Rated for Languge
Johnny likes Miss Merryman, she's his favourite teacher. She has pretty golden-blonde hair that looks all soft and warm, and she doesn't shout at Johnny for wetting himself when he gets upset, not like all the other teachers do. Today in class they were doing science, and Miss Merryman was teaching them about insects and bugs that they might find in their back garden. Johnny knew the difference between woodlice and worms that you can find under rocks, but he was always confused between slugs and snails.
"There's an easy way to remember it," Miss Merryman chirps and begins to draw on the black-board, "snails have a shell, and carry their homes on their backs. They curl up inside them when they get scared, so we must remember to be nice." She opens a draw in her desk and takes out an empty snail-shell, passing it around the class. It comes to Johnny last. The shell is so smooth and so pretty, that Johnny decides that snails are his favourite out of all the bugs.
"Johnny, can you stay back please?" Miss Merryman asks at the end of the class. He becomes a little scared at this, and worries about what he has done wrong. "You did very well in class today," she begins, "and I noticed you seemed to be interested in this." She takes out the shell and puts it in Johnny's palm, ruffles his hair, and then goes back to her desk. Johnny says nothing, but a wide smile spreads across his face.
He is so happy about getting the shell, that he manages to get to home-time without wetting himself, and when he gets out and tells his Mam, this makes her very happy. She says that because he was such a good boy, they can go to the play-ground on the way home.
But when they get there, there is something new. Lots of white caravans, like the kind Johnny sometimes stayed in with his Nana when they went on holiday. Johnny asks if he can go on the swings first, but his Mam says nothing, she looks at the caravans, and Johnny notices that her face becomes a little scared. He asks again, but she says no and tells him that they have to go home now. Johnny looks at the caravans as they walk off, wondering why his Mam hates them so much.
When they get home, Johnny sits at the table and his Mam makes him his tea. Johnny likes baked bean and toast soldiers. He likes it when the tomato sauce makes the toast go soggy and gooey. It is his favourite thing to eat, and his Mam cooks it for him almost every night.
Johnny is eating his tea when Davey comes home. Davey is his Mam's boyfriend, but Johnny doesn't like him much, he shouts a lot and always has an angry look on his face. So he amuses himself by pushing the beans around his plate with a soldier.
"I see them bloody gypsies are back," Davey snarls and sits down, "I swear, after last time I oughtta break their fuckin' necks."
"Davey, I told you, don't talk crap like that in front of him." She sighs, pointing at her son.
"Why?" He snorts, watching Johnny amuse himself, "It's not like the little retard even knows what I'm sayin'." He leans forwards, so close that Johnny can smell the cigarettes in his breath, it makes him cough and sneeze, and this sets Davey into fits of laughter, he has a loud laugh, and Johnny doesn't like it, it scares him.
"Oh stop it," his Mam frowns, and pulls Davey away, "just leave him alone."
"Ah come off it Charlene, he knows I'm jus' messin' with him." He stands up and takes a cigarette from behind his ears, propping it between his lips. "I'm gunna go 'n' see if the lads 'n' me can't do something about them gypsies."
"Davey, leave it," she sighs, and then follows him out the house, trying to stop him.
Johnny flinches when the door locks behind her, he doesn't like being left alone, even if it happens a lot. He decides to go and see if he can find some bugs in his back garden, like the ones Miss Merryman showed him. He turns over a rock, and watches the woodlice roll up into tiny armoured balls, and the worms which wriggle around, around to find the dirt. Johnny is looking through the grass to see if there are any beetles when he finds a snail, and then more. He watches them and their slow crawling, before scooping up handfuls of them and laying them on the concrete patio, where they all curl up into their shells
"There's an easy way to remember it, snails have a shell, and carry their homes on their backs. They curl up inside them when they get scared, so we must remember to be nice."
He rummages in his pocket and finds the empty shell that Miss Merryman gave him for being a good boy, and carefully places on top of the pile of snails. Then he goes back to get the rock that was hiding the woodlice and the worms. He stands there for a moment, before smashing the rock down, over and over, until all that is left is broken shell and gooey entrails. Johnny replaces the rock and then goes back inside to finish off his baked beans.
"Bloody Gypsies."
hmm, too abrupt? It guess it kinda is, I'll see if I can make it more subtle.