Jacinta Takes a Walk
Copyright© 2025 by BarBar
Chapter 32: Mr Pompous Ass
After lunch, I had Science with Mrs Xie. I was partnered with a girl called Ellen. She never said a single word to me for the entire lesson. That was standard. We were assigned together for the entire term and she didn’t respond to my original half-hearted attempts to talk in that first lesson, so I gave up. We were learning about the parts of cells and the differences between a plant cell and an animal cell and so on. Then we did an experiment where we put a thin slice of a leaf onto a glass slide and added some dye and then looked under a microscope. The dye was supposed to make the cell walls stand out. The first time Ellen and I did this, everything looked the same. I called Mrs Xie over and told her I couldn’t see anything. She looked at our slide and said we’d used too much die and that we should start again. We did it again and that time we could sort of make out the distorted beehive-like shapes of the cells all packed together. That was interesting.
Towards the end of the lesson, Mrs Mallick, my English teacher knocked on the door and asked to speak to me. She handed me a copy of the novel, Tiger Daughter, that I was supposed to be reading. It was a bit battered, there was no name, and somebody had gone through and highlighted random sentences for no reason that I ever figured out. Mrs Mallick said that it had been sitting in the lost property bin for ages and I may as well have it since its original owner didn’t seem to want it. I thanked her and she left.
I put the novel with my books and went back to working (silently) with Ellen to clean up and put everything away after the experiment. Once we were done, we had a few minutes until the bell so I turned to the first page of the novel and started reading.
My last lesson for the day was Business Studies with Mr Green. It was an assessment, so we had to do it on our own. The class had prepared for it the previous Thursday when I was present, so I more or less knew what I was supposed to do, even though last Thursday felt like a lifetime ago. We had to go through two case studies of small businesses. One was a shop selling cakes, and the other was a garden maintenance firm that would get hired to mow lawns and trim shrubs and stuff like that. For each of the case studies, we had to do a stack of analysis of what was going on with their finances and their procedures and so on. It felt like a shit ton of work, but I got it done and handed in by the end of the lesson. I felt like I did okay, but I was sure that I’d missed stuff.
The final bell for the day rang and I joined the crowd heading for the locker bays. It took some patience to get through the mass of people. I was so used to not taking schoolwork home that I nearly didn’t. I suddenly remembered that I had some maths homework and the novel to read, so I put my maths workbook and the novel in my bag. As I left the school gate, I automatically turned and headed towards my old home. I’d taken a dozen steps before I realised what I’d done and backtracked to the bus stop. As I approached the bus stop, a bus pulled in and students started filing on board. I nearly joined the queue for that, but then I saw Scarlet standing off to one side. I checked and it was the wrong bus, so I stood back. There was still quite a crowd once that bus had left. I moved over to stand next to Scarlet and sighed.
I told her about my mistakes since the final bell had rung and we had a laugh. Looking around, I spotted a few of the other dwarfs in the crowd, deep in their own conversations.
The bus we needed rolled up about five minutes later. It was more or less empty before we all got on. I found a seat and relaxed. Scarlet slid into the seat next to me and gave me a grin.
“Where are all the kids from the Catholic school?” I asked.
“They’ll be on the next bus that comes through in about 15 minutes,” she said. “If you miss this bus, you’ll never get a seat on the next one.”
I nodded my understanding and looked around. Most of the seats were occupied and there were a couple of students standing in the aisles, but it wasn’t packed.
Scarlet was looking at me. “Long day? You look tired.”
I nodded. “Yeah. And I have work this evening, too.”
That led to me having to explain about my job, cleaning at an office building.
She smiled. “It sounds like a perfect job for you. No customers, just you and a mop.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
The crowd on the bus gradually thinned out as we got further from the school. We eventually got to our stop. Scarlet and I joined the others filing off the bus, each of us thanking the driver as we did so.
I looked around and saw that both Pramun and Sami were missing from the group that was walking back up the path towards SHORT.
“Hey Kala,” I said. “Where are Pramun and Sami?”
“They have orchestra rehearsal on Monday nights,” she said. “Sami plays the flute and Pramun plays cello. I’ve started learning the clarinet but I’m not good enough yet to go in the orchestra. They won’t get back until about 5:30pm or so.”
I nodded and kept walking. Orchestra? I was thinking that I didn’t understand the attraction of learning instruments like flute or cello. Nobody plays those. Electric guitar, or proper guitar, or drums, or keyboard, those are the only instruments I understand. Not that I can play any of them, but still. Mind you, back in the days when I was learning dance, I guess I sometimes danced to music from bands and orchestras and whatever. And that music was alright. And, when I was a kid, I remember going to the Adelaide Christmas Parade and seeing bands marching past, in between the floats. They were always playing fun music, so there was that.
Maybe I’d changed my mind. Maybe it would be alright to play those instruments. Who knew?
We arrived back at SHORT and walked in through the door. There was a woman and a man that I didn’t recognise standing in the common area and welcoming the kids home from school.
The woman saw me and came over.
“Hello, Jacinta. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bella and that’s Roy. We work the day shift here so that Max and Roseanna can have some time off. Welcome to SHORT.”
“Oh,” I said. “Okay. Thanks. Hi.”
I haven’t even gotten used to Max and Roseanna, and now there are two more people who I have to watch out for. Now I’m trying to remember how many staff work here, and wondering if I’ve met everyone yet.
I went upstairs to dump my schoolbag. Scarlet had told me that they usually got stuck into homework straight away, so that they could have the evening free. That sounded fair.
I used the bathroom, my period had been heavier during the day, so that added to my general crappy feeling. I glanced at the clock and saw that I had over an hour before I had to catch the bus to my work. I grabbed my maths workbook and the novel and my pencil case and headed downstairs.
Scarlet was just coming out of her room as I walked past. I saw she had the maths textbook among the pile of books she was carrying, so that saved me asking around to see if anyone had one. I made a comment about it, and Scarlet said she’d picked it up at the start of the year from Vee, who’d done Year 10 Maths the year before. She said that I should check the shelves in the quiet study area to see if anybody else had left one. It seemed that people here tended to pass books on to someone else at the end of each year so that they rarely needed to buy new copies of the book.
Hazel and Byron were already setting themselves up at one of the common room tables, so Scarlet joined them. I put my pile of stuff down on the same table and went off to find these shelves in the quiet study area.
Vee and Hunter and Aubrey, who were all in Year 11 were already in the quiet study area. They were scattered around with their books out and their heads down and working quietly on their own. Year 11 is way more intense than Year 10, and Year 12 is worse. I wasn’t looking forward to the next couple of years of school.
I spotted the shelves and went over to look through them. There was a Year 10 Maths book there but it had a different cover. I recognised it as an old edition of the same book. Mr Hale had a copy just like it on his shelf. Apart from the cover, it was essentially the same book. The page numbers were often different and some of the examples were different but most of the exercises were exactly the same.
I tucked the book under my arm and kept looking. There was a copy of the Japanese book and the Science book so I grabbed both of those. There was another shelf with more books but I figured that I’d made a good start.
I went back to the Common Room and sat back at the table with the others.
There was a group of boys gathered around another table scoffing down an afternoon snack. Bella had made sandwiches for them with slices of leftover meatloaf. The boys were cheerfully getting stuck into those.
I found the relevant exercise in the textbook and started finishing off the work that I hadn’t got done in class. I got stuck a few times but Scarlet was able to help me. Her class were about two exercises ahead of mine so she’d done this same work last week.
After we’d been working for about ten minutes, Clara and Mei came downstairs in their leotards and tights, with a jacket over the top. Both of them had their hair tied up in a little bun. Roy was waiting for them, dangling the keys of the minivan in his hand. They headed off together for their dance lesson. Roy was a pretty big guy. He kind of towered over the two girls. I had a mental image of him joining in the dance lesson and had a little grin to myself.
About the same time, Kala came downstairs and joined us at the table to do her homework. Unlike the rest of us at the table, Kala had changed out of her school uniform into jeans and a top.
The boys, having finished their snacks, all went upstairs. A moment later, Byron came back down with his school books and joined us.
Kala wanted to tell everyone about something that had happened in her Art class. The others around the table let her talk and kept on with their work. Then Kala told everyone about having lunch with Marcus, and how funny he was. Then she told them about my brief interaction with her and her friends during lunch. Her report about how shocked the other girls had been when Jacinta Mells had talked to them made everyone laugh.
Kala looked at me. “I didn’t realise you’d met Tabs on Saturday. She’s been in my class all this year.”
Kala made a face. “She’s been moody all year, but she was heaps better today. Then you came along and made her blush. That was soo funny.”
Scarlet looked at me. “What did you do?”
Before I could answer, Kala said, “I was getting to that. Jacinta said she was happy that Tabs had helped Marcus so Tabs deserved a kiss. Jacinta kissed her on the forehead, and Tabs went bright red. It was sooo funny. Then Jacinta did the same to me and Tabs saw there was nothing to be embarrassed about, so Tabs kissed Jacinta back.”
“I don’t understand why your friend was embarrassed in the first place,” said Scarlet.
“Well...” said Kala glancing at me. “Jacinta has a bit of a reputation around the school. Some people think she might be a lesbian, or bi, or whatever. Tabs has spent all year trying to be so regular and proper, instead of being herself. I think Tabs was worried that we might think badly of her, or something, if she and Jacinta were seen kissing.”
She rolled her eyes. “There are some girls in Year 7 who call the other girls lesbians if they even hug another girl, let alone kiss. Even little cheek kisses will start them up. It’s sooo annoying. Lots of the Year 7 boys say that stuff, too.”
At this point, all the boys came clattering down the stairs or out of the lift. They’d changed into workout gear and headed through the common section towards the little gym. The only exception was Byron who was sitting at the table with us. Even Jasper in his wheel chair and Stefan with his muscular dystrophy was with the group heading into the gym.
Byron saw me looking at Stefan. “He has a physical therapy system that he follows. His therapist came in and did a training session with us so that we can spot for him. We take it in turns to spot each other anyway, so it’s no big deal to spot for him as well.”
I looked at Byron. “Fair enough. What about you? Not working out with the others?”
He glanced at the clock. “I have a shift at KFC, starting in about 45 minutes. I’ve got another 10 minutes to get things done before I need to get changed and head off.”
I nodded. “Me too. Except I don’t work at KFC. I don’t think I could handle the people.”
He grinned at me. “I know what you mean.”
I looked around at the girls. “So is the gym only for boys?”
Hazel rolled her eyes. “That gym is too small for everyone to use at once. And the boys get all macho when they’re in there. It’s better to stay away from them when they get like that. We go as a group at different times to them.” She shrugged. “It works better that way.”
“Seems fair,” I said. “The only time I’ve even been in a gym is at school, when Phys Ed forces me to go in the school gym.”
Scarlet looked at me hard. “I don’t buy, for a second, that you’re one of those princesses who’s afraid of getting a bit sweaty.”
I grinned. “Nah. I avoid the gym because I’m basically lazy.”
I finished my maths with a sigh of relief and closed my books. I glanced at the clock and saw that my time was nearly up so I picked up my bundle of books and headed upstairs.
I heard a vacuum cleaner start up as I got to the top of the stairs. Aubrey was pushing a vacuum cleaner up and down the carpet in the upstairs hallway.
“Did you finish your homework?” I asked, shouting over the noise.
“Nope. I needed a brain break, so I figured I’d do my chore now instead of later.”
Aubrey worked the vacuum into one of the other bedrooms. I left her to it and went to my room. My school books went into my schoolbag, except for the novel which I tossed on my bed. Then I changed out of my school uniform and into my work uniform, which basically consists of long brown pants and a long sleeved brown shirt with the company logo stitched onto where the pocket would be if it had pockets.
The pants did have pockets, so I could slip my wallet into one of them. I tucked the novel under my arm and headed out. As I was heading out of the room, Aubrey came in, vacuuming as she came. I gave her a wave, ducked around her and headed back downstairs.
Bella was hovering in the common area. She saw me come downstairs and pushed a muesli bar into my hand. “This should help you last until dinner,” she said. “There’s no need to starve yourself.”
Byron came down the stairs at about the same time, wearing his KFC uniform, and she gave him a muesli bar as well, even though he’d joined the crowd munching on meatloaf sandwiches after school.
We walked out the front door together. I turned to the right to head down to the bus stop. He turned left. We gave each other a wave as we parted but that was about it. The bus I needed was exactly the same one I caught for school that morning. The only difference was that I’d get off at a different stop.
I got to the bus stop a bit early so I sat on the bench and started reading while I nibbled on the muesli bar. I’d read two pages when the bus turned up. I stepped on board, tapped my bus pass on the reader, and found a seat. There were plenty of spare seats. I looked around the bus and then went back to reading.
The bus stop where I got off was a block from the building where I worked. I was used to that walk since I used to come on a different bus that used the same stop. My boss, Barbara, was waiting at the door and let me in, she stayed at the door waiting for my two co-workers. Once they’d arrived, she would lock the outside door. I headed to our little phone box of a room and dumped the novel and my wallet in my locker. There was a bench, so I sat for a moment and relaxed. A few minutes later, Barbara and the other two workers turned up. Barbara allocated jobs between us and I got to work cleaning.
It takes the four of us, working fairly steadily from 5:00pm until soon after 8:00pm to do the whole building. That includes toilets, bathroom floors, sinks, mirrors, all the floors, emptying bins, wiping surfaces and washing one fifth of the interior windows. The interior windows got washed on a rotating basis, so it takes five days to cycle through all the interior windows. If there was a window with crap on it, like someone threw coffee or whatever, we’d do it out of cycle. But that didn’t happen very often. The people using this building didn’t seem the coffee throwing type.
The exterior windows were done by a different company. They were classed as NOP – Not Our Problem. The coffee mugs and plates and so on, in the little kitchenettes, were also NOP. If the sinks were clear, we wiped them down. If the lazy sods who used the offices had left dirty plates or mugs in the sinks, we left them alone. NOP. The tops of desks got a wipe if they were clear, or mostly clear. If they had papers or other crap all over them, they were NOP.
Barbara says it’s not our job as cleaners to decide whether something sitting on a desk is important or not. If there was stuff on the desk, we’re instructed to leave the desks alone and that’s final, so that’s what we do.
As we get close to finishing, Barbara always does a quick walk through to check for anything obvious that we’ve missed. We were all pretty familiar with the job so she rarely found any problem. We finished and hung out in our little room until she came down and said we were good. I washed my hands, grabbed my novel and wallet out of my locker and I was ready to go.
Barbara drove me and I spent the trip alternating between giving directions and telling her how I’d ended up at SHORT. I got dropped off outside SHORT and walked up to the door.
I pressed the button and said my name into the little intercom box. Max’s voice came through, saying hi. Then there was a buzzing sound as the door unlocked and I was inside.
I was hungry, so I went straight to the kitchen. In the fridge were two plates of food. One had my name on a sticker and the other was for Byron. I grabbed my plate and zapped it in the microwave.
A few of the residents were sitting at the tables doing homework, Jana and Stefan were playing chess. Others were lounging around in the comfortable seating area, playing on their phones, or just chilling out. The TV was off for a change. I found an empty table and sat down to eat. The meal was a fish and vegetable stew with mashed potato. It was a bit bland so I added salt and pepper.
Once I had the right level of seasoning, the stew was actually pretty nice. The fish chunks were perfect.
As I was eating, Roseanna slid into a seat opposite me.
“Hi Jacinta. I wanted to check in with you and see how you’re going. Is that okay?”
I shrugged and kept eating.
“We had a call from the Assistant Principal of your school this morning, and a care team conference is set up for next Tuesday. I thought you should know. We’d like to encourage you to attend that meeting.”
I nodded and kept eating.
“Are you feeling okay about being here? Do you have any issues?”
I finished my mouthful. “I’m fine. It’s okay.”
“How are you finding the food? Are you getting enough to eat?”
“The food is fine. It’s better than I’m used to.”
I stirred the mashed potato with my fork. I could never figure out how to make mashed potato without it turning out lumpy. This mash was smooth.
“How are you getting on with the other residents? You’re in a room with Aubrey. She can push people a bit. Are you having any problems with her? Or anyone else?”
“Aubrey’s fine. Everyone’s been good.”
She nodded. “Wonderful. Now, on a different tone, I have a message for you from...” she looked at a note in her hand, “ ... Merv Bylik. He says that the funeral for your stepmother, Jackie, will be at the Crematorium for this Friday at 2:00pm. Would you like to attend?”
I closed my eyes. Did I want to attend? That was a good question. “Probably,” I said.
She nodded and handed me the note. “You can be excused from school for the day. Or we can organise to collect you from school and get you there on time.”
“What would I do all morning, if it’s not until 2:00pm?” I asked her, not expecting an answer. “I think sitting around here, and waiting, would drive me crazy. I guess I’d rather go to school in the morning.”
She nodded. “I think that’s a good decision. We’ll talk again closer to the day to sort out times and so on. It will probably be either Bella or Roy who takes you.”
“Okay,” I said.
“If you have any thoughts about the arrangements for the service, you should probably contact Merv. It sounds like he’s doing most of the work organising it.”
I shook my head. Arrangements for the service? What would I know about that stuff?
“Well, I’ll let you finish your meal. Let us know if you have any problems.”
“Okay,” I said.
I stared down at my half eaten meal. I’d been to Dad’s funeral. That had been pretty awful. I wore a black dress that Jackie had found for me. It had been too big for me, but that hadn’t mattered. My main memory was of one adult after another looming over me, then leaning down to tell me how sorry they were. Some of them were neighbours. I had no idea who the others were. I was still in shock at the time, everything had happened so suddenly. I don’t think I said a word the entire day. I had a feeling Merv might have done most of the organising for that funeral, too.
I resumed eating, but now I ate slowly and chewed each bite carefully. I guess you could say I was lost in thought. I was remembering bits of Dad’s funeral and wondering what Jackie’s would be like.
At about the time I was finishing, Byron slid into the chair opposite me with his dinner. He was wearing his KFC uniform. They’d given him a bigger serve than me. That was fair. Byron was a fair bit bigger than me. I pushed the salt and pepper shakers across to him. He took a taste, and then nodded and added salt and pepper.
I leaned back and looked around, while Byron ate. I hadn’t lied to Roseanna. The food was decent. The people here were good. It was already starting to feel familiar. I was actually fine, mostly fine.
Kala came and sat at the table, looking at me. She’d changed into pyjamas, these were royal blue. Like her red ones, they were the same colour all over.
“Can I talk to you?” she said.
I spread my hands to say I was here. “Sure.”
“Not here, let’s go somewhere.”
“Okay, hold on.” I pointed at my plate. “Hey, Byron, what do I do with this?”
He finished his mouthful, then gestured toward the kitchen. “Inside the kitchen, there’ll be a basin next to the sink. Scrape the plate into the scraps bin. Drop the plate in the big basin. Cutlery goes in the smaller basin next to it. One of the team will go through later and tidy it up, put it all through the machine, and so on.”
I did that and then joined Kala, who was waiting for me. She turned and led me to the back door of the building. I hadn’t actually made it out the back door yet. It had one of those press bars on the inside and a sign above saying ‘Emergency Exit.’
There was a low set of shelves by the door with a random collection of thongs, some people call them flip-flops. Kala grabbed a pair. They were tiny and decorated with flowers. Kala slid the thongs onto her feet. There was also a small pile of well-worn blankets. She picked one up and draped it over her shoulders. I shook my head when she offered me one. It wasn’t that cold outside.
“I know it isn’t that cold,” said Kala. “I’m really taking it to sit on, so my pjs don’t get dirty.”
There was an intercom box beside the door. Kala pressed the button and spoke into the box.
“Hey, is someone there?” she asked.
Max’s voice came out through the speaker. “What is it?”
Kala spoke again. “It’s Kala and Jacinta at the back door. Can we go out to the fire pit for a bit?”
“Okay, sure,” said Max. “Hold on.”
The external light flicked from being a basic security light up to a full-on floodlight. Then the door buzzed. Kala pushed it open and we stepped outside.
“If you try to go out at this time of night without warning them, the door will open but the alarms go off,” she explained. “They can’t completely lock it from the inside because it’s an emergency exit.”
We followed a concrete path that led away from the back door. The path had little ground-level lights every so often so that it was easy to see at night. To our right was a grassy area that I’d been told got used for sports. To our left was a patch of garden. Beyond that to the left were a series of clothes lines outside the external door from the laundry. We followed the path to a point where the path branched. The lawn and garden area had been left behind, and this was the start of an area with native trees and shrubs.
Kala pointed along the left branch of the path. “That way takes you through to the church at the other end of the property.”
We turned right and it led us to a circle of low benches surrounding a shallow pit. The pit was full of ashes and the remnants of burnt logs. A stack of firewood sat off to one side.
We were at the limit of the reach of the flood light above the door we’d come through, so there was a little light, but also a lot of shadows.
Kala put the blanket down on a bench and then sat on it. She patted the blanket next to her, so I sat as well. Then she folded the back of the blanket up and we wrapped it around our shoulders.
“I’m amazed the local kids don’t use this as a hangout place,” I said, as I looked around.
“Nobody can get in,” said Kala. “It’s hidden between our building and the back of the church Everywhere else, there’s fences. Tall fences. And the gates are locked. We’re the only ones who use this. Except the youth group at the church, sometimes. But they make a booking when they want to use it, and the leaders post a notice about it.”
I looked around. It certainly seemed like a quiet spot. It was in a bit of a natural dip in the land. And there were trees all around, blocking off the view from the nearby houses.
“Fair enough. So, what’s this about?” I asked.
“I talked to Tabs about you,” she said. “Tabs said you and her skinny-dipped on Saturday, along with her brother and her sister. Is that true?”
I nodded. “All stories are true. We did that.”
“I can’t imagine her skinny dipping. Her family always seems so proper. Her parents are funny and relaxed about most things, but they’re the sort of family that goes to church every Sunday, and say prayers before meals, and the whole bit.”
I shrugged but I didn’t respond.
“She said it didn’t seem to bother you, being naked. That you seemed to be totally okay with it. Like you did it every day.”
I nodded.
“She said she talked to you about some personal stuff and you listened, like, you really listened.”
I nodded.
“She said you listened and you helped her understand some stuff about what she was going through.”
This recap of Saturday seemed to have a point, so I let her go through her list without commenting.
She was quiet for a moment, staring out into the dark. Then she sighed.
“Roxby was all red dirt and low shrubs and a few trees. Nobody had a pool. There was a council swimming pool which was pretty awesome, but nobody had a private pool. You obviously had to wear bathers at the council pool.”
I didn’t know where this was going so I didn’t say anything.
“When it was hot, we’d sometimes run around inside the house naked. Not Mum and Dad, just us kids. I know some of the other kids were the same. I don’t know about everyone, but some other kids did. But always indoors, never outdoors. The sun was too hot. If you ran around outside without clothes and hats and sunscreen, you’d get burnt. Except the indigenous kids, of course. They could do that if they wanted to. I don’t know if they ever did, but they could.”
She held up her arm and looked at the back of her hand. “Even with our shade of skin, we’d get burnt. The sun is fiercer here than in Indonesia, for some reason.”
She paused and then went on. “It didn’t rain much in Roxby. When it did rain, it really rained hard. You’d get puddles everywhere, and some of the low dips in the land would fill up with water. I remember, one time, we were driving home from somewhere and everyone was hot and tired, so Dad pulled up next to a pond near our house. It was normally just a mud patch but it had rained and it was full of water. Mum and Dad let us take our clothes off and we splashed around in the pond. At the deepest point, the water only came up to my hips, and I was smaller then. But if you squatted down you could feel like you were swimming. I guess that’s the closest I ever got to skinny dipping.”
“I think that counts,” I said. “I don’t think you have to be in an official pool for it to count as skinny dipping.”
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