Prologue

A strong gust of wind blew a little of the weariness from his face. the rest he wiped off with one of his chubby, rough hands. It was a warm day, not hot enough to force persperation; pleasant is what Barry's mum would have called it. He took two deep breaths to steady his nerve, then turned to enter the building again. He caught a glimpse of his unremarkable reflection in the window of the entrance door. It was a face that had aged a lot more than one should in 26 years. His hailine had finally given up the struggle years ago and retreated, but Barry had grown fond of his shaved head. Below his hairline, his deep blue eyes bore steel at their surface, but those who'd looked deep enough had seen fear and deep sadness. His strong jawline was softened by a coating of lazy stubble. Barry walked the halls unnoticed most days, features lending themselves to the grey man image he so desperately tried to procure.

Beyond the door and his unremarkable reflection, the kids of Southfield Community College busied themselves with gossip and social discovery. None of them paid any notice to the grey man clothed in navy blue overalls that entered their habitat. Barry moved slowly down the corridor, his trusty broom in hand. Not long after he'd got the janitor job he had discovered the rest of the staff left you alone as long as you had your broom. To the left of the corridor was the music room, though you were more likely to hear absent minded shouting than music bellowing through it's walls. Barry moved past it to the small four step stair case that ended the corridor and led to the main body of the school. He looked down at the face of his cheap casio watch and saw lunch time was nearly over. He would soon have to make his way to the dining hall to ammend the cleanliness situation. But before that he planned to visit the second floor, the Maths department. He opened the door that resided at the peak of the small stair case and took a left. He was immediately met with two sets of stairs. The first set of ten headed away from himand after a quick about turn the second led up to the second floor. An old looking white door awaited him at the top, sighing lacklusterly on it's frame. He made a mental note to do some maintenance on it later before proceeding through it.

There were four classrooms, one used for storing miscellaneous Maths junk. The other three contained Higher Maths, Lower Maths and Mediocre Maths? Barry wasn't sure about that last one. He placed his broom next to the wooden door and peered in through the glass. Miss Snook sat at her desk, her golden hair blowing lightly in the breeze from an open window. She was finishing off an apple whilst marking some papers. Barry opened the door and walked into the room. He walked to the front of the desk and peered into Miss Snooks light brown eyes. Neither of them spoke as Barry softly moved her hair from out of her right eye. He ran his hand down her soft tanned cheek and allowed himself to exhale. Barry walked back outside the classroom, shut the door and gathered his nerve. A fly hund in the air near his shoulder. As he re-entered the room, the fly flew, surprised, into his arm.

"Oh, hi Barry. What can I do for you"? Her voice was youthful and confident.

"Erm, well", he struggled to gather his words.

"Silly me, your hear to empty my bin... right"? Barry peered down at the empty bin and felt the last of his courage drown away. Perhaps noticing this, Miss Snook put the litter from her lunch into it's void and smiled sweetly.

"~Yeah, of course", he finally retorted. As Barry picked up the bin he noticed a collection of letters written in a peculiar manner on her black board. "What's with all the letter"? By then end of his sentence his voice had found strength and a not too intolerable rythm.

"It's an equation for my sixth formers. There's a prize for whoever gets it right".

"It looks pretty tough", he screwed his eyes up to try and make sense of it. He was entirely oblivious to her look of pitty.

"It is thoroughly difficult. A friend of mine, who works at the University posed it to me and I simply couldn't figure it out. I had hoped a student may be able to help me save some face in front of my more esteemed peers". Her laugh felt forced, his definitely was.

"I see. Hopefully someone can help you out", he looked at the letters again and thought it made a little more sense, "Erm, I... could I ask you something"? He felt childish.

"Of course you can Barry", her patronising tone didn't help him feel any more adult.

"I don't suppose...", he inhaled, summoning all of his courage, "you would like to go to dinner with me tonight"? He exhaled and the redness began to leave his face a little. He wasn't (but really should have been) expecting the response. Amidst the laughter he managed to pick up "As if", "You wish" and "I can't wait to tell this one in the staff room". Barry hugged the litter bin for comfort and made his way towards the door, away from the histerical laughter that mocked him. He shut the door and put the bin down beside the broom. The fly flew towards his face. It stopped dead an inch from his nose and hung in the air. Barry allowed himself to smile.



When the door closed Miss Snook slowly calmed down. She felt a breeze and looked down. Her blouse was unbuttoned down to her breasts. Her bra was... gone? Was she ever wearing one? She quickly covered herself up, praying Barry had not seen here that way. She got up, shock painted across her face. She... no. She definitely put pants on this morning. But bellow her black pencil skirt she was naked. She turned toward her black board. Someone had attempted her equation. But she knew it was wrong. She collapsed back into her chair, horrified and confused. Was she going crazy? As her head hit her hands there loomed a giant comedy c**k drawn in chalk one her board, and that was not the right answer at all!



Barry sat in the dining hall. He tucked Miss Snooks bra and nickers into a lucky lads lunch box and began to eat the sausage roll he'd taken from another. Smiling as he remembered the sight of her beautiful naked body. She was gorgeous, but that was no reason to be a b***h. He took a greedy bite of the pastry and sausage and looked around at all the frozen adolescents. Silent and non-moving. This was his domain and he revelled in it. Barry Hannigan felt at home in frozen time.

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[Cheryl J. Turner]

I knew you'd make use of Bernards watch someday!