I taught them to cook vidya4 - Flipbook - Page 19
Autumn Term
17
The next day it’s a later start. Our street party lasted well
into the early morning and both Mark and myself are nursing
headaches.
Today’s job is to label and sort the drawers and cupboards
under the students’ worktables. I’m making them responsible
for their own stuff and each drawer is lined with brown paper
and drawn with equipment outlines. At the end of each lesson
I’ll march round and check – it’s like the card game Memory.
If anything is missing they must search the sinks and bins and
no-one leaves till all the equipment is accounted for. I can’t have
cook’s knives hidden in duffle bags or dirty pans left in the sinks.
But still where’s that rotting smell coming from? A sniff test
round my room leads to my desk. I call Jim and ask him to unlock
the drawer and please, leave the key behind. Inside are the putrid
remains of an unidentifiable sandwich. She Who Ran Away must
have gone off in a real hurry if she left her lunch behind. But
there are other unattractive smells.
‘Jim, can you help me pull out the cupboards from the wall
please? I’ll make you a cup of tea.’
His look implies that he’d rather be left undisturbed in his
caretaker’s room quietly making his own brew.
Our furniture shift exposes leftover baking bits, dirty jam
tart tins and the skeleton of a dead mouse.
‘Please Jim, can the cleaners come and sort this out? Please.’
I’m done – my room is nearly ready for the new term in my
new job in my new school and it’s the weekend and it’s hot. Mark
will take me for a trip to the seaside in his posh company car,
and we’ll eat crab sandwiches on the beach and breathe in the
ozone-filled air.
Apple crumble
Making apple crumble is like taking a dance class. Their tables
are arranged all around me and I dance about in the middle