Rats, Roses And Paper Bones

Chapter 26:Handkerchief

It was my first visiting day since I started attending Longford High School.

Visiting day was quite different here from what I'd been used to at my previous school.

For starters, my former school had visiting day on Saturdays. At Longford High, it was on Sundays, immediately after church service.

Secondly, at my old school, parents were allowed to bring food into the hostels.

Unfortunately, Longford High had a strict no-food-from-home policy.

Pretty sad, right?

They probably knew there was no way the school's food could ever compete with homemade food, so they decided to eliminate the competition entirely.

I had managed to get through to my mum the previous Sunday, and thankfully, she had picked up.

She'd promised to come today.

Yet here I was at 3 p.m., still waiting.

Visiting day had started at noon, and parents were expected to start leaving by 6 p.m.

I tried to be patient.

This certainly wasn't the first time my mother had been late for something like this.

In fact, she had never been early.

At my former school, I was often the last student waiting to be picked up on vacation days.

It had become normal to me.

My sister, on the other hand, wasn't taking it very well.

For her, this was still a new experience.

"When is Mum coming?" Dara asked for what felt like the hundredth time. "It's already three o'clock. Why isn't she here?"

She paced around my bed.

I sighed.

"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be at your hostel?"

She ignored me and continued pacing.

"Stop pacing around. You're going to run out of breath."

I glanced at her.

"Do you even have your inhaler?"

She finally stopped and placed her hands on her hips.

"I came here so we wouldn't have to look for each other when our parents arrive."

She reached into the pocket of her checkered gown—the house wear we were allowed to wear in the hostel—and pulled out her inhaler.

"And yes, I'm with my inhaler. Thanks for asking."

I sighed again.

"You know what? Let's just go outside and wait for them before your anxiety kills you."

I grabbed her wrist.

"Literally."

I couldn't blame her, though.

She was new to all of this.

I wasn't.

I'd seen it all before.

We walked across the school field.

It was a dry, sunny afternoon, and the harmattan had already started settling in.

The grass had lost its bright green colour, leaving behind a dull brown shadow of what it had once been.

Mid-November was always one of my favourite times in boarding school.