Those Left Behind - 19. Teacher knows best

“Mr Wilson, fancy seeing you here”.

Ludo turned and looked to see who was speaking. He didn’t recognise the voice. There, with a hint of a smile playing on her lips, was Damian’s head teacher, Mrs Winston. She was trimly dressed in blouse and slacks, clearly not slumming it.

Ludo had spent Sunday morning working and Arthur had taken the boys out to the Arboretum. They would be back late afternoon, and Ludo had decided to go for a walk to clear his head. He had already got a lot done and felt pleased with himself. He had shaved just too many hours off his work recently and had needed to catch up. He would have to be more disciplined; without the structure of clients to meet, deadlines to reach, it was fatally easy to put things off. Must do better.

For want of a more imaginative plan, he had decided to walk over to the Common where, at least, he’d be able to do some people watching and perhaps there might be kites for him to photograph to show Damian. He hadn’t managed to go far, and here at the edge of the Common was Mrs Winston with, it seems, a dog. He had assumed they would simply say hello, and each move on. First, he was introduced to Reggie, a rather characterful terrier who seemed content to sit by his mistress and wait.

“How is Damian doing?”

He smiled at her, “Well, you tell me?”

“There has been no repeat of the unfortunate incident, and we have tried to ensure that Michael was kept well away.”

“That is good news.”

“Between you and me, we have had some parents very angry and concerned; there are a couple of Jewish families and some Hindus. Of course, not all are devout, but still, they worry that the next focus of Michael’s intemperate Biblical quotations would be their children.”

“And Michael’s parents?”

She temporised, “Struggling to accept the necessary. But look, I wanted to talk about Damian. I had been wondering whether to telephone you. This is most fortuitous.”

At her suggestion, they ended up in a café at the Common end of the High Street. As they walked from towards it, Ludo noticed that she didn’t bother re-attaching Reggie’s lead, and the dog quite happily trotted alongside his mistress. They exchanged pleasantries, nothing more, Ludo explained about Arthur and the boys and how he had been catching up on work, and Mrs Winston had laughed and said that she had been doing the same, adding a comment about the ridiculous amount of paperwork the government now required. It seemed that her constitutional with Reggie was a regular occurrence.

There were a few tables outside the café, on a bit of pavement that had been extended into the road to create what the council called a piazza, but which was really just a fancy piece of traffic calming. Not the most glamorous place, but they grabbed an outside table, and Reggie happily lay down under his mistress’ chair.

Only once their tea had arrived did she broach the subject, “We are somewhat concerned about Damian, he seems to have lost some of his resilience, what Jane Cummings, his form teacher calls his bounce” She paused expectantly.

“I think that he is struggling with all the recent events.”

“His Mother’s arrest?”

“Well, more than that. Before it all blew up, she’d been working extremely long hours.” She raised her eyebrows but said nothing, so Ludo continued. “And promised there’d be a holiday at the end of the project. But things went wrong, and she simply disappeared, with no word for Damian.”

“No word at all?”

“She wrote a postcard, but probably as a result of a message I left on her phone. He’s convinced that she planned to abandon him, us. Going off with the money.”

“Forgive my asking, but was there another man?”

“It seems not; it was purely a business partnership. It’s a difficult balance. I don’t want to make her an ogre, but…”

“Mmm. She has been committing fraud or whatever and planned to run off. Oh dear.”

“He’s been a bit moody of late, touchier and, yes, lacking his usual bounce. At best he gets involved in drawing his precious trees. He has also been having more nightmares, nothing too dramatic but enough for us to worry.”

“Ah, yes. And Adam and his Father, are they…”

“Damian likes Arthur, thank goodness. Early on he asked me why we couldn’t settle down with Arthur and Adam and forget about his Mother.”

“Oh Dear. Oh Dear. That won’t do at all”, she laughed rather dryly, “You know, they teach you a lot at college and you do all sorts of useful extra courses, but life has a tendency to confound you.”

“How to help a boy recover from a situation like this?”

“Precisely. I think a warm supportive family life is a good start, the sort you are trying to give him.”

Ludo mentioned the idea of a therapist.

“Mmm. A good idea, get him talking. Had you anyone in mind?”

Ludo said that they’d been asking around, but not found anyone yet and Mrs Winston said she would put some feelers out.

“I know that this is going to sound difficult, but I think you need to encourage him to socialise and not retreat into drawing his trees.” Ludo made to interrupt but she continued, “Oh, those are a very admirable interest, and he is very talented, but in the present circumstances…”

“He uses drawing as an excuse to withdraw?”

“Precisely, encourage more socialising with his friends and with yours.” Ludo couldn’t help it and pulled a face, she laughed, “I know, it is easy for interfering folk like me to dole out advice, but please do try.”

“I’ll have a go, it’s difficult.”

“I know. And, this is delicate, is there a chance of his Mother being in contact?”

“She’s in prison and currently everything is through the solicitor.”

“Not ideal. Perhaps pay him a bit of special attention.”

They chatted further but the conversation had run its course. Reggie stood up and gave Ludo a superior stare and then they were gone. When he got home, Arthur and the boys had arrived, and Arthur had set the boys on making quick-rise dough for pizzas. Much fun was being had, and much mess made.

“Guess who I bumped into on the Common.”

“Dad, you didn’t tell us you were going to the Common.”

Ludo grinned, “I decided I’d worked hard and deserved a treat. I met your head teacher, Mrs Winston.”

Damian’s eyes widened, “Mrs Winston!”

“And her dog, Reggie!”

“Did she want to, you know, say things about me?”

“Not really, we talked about all sorts. Why, is there something?”

“Not really. Mrs Cummings asked me if I was OK.”

“And are you?”

“I wish that things could be the same.”

“As before?”

Damian nodded guiltily, “Before Mum, you know…”

Ludo put his arm around the boy, “I know and sometimes I feel that too. But we can’t look in a magic mirror and go back in time. We love you and want you to be happy, and well your Mum loves you too, though she’s not always good at showing it. Right?”

“Right? Will I. Will I see her?”

“Your Mum? If you want to but we’d probably need to go to Prison to do it.”

“Prison?”

“It’s a nice one, for people that have done things that aren’t too bad. They call them Open Prisons; they are a bit nicer.”

“You mean there are no people who’ve killed someone?”

“Yes, that sort of thing.”

“But they are still prisons.”

“Yes, I’m afraid so.”

“Sometimes, I think it’d be nice to see Mum. But often it feels, you know, all churned up inside.”

“I know. And you have to try to think about the good bits, remember the fun we’ve had, not the nasty things. OK?”

The boy nodded and Ludo gave him a hug. Ludo had been thinking about the socialising thing, without going too overboard. “Would you like it if I met you from school one day and we went to The Garden?”

“The two of us?”

“That’s what I thought?”

Damian wrinkled his brow, “What about work?”

“It’s supposed to be flexible, so I do things like making up at other times.”

“Like working this morning.” He thought for a minute, “OK. I’d like that. Will Gordy be there?”

Ludo shrugged, “I don’t know, but we can ask.”

Damian gave him a grin, “That would be cool.”

“And another thing. We are going to have to pay Marilyn back by having Graham and Edwin to stay. How do you feel about that, fun or duty?”

Damian pulled a face, then relaxed. “They’re OK. They’re not lame, and they shared stuff with Adam and me. Would you be there?”

“And Arthur, the four of us plus Graham and Edwin.”

“We could watch a film and make pizza?”

Ludo smiled, “Well I can vouch for the film, but you’d have to ask Arthur about the pizza.” He ruffled his son’s hair. The shouts of pizza’s ready brought things to a close.

“Sounds as if you’ve been busy organising Damian’s social life.”

Ludo groaned, “It was something the teacher, Mrs Winston said. Not to let him just draw himself in. Get him to socialise. And that I should pay him a bit of attention.”

“Not a bad idea. I gather you and he are going to visit Gordy?”

Ludo laughed, “Well the idea was him and me at The Garden, but Damian had other ideas?”

“Gordy comes too?”

“Looks like it.”

“Gave me an idea, if you go and do that then Adam and I can do something on our own too.”

“Don’t want him feeling left out.”

“Precisely”.

“I’ll try and phone Marilyn and say about having their boys over.”

“I can probably see her at school.”

“Would be great if you could.”

“Perhaps we should have a party?”

“A party. To celebrate what?”

Arthur shrugged, “Just a party. Get the boys to invite their friends.”

“Oh boy, that sounds fun.”

Arthur giggled, “You’ll enjoy it, really.”

“You reckon Gordy would be up for it; he seems good with kids.”

“What, as the entertainment? Gordy stripping off and getting all the kids to as well. That would give us a reputation”, and the two collapsed with laughter at the idea.

The two boys reappeared, now ready for bed, and watched their fathers laughing uproariously. Damian rolled his eyes, and the two boys went to the kitchen to get their own juice.