Chapter 7

Mr. Matthew opened his eyes and found out that he was in a dark and empty room which was bereft of furniture. He stood up quickly from the cold muddy floor and looked around, wondering how he had gotten there in the first place. He felt a full ache on his head so he put his hand on his head and tried to see if he could remember anything but he couldn’t.

His shirt was in tatters and his trousers were soaked in mud and dirt. He looked around for a way to escape and then saw the window. However, the window was too high up and he couldn’t reach it. He then decided to try and escape through the small wooden door. He walked over to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked from outside. He pushed it forcefully; it only creaked but didn’t give way.

Then he heard footsteps. He leaned quietly against the door and put his ear to it. The footsteps seemed to be approaching where he was. Without warning, the door was unlocked from the other side and flung open. Mr. Matthew lost his balance and fell down, hitting his chin on the ground, causing his teeth to clatter painfully. He winced in pain and raised his head slowly. Standing in front of him was Molly and the third graders!

“Molly, what’s happening? Edgar, Jamie. Where am I?” he said as he tried to stand up. An evil smile crept onto Molly’s face which gave Mr. Matthew the jitters. 

The third graders all brought out long canes and started whipping Mr. Matthew all over his body. He tried to snatch it from their hands but they overpowered him and pushed him down roughly, whipping him furiously. He screamed out in pain for help to no avail. The third graders beat him up mercilessly, inflicting severe injuries on him in the process.

Mr. Matthew screamed out as he woke up from his sleep, panting. Sweat was all over his face and his pillow was soaked with his sweat. He sighed audibly but was grateful that it was nothing more than a bad dream. “Those children will pay,” he said menacingly, gritting his teeth. 

He checked the time on his alarm clock. 10:24am. He had overslept. He rubbed his eyes and stood up from his bed shakily. He looked back at his soaked pillow and shook his head. He then said his morning prayer.

“Father Lord, put all my enemies to shame; they will not get me. I will be the one victorious in the end. Amen,” he said as he ended his prayers.

“I’ll show those third graders, the nerves they have to disturb me in my dream,” he thought to himself as he walked into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

~~~

Miss Stacy concluded her revision and faced the students with a smile on her face. She had just revised seven topics for them in half an hour, she smiled, proud of herself, only a few teachers handled revisions that quickly. Mr. Matthew was one of them. He would revise and then ask the children questions, instead of entertaining questions from them, and anyone who acted slowly was whipped with the almighty cane which sat in an empty flower vase in front of the class as a reminder that nonsense wasn’t going to be tolerated. Miss Stacy looked towards the cane, then back at the students. 

Although, she respected Mr. Matthew and admired the way he came up with quick results, she was determined to form her own teaching style. She wondered why Mr. Matthew didn’t like asking the pupils questions. She resolved to ask them questions and try to form a teacher-pupil bond so that the children could learn quickly.

“So kids, any questions?” she asked and looked around. All hands shot up and her smile immediately faded. “They couldn’t all have questions,” she thought as she walked to her desk and sat on it, facing the students.

She looked at her watch and cleared her throat. “Ok Molly, you go first, but remember, we don’t have all day, okay?” she said as she smiled at Molly.

Molly stood up and put her hands behind her back. “When are we going home Miss Stacy?” she asked.

Miss Stacy looked at her. “You’ll go home at the closing hours, now what is the question you wanted to ask?” Miss Stacy looked at Molly expectantly.

Molly smiled. “Oh, that’s the question I wanted to ask,” she said as she sat down, giggling. 

Miss Stacy fumed and tried to control herself. She managed to fake a smile and looked at Gabriella. “Ok Gabriella, you’re next,” she said and smiled at Gabriella who just sat down on her seat looking at her blankly as if she was not in the class.

Miss Stacy waited for a while but Gabriella didn’t budge or move a muscle. She just sat there, looking at her silently. Miss Stacy frowned. “Gabriella, stand up and ask your question now,” she said stiffly.

Gabriella stood up slowly.“I don’t understand it,” she said and scanned through her revision exercise book.

Miss Stacy smiled and walked up to her seat. “From where don’t you understand, darling?” she asked her.

“From after the date you wrote,” Gabriella said and showed Miss Stacy her book which was empty. Only the date had been written there. Miss Stacy’s smile slowly faded. She looked at the board, then back at Gabriella in shocked bewilderment.

Then angrily, she walked back to the front of the class. She took a deep breath in, then demanded for the attention of the pupils. “Now, listen and listen good! For those of you who still don’t understand, I will explain again, but it would be in your best interest if you tried to understand it, am I understood?” she asked loudly.

“Yes ma’am,” the children all chorused.

Miss Stacy cleaned the board and started explaining again, it took her another thirty minutes. She looked at her time. 9:28am. The mid-term tests were starting at 10:00am. She turned to the students.

“Does anyone have a question?” she asked and was surprised to see that all hands shot up again. She gritted her teeth and walked to where the almighty cane was kept. She brought it out and went back to the front of the class.

“Does anyone have a question related to what we're doing now?” she asked again. None of the children raised their hand this time. Miss Stacy nodded in satisfaction as she smiled sweetly at the children.

Now she could see why Mr. Matthew never asked them questions.

“Good then, this is a Monday morning, put away your bags and start preparing yourselves for your tests okay, do not waste my time, I do not want any drawbacks, am I understood?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am,” the students all chorused and began to prepare themselves for their tests.

~~~

Mr. Matthew ate his breakfast silently as he tried to think of what was going on in his class that day. “Maybe I should call Miss Stacy, just to see how she’s handling things?” he thought to himself as he put another spoonful of wheat cereal in his mouth. He let the milk which was floating above the wheat find its way round his mouth before finally swallowing it.

He picked up his phone and dialed Miss Stacy’s number. It rang but no one picked the call. He tried again, it rang for a while before it was picked up.

“Hello,” a sound came from the receiver’s end, a sound too young to be considered as Miss Stacy’s. He then realized it was one of the third graders.

“Where’s Miss Stacy? And what are you doing with her phone?!” he barked as he took another spoonful of his cereal.

“She’s with Mrs. Paula; she left her phone on the table,” the voice, which he recognized as Mia’s, said again.

“Well, go and give her the phone; I want to speak with her,” he said and rolled his eyes. “Mischievous nitwits,” he thought to himself. He heard feet scuffling like someone was moving at the other side.

Soon the phone was handed to another person. “Miss Stacy?” he asked, just to be sure.

“Yes, Mr. Matthew, it’s me now,” he heard from the other side. He frowned. That didn’t sound like Miss Stacy at all. That sounded like Lily! Lily, at the other end, however, had tried so hard to deepen her voice to make it resemble a grown up woman’s own.

“I will seriously smack all of you now if you do not give the phone over to Miss Stacy immediately,” Mr. Matthew roared into his mouthpiece and heard the naughty children giggling at the other end. He frowned angrily.

Soon he heard feet scuffling and desks scraping against the floor, and then there was silence. He then heard Miss Stacy’s voice on the phone. “I’m so sorry Mr. Matthew, I just went to get some papers from Mrs. Paula,” she started but Mr. Matthew laughed it off and told her not to worry about it.

He then asked her how she was doing and handling things. She told him that right then, she was going late on her schedule and could not stay on to chat but she would tell him all that happened when she came over to meet him later in the evening. He smiled and after telling her goodbye, he ended the call. 

A message alert soon popped up after his call, telling him that his credit had been exhausted. He frowned angrily; those children had wasted his call credit.