only knows what standard of applicant we are going to get from all the people who couldn’t find a job last year. Ridiculous!” she mumbled as she walked towards the door, opened it and stepped out into the noise of the secretarial office once again.
Robyn sat for a minute, taking everything in, before a thought occurred. She walked straight up to Mrs Young as the secretary stood at the photocopier.
“She phoned you?” It was meant to be a question, but in her fervour, it came out more like an accusation. Mrs Young looked up to stare with utter disdain. This was a woman you did not challenge, especially in her own domain.
Robyn stood her ground
“She phoned you?” she asked again, steady but insistent.
“Yes she phoned, eventually, at 10:15 no less. Now, can you please let me get on with my work?” Mrs Young turned away and started a run on the machine. The conversation was over.
Stunned by the news, Robyn walked in a daze back to her classroom. Year twelve were getting on with the exercise that she had left so she had time to think. Too much time.
How could Kat have made such a monumental decision and keep it from her? Kat was too open to hide a lie like that and Robyn just wasn’t able to believe what she was hearing.
Looking out of the small glass square in her classroom door, Robyn saw the Head Teacher returning to his office. Without thinking, she yanked open the door and ran up the corridor to cut him off before he could disappear.
“Uh, Sir?” Robyn half shouted as she made her way down the passageway. “Can I have a word?”
David Rowe, Head Teacher, looked at Robyn running like a schoolgirl up the corridor, her skirt hitched up and her shoes clattering on the parquet and sneered. His glare stopped Robyn in her tracks. She skidded to a halt as he tilted his head back and scrutinised her down the long sharp nose which was his most prominent feature.
“Are you running in my corridor?” Each word was clipped, slow and deep, a sound of authority and judgement. “How do you expect pupils to behave if the staff cannot?”
Now Robyn felt like a child, properly chastised and put in her place.
“Oh.” The realisation of how unprofessional she was being hit her with one look from the Head’s firm, disapproving face. Her shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to ask about Kat, um Katherine Harris. Did she really call? Has she really left teaching?”
“I would think that you have better things to do than waste time asking silly questions about a silly girl. Like teaching your class perhaps?” He nodded behind Robyn and she turned to see that her door was now ajar with several of her year twelve class listening intently to their conversation. When she turned back to the Head, his piercing hawk-like eyes made her insides shrink a little, but all sense was already lost within the blanket of desperation that covered her.
“I know that it can’t be true. There is no way that Kat would go without telling me. Someone is not telling the truth.” She had no choice, she told herself. Something was desperately wrong and Robyn had to get to the bottom of it.
“And you think it’s me, do you?” David Rowe puffed out his chest as Robyn challenged him. “How dare you! I took the phone call. I spoke to Miss Harris myself. Are you calling me a liar, Miss Darrow?”
Taken aback, Robyn shook her head. “Uh. . . No . . . I. . . No of course not . . . I . . .”
“I think we’ve wasted time enough. Don’t you have a class to teach?” And with that he pointed to her classroom in clear dismissal. “I wouldn’t want to lose two staff members today.”
Robyn felt like she’d been slapped and that pain broke through all her irrational thoughts. She turned without saying a word and walked quickly back to her classroom, head down and defeated.
Separated from reality, from time itself, Robyn sat on her stool as the world went on without her, her thoughts deep and disturbing. Kat had been her rock ever since their first introduction. She’d become the centre of Robyn’s universe and Robyn couldn’t believe that it had all been a lie. There was no way that Kat had made such important plans without consulting Robyn, especially as her friend would have known the impact that the decision would have on Robyn. The lump of discomfort still sat large and painful in her gut.
The bell rang, snapping Robyn’s head up, but she found herself alone. In front of her were several workbooks placed in an orderly pile, but the year twelve’s were gone.
As Robyn picked up the books in order to return them to their rightful place on her shelves, the door opened.
“What did I tell you?” Andrew’s voice was stern, and unwelcome.
She didn’t want to face him, he sounded so irate and she couldn’t get her thoughts together for an altercation, but he wasn’t going to just leave.
“I don’t have to do what you say, Andrew.” Nervous anxiety had been pumping adrenaline throughout her system for the last hour and more. Now she had little energy to fight and her tone was more resigned than angry.
Andrew stepped into the room and allowed the door to close behind him, but he said nothing.
Robyn rubbed her eyes and stared at the floor. “She wouldn’t just leave.” The words weren’t for him, they were for her. She had to believe that. She couldn’t face the alternative.
Andrew didn’t move but his voice was solemn. “People leave, it’s just life. You can’t blame yourself.”
Robyn looked up. “Why do you think I blame myself?”
He shook his head. “You sound dismayed.” He stepped forwards but stopped himself before advancing further. “Katherine is a grown woman who never really fit in here. If she chose to leave, it probably had nothing to do with you.”
He was right, of course. If Kat had chosen to leave and damn her career, she had made the
decision on her own. But he was wrong about it having nothing to do with Robyn.
“We had a fight. I hurt her.”
Andrew placed his hands on her teaching bench and leaned into it.
“Katherine didn’t make this decision because you had a falling out.”
It was more than that, Robyn knew it, hadn’t fully understood until now. Kat wasn’t one to bear grudges, but she’d brooded for days. Robyn had really hurt her. Looking at Andrew she realised that Kat’s feelings must have run deeper for this one man than for any of the droves that had gone before him. Robyn hadn’t believed Kat was capable of a serious relationship, fidelity being a big issue, but Kat must have thought she was, and this was the man she had chosen. Robyn had befriended him inadvertently and therefore stepped on Kat’s toes. Friends didn’t do that to each other. Kat could forgive many things but probably not that and after all, who knew her better?
Robyn glanced away. Who knew her better? That was it.
“It wasn’t her.” Strength had returned to her voice as she turned back to Andrew.
“What wasn’t her?” Wary, he stood up straight.
“It wasn’t her, couldn’t have been.” Robyn’s body filled with heated determination. “Anyone could have made that call. The Head wouldn’t know her voice from any other.”
Andrew shook his head as his brow furrowed and he stepped forwards. “Whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t.”
“You don’t own me, Obursen, and you certainly don’t tell me what to do.” Robyn grabbed her keys and pulled her bag out from under the desk.
“Will you listen to someone who is trying to help you? You were the one who brought up being friends. As your friend, I am advising you to not do anything whilst you’re emotional.” Andrew grabbed her arm firmly to show his point and make her look at him.
As he spun her around, Robyn was glad that she wore a jacket, for had his skin have touched hers she knew that she would have been incapable of standing her ground. As it was, she had found the determination to not be thwarted.