They’d know nothing more than they knew already, and then they’d always be running from Dr Black.
He walked over to the window, with Mel following along behind him.
“What do you see out there, Mr Finn?” Dr Black asked.
Drake looked through the grubby glass. The classroom was one storey up, giving it a reasonably good view of the rectangle of concrete that made up the bulk of the school grounds.
“Kids,” Drake said, looking down at the heads of the children roaming below. “Just kids.”
“Look closer.” Dr Black tapped a bony finger against the glass. It sounded like he was hitting it with a stone. “Down there.”
Drake looked in the direction the teacher had indicated.
“Ah,” said Mel. “That’s cleared that up, then.”
Three familiar figures leaned against a wall. They were much shorter than the kids around them, but the others were giving them a wide berth, all the same.
“They turned up this morning,” Dr Black explained. “They had decided to run away, it seems, but quickly changed their minds. Nevertheless, as you can see, Mr Finn, they are very much not in my cupboard.”
“Right, neither they are,” Mel said. She caught Drake by the arm and began pulling him towards the door. “Sorry for the mix-up, glad you’re not a child-killer, Dr Black. Keep it up.”
“Wait.” Dr Black raised a hand. “Mr Finn, I would very much like to talk to you.” He glared at Mel. “In private.”
Mel hesitated. She was going to argue, Drake knew. That would do neither of them any good. “It’s fine,” he told her, forcing a smile. “I’ll catch up with you.”
Reluctantly, Mel made for the door. “I’ll see you in a bit,” she said, and then she was gone.
Drake turned back to the window, but Dr Black was no longer there. He was sitting at his desk, his fingers loosely clasped in front of him. He indicated with a nod of his head that Drake should sit at one of the desks in the front row.
“I called for you to come to my classroom yesterday,” the teacher began, once Drake was sitting down. “But you did not. Why?”
“I had a doctor’s appointment.”
The teacher’s eyebrows arched. “Nothing serious, I trust?”
“Just a check-up.”
“Ah. Very good. One can never be too careful when it comes to the subject of one’s health. After all, one only lives once.”
Drake remained silent.
“What would it be like, do you think? Death. What would death be like?”
“I don’t know,” Drake said. He hadn’t missed the way Dr Black had emphasised the word. “Don’t really plan finding out for a while.”
“Ah, but the best laid plans...” Dr Black said, leaving the rest of the sentence hanging. He began to drum his chicken-bone fingers slowly on the desktop. “The best laid plans.”
The teacher stopped drumming his fingers and stared so intently that Drake feared he was looking right inside his head.
“You’ve taken life, though, haven’t you?”
Drake was taken aback. “No,” he said.
“Oh? Then perhaps your notes are mistaken. Frogs, I think they said. Didn’t you burn a number of frogs to death? Wasn’t that why they expelled you?”
“That was an accident!”
“A fact I’m sure the frogs were very grateful for,” Dr Black continued. “As they were roasted alive.”
“Look, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?” Drake asked, a little more aggressively than he had intended.
Dr Black rose slowly to his feet. “We are very alike, you and I,” he said, advancing towards Drake’s desk. “More alike, I think, than you realise.”
“Uh, hi, Dr Black?”
Drake and the teacher both turned to find Mr Franks at the door. He was leaning into the room, a hand on each side of the doorframe. Dr Black’s gums drew back into something like a snarl.
“Yes?” Dr Black said, his voice clipped. “What do you want?”
“I really need a word with Drake,” Mr Franks said. “Mind if I steal him away?”
“I do indeed mind, Mr Franks. Mr Finn and I were in the middle of a conversation.”
“Fine, sorry, of course. Please, carry on. I’ll just wait here until you’re done.”
Dr Black’s left eye twitched. He fixed Mr Franks with a fierce glare. When it was clear the younger teacher wasn’t going to shy away, though, Dr Black turned back to Drake.
“We shall continue this another time,” he glowered. “But if I catch you trespassing in my classroom again, Mr Finn, there will be grave consequences. Grave consequences. Is that understood?”
Drake gave a brief nod as his reply. He got to his feet, pushed the chair back in under the