Rings of Smoke Prologue

Rings of Smoke by Diane O'Toole

“Who’s been spanked with the ugly stick? Fitch has!  Fitch has!”  Leonard sat on the top step, looking down at the girls, dancing in a circle.  He was alone.  He was always alone.
“Who’s been spanked with the ugly stick? Fitch has all day long!”  The girls laughed hysterically. Leonard just stared at them. They’d made the song up after hearing a group of American soldiers singing minstrel songs at a school concert earlier that year.
And as they taunted and laughed at him, he just sat quietly, staring back at them, a hint of a smirk danced in his eyes as he thought, your time will come and how I’m going to make you suffer – just wait and see!
It was lunchtime at Lancaster Grammar School; the time Leonard Fitch hated the most. Not because the food was dreadful and inedible. Not because he was a loner, without friends – he preferred it that way. Who wants to play with those morons anyway? But it was the one time the boys from the Grammar and the girls from the adjoining High School mixed in the playground. It was an opportunity for those whores in the making to torment him.
In post war Britain, life was hard and pretty grim. Many of the children had lost their fathers during the war, but Leonard was fortunate in that respect; his father had what they called a ‘protected occupation’, which in Leonard’s eyes made him special. Important even, like Mr. Churchill, he didn’t have to go and fight, and neither did his dad. According to his mother though, he was a coward – afraid to go and do his duty.
No, it wasn’t the war that killed Leonard’s father. It was his mother.
“Come along Fitch!  Stop daydreaming, lad!” Leonard’s Form Teacher yelled, giving him a slap across the back of the head. The girls laughed once more, as Leonard rubbed his neck. Unfolding himself slowly upright to his full six foot four inch height, he resembled a newborn giraffe, struggling to find his balance. “You need to get those books out for the next lesson!” the teacher shouted, looking over his shoulder. Oh, the joys of being a Prefect. Not only did the other kids hate you, the teacher’s treated you like a slave.
Glaring back at the sniggering girls, he swore an oath to himself. They will regret this. I will have my day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Access & Share Digital Resources in Education

 A virtual learning environment provides a means for students to access curriculum mapped content and other learning material, but for it to be effective it must be relevant and up to date. It must also be accessible to all students if it is to work for everyone. In recent months, many schools and colleges have had to teach remotely because of closures and this has shown up certain issues with regards to distance learning materials and teaching methods. In this article, we look at how all educational facilities can access digital resources and share them effectively with their students, keeping them engaged as well as educated.   What are digital resources? Digital resources in education are made up of video, audio, text and images. The material is often interactive, allowing students to take part in tests that can then be assessed by the teacher, marked and commented upon. Podcasts are also used by teachers to interact with students, allowing them to ask questions and re
Read more
Image
Halloween – Where Did It All Begin Halloween is a great time for kids to dress up and go Trick-or-Treating, but what is it all about? Well, Halloween is a shortened version of All Hallows Eve, which means the evening before All Hallows (or Saints) Day in the Christian calendar. However, the origins of Halloween as a night of celebration date back to medieval times with the Festival of Samhain, an ancient Celtic tradition when people would dress up to ward off evil spirits. Photo by Pixabay on  Pexels.com Halloween was introduced to America by Scottish immigrants in the early 1900s, and thus began the commercialization of the occasion. It died off somewhat in Britain and Europe, just as the celebration of All Saints Day on the 1 st  November became just another date on the calendar. However, as with many things and mainly thanks to Hollywood, what happens in the States one year will happen in the UK the next (or in this case half a century later) and Europe inevitably follows. Trick-or-
Read more
Image
  Bonfire Night – What Is It All About Tonight, all over England (and perhaps other parts of the UK), people will be lighting fires and setting off fireworks in celebration of . . . What?  Well, we know that on this day, the 5 th  November, many, many years ago, a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was thwarted, and the perpetrator, a certain Mr. Guy Fawkes, was arrested and sentenced to death. A rather macabre thing to celebrate, but we’ve been doing it for so many years now, the actual meaning of Bonfire Night is somewhat lost. Read on to learn more. Who was Guy Fawkes? Guy Fawkes was born on or around the 13 th  April 1570 in York, England, into a well-to-do family of Protestants, although his mother came from a staunch Catholic family. This may be what drew him to Catholicism after his father died when he was 8 years old when his maternal grandparents took more control over his education. He fought in the 80 Years War for Catholic Spain against the Protestant Dutch and in 160
Read more