Read Online Swimmer by Graham Masterton - Free Book Online Page B

spearmint, and today she was wearing an ultra-tight white T-shirt and an extra-short blue denim skirt, and white high-heeled ankle boots. ‘You know what I’m thinking of doing this summer?’ she was saying. ‘I’m going to work in this topless bar, Jugg’s, on Sunset. I’ll bet you I’ll land me a part in a movie by September.’
    Jim didn’t say anything, but continued to leaf through his poetry book. He and his students had only six more hours together, and then he was going off to Washington to work for the government’s Literacy Action Force. If he hadn’t managed to change their lives by now, he never would. Stella Kopalski had written one of the saddest and most eloquent poems that he had read this year, but, if she felt it was her destiny to work in a topless bar on Sunset, there was nothing he could do about it.
    Whenever I open up my closet doors,
    My clothes, on hangers, remind me of the days I’ve spent
    With friends, with dearest friends; with people who have loved me good and true.
    With people who are dead, or disappeared.
    I bury my face in the soft forest of cotton and wool, and cry and cry for all of you.
    And there was Tarquin, arch-rapper, tall, gangly and black, with his Sony headphones on his ears, listening to some macho music about bitches and blowing people away. And Washington Freeman III, still leaning back in his chair and pontificating that society owed him a living, no matter what he did. ‘I didn’t ax to be born, now did I?’ And Laura Killmeyer, who had grown out of her witch phase, with the deathly-white make-up and the arched eyebrows, and who was dressed in Gap now, tight black T-shirts and big flappy canvas pants, and short-cropped crimson hair. And Dottie Osias, who had stopped slavishly following Laura Killmeyer and was making her own fashion statement, which was principally baggy and orange.
    Jim loved them all; and if they had ever guessed how much he loved them they would have been deeply embarrassed, even though they loved him too. Joyce Capistrano, Randy Relling Jr and Linda Starewsky, with her bouncing red curls and her arms and legs like a newborn giraffe. Waylon Price and Christophe l’Ouverture, who came from Haiti and was deeply interested in voodoo. Every year, Jim’s remedial English class had presented him with new challenges – but more than that, it presented him with new faces, and fresh chances, and startling new opinions.
    â€˜Okay …’ he said at last, looking up from his book. ‘You and I have two more days together. After that, I’m going off to Washington, D.C., to develop a literacy program for the federal government. And you … well, you’re all going off to do whatever it is that young people do when they finish community college. Take over General Motors; open up a peanut stand; dance; sing; go to Hollywood.’
    â€˜You ever coming back, man?’ asked Tarquin.
    â€˜To West Grove? No, I don’t think so.’
    â€˜What about the kids coming here in September? Kids who can’t read and write too good?’
    â€˜They’ll be well taken care of. Ms Schaumberg is taking over Special Class II, and believe me she knows what she’s doing. You should hear Ms Schaumberg reciting the Gettysburg Address. Enough to send shivers down your back.’
    â€˜Just
lookin
’ at Ms Schaumberg, that’s enough to send shivers down anyone’s back! Like,
Night of the Living Dead
, or what?’
    â€˜You behave yourself, Tarquin. Ms Schaumberg is a lady, and one of the best remedial English teachers in the county.’
    â€˜You the man, Mr Rook.’
    â€˜Well, I appreciate your saying so. Now, shall we get on?’
    â€˜You don’t understand. You the
man
. My kid brother coming here next year. Who’s he going to turn to? Ms Schaumberg, I don’t think so. Maybe she teach English good, I’m not saying she don’t.