From Jester To King XXX

Back to school and how delighted they were to see me! And my own personal welcome from the maintenance man who I managed to recognise after more than 25 years. ‘I am indeed’ he said seeing me doing my double-take and second-guessing my suspicions even though I corrected myself midway muttering out loud something along the lines of oh then it can’t be you when it dawned on me that the man I was recalling hadn’t been black. But the black he told me was because of the passing years and the hot weather. Yes your skin darkens a bit with age that seemed reasonable. There was a tinge of nostalgia even sentimentality in his whole bearing but no more or no less than that displayed by the long-serving employee and a large part of it anyway was probably just to give us both something to bond over in the exchange. Not to labour the point but as I looked more closely at him, I noticed he had quite a thick handlebar moustache which I hadn’t noticed on first examination, second I saw that his colouring was more dark-southern Indian/Sri Lankan than Afro-Caribbean, and parts of his face were paler, there were creamy splodges, parts that hadn’t initially been dark at all so that his contention that the weather had done it really must have been true. The old physics corridor was still partly under water – nothing changes there then – and there were workman just getting the school ready for the autumn term. All were pleasant and congenial and turned around to pause from their work with a greeting. I walked round and left into the common room and little did I know, but nothing short of a surprise for yours truly, Mark Dartman and about eight other old Schoolers to welcome me, replete with gifts, mainly kitchen utensils and gardenware, not sure what the theme was there, which I’ll be sure to use, but no matter what they’d got me, I was really chuffed, honestly I was. Everywhere I looked old faces coming up and wishing me well or congratulating me, me feeling like the belle of the ball. And then we played a game of big snakes and ladders on the big board and they’d set up other stalls and things in the common room and things to buy and the atmosphere was so nice, I’d never have expected it, and I hope they’ll have me back again some day, I really do.