Wind Across the Playground

by Ross Richdale

  "That's okay then," the board officer said. "We're quite conservative down here, you know and the Ashleyvale School Committee stressed they wanted a married couple."

  After a few more questions and the assurance he had ten days before he had to commit himself one way or the other, Noel hung up, grinned and walked back to his class.

  All the way home in the school bus he said nothing and with children right to the end of the run that day, Lisa had no opportunity to speak to him. He stopped by his house and remained silent while the children ran off to their parents' cars.

  Lisa looked exasperated as she finally turned to Noel. "Well," she said. "I know by the look on your face that you've something to say. Out with it."

  "I rang the Otago Education Board," Noel said in a neutral voice. "The school sounds just like you said. The roll is steady and there's a new block only ten years old. The schoolhouse was built in 1898 but is being replaced within a few years." He stopped without even a smile and stared, unblinking, at the young woman.

  Lisa bit on her lip. "But!" she said.

  "We need to talk about this," Noel blew out a nervous sigh and hoped he was doing the right thing. "It's more than just shifting to a new job, you know."

  "Of course it is, Noel, but what are you trying to say?" Lisa sounded annoyed as well as apprehensive.

  "I don't care about your parent's marriage. We are not them," Noel burst out and grabbed her arm." He stopped and sucked in a supply of air. "We need get married. That's it Lisa!"

  "No," she replied in a voice so quiet that he hardly heard.

  Noel was ready for an argument and stood there with his mouth set in a thin line.

  "Why?" he gasped.

  "The reasons haven't changed, you silly man," Lisa replied. "I sticking to this because I am beginning to fall in love with you, Noel."

  "But..." Noel spluttered. "Surely that means..."

  "Noel," Lisa retorted. "When the new decade comes and we both feel the same we'll get married. Okay? "

  "But what about the school, the parents and the education board?"

  "So," Lisa said "We're teachers, Noel, good ones! That is what we are employed for, not to abide by outdated mores of society. I'd rather have a few hostile stares than rush into something we could both regret within a few years." Her words were edged in sheer determination.

  Noel sighed. He was losing this argument but perhaps it was because he half believed Lisa. His main worry, though, was still any reaction if they turned up unmarried and obviously living together.

  "Perhaps we should leave these jobs, then. After all, we have my schoolhouse here. If it takes another year to pick up another position that isn't a duel appointment it won't matter."

  "No," Lisa retorted. "If we give up an opportunity when it arrives, it may never come back again. Look at Gary," she added and referred to one of the other men on the Taihape staff. "He's been trying to win a headmaster's job for three years and has reached the frustration stage. It's our opportunity, Noel. We need to seize it..."

  Her words were never completed as Noel grabbed her in his arms and flooded a gigantic kiss on her lips. She responded and looked into his eyes. "You do understand, don't you?" she said.

  "You're wrong'"

  Lisa screwed her nose up. "About not conforming to outdated ideas?" she asked

  "No, not that. You've convinced me on that score. Your argument is that in a few years I would have changed my mind about wanting to marry you, Lisa. My promise is that I will not mention marriage again until the eighties." He grabbed her arms and stared into her eyes."

  "And the other conditions?"

  Noel frowned. "We'll see," he replied. "I don't know if I can."

  Lisa's blue eyes held his. "I don't want you to ever regret anything in your life, Noel. That's all. If something did happen..." She smiled. "Think back. Was there any time you really wanted to screw a girl but didn't because you worried about what someone else might think?"

  "There were several times I wanted to go all the way with one girl in particular but didn't," Noel admitted. "When I was at Palmerston North Teachers' College we went out with for a couple of months. I sure she would have gone all the way because that is exactly what she did with a guy after we broke up. I remember seeing her with this other bloke and regretting what I missed."

  "And did you regret our first time together?"

  "No! I guess my hesitation when I was younger motivated me this time. I thought that if I didn't do it with you, you'd drift away."

  "I wouldn't have," Lisa admitted then broke onto a grin. "I'd have just tried harder. I had a real tight jersey I was going to wear and an even shorter mini skirt." She chuckled, her eyes found Noel's again and turned serious. "Ashleyvale School is our opportunity, Noel. I want to shift down south with you, live with you and take it from there."

  Noel grabbed her in his arms and kissed her. She responded and relaxed again.

  "Anyhow," she said. "I'm almost out of the pill and everyone in Taihape knows I'm not married." She giggled and grabbed Noel around the waist. "Where do you want to celebrate? "

  "On our old blue sofa," Noel said.

  CHAPTER 5

  "Oh my God, Noel," Lisa exclaimed as they turned off Highway 92 where the sign said Ashleyvale. "We're here!"

  She grinned as they drove down a long curved road and past an old grocery shop with petrol pumps in front of it. Two cars and an old Bedford truck, not unlike Noel's bus back in Taihape, were parked along the slightly widened road.

  "Let's stop," said Lisa. "I need to get some milk and bread anyway."

  "But the school is just around the bend."

  "It won't go away."

  Feeling very important, Noel pulled across the road behind the truck and the pair got out of their Holden.

  Noel followed Lisa through the door into an amazingly large general store. Everything was there, groceries, buckets, hardware and even a line of farm clothes. At the far end was a long wooden counter covered in bits and pieces, jars of pickles, cartons of biscuits, little advertising packages and several handwritten signs.

  An old bloke wearing a white apron stood behind the counter with a pile of letters in his hand. Noel realized one end of the counter was made out like a post office.

  "Good afternoon," the old chap said with a soft blur in his voice. "You folk come for your mail?"

  Lisa grinned.

  Noel though flushed slightly when he thought he was mistaken for someone else. "Well, no," he muttered. "We were just driving by and..."

  The man broke into a grin and held out his hand. "Tom's the name," he said. "Tom McEwen."

  Old but kind eyes greeted the pair in turn but before either of them could say who they were Tom continued talking. "I have school mail and a letter for Mr. Noel Overworth and two for Miss Lisa Woolstone. You folk are our new teachers, aren't you?"

  "How did you know?" Lisa laughed.

  "Well," Old Tom replied. "Who else would drop in at three thirty on a hot January afternoon?" He chuckled. "You'd better hurry, though. Afternoon tea is getting cold."

  "What do you mean?" Noel replied.

  "The ladies have got afternoon tea waiting up at the school. Your furniture arrived yesterday. We've poked the big stuff in the proper rooms for you and mowed the lawns. Bill and Betty left before Christmas so the grass was tall."

  Old Tom, as the pair found out everyone called the grocer, gazed at them both. "I told the wife you were going to be living together. Is that right?"

  "It is," Lisa replied in a tense voice.

  "Fine! Fine!" the man said with a wave of his hand and a grin covered his crinkled face. "I won my bet with my good wife, that's all."

  "How?" Lisa sounded suspicious.

  "Nancy, that's the wife, reckoned you'd be married before you arrived. I said, 'Nancy, they won't be but it isn't any of our God damn business, anyway. If they can teach our grand children as well as their headmaster in Taihape said they could, that's good enough for us.' That's
what I told her and we had a ten dollar bet over it"

  "The Taihape headmaster?" Noel asked and raised an eyebrow to his partner. "Wayne Stapleton?"

  "Aye, that'll be his name. He said he was hoping you wouldn't come, as he didn't want to lose you both from his staff." Old Tom gave Noel a dig in the ribs. "A couple of the churchy ones had a bit of a moan when they heard you two weren't hitched but them folk would moan about anything." He chuckled. "But I talk too much. We all agreed to say nothing about your living arrangements."

  Noel looked at Lisa and grinned. He was sure he was going to like this old shopkeeper.

  After taking the mail and purchasing a few groceries, they headed back to the car and, a moment later, there it was, Ashleyvale School, a two classroom building at the end of a long driveway. Cars and children were everywhere and screams could be heard coming from behind a tin fence.

  "The swimming pool," Noel said as they pulled in.

  During the next few moments they met about fifteen women and several men. Hands were shaken and several women took Lisa under their care and escorted her in the school where the senior room was set out like a restaurant with an enormous amount of scones, cakes and sandwiches.

  "Oh my God," was all Lisa could say as one woman held out a cup of tea for her to drink. "Thank you ever so much. We thought we'd quietly slip in and meet you kind people later."

  Noel never had the heart to say they drank coffee and just stood back grinning. Children came up and stood nearby with shy smiles until Noel began chatting. One girl looked as tall and physically mature as Lisa and he assumed she was a high school girl until she began chatting. He realized she was a Form One pupil who would be in his class. After the ten-year-olds he was used to at Taihape, she seemed enormous.

  "My name's Wendy McEwen," she said. "There are six girls in Forms One and Two this year and Basil. He's the only boy. Last year, there were eight in Form Two but they'll be starting at high school in February. Thank Goodness. The boys were a real pain in the butt."

  Noel smiled and listened to the girl rattle on. He found out later she hardly ever stopped talking but was a bright pupil who was excellent at both music and art. He also found out that half his class were McEwens. Stuarts made up another quarter of the families and it appeared everyone was related to one or the other of these two families.

  "Not quite," a pleasant woman who introduced herself as Margaret Stuart explained to Lisa. "There are three McEwen brothers and a sister, all with children at the school. In our clan there's Wesley, my husband and his brothers Hamish and Gerard. We have a daughter at school here, Hamish has four and Gerard another two. The rest of the school is a bit of everything."

  Another woman came up and their conversation was interrupted. Noel glanced across the room and caught Lisa's eyes. She smiled and made her way over to him. "You know, the ladies have cooked a hot meal for us over at the school house," she whispered. "They said I'd be too tired after all that driving to cook a meal. Oh Noel, isn't the welcome marvellous? To think, back home they reckon they didn't like strangers down here."

  "That was Southland, Lisa," Noel replied. "This is South Otago."

  "Okay," Lisa chided and gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. "You know what I mean?"

  The schoolhouse was old with high ceilings. A corridor went right through the middle with bedrooms were on each side. At the rear, a wall had been removed and new windows added to make quite a large kitchen and living room while, across the corridor was a separate lounge. A recently upgraded bathroom and toilet were tucked around a corner from the other rooms while, outside across a path was a washhouse complete with old concrete tubs and a copper. Their new washing machine had already been set up ready to use.

  Back in the kitchen, a brand new electric stove sat next to an ancient coal range. Four pots of food bubbled away on it and their new kitchen table had been set out neatly beside the window. Even their double bed had been assembled in the main bedroom and neatly made.

  "We told the Otago Education Board, the coal range wasn't good enough so they installed the new stove just last week," Lynn, a chubby little woman who seemed to be in charge of the meal said after they finished inspecting the house. "Mind you, it is good to light up in the winter. You folk will take a bit of getting used to our winter."

  After another hour and a half the locals drifted away to leave the two alone. Lisa's eyes glowed as she smiled at Noel and tucked her arms through his.

  "They treated us like royalty," she said. "Oh Noel. Aren't you glad I sent that application form in?"

  "I am," Noel replied. "And to think, no old Wayne Stapleton glowering at us or moaning at staff meetings that we are setting the long division sums out incorrectly."

  "He was a bit of an old tyrant, wasn't he?" Lisa laughed.

  OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS they met almost all the parents and children, heard about their predecessors and found a folder of notes left with information about everything from how to prime the bore water pump to information on where the best places were for buying school equipment. Noel's mind was in a daze at everything thrust upon them and how they were regarded as equals or even leaders. This was far different from Taihape where they had been treated as juniors in the staff hierarchy.

  By the Saturday before school opened they were more or less ready for the new school year with programs of work sorted and the house organized. They had a day off and explored the district. There was a beach at Nugget Point a few miles away with a beautiful rocky beach and a lighthouse that dominated the scene. The ocean, though, was freezing and they only had a short swim. Balclutha, a surprising modern town much larger than Taihape, was about forty minutes drive away. Closer was a small township of Owaka with a branch line railway station, a handful of shops and quite a large area school, a combined primary and secondary school.

  A few things were different from the North Island with the most noticeable being the twice-daily steam train that chugged through in the morning and returned, laden with logs at night. Diesels had long replaced steam back home. Closer to Balclutha was a fertile river flat and massive stop banks along the Clutha River that the locals pointed out was the largest river in the country with several hydro dams built across it in Central Otago. Further south, Highway 92 became gravel and twisted through Catlins Forest Park and Tautuki Forest where the branch railway line terminated. Though, Noel and Lisa didn't travel too far down the narrow road, the map showed them that the highway eventually came out in Southland and onto the most southern city in the world, Invercargill.

  It was prosperous looking country and, in many ways, it was hard to realize they were so far away from home. The locals were conservative but friendly, perhaps too friendly as Noel found out within his first few months at Ashleyvale.

  CHAPTER 6

  The first few weeks at Ashleyvale School went like a dream for Noel and he knew Lisa felt the same. Once he became used to the older children, he found them similar to younger ones he was used to. Though physically larger, they were still kids and quite unsophisticated. Wendy, though still in the second to top class was by far the largest girl but was tall rather than rotund. Basil, oldest boy, was shorter than most of the senior girls but had a keen mind and became, with Wendy, one of the most reliable pupils in the room. The other senior girls were all quiet and well spoken; Jane was humorous, Kirsty the moaner and Deanne the sporty one. And so it was throughout the room with the biggest group being the twelve Standard Two and Three children, eight and nine year olds.

  Teaching five class levels wasn't as difficult as Noel predicted as he lopped the children together for most subjects but had higher expectations from the seniors. The children, of course, were used to a small school and were remarkably independent with the seniors often stepping in to help younger pupils. Noel had twenty-four pupils with fifteen girls and seven boys while Lisa taught sixteen younger pupils with more boys than girls.

  Gaps in the children's learning soon became apparent, though, with the children's written w
ork and reading far lower than Noel's expectations.

  "In my room they just read journals or library books and there was no structured program at all," Noel muttered to Lisa one afternoon as she sat on his desk after the children had gone home.

  "I know," she replied. "It's the same in my room. There are the little department readers but no supplementary readers at all."

  "The school committee are very loyal but hinted that our predecessors, Bill Petersen and his wife were mad keen on sports and didn't worry too much about the basics," Noel continued. "The committee is keen to purchase new readers for the school and told me to go ahead and spent a hundred dollars on readers for both our classes."

  "Oh my God. That much?"

  "Yes," Noel replied. "In his last year, Bill spent almost nothing except to buy sports gear so the money the district raised just sat in the bank getting interest."

  Lisa smiled. "Oh Noel," she said. "Aren't we lucky to have our own school?"

  She stood up as a car drove in. "Here comes someone to go swimming. I think I'll go in, too. Coming?"

  Noel laughed. In the three weeks since school started, they went swimming every day and Lisa even went in with her children to teach swimming. She was tanned and, in her light cotton dresses, looked so alluring all Noel wanted to do was hold her in his arms. At school, though, they were very professional and maintained a dignity not a lot different from the previous year at Taihape.

  ON THE THIRD THURSDAY of the term the senior room was a hive of activity. Desks had been moved aside and the children were making a massive painting on paper rolled out on the floor. Everyone was paired with each older child buddied with a younger one. The topic was The Seashore and, earlier in the week, the whole school had travelled in a convoy of parents' cars down to the beach. This was also something new. Before the children had only travelled away from school for sports or, in the case of the Form Ones and Twos, manual at Owaka Area School one afternoon every second week.