Sweet dreams
Sweet dreamsNick Tidswell
10/4/00
English 101
Sweet Dreams
Max sat in class gazing at Claire Jones. He watched as she leaned over to her friend Julie and passed her a note. Her small school blouse and shorter-than-normal skirt defined her curvaceous body. Julie saw Max watching her friend. She giggled and motioned to Claire to look behind her. Claire turned and looked awkwardly back at Max. Max was caught out. His elbow slipped on the desk and dislodged his small tin pencil box. It crashed to the floor making a loud noise. The entire class turned and laughed at him. He felt the heat of a crimson blush as a rush of prickles ran up his back. He glanced back at Claire and Julie who were still looking at him, giggling. A quiet fury surged inside him. He hated it when people laughed at him. It was worse when Claire did. She seemed to know he liked her. Humiliated, Max slumped down in his chair. He lowered his gaze to his desk. Surely no more ridicule would culminate if he lay low for the rest of the lesson.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mr. Cilo spyed Max sulking and drifting off into a daze.
“Max Brome!” shouted the Legal Studies teacher, Mr. Cilo. “Would you stop daydreaming and concentrate! I don’t like your attitude young man. I’m trying to inform the class about the Queensland court system and all you can do is stare at your desk? Please pay attention. I’m sure if your attitude does not improve you’ll learn more about the courts first hand!”
Max could hear muffled laughter around the classroom. The other students were careful not to agitate Mr. Cilo.
‘Sorry siiUGHr’ replied Max as his pubescent voice cracked; the way a plate shatters when it is dropped in a full diner. Everything goes quiet and the sound almost echos.
The class instantaneously erupted into laughter. He had been keeping quiet in the last few weeks because he knew that he couldn’t trust his changing voice. Cilo had lost control, side conversations sprouted left and right until it was just noise. No one payed attention to Cilo as he shouted for order. Max sank back in his chair and looked straight ahead at the white board, wishing he were a turtle with a shell to retreat into.
Under the roar Cilo chuckled to himself, pleased at the humiliation he caused Max. As the class settled down a little, Mr. Cilo extracted a pile of papers from his briefcase.
“I’ve marked your mid term research essays on the ‘Constitutional Rights of Australians’ and I was generally pleased with the effort. Some of you, however, have let your own opinions get in the way and have been marked down in that respect. If you are unhappy with your marks come and tell me. I’ll see if I can help you understand where you went wrong.”
Max knew he’d included some of his own opinions in his essay. He hoped that it wouldn’t be too obvious. He remembered how Cilo didn’t like it when people did not conform to his conservative ways. Everything had to be done his way, or it was wrong. Surely he should get a reasonable mark. He had put a lot of work into this essay. He needed better marks in Legal Studies so he had done his best to submit a very good paper. He only hoped Cilo would recognize his effort and mark it accordingly.
Cilo walked around distributing the papers amongst the class. Max watched the expression of the students as they discovered what mark Cilo had given them. Most showed some degree of disappointment. Cilo handed Claire her paper. She immediately turned to Julie to tell her that she got an ‘A’. Cilo tossed Max’s paper in front of him.
“Yet another unsound piece of work from you Max. I wish you had a better attitude towards this subject.”
Max blushed. Again he felt a rush of prickles run up his back. Scanning the classroom some of the students smirked at him. Others had more sympathetic looks. Max read his mark. He felt nauseous when he saw Cilo had given him the ‘D’ for his paper. He swallowed hard, managing to contain his disappointment, dejection and anger.
The bell rang for the end of class. There was no time to see Cilo about his mark. He knew there was no point in seeing him anyway as it was unlikely the mark would be altered. Max hated Cilo for all the humiliation and frustration he caused him. He hoped tomorrow would be better.
The following day Mr. Cilo was not there to teach Legal Studies. The school Principal, Mr. Eyre, took the class instead. He addressed the class.
‘Mr. Cilo is unable to come to school today,’ Eyre explained. ‘He was involved in a brutal hit and run accident last night when walking home from school. He suffered severe head injuries and is currently lying in hospital, (he paused) in a coma.
A dead silence grew in the classroom. The only sound heard was the noisy, poorly maintained, brown radiator heating up.
“I know his family would appreciate any thoughts and prayers you might have for him in this time of grief.”
The class sat in stunned silence.
Claire proffered her hand; ‘Will Mr. Cilo be all right Sir?’
‘The doctors can’t be sure at this time Claire. It’s unlikely he’ll be able to teach again if he ever wakes up because he may have sustained brain damage. I don’t want you all to dwell on this tragedy too much. I think it’s best you concentrate on your studies because your final year is very important. I’ll be your teacher for the remainder of the year.”
Mr. Eyre seemed quite uneasy. He was obviously still coming to terms with the news of Cilo’s accident. Max noticed there was something else bothering him as he looked out the window - the same window Cilo had caught him gazing out many times before. He noticed a police car parked in front of the school office.
Mr. Eyre continued, “The police are aware of threats that have been made to Mr. Cilo in the past by some of his former students. I’m also aware that his popularity among the student body leaves something to be desired. I pray that his accident was not an attack by a past or present pupil of this school. It’s very likely that the police will want to ask some of you questions regarding the incident.”
Max was feeling uncomfortable. It was good news that they had Mr. Eyre for the rest of the year. He liked Mr. Eyre, as he was quite friendly to Max. He couldn’t remember him ever trying to humiliate him in any way like Cilo had to. Max didn’t, however, like the fact that the police were around asking questions. If they were looking for students with personal vendettas against Cilo, he was a prime suspect. Everyone knew Max hated Cilo and they knew how Cilo treated Max.
“I understand all of you are stunned and upset to hear of this tragedy. I’m going to let you all go home for the rest of the day. Everyone drive carefully, graduation will be pushed back two days due the time off you are all being given.”
The class remained silent as it moved out of the classroom. There were quiet discussions between some of the students who were still shocked by the news. Max walked to his car. He was one of the few students who drove to school. On many occasions he would give one of his friends a lift home. Not today, he looked at the fender and the hood of his clapped-out, rusty-brown Jeep. He examined a smaller ding closer to the windscreen and noticed a trace of blood that he had failed to hose off last night in the dark. Max grinned from ear to ear and began walking to the door of the car.
Max awoke, sitting straight up he felt his chest pounding like a drum and scared. Finally managing to get back to sleep. When he woke up he raced to school. His wheels screeched as he pulled into the parking lot. His car jolted back and forth as he jammed the car into park. Like an Olympic sprinter he charged down the hall to the main office. Flinging the door open, Mr. Eyre came into sight.
“What’s the problem Max?” he asked.
“Oh eh nothing, is Mr. Cilo here today?”
“Of course, you know that man hasn’t missed a day of work since he started.” Replied Mr. Eyre.
“Oh thank God!” Max shouted with a jump of joy.
Max ran out shouting “It was all a dream!”
Max had Mr. Cilo third period. Max was early to class today, instead of straggling in five minutes late. He hung on every word that came out of Cilo’s mouth. From that day on, Max was on time; studied for tests; and did all his homework. An interested young man suddenly found a reason instead of excuses to learn.