‘I don’t think we need to worry too much about giggling,’ said Mr Wallaker. ‘What was the issue you had with the English?’
‘Well, the spellings . . .’ Mr Pitlochry-Howard began.
‘Still?’ said Mr Wallaker.
‘Ah, well, you see,’ I said, springing to Billy’s defence. ‘He’s only little. And also – as a writer I believe language is a constantly evolving, fluctuating thing, and actually communicating what you want to say is more important than spelling and punctuating it.’ I paused for a moment, remembering Imogen at Greenlight accusing me of just putting strange dots and marks in here and there where I thought they looked nice.
‘I mean, look at “realize”,’ I went on. ‘It used to be spelt with a z and now it’s Americanized – that’s with an “s” by the way. And I notice you’re spelling it on the tests with an “s” because computers do now!’ I finished triumphantly.
‘Yes, marvelous, with a single “l”,’ said Mr Wallaker. ‘But, at this present moment in time, Billy needs to pass his spelling tests or he’ll feel like a berk. So could you perhaps practise when you two are running up the hill in the mornings just after the bell has rung?’
‘OK,’ I said, looking at him under lowered brows. ‘How is his actual writing? I mean, creatively?’
‘Well,’ said Mr Pitlochry-Howard, rustling through his papers. ‘Ah, yes. We asked them to write about something strange.’
‘Let me see,’ said Mr Wallaker, putting on his glasses. Oh God. It would be so great if we could both put on our reading glasses on a date without feeling embarrassed.
‘Something strange, you say?’ He cleared his throat.
I sank into the chair, dismayed. Was this how my children saw me?
Mr Pitlochry-Howard was staring down at his papers, red-faced.
‘Well!’ said Mr Wallaker. ‘As you say, it communicates what it’s trying to communicate very well. A very vivid picture of . . . something strange.’
I met his gaze levelly. It was all right for him, wasn’t it? He was trained in giving orders and had packed his boys off to boarding school and could use the holidays to casually perfect their incredible music and sporting skills while adjusting their spelling of ‘inauspicious’.
‘How about the rest of it?’ he said.
‘No. He’s – his marks are very good apart from the spelling. Homework’s still pretty disorganized.’
‘Let’s have a look,’ said Mr Wallaker, rifling through the science papers, then picking up the planets one.
‘“Write five sentences, each including a fact about Uranus.”’
He paused. Suddenly could feel myself wanting to giggle.
‘He only did one sentence. Was there a problem with the question?’
‘I think the problem was it seemed rather a lot of facts to come up with, about such a featureless galactical area,’ I said, trying to control myself.
‘Oh, really? You find Uranus featureless?’ I distinctly saw Mr Wallaker suppress a giggle.
‘Yes,’ I managed to say. ‘Had it been Mars, the famed Red Planet, with recent robot landings, or even Saturn with its many rings—’
‘Or Mars with its twin orbs,’ said Mr Wallaker, glancing, I swear, at my tits before staring intently down at his papers.
‘Exactly,’ I got out in a strangled voice.
‘But, Mrs Darcy,’ burst out Mr Pitlochry-Howard, with an air of injured pride, ‘I personally am more fascinated by Uranus than—’
‘Thank you!’ I couldn’t help myself saying, then just totally gave in to helpless laughter.
‘Mr Pitlochry-Howard,’ said Mr Wallaker, pulling himself together, ‘I think we have admirably made our point. And,’ he murmured in an undertone, ‘I can quite see whence the giggling originates. Are there any more issues of concern with Billy’s work?’
‘No, no, grades are very good, gets on with the other boys, very jolly, great little chap.’
‘Well, it’s all down to you, Mr Pitlochry-Howard,’ I said creepily. ‘All that teaching! Thank you so much.’