Chapter Eleven – A Dream of Home
John looked in the mirror, straightening his unruly golden curls, which typically fell back into place. The young boy sighed in defeat as he picked up his dog collar and slotted it into his shirt collar. He was surprised his school allowed him to wear it. Everyone else had to wear a tie with the school crest, but apparently due to his somewhat unique background they'd decided to allow it. Not everyone could become a vicar at fourteen years of age after all.
Hearing his father's shout John hurriedly gave his hair one last attempt before grabbing his backpack and running downstairs, where he found his cereal already waiting at the table. It had been tipped in the bowl with the bottle of milk sitting beside it. His father, a middle aged man with greying brunette hair and tired green eyes, sat at the table with the morning paper. A few years ago he would have been in a smart suit, waiting to go to the office, but not anymore. Not since his mother died.
"Morning Son, or should I call you Father?" He asked proudly, John giving a somewhat embarrassed smile. His father had made the same joke every morning for the past two weeks, since John had been accepted by the church as a fully qualified vicar. John poured some milk into his bowl and began eating, already planning his day out in his head. He would have morning classes, then at break he would go to the library to work on his Sunday sermon, then he had midday classes. Lunch was for planning the two weddings and three funerals he had to conduct that week, followed by afternoon classes, a wedding rehearsal at the church, finalising the funeral details for Wednesday afternoon and finally homework before bed. I'm never going to have time to study for my Priest evaluation!
"I won't be home until ten tonight. I have some work to do at the church." John stated, knowing that his father didn't like him being out of the house at night. It couldn't be helped. While he was at school he'd need to conduct church business at night, and his father had understood this since he'd first joined the church.
"I'll pick you up." His father stated. It wasn't a request. If John had been anyone else he may have resented it, but having the background he did, and being the patient young man he was, he really didn't mind and graciously accepted. His father had always been strangely protective of him, and his mother more so. It almost seemed that his father had always known his mother would be taken from them, though John knew that was impossible.
Finishing his breakfast John hurried out the door, not having far to go before he reached the school. He headed inside as he always did, greeting people he knew, particularly his new parishioners, as he headed for his classroom. He had very few friends in the school, and had fallen out of touch with almost all of them since becoming a vicar. He no longer had time for anything other than his religious work.
"Good morning Mrs Farrier." He greeted as he walked into his form room and headed for his seat in front of her desk. Mrs Farrier was fairly young for a teacher, fresh out of university in fact. She didn't really treat him as a student, particularly since she was a member of his church. She'd been one of the first to congratulate him after his first service, and was a regular confessor.
"Father Brown! Good morning, more sermons today?" She asked kindly, tucking her short ebony locks behind her ear as she looked up from her own work. She was part way through marking their history books from the day before. As John sat down he pulled out his homework for geography class and his blank pad for sermons.
"And some homework for you." He replied kindly as he held out the workbook, which she accepted with a smile, both of them setting to work quietly. The half hour before registration, and the fifteen minutes within, were vital to his work. He would never be able to get his church work finished if his form tutor weren't so understanding and generous.
"John! Come out and have a kick around!" Louis called from the playground, where the short boy stood with some of their other classmates. Looking through the open window John waved to the group with a sheepish smile before holding up his notepad, which had a few notes, but not all that many. His golden curls were ruffled by the hot breeze, almost making him wish he could loosen his collar.
"Sorry, I have sermons to finish!" John replied, some of the boys crossing themselves mockingly while Louis told them to knock it off, but John didn't mind. He could hardly blame them for being ignorant, after all you didn't come across many people as young as him who had their own jobs and their own houses. Once John became a vicar he'd received his own cottage, which he and his father had moved into, opting to rent out their old house.
Registration passed without incident, though John had to be fairly patient as Louis sat next to him and insisted on talking. It wasn't that John didn't like Louis, far from it. They'd been best friends for a long time, but John really did have work to do, and it was hard with someone talking in your ear. Louis wanted to tell John all about the new girl, JW, who'd transferred after being expelled from her old school. Apparently she was quite the delinquent, and already had a large following amongst the students.
Louis' endless chatter didn't stop until they left the classroom and John headed to his tall locker to get some books out. Unless he had homework he always left his textbooks at school in his locker to save him carrying them around, which would have made his bag even heavier with all the sermon papers and the bible he always carried. Slotting his sermon papers and the leather bound bible into his locker he grabbed his text books and turned to head to class, finding himself on the floor as someone ran into him.
"Watch where you're going!" An angry voice snapped, John wincing as he stood, finding that he'd twisted his ankle in the fall. Raising his eyes he found himself face to face with the unruliest girl he had ever seen. She was wearing a leather jacket and black jeans, despite the school uniform rules, with dark red lipstick and subtle eye shadow as well as a bracelet, necklace and three rings. Her ears were pierced in four places, and he could just see what looked like a tattoo on her hip where her jeans sat, leaving a gap between her fitted black shirt and the waistline of her jeans. "Enjoying the view?" She added, leaning forward slightly to give John a better view of her cleavage.
"Please don't do that." John said uncomfortably as he shifted his eyes to the locker, feeling his cheeks heating slightly. The girl before him straightened up, resting her hands on her hips quizzically as she looked him up and down, the scrutiny making him even more uncomfortable. "You really should treat your body with more respect." He added quietly.
"What's it to you church-boy?" She asked mockingly, though she didn't get a rise out of him. John had never really been affected by those sort of jibes. He was proud to be a church-boy.
"Your body is a gift from God, one that you will have to return someday…I think he'd like it back in one piece." John replied gently, knowing that she would laugh him off before he'd even started. They always laughed him off. It was hard to take it sometimes, particularly when he was being so earnest. They just don't see their bodies the way I do…
"You know, I've never been much of a believer." She replied simply, giving him a smirk before leaving him in the middle of the corridor. John sighed in remorse, unsure that he would be able to save her, like so many others. It wasn't that he was a rigid Christian. He didn't believe that God would abandon you for not praying regularly, or falling in love with someone of a different race, or even the same sex, but would he really save non-believers? I can only pray…
Heading to class John was quietly annoyed to find the strange girl there, though she was at least sitting at the back of the room, with the rest of the delinquents. Almost as soon as he sat down John felt the first piece of paper hit the back of head, sighing quietly as he pulled out his books. It seemed the delinquents of the class had decided to test him, to see if it was possible to anger a Holy man. So far they had failed.
"Hey John, you going to read us a sermon?" Simon called from the back row. John was reluctant to respond. If he said anything then Simon would continue to bother him, but if he didn't respond in some way then the football captain was likely to try something else. Turning in his seat John fixed the larger boy with a gentle smile, the one he used during all of his sermons.
"If you like. Which passage would you like to hear?" He asked in response, awaiting the boy's answer and knowing that he wouldn't get a reply. No one knew the passages of the bible off by heart, no one except John. It had been part of his evaluation to know a few key passages, so he'd decided to learn the whole thing. It had seemed the easiest way at the time.
"Alright! That's enough chatter!" Mr Ashley announced on the way into the classroom, chatter dying down immediately. No one wanted to get on Mr Ashley's bad side. It wasn't just his imposing height and unforgiving eyes, but his ruthless nature when it came to discipline. It was a gift from God to John, who always enjoyed Mr Ashley's lessons. No one would throw paper at him, or even try to rile him, when the hawk-eyed man was in the room.
Other classes were not the same. As it turned out the only peace John got was the time he spent in the library and at lunch time when he returned to his form room, where Mrs Farrier allowed him to work quietly while she went out to lunch. During the rest of his lessons he had been poked, prodded and mocked almost continuously. They're really determined today! He thought with a sigh, thinking it was probably an attempt to impress this JW girl, who had consistently turned up in his classes.
John woke up with a sigh, always having mixed feelings about those dreams. It wasn't that he'd hated his youth or wished it had never happened, but parts of it had been regrettable to say the least. Looking across at the clock he saw it was only six in the morning, which wasn't unusual. He was often awake early. He'd never been good at sleeping in.
Getting up John stretched, feeling the muscles of his bare torso loosen up as he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. There was little point in laying around. Heading for the shower he stood beneath the hot spray, his golden locks falling flat on his head as the water ran through them. The sleep was slowly washed from his eyes as he lifted his face to the spray. Looking down he could see the many scars that dotted his torso and legs, as well as the few scattered up and down his arms.
Looking back on things he considered himself very lucky. He'd had many scrapes with death in his line of work, and not just as an exorcist. He ran his fingers across the deep white marks on his right shoulder, scratch marks, though they looked like they'd been made by sharp claws. Of all the slashes and stab marks on his body those had been the most painful.
Climbing out of the shower John dressed himself in his Day Class uniform before kneeling before the small alter he'd set up on his desk. His eyes stared reverently at the cross before he closed his crystal eyes and set about his prayers, trying to keep the bitterness from his thoughts. He couldn't let God think he was resentful. He wasn't.
Crossing himself, John got to his feet and grabbed his bag, deciding to head down to the breakfast hall and get out before everyone else piled in. He didn't feel like company this morning. He hated it when his dreams invaded his mind and ruined his day. Hopefully he could get back some optimism. He had Monk-san teaching one of his classes later, which may well do it. The older man was such a fun guy that he couldn't help going off topic and making students laugh with fantastic stories.
After breakfast John wandered into the grounds and sat down by one of the trees, his eyes drifting idly towards the Moon Dorm. It was an interesting situation, though he doubted his original concerns had any grounds. Beings like that didn't live with humans, and for good reason. There wasn't much he could do until Naru gave them further instructions. Right now he was just supposed to watch, wait, and find out what he could from the students. They seemed to know little about the Night Class, or the Moon Dorm. No one from the Day Class had ever been inside, except the prefects, who had now joined the Night Class.
He would have been suspicious about that, but the explanation made perfect sense. The Night Class were active at night when the prefects had the most work, and slept during the day, which would give the prefects time to sleep and catch up on their work. Before they'd changed classes the prefects had been trying to stay awake for almost twenty hours. It wasn't practical. John was quietly confused as to why they hadn't moved to the Night Class sooner.
Leaning his head back against the trunk of the rough tree, John looked up at the blue sky. The sun was still a deep gold as it rose above the fields. It was with views like this that he could trick himself into believing that he was back home. It was silly to avoid it really, but he couldn't help the bitter memories he had of the place. Even his father had left the small town now. He sometimes visited him in Sidney, and the older man would press him to return and visit the grave, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Every time he did it filled him with self-loathing.
He tried not to let his memories cloud his head, knowing that if he started down that path of despair he would keep spiralling into nothingness. He shifted his thoughts to idle things, like visiting James. He hadn't visited for quite a while. Not since that Christmas when Mai got possessed by the spirit of a lost child…That was far too long ago. Almost half a year now. I guess I've been avoiding it…
Getting to his feet John decided that he needed company after all. If he stayed by himself he'd never cheer up. There was only one man to go to at a time like this. Heading for the main building he decided to see Monk-san, using the excuse of business. Who knows? He might have talked to Lin already.
