As soon as my hour was up I went into see Petrov’s secretary and asked her if there was a student at the school with the nickname Tukkata.
‘That would be Somchit Santhanavit,’ she said.
‘Is she in school today?’
The secretary tapped on her computer keyboard, then shook her head. ‘She should be.’ She frowned. ‘She should have been in your class today.’
‘She wasn’t. Do you have a list of pupils?’
‘It’s not your regular class,’ she said. ‘You probably won’t be teaching them again.’
‘I know, but if there’s a problem we should know about it.’
‘What sort of problem?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe there isn’t a problem. But shouldn’t we know whether or not the pupils are in class?’
‘Not really.’
‘Don’t you have a roll call each morning?’
‘We’re not a government school, our pupils don’t have to attend.’
‘But you must know who’s in each class to check that they’ve paid.’
‘The pupils pay each term in advance. If they don’t choose to attend after they’ve paid, that’s up to them.’
‘Which regular school does she attend?’
The secretary told me. It was the same as Kai’s. Tukkata must have been from a good family.
‘Maybe I should phone, check that everything’s okay.’
‘There’s no need,’ she said. She looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Don’t forget that you have an eight o’clock class,’ she said.
‘I’d feel happier, knowing that she wasn’t ill.’
‘She isn’t one of your pupils,’ she said.
It was clear from her tone that she wasn’t going to budge. I wanted to know why she’d lied about Jon Junior working in the school despite the fact that he still had a locker in the staff room but I knew I’d be wasting my time. So I smiled. And I left.
The end of my teaching career.
I don’t think I was a great loss to the profession.
Or vice versa.