Free Song at Twilight by Teresa Waugh Page B

room I was feeling particularly irritable and the first person I saw was Timothy's housemaster who looked at me with what can only be described as an insolent stare and said,
    "Your little toy boy's back, Prudence – I met his mother yesterday. Quite a corker."
    The tastelessness of the man was unbearable. In fact it was the first time that I had heard the expression 'toy boy' and have to admit that I had, then, no idea of the connotations of the phrase.
    I said good-morning to one or two other colleagues before the headmaster came in dressed in a gown, ready for assembly.
    He cleared his voice and spoke to the room in general.
    "It has come to my notice," he said, "that there is too much sexual activity going on in the school – particularly among the fourth formers." He paused. "This must not," he added, "be discussed outside these walls as I should not like prospective – or indeed present – parents to become aware of the problem. I shall be taking serious steps to curb this unfortunate trend, and so with this in mind I propose to announce at Assembly that from now onwards the six inch rule will be extended to ten and a half inches."
    There was a school rule which forbade pupils of the opposite sex from walking within six inches of one another.
    "That's bound to do the trick, Headmaster," I said drily.
    The Headmaster stared at me balefully over his half-moon spectacles and said,
    "How else would you deal with the problem, Prudence?"
    I was not really interested in sexual intercourse in the fourth form at that moment for I was far more concerned about Timothy whom I would be teaching later that morning, and his mother and Leo.
    "I sometimes just think good luck to them," I said with a weary sigh. And the bell rang for Assembly.
    *
    Patricia is in a terrible state. Her daughter, Laurel, has shaved off all her hair as a sign that she disapproves of men and has no intention of attracting them.
    If only Laurel knew how hard it is in life to attract the ones you want, she might not do anything so rash. Quite apart from that she is scarcely an appealing child and should not really have any problems in that direction. I hardly imagine that she is surrounded by a flock of unwanted admirers.
    Be that as it may, Patricia was in floods of tears on the telephone. I did my best to console her. Laurel's hair would soon grow again, more luxuriantly than ever, I assured her.
    "Why can't my children leave their heads alone?" Patricia wailed. She begged me to come over and talk to Laurel as she felt that I might have some influence where she had failed.
    Since Laurel had already shaved her head I could hardly see what use there could be in my talking to her. But Patricia was determined that I should come. Even if I had no effect on Laurel, I might be of some consolation to Victor who, in disgust at his daughter's behaviour, now not only refused to eat his meals with her, but closed his eyes whenever he saw her.
    Eventually, much against my wishes, I agreed to go and spend a long week-end with Victor and Patricia.
    There was no doubt about it that Laurel looked perfectly dreadful with her head shaven like Yul Brynner's.
    When I first saw her, she had just come in from school and I have to admit that if I had not known it was she, I would not instantly have recognised her.
    I decided to make no comment.
    Victor, who was sitting with me at the time, watching the six o'clock news on television, immediately rose from his chair, put his hands over his eyes, and without further comment stumbled out of the room, tripping over a footstool and bumping into the door jamb on his way. Throughout the four days in which I stayed with my brother, he continued to avoid his daughter in just this manner.
    'What,’’ he said to me in private, "have we done? Leo a few years ago had a shock of purple curls, and now Laurel is as bald as a coot." For a moment I thought he was going to cry.
    Patricia did cry – at regular intervals throughout the weekend.