---

What does she do for a living?

I don't want to sound like I'm jumping to conclusions about a lady in our street, but...

 

• She appears to have several 'boyfriends'... 
• Who all keep very strange hours...
• Who sometimes meet, as one is going and the other is coming...
• Who all stay overnight, usually, and leave quite early...
• And sometimes two of them stay for a sleepover...
• And her mortgage is definitely off-the-radar for a single mother...
• And the wee boy is often away (presumably at some relative's house) when there are gentlemen visiting....

Like I said, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but is there any other logical explanation apart from her being 'self employed' and 'working at home'? 

Last week's highlights - the 'sick' student and the phone call home.

Scene 1 - school office, around 9.30am. A secretary holds a phone, she is talking to somone at the other end.
"Hello, can I speak to Mr Jones please... This is the High School, ringing about Jenny who's absent... she's sick, you say... ok, thanks."

Scene 2 - school office and also a random accountant's office in town, around 1pm. Imagine one of those split-screen scenes in a movie. In our office, the Vice Principal, in the other office is Jenny's Dad.

VP: "Hello, Mr Jones?"
Mr J: "Yes?"
VP: "I'm Mr Castles from the High School - Jenny is absent today."
Mr J: "Your office phoned me this morning - I said she was sick."
VP (disbelieving) "So they told me - what is wrong with her?"
Mr J: "Flu, I think. She's been in bed all day."
VP: "Are you sure?"
Mr J (challenging tone): "Of course I'm sure - what are you saying?"
VP: "It's just that one of our teachers saw her in town half an hour ago."
Mr J (insistant): "She's sick! she's in bed!"
VP: "She was with another girl who is absent today!"
Mr J (sternly): "No, she said she was sick!"
VP: (I-know-rightly tone) "When did you last see her?"
Mr J: (told-you-so tone)"Eight o-clock, when I left for work and she wasn't too well. She sent a text around 8.30 to say she had gone back to bed. I phoned at 9 and she sounded poorly. I phoned an hour ago and she didn't answer - she must be sleeping"
VP: (it's-checkmate tone) "Are you sure she's not answering because she's not at home to answer?"
Mr J: (how-dare-you tone) "No! she's a good girl! I resent this! you must be mistaken!"

It turns out, Mr Jones was mistaken and Jenny was, indeed, in town, with her friend, in school uniform.  I'm not an expert on playing truant, but I'd have thought wearing full uniform and walking past the town's main supermarket, on a busy road, was not a good way to avoid being caught.

If your brat says she's as good as gold, then you must believe her?

The other morning I recieved a phone call from a parent.

-"Hello, is that Mr Smith?"
-"Yes, that's me"
-"I'm Mary's father. She came home yesterday quite upset."
-"Oh. Why?"
-"You put her in lunchtime detention, but she didn't do anything!"

I pause to think... Mary... oh, yes, Mary, one of a group of girls who messed up yesterday's lesson.  And the one before.  And the one before that.

-"Yes, Sir - Mary and her friends were quite disruptive in yesterday's class"
-"No, she wasn't. Mary is not a disruptive girl."
-"As I was saying, Mary and her friends had been warned for continual messing and had choice to do the set work or do detention. This has been an issue for a few classes now."
-"That's not wat happened."
-"Pardon?"
-"Mary told us what happened. She asked her friend a question and you put her in detention. Is that the school's normal discipline policy?"
-"Asking a question isn't a problem. Shouting, waving, putting off the people around her is."
-"She didn't do that. She's an honest girl and told us what happened."

So, I thank him for his concern and reassure him that in general she is well behaved but for a few weeks has been lively. I tell him she has probably learnt her lesson, while he insists she has no lesson to learn.

Why do I bother? I wonder....