Horse Face

Thirteen

I take the worksheets off my clipboard and help everyone clip one to their own, then I read my copy, which says:

Draw a picture of an animal or insect that you see in tall grass.

Well that sounds easy enough. I quickly look left and right and see lots of long grass on the right.

I do a quick head count to make sure I haven't left anyone on the bus. Rosa, Valentina, Leo, Arthur, Lucy, Freya. OK good start.

'Lets go then' I say smiling and ushering the children in front of me.

When we get to the long grass, there is a little fence separating the narrow footpath from the grass, which is a bit silly because how can they draw pictures of things they see in the long grass if they are not in the long grass. Not seeing an opening anywhere, I instruct the children to hop the fence and have a good look around. I tell them that when they see something, draw it in the box on the sheet. I also add 'take your time' because if I get through the activities too quickly, I'm not sure how I will amuse them for the rest of the day.

Once all the children are over the little fence, I perch on the edge of it watching the four girls chatter and the two boys run excitedly, throwing clipboards and bits of grass at each other. I could tell them to cut it out and ordinarily I would have done, since being hit in the head by a wooden board could potentially be serious. But I think back to the bus incident and suddenly find that I care less about brain injuries, wondering if that might improve their behaviour. Content that they are happy playing, I sneak my phone out of my pocket and see that I have an OnlyFans notification. I click onto the site but it's not loading. I refresh the page and check for signal but its dropping in and out. This is annoying. I check no other adults are around and then wave the phone around for a couple of seconds hoping to capture some magical marshes signal. I read an article once that suggested putting a mobile phone next to your head, because brainwaves stimulate signal, so I make sure the coast is clear and then unashamedly walk in a circle banging my phone against my brain. When I think the brainwaves might have done their job, I look again and some of the home page has started to load. Ha success. After another minute half the page is loaded but I am distracted by a loud wailing sound and then shouting.

'SNAKEEEE' screams Arthur running towards me.

'Leo has been bitten by a snake' he says breathlessly when he reaches me. He looks close to tears.

'I'm sure he hasn't' I say irritated before shoving my phone back into my pocket and getting up slowly. All those brain waves wasted.

'Mummy, mummy, mummy' wails rosa with her arms outstretched. She is as still as a statue and looks frozen.

'Stay still' I tell everyone. 'I will come and get you' Even though you could all just walk back over here because there are no snakes, I think grumpily.

'Heeeeellllp' screams Freya while Lucy stands crying next to her.

Of course, he hasn't been bitten by a snake. What a horrid child, frightening all the others like this. There's always one that spoils it for everyone. I tell Arthur to stay on the footpath whilst I hop over the fence and stride towards Rosa.

As I walk past Leo I say crossly 'stand up please Leo, youre scaring the others.'

'Ssssssssnake it bit me' he stutters looking pale and pointing about ten yards ahead of him.

I sigh impatiently and walk up to where he is pointing.

'See it's just a . . .SNAKKKE' I scream legging it over to Rosa before the bloody thing swallows her whole. Don't they size people up and dislocate their jaw to accommodate its meal. Rosa's tiny, she will be the first one to go. I grab her and scoop her up.