Opposite Sides by Susan Firman

would be noticed straight away. Even
the girls offered to help keep watch and a roster system was drawn
up.
    That evening, Hans was in
charge of ‘patrol duty’ along the western perimeter of the fence.
With Miss Janine Turner, it seemed. No-one had planned it that way;
it just seemed to happen.
    She is so
much like a younger version of her aunt ,
he thought, even to the
glasses . He thought she was a bit of an
ugly duckling, straight like a wooden doll and nothing about her
appearance recommended her but then many young teenage girls seemed
to be that way: to the boys, at least. In reality, Jan Turner was
not unattractive. She was just a girl and as Hans had no liking for
her aunt, so he did not care for the younger version,
either.
    One day, when he had been
walking from the Brymers to school, he had come face to face with
young Miss Turner on the footpath. As usual she had been hidden
behind her great stack of books and as Hans had come along side
her, the books had tumbled out of her arms and had been strewn all
across the pavement. At first Hans had hesitated and he would have
picked them up but the girl had made some comment which he had not
fully understood but then she had laughed at him. That had roused
his anger and he had shouted at her.
    “ That was
deliberate!”
    “ No, it
wasn’t!” Her words snapped at him like a mouse trap. “Aren’t you
going to pick them up for me?” she asked, shaking her head so that
her plaits swished aound her head like a broom sweeping the
scattered books in to a pile. The sneering remark had left him
cold. “Or, maybe, you’re no gentleman like our English
lads!”
    Hans hesitated but then
reluctantly knelt down and helped her retrieve the scattered books.
He was more annoyed when Janine Turner walked away and did not even
bother to thank him.
    Since that encounter, he
now made a conscious effort to keep out of her way. On one occasion
when she came across him talking with a small group of girls,
Janine stuck her tongue out at him when he looked at her. Maybe, it
was because she was so much younger or perhaps she did it because
she was the matron’s niece and that gave her the power to behave
that way.
    Horrible
silly girl , he had thought and his
distaste for her grew stronger. And now he felt that she always seemed to be watching him. He felt her
eyes follow him especially when they passed each other somewhere,
in or around those areas in the school grounds that were common to
both boys and girls. He had assumed she couldn’t tolerate him
because he was different, but he never really thought very much
about it. If possible, he avoided contact with her.
    This evening, the sunset
seemed to linger longer and the blue sky faded to a warm softness
of rainbow-colour as the sun refused to leave the day behind. Hans
had the feeling that he had been at the school for an eternity and
that everything was at one with such a glorious evening. He and
Janine Turner had crossed paths a few times since the fountain
incidence. In his eyes she was merely a silly girl, to be kept at
arm’s length; nothing like Robert or the other boys that were
becoming his friends. The safest thing was to do one’s own thing
and ignore the presence of the matron’s niece.
    It seemed to be the same
on this evening, each taking their tour of duty seriously but doing
so, alone, although several times Hans had the feeling that Janine
Turner was not too far away. However, each time he turned around,
there was no-one to be seen.
    It was almost time to go
home. The dusk was just beginning to settle and the colours had
begun to merge and become that undefined greyness that signals the
end of the day. Suddenly, down beside the outer wall where a number
of bricks had fallen away and just among some of the larger shrubs,
Hans heard a faint noise. It sounded as if someone was had broken a
branch in the bushes. He strained his ears. There was a faint
cough. Hans stood still, hardly daring to breathe lest his