Night School

She’d barely got comfortable when the door of the chapel opened and a woman appeared in the doorway. Casually dressed in dark linen trousers and a white button-down shirt, her long dark hair was knotted loosely on her head. She held a clipboard in one hand.

‘Can I have all notices, please?’

As the students walked up she took their sheets without comment, but when Allie handed hers in, she stopped her.

‘You must be Allie.’ She sounded as pleased as if they’d met in the dining room over a cup of tea. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you from Isabelle. I’m Eloise Derleth, the librarian. You must stop in and say hello. Isabelle left some books for you at my desk.’

She gave Allie a beaming smile and moved on to gather the rest of the papers together. When everything was in order, she raised her voice so the whole group could hear her.

‘I know you’re all eager to find out what today’s chore will be. So I won’t keep you waiting. Please follow me.’

Some students rolled their eyes and giggled as they trooped along behind her. Allie stuck to the edges, caution holding her back.

Eloise led them around the side of the chapel to a shed at the back of the churchyard. It was a lovely place with aged gravestones leaning higgledy-piggledy under leafy trees amid deep, soft grass. An old garden bench rotted slowly against the wall in a pool of sunshine. A man in the black work outfit worn by the staff at the school waited at the back of the building.

‘Today you’re going to be clearing the churchyard,’ Eloise explained. ‘Mr Ellison will give you everything you need and assign you tasks for the morning. Good luck!’

With a cheerful smile, she walked briskly down the path and out the gate. Allie headed over to join the group queuing to collect tools from Mr Ellison.

‘I’m dividing you up into teams.’ His voice was a rich, resonant baritone, and as he handed out tools, Allie marvelled at the sheer size of him. He must have been six and a half feet tall; his arms were thick and strong, probably, she theorised, from working outside all his life. His skin was the colour of espresso, and he had a wonderfully calming manner.

‘These are my weed trimmers here.’ He gestured at a group of boys he’d already armed with noisy devices. ‘They’ll trim around the graves while this group here,’ he pointed at two boys and a girl pushing lawnmowers in various directions, ‘do the main clearing.’

Allie was the last in the queue. As she walked up, Mr Ellison gave her a polite nod.

‘You two will be my rakers.’

Two?

She spun around to find Carter standing beside her, gazing innocently at the gardener as he handed over their rakes. As she stared at him, astonished, Carter thanked him politely, then turned on his heel and strode off carrying both rakes in one hand.

She hurried after him, hopping gingerly past the graves and stumbling on the uneven ground as the angry mosquito buzz of lawn devices filled the air.

‘What are you doing here? And where are you going?’ she asked sharply. And when he ignored her: ‘Hey! Shouldn’t we be raking instead of running?’

Carter didn’t seem bothered by her attitude. ‘I have detention. Why are you here? And can you please chill? We need to wait a few minutes for the mowers to give us something to rake. So I’m getting out of the way.’

He didn’t stop until he got to the yew tree near the front of the church. He leaned the rakes against the trunk and then, stepping up on a bulging tree root, climbed onto a low branch where he sat comfortably with his legs hanging down. Holding out his hand to her, he raised his eyebrow questioningly.

After hesitating (and imagining herself standing aloof and saying, ‘No thanks, I’m happy standing.’) Allie reluctantly reached up. As he took her hand and lifted her up beside him, there was something in his gaze that she couldn’t interpret and she felt a rush of colour to her cheeks.

She slid out along the gnarled branch away from him, then sat with one leg dangling and the other bent, with her foot propped on the branch. He turned to face her, so that his back rested against the trunk. Spinning a twig between two fingers, he studied her curiously. She watched the lawnmowers make grass disappear and pretended not to notice his gaze. From up here she could hear the sound of rushing water.

‘Look,’ Carter said, ‘I’ve been wanting to get you alone so that I could apologise.’

She glanced up at him, surprised. He looked, she thought, uncharacteristically uncomfortable.

‘I gave you the wrong idea the other day in the library,’ he said. ‘I know you thought I was saying something I wasn’t. I think you have as much a right as anybody else does to be here. OK? Please believe that.’

Although she nodded, her expression was still guarded. He sighed with frustration.

‘I feel terrible about this. You must think I’m a complete dick.’

She nodded again with an ironic half-smile, and he laughed. She tried to fight a smile and failed.