Short Stories for Teachers
Stone Gate House
This is the continuing story of eight foreign students who choose to study English at an interesting old school in the heart of the English countryside. None of them expected the staff to be quite so weird and they could never have imagined that they themselves would become such a positive influence on the nearby village of Eddington Wyse.
Copyright Darwin C Vickers 2007 (All rights reserved)
Part One
As the taxi pulled through the narrow gate and headed up the driveway to the foreboding structure known as Stone Gate House, Chen-chi Xue was visibly nervous. Tai, took her hand and smiled at her, as if to reassure her everything was going to be OK.
Chen-chi had never been out of China before, she hadn’t even traveled outside of her home city of Shanghai, and now, here she was in the heart of England. A place that, even though it was quite beautiful, still made her feel uncomfortable and more than a little homesick.
When the taxi stopped outside the front door there didn’t seem a sign of life, except for a very large St. Bernard dog sleeping on the top step. The dog, who they would later discover was named Arnold, raised his head slightly to look at them but then flopped down again as if they were of no interest. Suddenly the front door was almost flung off its hinges and a strange little man in glasses with the most appalling dress sense jumped over the dog and bounced towards them.
“Welcome to Stone Gate House”, he beamed, showing off his gold fillings. “You must be Chen-chi Xue,” and taking her hand he almost shook her arm from its socket. “I’m Hugo Bokenham, I’m the Headmaster of this humble school.”
Tai almost took a step back as the bubbly Mr. Bokenham advanced on him.
“And you must be Tai-shan Wong, from Zhouzhuang.”
Before Tai could reply his arm was been manipulated like a pump handle and he was grateful when the taxi driver handed him his cases allowing him to break free.
“Come in, come in and meet the other students, they’re all assembled in the common room awaiting your arrival”, smiled the Headmaster, and he bounded up the steps like a mountain goat.
The pair, struggling to get their cases over the dog, followed him. They entered the rather dismal front hall and Chen-chi shuddered as she passed the suits of armour, medieval weapons and animal heads that decorated it.
“This is kind of creepy,” she whispered, trying to keep as close to Tai as possible.
At the end of the hall the Headmaster opened two double doors and ushered them through. They entered a room decorated with balloons and streamers and a big banner that read “Welcome to Chen-chi and Tai-shan”. The six other students and two staff members stood up and greeted them with a round of applause and the Headmaster went through the introductions.
There was Kim Ji-Won from Korea, a diminutive teenager with a beautiful smile, who had adopted the name of Wendy, Kiyoshi, a handsome Japanese guy and Alfredo from Spain who wore enormous horn rimmed spectacles and looked very shy. Then there was Anna and Eva Kovacs, a pair of identical twins from Hungary, who shook their hands warmly as though they were very pleased to see some new faces. And last but by no mean not least there was Zoe, a tall slender black haired beauty from Brazil who made Tai think of the "Girl from Ipanema."
The two staff members looked almost as strange as the Headmaster. Miss Featherfield, a tall gaunt woman, looked like a character from a black and white horror movie and Mr. Dalziel, who was quick to point out that his name was pronounced like DL, gave Chen-chi the impression that he didn’t own a comb for what remained of his wiry graying hair stuck out in every direction. To make him look even more bizarre his beard, which was equally unruly, was a completely different color, a sort of reddish shade.
The fact that all the teachers appeared to be older worried Chen-chi. She was hoping for some younger people who she could communicate with. But then, through a another a door at the end of the room appeared an attractive young woman in her mid twenties. The Headmaster smiled.
“Come in Lucy and meet the new students.” He turned to Chen-chi and Tai, “This is Lucy Cavan, she’s just joined our faculty recently, Miss Cavan spent a year teaching in China and so you’ll have lots to talk about.”
After the introductions were completed Mrs. Thomas, the rather rotund housekeeper, came in with tea and sandwiches, followed by the dog. He proceed to move from person to person with saliva dripping from his mouth and a pitiful look in his eye. After being shooed away by Zoe he moved over to Chen-chi and snuggled up to her, as if for protection. She couldn't resist sharing her sandwich with him.
As they all sat there chatting to each other Chen-chi started to feel a lot more comfortable. However, this was before she had seen her room!
To be continued...
