I wouldnt normally read The Guardian, in fact I had never bought a copy before so what possessed me to pick up a copy at the station news stand I really dont know. It would help to pass the time on the long train journey. I scanned through its large broadsheet pages not seriously reading anything until I got three quarters of the way through the paper.
The picture made me stop and gasp. He hadnt changed much at all in the twenty years since I had last seen him. Older, yes of course, but his facial features had not altered in any way. As a young man, he had a strong resemblance to Jude Law, you know, the actor who was in "The Talented Mr Ripley" and played opposite Stephen Fry as Bosie Douglas in Wilde, they could have been brothers. Ad there he was, staring out at me: Dr Richard Hume and according to the newspaper, he had just been appointed headmaster of one of the countrys top independent schools.
I closed my eyes and remembered the young rookie teacher who came to our grammar school in my last term of the sixth form. My, he had done well for himself. He never actually taught me but I knew him well and smiled as I recalled our celebrated encounter. I giggled out loud as I thought of how we had tried to set him up.
Every June our school allowed the local pony club use of the playing field to hold a gymkhana. It was quite an event, attracting horsey people from miles around. I never went or got involved until my final year. Exams were over and I was chilling out and killing time until leavers day. The gymkhana organisers spent most of the Friday setting up tents, banging posts into the ground and stringing bunting for the Saturday shindig. The week before a notice went up in the sixth form common room asking for volunteers to stay on the school premises over the Friday night and mount a guard to see that nobody came along and vandalise the preparations. Two mates and I volunteered. Although we were all eighteen and legally adults, the headmaster in his great wisdom decided that a teacher would also have to stay and be in charge. Dr Hume was duly appointed to the task.
The picture made me stop and gasp. He hadnt changed much at all in the twenty years since I had last seen him. Older, yes of course, but his facial features had not altered in any way. As a young man, he had a strong resemblance to Jude Law, you know, the actor who was in "The Talented Mr Ripley" and played opposite Stephen Fry as Bosie Douglas in Wilde, they could have been brothers. Ad there he was, staring out at me: Dr Richard Hume and according to the newspaper, he had just been appointed headmaster of one of the countrys top independent schools.
I closed my eyes and remembered the young rookie teacher who came to our grammar school in my last term of the sixth form. My, he had done well for himself. He never actually taught me but I knew him well and smiled as I recalled our celebrated encounter. I giggled out loud as I thought of how we had tried to set him up.
Every June our school allowed the local pony club use of the playing field to hold a gymkhana. It was quite an event, attracting horsey people from miles around. I never went or got involved until my final year. Exams were over and I was chilling out and killing time until leavers day. The gymkhana organisers spent most of the Friday setting up tents, banging posts into the ground and stringing bunting for the Saturday shindig. The week before a notice went up in the sixth form common room asking for volunteers to stay on the school premises over the Friday night and mount a guard to see that nobody came along and vandalise the preparations. Two mates and I volunteered. Although we were all eighteen and legally adults, the headmaster in his great wisdom decided that a teacher would also have to stay and be in charge. Dr Hume was duly appointed to the task.