Karla nodded but couldn't bring herself to smile. "So you've got everything sorted, haven't you?"
"I have."
"And what if I don't want to move in with you on a permanent basis?"
For the first time Ryan's face dropped and he looked hesitant. "My whole argument collapses," he whispered. "I just thought…" He flushed. "Hell, we're together in the holidays and every weekend. I didn't think you were worried about what narrow-minded people like Val thought. If you want to think about it …"
"I'm not," Karla whispered.
"So why this discussion now?"
Karla did smile and wrapped her arms around him. "It's an equal partnership, okay?"
"At Top Plateau Station and School?"
"Why not?" Karla whispered. She found her heart pounding and adrenalin surging through her body.
"You will?"
"Of course, you silly man. Another sly innuendo from Val and I'll be scratching her eyes out. How would that help?" She stood up. "Want a coffee and early breakfast?"
"Yeah. Fried potatoes, two eggs sunny side up with a rash of bacon and cream in my percolated coffee."
"More like two pieces of toast, if you're lucky and instant coffee. Oh yes, I'm out of milk so it'll have to be the powdered stuff."
Ryan grinned. "Then back to bed?"
"No. I told you…"
"Just kidding," Ryan laughed and smacked her, none too gently on the bottom.
*
Karla was by herself in the Mazda as she drove east towards the coast from Masterton where Ryan and her had spent the night in a motel. She didn't really feel alone for ahead of her vehicle was Ryan's pickup loaded up with their final bits and pieces. She shrugged as the FM station faded, turned her radio off and thought back to the busy days that had slipped by far quicker than had she would have imagined.
There were the usual delays before the two boards of trustees finally reached a date for her to begin at Top Plateau. This was the first Monday in November with seven weeks of the school term remaining. Ryan also finished his job at Tui Park from the last week in October and spent a week organising their big shift. Yesterday that was Friday; the movers packed up Ryan's furniture in Wellington and also visited her home to load her items such as the computer, boxes of personal gear and some of the furniture she wanted to take to Top Plateau. As discussed earlier, she had kept her little house as a reverse holiday home, as Ryan called it.
"City workers have a weekend home out at Riversdale so why can't we have the opposite?" he had said with a laugh when she queried him about the words he used.
"Fair enough," she replied. "Anyway, once the first term of next year is over, we'll be coming back and have to have somewhere to go."
"You will," Ryan said. "What about me?"
"You too," Karla whispered more to herself than her companion.
Now, as she drove along, it wasn't really hard to accept that she needed and wanted Ryan to be with her.
*
The surprise came when she drove up the driveway of what would now be their new home. Half a dozen vehicles were parked on the lawn and several children running around stopped and stared at their two vehicles as she pulled up behind Ryan's pick-up. She climbed out to see a girl of about eleven come up, surrounded by smaller children including a couple of preschoolers.
"Hello," Karla said. "I didn't expect to see anybody here."
"You're Miss Spicer, our new teacher, I guess," the girl said. "I'm Lorena Gosnell."
"Hello Lorena. Yes, I'm Miss Spicer but call me Karla."
"Can all of us call you Karla, Karla?" a small boy asked.
"Oh hush up, Redley," Lorena grumbled and glanced back at Karla. "My little brother is a bit of a pain."
"I'm not," Redley replied and fixed her with wide eyes. "But can we?"
Karla smiled and nodded.
"At school too?" Lorena almost gasped. "We always called Mr Wilton by his last name when we were at school." She grinned. "Of course when Mum takes the school we call her Mum."
"But the other children call her Sharon or Aunty Sharon," Redley retorted.
"Our cousins do that," Lorena explained. She nodded at some of the other children nearby and ran through their names. "Mum, Dad, Uncle Haig, Aunty Jolene and several other families have come here to help you unpack."
"And we're having a picnic lunch on the lawn afterwards." a little girl of about eight almost shouted.
"Wren," Lorena chastised. "Hush up. It was meant to be a surprise for Miss… I mean Karla."
Wren flushed and glanced at the ground. "Sorry," she muttered.
"It is," Karla cut in. "What a wonderful surprise it is to have you all here."
"Is it?" Wren whispered.
Karla smiled at her. "It certainly is. Ryan and I thought we'd have to do everything ourselves."
She glanced up as Ryan, accompanied by several adults approached. He introduced them all but she was so busy shaking hands and making appreciative comments that she missed most of their names. No doubt she would hear them again over the following few days.
For the rest of the morning the nine adults and a similar number of children helped drag furniture around, unpack smaller items, erect a new satellite dish on the roof and connect the television, computer and other electronic stuff up. Karla also noticed that the lawns had been mowed and garden weeded. By a little after noon almost everything was done and the picnic lunch was spread out on the back lawn in the shade of a huge tree. It was a gigantic meal with home baked goods and sandwiches everywhere. Karla was the centre of attraction but made herself available to everyone to chat away about country life. With strangers, she always asked about themselves so in this situation the conversation was about spring farming, animals or life on Top Plateau. She stayed off the topic of the school and noticed that it didn't really come up.
*
By two the families had drifted off. Ryan came up and placed an arm around her. "Like the locals?" he asked.
Karla smiled. "Yes. I never expected anyone to be here. In Wellington you can live in a street for years and not even know people two houses away."
Ryan grinned. "I thought someone might come but not practically everyone. Thanks for being yourself. It helped, you know."
"How?"
"The way you talked to Lorena and said the kids could use your first name. Everyone noticed that and there'll be no going back. You're Karla to everyone from the pre-schoolers to the seniors now."
Karla laughed. "I don't mind. It's modern and I like it. Other schools in Wellington do it. Only old Murray and Val stopped it at Tui Park."
"Yeah! The old school types," Ryan said. "We've just about finished here. Want to stroll up the road to the school?"
Karla grinned at him. "Just a look. I promised myself I wouldn't charge in and change everything. Also, there's tomorrow before school on Monday."
*
The old school building was well maintained with both the exterior and interior freshly painted. The equipment, readers and everything were arranged neatly on shelves around the walls and in the storeroom but Karla suspected that they had been recently tidied by Sharon Gosnell as relieving teacher or Board members rather than Ted Wilton. This was confirmed when she opened the pupils desks. These were the somewhat dated wooden desks that every pupil had. The top swung up and beneath was a box like area where the children kept their books, writing gear and other personal items. Except for Lorena's desk that was reasonably tidy, they were all just crammed fill of junk from scribbled over writing pads to tatty exercise books and, in many cases the remains of old lunches. In contrast to the newly cleaned and varnished desktops the lift up undersides of the senior pupils' desks were covered in graffiti. Again, it appeared obvious that the tops of the desks had been sanded down and re-varnished after Ted left.
The pupil's books confirmed this. The younger children never had any while children from Year 3 up had several but they were untidy and unmarked with scruffy writing on pages edged in scribb
les, crossing outs and unruled lines. A couple of the boys had drawings of guns across the cover and scribbles everywhere. The math exercise books had the squared ruling designed for numbers, completely ignored and incorrect answers or no answers at all marked with huge untidy ticks. Again there were no sign of a teacher having seen or corrected anything within them. There was no sign of work being dated, work ruled off or drawings being more than scribbles. Often whole pages were skipped or pages ripped out.
Karla screwed her nose up.
"Different from what you expect from the kids back at Tui Park?" Ryan said. "Even the slack teachers there keep to a certain standard."
"The exercise books are awful," Karla whispered. "I can see where Sharon and others have attempted to make everything respectable but…" She shrugged. "No wonder the ERO team pressured him to leave."
"So start again."
"Meaning?"
Ryan grinned. "I'm no teacher but I know that the children's habits are bad. Even Lorena's work would not be tolerated at your old school."
"You said start again?"
"Well, there's a pile of new exercise books in the storeroom. I think the school buys them in bulk at the beginning of the year and sells them to the children when needed."
Karla shrugged. "But I doubt if the parents would want to buy a whole set of new exercise books at this time of the year." She walked a couple of steps to the next desk, opened it and flipped through some more tatty books. "Perhaps if we just issue one new exercise book for all their subjects." She grinned to herself. "Why not?"
*
Everything was as ready as it could be on Monday morning but Karla still arrived at seven-thirty to do those last little things. The blackboard, for there was no modern whiteboard, had a grid on the left with all the day's programs at each level. Eight of the twelve on the roll were girls and the class levels ranged from Year 1 through to Year 8. Unlike Tui Park that catered for children up to Year 6 after which the children went onto an intermediate school, here in the country the children stayed on for two extra years. However, there were no Year 8s with the oldest pupil being a Justin McKenzie that she hadn't met. Year 6 Lorena was the second eldest while there was a bulge in the middle school with six Year 3 to 5 children while the remaining four were five and six year olds in Year 1 and 2.
At twenty past eight, there was a roar and two quad bikes drove in the open gate and screeched to a stop near the front door. Karla almost rushed out but swallowed her pride, walked to the porch and glanced out. Lorena and her brother Redley were unclipping crash helmets as they climbed off one quad bike while on the other sat a young man who grinned across at her.
"Come and meet Karla, Justin," Lorena shouted.
Karla suppressed a gasp for the boy would be taller than her, was thin and had a boyish rather than man's face. He actually appeared quite shy and muttered a polite hello when she spoke to him.
"So you always come to school on your quad bikes?" she asked.
"Unless it is terrible weather," Lorena replied. "Justin comes the biggest distance."
"And how far away is your place, Justin?" Karla asked.
"About four kilometres up the valley… err… Karla," he replied.
Two Land Cruisers pulled up and five children, more the size she was used to, tumbled out. The drivers gave her a wave and both vehicles roared off, another boy of about eight arrived on the back of a tractor while the rest had either walked or carried scooters, the children's variety, so by eight-thirty the whole school was there plus two adults who came in to introduce themselves.
What a contrast this was to Tui Park where dozens of upmarket Toyotas, BMWs and other SUVs delivered children to school. Also noticeable were that ten of the children here were New Zealand Europeans and the remaining two Maori. At Tui Park nearly a third of the school's roll consisted of Indian, Pakistani, Chinese or other Asian children and ten percent of the European children were immigrants from United Kingdom or mainland Europe. A smaller number were Maori.
Some children stood around looking shy while others chatted and commented about how great the classroom looked.
"I couldn't find a bell to ring," Karla said to the oldest two. "Do you know where Mr Wilton kept it?"
Justin grinned. "He didn't use one."
"So how did you know when classes started?" Karla asked.
Lorena glanced at Justin, who just stared at his feet,
"Well?"
"We just wandered in when we thought it was time," Lorena replied and gave Justin a dig on the arm. "Justin didn't usually get in until about twenty past nine, sometimes later."
"And the younger ones?"
"They usually came in straight away. We usually started lessons about quarter past nine and had half an hour for morning interval."
"And over an hour for lunch?" Karla muttered and hoped the sarcasm didn't show in her voice.
"Yeah," Justin shrugged. "Unless it rained. Then we'd start afternoon school early and go home at two thirty instead of three."
"I see," Karla replied.
"Old Ted ... I mean Mr Wilton, used a sheep dog whistle to call us in if we went too far away or he wanted us back quickly," Justin continued. "That was usually only if parents or those city inspectors were around"
"That's going to change isn't it, Karla?" Lorena asked with caution in her voice.
"The going home early on a wet day sounds a good idea in winter."
"No," Lorena cut in. "Starting late and having long breaks."
"It is," Karla replied and fixed her eyes on the pair.
Justin caught her eyes and actually smiled. "Fair enough. We got bored anyway."
"Okay." Karla glanced at her watch. "It's ten to nine. At nine when I call, I want everyone to come and sit in their seats."
"Sure," Lorena replied and swung her head around at all the other children who had gathered around. "You all heard. Karla. You have ten minutes so go outside and have a run around."
She raised her eyebrows at Karla and wandered off to pack things into her desk.
Justin grimaced. "I think Lorena was more of a teacher than Old Ted. Gets a bit bossy at times." He glanced up. "Won't now though will she, Karla?"
Karla relaxed. Even though he was tall, Justin was really just a pleasant boy. She was beginning to like that bit of sparkle in his personality.
"Probably not," she replied. "I hope nobody will."
*
CHAPTER 8
"So what are you going to do with your bit of the farm when your family sells the flat land to developers?" Clive Windley sat on a rock and sipped beer from a can. It was mid-morning and the pair were repairing a tumbled down fence along a hill summit. If sheep got through they could fall into quite a steep ravine below. "It will hardly be economic with the best part of the farm gone."
Ryan shrugged as he put his empty can down and waved away the offer of a second one. "To tell you the truth, I've no idea. I'll just wait and see what happens."
"Your mother's okay but that sister of yours is a bit of a greedy witch and your stepfather …" Clive shrugged. "Not that it's my business."
"I know but in some ways I am lucky to have control over my part of the farm. They can do what they like and I'll make do with my property. "
"Talking about what you have, I'm impressed with the girlfriend."
"Karla?"
Clive grinned. "You got more than one?"
Ryan laughed. "No. She's damned great and will go a long way as a teacher. If she wasn't having such a rough patch back at her old school I doubt if she'll have been persuaded to come here." He gave his companion a quick account of life at Tui Park, "The trouble is, she is better than any of them but is younger than the ones above her. Instead of appreciating her input they were jealous of her qualifications and ability. "
"Happens. She's got the curves, too" Clive pulled the tag on another beer and took a sip before he wiped his chin. "Gonna marry her?"
"Who knows?" Ryan knew that like many locals, Clive was a
bit of the old school and somewhat conservative.
Clive shrugged. "No need now-a-days. You young guys don't know how lucky you are. In my time…" He rambled on for a while reminiscing about his life before suddenly stopping when his dog growled. "What is it Flossie?"
His sheep dog that until now had been lazing in the sun, stood up with her ears peeked forward and a second growl hissed from her throat.
Ryan looked in the direction that the dog was facing but saw nothing in the valley between their hill and the higher bush-covered one further back. There was a distinct contrast between the northern sunlit side and the shade of their southern side. He felt Clive grip his shoulder as he squinted in the sunlight, saw a flash of sunlight reflecting off something before he heard a faint whoop-whoop sound. It became louder just as a helicopter appeared out of the shady hillside and flew directly towards them.
"Keep down!" Clive warned and grabbed Flossie by the collar. "You too, Girl."
Ryan noted the urgency in his companion's voice, obeyed and crouched behind the tractor trailer where he could still see the helicopter. Also Flossie slunk down beneath the trailer but remained on high alert. "Coming in to rescue a wounded tramper?" he asked.
"No. He's coming from the wrong direction and is too low. A rescue helicopter comes in high and from the west before it drops down to its destination. This one is up to no good."
The helicopter was now easy to see, a sleek modern one that was amazingly quiet as if flew up the valley. It flew past below them, so close that Ryan could see the pilot and at least three passengers inside. Strapped between the landing skids and fuselage were two box shaped canisters that looked like overgrown suitcases.
Clive whistled slightly. "It's a Eurocopter Squirrel, one of the latest models, very upmarket and usually used in tourist areas like Rotorua or Queenstown. It is certainly not a local rescue 'copter or one local firms use for crop spraying."
"Would it be giving overseas tourists a thrill ride?"
"Doubt it."
A change in sound seemed to confirm Clive's statement. The helicopter slowed, hovered for a second and dropped down out of sight behind trees on their side of the valley. The engine noise also subsided and silence reined over the area.
Wisps of Cloud Page 8
