«Queen Charlatan was presented,» the boy was embarrassed but he could not understand his mistake «Whats wrong?», he asked in an offended voice again.
«Buddy, its written «Charlotte. Can you pronounce in Russian «Sharlotta? Hey, you, class, have you heard the name before?!», he looked at them. No one nodded.
«Andrey Ivanovich, is that different to say «Sharlotta or «Charlatan?», the «offended boy wondered. «It sounds very similar.» He was quiet and sincere. There was no joking in his voice.
«Not that much indeed,» Andrey Ivanovich smiled. «Charlatan, shalopay, scapegrace, who cares? Its similar to sharmanka and sharlatanka. Right?» The class burst into laughter. «OK, guys and girls, not much time left. Lets sort out homework.» He could not stand it anymore. But he had to. Life was supposed to go on.
December saw the first meeting with parents at school and it wasnt easy. Not for the parents but for him. He had been told the pupils parents mostly considered a school as a temporary shelter, a lodge for their children from 8.30 a.m. till 2.00 p.m. Pure and simple. He thought, however, that some may feel differently and have an understanding of what he did.
Initial greetings and smiles didnt seem to matter much tonight, even though he felt that a first impression was the most important thing. He didnt know what impression the pupils parents had, but his own wasnt a good one. Tired, estranged faces with empty eyes, wooden stares and some unclear sounds like sighs or indistinct mumbles were in the air. And dark hopelessness from the thirty or so adults simply spoilt the atmosphere. They listened to him and nodded, mostly in silence. Some women tried to encourage him, smiled then sank back into their immovable detachment again. Andrey Ivanovich despaired, but went on describing the way their kids learnt English and every pupils virtues and shadows but nobody seemed to care even when it concerned their own child.
«We try to learn some more or less common things, for example, in geography. But they know little about these points in Russian, let alone in English,» he tried to explain why the kids were not so successful. «For example, Ms. Ivanova said we could go to London and Washington by train. Can you imagine that? Ms. Ivleva sincerely thinks Dali and Deli are two brothers from a blockbuster film. Great Britain and England are two different countries. One is in Europe and the second somewhere in the hell. UK and the US are OK, they think. You see, a lack of basic knowledge is scary and itll be difficult for them to get to the airport, let alone a foreign country.»
«Ha!» a womans voice interrupted him. «Well never get to the airport «cause our salary is only enough to get to the closest bakery!», apparently it was her mother. Some nodded with sympathy. Andrey Ivanovich was stunned. There was nothing more to add. How could he dare call their children brain-dead, beer-addled or an airhead? What a cheek! It wouldnt be unfair on their parents though
Next morning it was bright and fresh. 6.00 a.m. and the coffee machine has begun to spread its charming aroma around the room and even though he knew hed be better off without caffeine, the delicious coffee smell made him feel good. He couldnt refuse a cup of coffee that morning. He narrowed his eyelids, sipping the black liquid with pleasure and thinking of the pupils. The tenth form ones seemed to understand the Sequence of Tenses and Present Continuous Tense. The previous grammar rules werent as difficult to practice. However, «PCT» was more difficult to grasp and hard to compare with something similar in Russian. There was a short advertisement for bed-linen on the TV with a naive love-story plot. He took a pen and jotted down a few sentences:
Ive been gazing at the dawn
Ive been staring at your gown
Ive been looking at the street
Where we failed to briefly meet
Ive been watching stupid ad
With two gorgeous girls in bed
Ive been wasting precious time
«Cause time wasting is a crime
And I have to say again
I was suffering in vain
He opened his laptop and switched on the TV card. Ten minutes later the commercial was on again and he recorded it onto his hard disk. Great! Practice makes perfect, indeed. The lines he wrote didnt seem good, but werent bad, but he hoped they were different from the books long and boring explanations anyway. His pupils were supposed to enjoy them.
The lesson began with a lot of jokes, smiles and laughter because it was one girls birthday. This definitely didnt fit the general mood. They didnt listen carefully, and Andrey Ivanovich forced himself to carry on. He stopped explaining grammar and tried to smile. His idea to attract their attention with his «brilliant advert poem failed, and it hurt his feelings. The girls sitting at the front desks often turned around to chat and by the middle of the lesson they hung onto the backs of their chairs. Low-slung jeans slipped down below their coccyx a new kind of teens fashion and the T-shirts and short blouses hiked up at the back. He had a gallery of the violin-like waists with half-naked hips and S-vibrating spines. All of them had tramp-stamps «the-state-of-the-art lower-back tattoos, which they ensured can be seen by wearing a short top and low-rise pants. There were dangerous scorpions, bizarre flowers, falling rose-leaves over a girls languishing gaze, something else and two men feeding coal to a stove to keep it going. Both men were supposed to actively shovel when the picture owner would pick up her feet nicely.