School Days

Extract of Memoir ‘For the Price of a Stamp’

as read at Tenx9 event. Sandinos, Derry 6th December 2019

Everything’s different. There’s no grass, or muck or rain. It’s hot and dry and sunny, always sunny.

I like my new school, it’s made out of wood and you go up steps to it, because it’s held up by big sticks, over the red dirt. I sit on the floor and I don’t wear a coat anymore. There’s lots of pictures of animals and shapes and colours and words on the wall, but no Sacred Heart or crucifix, so I don’t know how Jesus and Mary can watch over us.

My teachers name is Miss Tomlison. She’s nice, but she talks funny. I think her nose is blocked or something, and she always sounds like she’s asking a question, even when she isn’t. She has bare legs instead of tights, and her skin is brown and shiny and hard like my big brother Barry’s Confirmation shoes.

On Wednesday after school it’s going to be Parent – Teacher Evening. That means that Mammy has to go to the wooden school so that Miss Tomlinson can tell her how I’m getting on. I like that because I know I’m a good girl, and I like it when the teacher says I’m clever. I’m trying hard to think if I’ve done anything bad, but I canni think of anything. I used to accidently call Miss Tomlinson ‘Sister’ at the start, but it was only an accident and Miss Tomlinson wasn’t cross, she just laughed and said I was sweet and then quietly said something about never being taken for a Nun before, but I didn’t know what she meant.

At this school, they call break-time ‘recess’, that’s funny because it sounds like rice, but it means that we can go outside and climb on the monkey bars and play chasey. I love playing chasey because I’m a fast runner. In my old school we used to call it tig, but it meant the same thing. If you’re ‘on it’ you run after the other weans to try to catch someone, if you catch them it means that they’re ‘on it’, then they try to catch you back. Now, I’m remembering that one day, when I first started the school, one of the boys, Brett Day, said that we should play ‘Kiss or Kill Chasey’ because that’s what his big brother plays in their class. That meant that if a boy caught you, you had to pick either kiss – so he could kiss you, or kill – so he could batter you. I didn’t like the sound of that. I didn’t want to be kissed or killed, and I didn’t want to have to kiss anybody else, or kill them either. I thought Bretts idea was stupid, but I didn’t want to be a chicken, that’s what they say here ‘chicken’. In my old school we called it being a ‘scaredy cat’. I wonder why it has to be a chicken or a cat..... But anyway, that day, I said that my tummy was sore and I didn’t want to play anymore, just so I could get out of the game. Now I’m worried, because that was a lie and maybe Miss Tomlinson knew that my tummy wasn’t really sore, and now she’ll tell Mammy at the Parent- Teacher evening that I told a lie. Lying is a sin, but what if it stops you from being kissed by a boy, because I think kissing boys is a badder sin, but I’m not sure. I think you’re allowed to kiss them if you’re married to them, then it’s not a sin. But I don’t know if it’s a worse sin to tell a lie or kiss a boy. I don’t want to sin at all, and I don’t want to pick one sin or the other, because God can always see you anyway.

I’m in a different school from my brothers and my sister. They go to the big school beside the wee school. It’s called ‘Pann-a-won-ica Primary School’ and it’s a proper building made out of bricks instead of wood, and it’s on the ground instead of being up on sticks. It doesn’t have stairs but. In this place, none of the buildings have stairs, they all have ver-an-das. That means a bit of the roof goes on past the wall so you can be in the shade when you’re outside. Mammy’s going to talk to my teacher first, then she has go to the big school and talk to Barry’s and Cathal’s and Trina’s teachers. Mammy says none of the other parents have to meet four teachers, because the Aussies only have one child or maybe two, but not bloody four. Daddy can’t go because he’s on ‘Days’ that means that he’ll be at work. He says he’s no good at that sort of thing anyway, and it’ll be better if just Mammy goes anyway.

I play with Bonnie after school, Bonnie’s my best friend, I call her Bon Bon. I love her hair because it’s as black as coal and spongy. She has a special comb called an ‘afro comb’ and she can stick it in her hair and it just stays there like magic. I try putting Bonnies afro comb in my hair, but it just fall out again. I wish I had hair like Bonnies, because then we could be twins and I could have an afro comb too. Bonnies Mammy is called Evlyn. But Bonnie says ‘Mum’ instead of ‘Mammy’. That doesn’t sound right to me, but I don’t say anything because that would be cheeky. I call Bonnies Mammny her ‘Auntie Ev’, even though she isn’t my real Auntie like Margaret and Kathleen in Ireland. I love Auntie Ev because she’s kind and she lets us have two ice-cubes in our orange cordial, as long as we only rattle them, and don’t suck them, because we might choke and die if we sucked them . Me and Bonnie play all afternoon, but all the time I’m thinking about Mammy talking to Miss Tomlinson and I wonder if Miss Tomlinson remembers to tell her that I always share my pencils, even my brand new ones that are my favourites, because sharing is caring.

When Mammy comes home, I’m waiting for her. I ask her if Miss Tomlinson said I was a good girl, she says “aye, of course she did, she said you’re very clever”. I keep asking her every single thing that Miss Tomlinson said. I think I’m being annoying.

Later, I’m in bed and I canni sleep, so I sneak out of my room to listen to Mammy and Daddy talking in the sitting room. In this new house, the sitting room’s down-the-hall, instead of down-the-stairs, where it was in my old house. At first I didn’t like it, but now I do because down-the-hall is better for ears-dropping.

I can hear Mammy saying: “The wee one’s getting on grand”.

Daddy makes the listening sound that’s not a word. I’m really good at ears-dropping.

“Aye, the teacher loves her, says she’s very bright”. I hug teddy tight when Mammy says that.

“It was funny but, at the start of the meeting she was all serious and concerned about her”

“Why?” that’s Daddy’s voice, I can hear his chair squeaking.Mammy says, “Ach, it’s the pictures she’s been drawing”

“The teacher said that every time Michaela draws or paints a picture of the outside . . . .no matter what else is or isn’t in it. . . . there’s always a huge, big black bird in the sky. They read a wile lot into what a wean draws these days ye know, psycho- analyse everything so they do”.

“Jesus, Susie, what is it? Maybe the move was a bit much for her, she’s a sensitive wee being you know”

Mammy laughs and takes a long puff of her fag, and coughs, and laughs again.

“Aye, she showed me the pictures Dickie . .. it’s alright though …. it’s only a helicopter the weans been drawing. I told the teacher we’re from the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland, so Michaela has never seen the sky without a helicopter in it, it’s like seeing the sun in the sky in Australia, except it’s there at night too. I don’t think she knew what I was talking about, sure, the teacher’s only a wean herself”