Ding, dong, ding, dong….
The fifth period chime is ringing. I have to go to the classroom, but I feel dizzy, because I got up late and didn’t have enough time to eat breakfast. Besides that, my accumulated fatigue is setting in. After all, I have been teaching English for 40 years, but I know I will straighten up once I stand on the classroom platform.
Well, the next class is N 21. I am going to teach the last part of “The Tragedy of the Titanic.” OK, then, I will quickly prepare for the class. Here is the textbook, the chalk box, the pointer stick, and, yes, blank test papers. I am going to give them a small test today. Uh-oh, where’s the test papers? Oh, I remember. I used all the papers in fourth period. Then, I’ll go to the printing room and get some blank paper. Oops, wait a moment. I have some reserved papers in my desk drawer. Let me see, which drawer was it? Well, I’m sure it’s this drawer. No. No papers. Then, maybe the drawer below it. No, no papers. Then the next one. No again. Then, the next one. Look, what I have found. This is Yoichi’s report card. I repeatedly said to him, “You haven’t returned your report card yet. You must hand it to me as soon as possible,” but he always told me that he had returned it. I thought he was telling a lie, but here it is. He was right. I threatened him a few days ago by saying, “If you don’t hand in your card, I’ll make you clean the classroom all by yourself.” Well, what shall I do? Since I definitely told him that I hadn’t got it, it is too late to take back what I have said to him. How can I say to him, “I’ve found your report card”? Should I pretend that I haven’t found it? Or, should I apologize to him? I’ll have to be honest.
Well, why have I opened the drawer? Oh, yes, the test papers. I must hurry. The students are waiting for me. Some of them may be playing around. The class officer might come to me. Last Thursday when I was talking with my colleagues in the teachers’ office, the class officer came to me and said, “Mr. Yamada, your class has started. Please come.” I was ashamed of myself at that time.
So, there are no test papers in my drawers. Then I’ll go to the printing room and cut some B4 size blank paper into half. It’ll take just a minute.
What’s the matter with this room? There is no B4 size paper. Mountains of cardboard boxes of B4 size paper are always piled up. I can’t believe it. No paper in our school? How can teachers make printed materials? Well, then, I will use some paper on the paper feeding tray of the printing machine. Quick. I have to hurry. Well, why is the front door of the machine open? Let me see. The display screen says, “DISABLED BY A PAPER JAM. OPEN THE FRONT DOOR AND TAKE OUT THE PAPER.” Well, well, who on earth has jammed the machine? What an irresponsible teacher! Why didn’t he take out the paper? OK, then, I’ll take out the paper. It’ll take just a second. OK. Here, I open the front door, and, ah, I see the jammed paper. Let me…take…it. There! Oh, God! Don’t surprise me. The damn machine began to rotate rapidly. Why? Why is it rotating? What happened? I can’t stop it. It is rotating frantically with tremendous noise. Mad, mad machine! Oh, please stop. Please. Now it has begun to splash ink all over. I must run to the classroom now, but I can’t leave here while the damn machine is spitting ink all over. This room will be soon flooded with ink. What shall I do? Help me. Someone, help me. Nobody comes. OK, then, I’ll call the office. Oh, ink has splashed on my shirt. Damn it! “Hello, is this the office? This is Yamada speaking. Please come to the printing room. It’s all mess. Ink is splashing all over. What? Turn the switch off? Yes, yes. Thank you.” There. It stopped. What a devil you are!
OK. I won’t give a test today. I am already ten minutes late, but if I speed up, I can cover today’s lesson in 40 minutes.
My next class is N-21. It’s on the second floor. It’s close to the teachers’ room. I just need to climb a flight of stairs. OK. Let’s go. Oh, I see Shuji approaching. He is the class officer.
“Mr. Yamada, please come to the classroom. They are making noise.”
“Yes, yes, yes, I’m sorry, Shuji. I’m coming. Tell them I’m on the way.”
Shuji is a good boy. OK. So, I’ll climb the stairs…Oops, I remember the vice principle said in the morning meeting that Classroom N-21 would be changed to Classroom S-41 due to electrical work. So I have to go to the fourth floor of the south school building. That’s miles away. I’ll have to cross the school playground. And it has began to rain. So, Shuji came all the way in the rain. I need an umbrella. Mine is in my locker. I’ll have to hurry up, I am 15 minutes late for the class. Hurry, hurry.
How hard it rains! And the wind! Like a typhoon. I wish there were an underground path to the building. The playground is all mud. It is freezing. Oh, my shoes are already leaking. The bottoms of my feet are soaked through. The mud is squishing over my shoes, slosh, slosh, slosh. I’m drenched to the skin and yet the building is far away.
At last I’ve reached the destination. What’s this sign? It says, “Due to seismic retrofitting, this gate is closed. Please use the west gate.” What? The west gate? Then, I’ll have to return and cross the playground again and go out of the front gate, and turn around the north side of the building. What an unlucky day! I curse the heavens! OK, OK, OK, I’m desperate. My textbooks, my chalk box, my pointer, my tie, my clothes are all soaked. I feel as if I have fallen in a river. What will the students say to me when I enter their classroom? They will laugh at me. They won’t praise me for my gallant march in the storm. Let me see. No one is walking. Not even a dog. What time is it? Oh, I can hardly see the hands of my watch. Well, let me see. It is already 20 minutes to two. So, I am 30 minutes late. Shall I give up going to the class? No, I have to go at any cost. It is my duty. I have to apologize to the students for being late. It is getting dark. I can’t see well. Oh, lighting flashed. What a horrible day! The Devil has captured me. What’s that? Someone is calling me. I see three students on a horse cart. Why a horse cart here and on such a day? Did they come out of a Sherlock Homes story?
“Mr. Yamada, Mr. Yamada!”
They are N-21 students. They are supposed to be in the classroom.
“What are you doing there? Go back to the classroom.”
“Mr. Yamada, we are here to pick you up. Please get on the cart.”
“There is no such thing as a cart in the 21st century. You are dreaming. Bang your heads together and wake up!”
Oh, they disappeared. That was probably a visual and auditory hallucination. I should have eaten breakfast. I am totally exhausted.
Here I am at last at the west gate. I’ll push the door. It is…open. Good! I have only five minutes or so till the end of the class. I have to climb three flights. I hope I can make it. Hurry, hurry, hurry. I’ll discard my umbrella, textbook, chalk box, everything! They are obstacles. My heart is beating hard. I might die here. This is martyrdom, isn’t it? This is an honorable death. To die in the course of educating students. My statue will stand in front of the school. But will they pray for me? They won’t. Well, I have only one or two minutes before the class finishes. I’ll have to apologize to them.
Here I am at long last in front of S-41. My hair and clothes are dripping, but I don’t care. OK. I’ll open the door.
What’s the matter? It is complete darkness. I can’t see anything. Where are they? The bell will ring at any moment to announce the end of the fifth period. Oh, what’s that? I see a light in the distance. It’s coming from, from …, believe or not, a ship. Why a ship in a dark classroom? No, this is not a classroom, but, but it’s the sea, the cold sea. I hear the blowing of a steam whistle. Heavy, sad, long whistle. Look! the ship is sinking, sinking, sinking. That’s the Titanic, isn’t it?
Ding, dong, ding, dong….
