Paths

By Lindy Boycott

Mildred grows up in a luxurious farm in a big house and has a loving family with a supportive brother. Her life is disrupted by bullies at high school, and when she goes to the university to train to be a teacher, she doesn't enjoy university and remembers what her teacher had to go through when she was b

• Language: English
• Publisher: WorkBook Press
• Release date: Nov 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781952754777

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Copyright @2022 by Lindy Boycott

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ISBN-13: 978-1-957618-22-7 (Paperback Version)

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REV. DATE: 10/25/2022

Chapter 1

‘It’s the end of our lives, Fred. We can’t pretend it’s not,’ Jim said frowning and looking at Fred, who had come to see him in his apartment. The cleaner kept the apartment immaculately clean. Jim couldn’t do much work for himself now, and Fred didn’t seem to be prepared to talk about Jim’s concerns. He carried on burying his face on the newspaper, which he folded, continually looking at it, while Jim was talking. ‘You don’t care. You’ve just come to read here,’ Jim continued.

‘Dad, I wish you could stop complaining about everything. I do all I can for you and Mum. You should be grateful you’re moving, and you’ve had a good life here. You upset me when you keep complaining,’ Fred answered and crossed his legs. He put the newspaper on a table at the side of the sofa where he was seated.

‘Sorry, Fred, I shouldn’t be talking to you like that. You’ve got a future to look forward to. You’re younger, and you needn’t worry about your mother and me,’ Jim spoke calmly.

‘I’m not worried, Dad. You’re the one who worries and can easily cause Mum to worry when you talk the way you did,’ Fred replied.

‘Your mother isn’t worried. She says we’ll make friends when we get there. I think she forgets that we’ll be with people we don’t know and they aren’t going to be the same as the people she does her knitting with, here. We are old, and we are sinking. Your mother should accept that. We’ve lost our friends. They’ve died, and no one will come to see us any more,’ Jim said.

‘Dad, you’re persistently making things complicated for yourself, and I don’t want to get too involved now. It’s strange though that you’re suddenly so negative when you knew you’ll be moving sometime. You used to tell me to trust the Lord. How can you then say you’re sinking? You’re supposed to hold the Lord’s hand and not sink like Peter, who thought the Lord was a ghost. You should see yourself alive with the Lord.’ Fred appeared to be gradually peaceful when he said that, and Jim adjusted his reclining chair so that he could rest his head on it while his feet and legs rested on the footrest.

‘You’re right, Fred. I shouldn’t be like Peter, who couldn’t walk on water to hold the Lord’s hand,’ Jim answered with a smile and closed his eyes to dose on the chair while Fred walked out of the apartment to find his mother. Jim remembered that the Lord had been his shepherd all his life and he shouldn’t fear. The sun shone soon after Fred left the apartment as though God was smiling with them and confirming His presence around them. Jim also began to appreciate having the cleaner coming to clean their home and Fred visiting them.

When Fred’s friend Don was in university studying business and management, he made good friends with Fred. Growing up in a farm, Fred was accommodating to Don, taking him back to the farm during university holidays and some weekends.

When Fred helped in the farm, Don would join in helping at different seasons of the year. ‘Your brother seems to be more organised than you are. You should be ashamed of yourself,’ Daisy said to Mildred, Fred’s sister, at the farm on a Saturday morning. Don and Fred were helping Daisy’s husband Jim in the fields.

‘Thanks for that, Mum. I don’t know how many times I should tell you, I’m not Fred,’ Mildred replied and opened her bedroom window. Clothes were all over the floor, including her school uniform, which Daisy had come to collect to be washed with the rest of the family washing.

Fred had brought a lot of his washing back from university and had hung his other clothes on hangers in the wardrobe in his room. The room where Don slept looked presentable, causing Daisy to notice how Mildred’s room was compared to the boy’s.

‘I shouldn’t be doing everything for you. I don’t know how you think you could be someone’s wife,’ Daisy said while picking school uniform from the floor.

‘Leave the other clothes. I’ll wash them when I want! I don’t know what makes you think I’ll be someone’s wife,’ Mildred said while she closed the door after Daisy left the room. She lay on her bed for a little while, and after a few minutes, she sat in front of her computer in the bedroom and read what she needed to read in order to do her homework to take to school. Mildred had found it hard to understand some of her classmates when they were always in a group of three acting strangely. She couldn’t imagine herself doing what they did and would never do what they did. They liked sitting next to her. During her science lessons, the three girls had hidden her school bag a few times while she was doing experiments in the laboratory and had left the school bag on the main chair where she sat during lessons. A few occasions, the girls had laughed when they saw her looking for the bag when she got back from doing experiments, and then they would give the bag to her. Though that was about the only time Mildred smiled with other pupils in the school, except when the teachers made jokes, she didn’t agree with the girls’ behaviour and hoped they would stop. She didn’t find that to be a sense of humour since she needed some of her science books from the bag so that she could complete her work in the laboratory. She was actually grinning. One day, even though the teacher was engaged in a conversation with another pupil in the laboratory, Mildred went straight to the teacher and didn’t mind that the teacher was attending to another pupil. This time she didn’t search for the bag; she guessed what had happened to it. She briefly told the teacher what she wanted to say.

‘I’ll be with you in a few minutes, Mildred,’ the teacher said to her. Mildred needed the toilet, and it seemed to be the right time to go to the toilet then, after having been working in the laboratory and her bag missing. The toilet would be a quiet place for me, Mildred thought; while she walked towards the toilet without her bag which contained her personal belongings and she was concerned. Mildred saw the teacher again after she had been to the toilet.

‘What can I do for you, Mildred? What bag were you talking about?’ Miss Symonds’s eyes looked over her reading glasses, and her arms were folded while she asked Mildred.

‘My bag has been taken away from my desk three times in the past, and this time when it disappeared I decided to let you know.’ Mildred was holding the bag tightly. The three girls had come and put the bag back while she had gone to the toilet.

‘What do you mean the bag disappeared a few times in the past? Who took the bag? And the bag is here now. What exactly do you want me to do?’

‘Ivy, Sam, and Doreen returned the bag while I was in the toilet. They have taken the bag in the past and given it back to me a while after I’ve been looking for it. They have laughed at me while I looked for the bag when I returned from doing experiments and needed some of my books in the bag,’ Mildred replied.

‘Really? Is that what those three do during lessons?’

‘Apparently that’s true.’

‘I’ll have a word with them. Don’t worry. Just check if you’ve got all your books and everything else that was in that bag, will you?’

‘Fine, miss, nothing is missing. I’ve already checked,’ Mildred replied while putting her bag on her right shoulder and making her way out of the laboratory as it was now the end of the lesson. Her long ginger curly hair hung loosely on her narrow shoulders, and her blue eyes looked brighter, emphasised by her navy blue tunic and a cream blouse. She was also wearing a blue cardigan, which was part of the school uniform. Since that was Mildred’s last lesson of the day, she walked to the train station among a lot of other pupils going home after school, walking past a playground where some of the pupils had stopped and played different sports. Mildred didn’t need to do any activities after lessons. She had learnt to play the flute, which she used to learn separately after school, and that dream had come true. She followed a path that went through the woods near the school and led to a road to cross over and walked down some steps to the train station to catch a train home to the village where she lived. She was known to be rich by most pupils because she lived in that village; she was also recognised by the teachers to be bright in her lessons. Mildred went to school to only learn and always had that frame of mind when she was at school, and it seemed as though Doreen, Ivy, and Sam were not aware of that when they hid her bag during lessons. The farm dung smell was stronger that afternoon when Mildred approached home, but it wasn’t a problem to her. She had grown up smelling it many times. She walked through the wooden gate and could hear two cocks crowing alternately as they always did when she got back from school, making her question herself on how they knew what time it was. How did they happen to always crow at that same time? Mildred liked that routine. She was now sixteen, and Daisy and Jim had already asked her what she was planning to do, and she’d let them know that she would be a teacher, and since she was due to be doing her ‘A’ levels in the following year, Mildred had to decide which subjects to take so that she could go to university, and she hadn’t decided at this stage.

Daisy was at home as usual, in the kitchen doing some domestic tasks near the sink. Mildred greeted her and walked upstairs. Daisy was normally preparing the evening meal for herself, Jim, and Mildred at that time. The big autumn leaves in the back garden kept hitting Mildred’s bedroom window when blown by the wind and was an interesting sight for Mildred when she walked in her room. The colour of the leaves seemed to be an inspiration on what clothes to wear when she changed from her school uniform, and she wore a dark brown pair of trousers with a yellow sweater. She tied her hair at the back with a white hairband, and when she got to the kitchen, she took a glass of water with her to the sitting room and sat quietly, trying to put her mind at rest about what had happened at school. She felt she didn’t need to tell Daisy because she had reported about the girls to Miss Symonds. The sound of the autumn winds also inspired her to play her flute, which Daisy enjoyed very much and believed the sound brought happiness to the family. There was a joy in Mildred’s spirit as if she was celebrating something good on the day, which could be because she hoped Miss Symonds would help with improving her life in the school with Ivy, Sam, and Doreen.

‘Aren’t you having something for tea today?’ Daisy asked, standing at the door that separated the sitting room from all the other rooms downstairs of their house.

‘I’m not hungry, Mum. I’ll wait till dinner time,’ Mildred replied.

‘You just enjoy your flute then this afternoon?’ Daisy asked, aware that Mildred was quieter.

‘Yes, I enjoy the flute. That’s all I’ll do,’ Mildred answered and got up after playing a little longer. She walked towards the big low window in the sitting room and watched the big goldfish which swam in a big pond that her father Jim had built for them. Jim enjoyed watching the goldfish too, especially at the end of the day and at weekends.

A figure walked past the window and caused Mildred to raise her head and walk around to see who it was. She was pleased to see that it was Nicola, her neighbour, who was already doing ‘A’ levels, and they spoke to one another sometimes.

‘Hi, Nicola,’ she said and waved, after opening the front door. She walked a few metres to her. Nicola walked slowly, following her cat that she loved very much and didn’t want it to be run over or lost.

‘Hi, Mildred, how are you keeping?’ Nicola walked slowly and decided to bend and stroke her cat so that it didn’t walk away. Mildred walked away from her yard to speak to her.

‘I’m doing well, and I’ve been thinking of you and what you’ll be doing at the weekend.’

‘Not a lot. Are you doing anything special?’ Nicola asked – looking up at Mildred, who stood in front of her and the cat – while she continually stroked the cat.

‘I wondered if you’d like to come around my home in the afternoon and we can bake a cake together. Mum and Dad will be out to the cinema,’ Mildred asked.

‘I think so. If anything changes, I’ll let you know. You can teach me a bit of sewing after we’ve made the cake, if we have time,’ Nicola spoke with a grin.

‘Yes, we could do that as well. Why not? I better let you go. Mum doesn’t know I’m with you, and I don’t want to hold you and the cat from continuing your walk. See you then on Saturday at 3.’ Mildred always liked Nicola’s company. They complimented one another’s talents. They also liked learning at school. When Jim came home, there was often a restful atmosphere in the family since everyone was in, especially when Fred phoned from university, which he did twice a week. The telephone rang soon after Jim had washed his hands in the utility-room tap.

‘I’ll get the phone, darling. You’ve just come from work.’ Daisy wiped her hands on her apron and quickly went to answer the phone. ‘We haven’t heard from you, love, for a while. You only phoned once last week, and it was earlier in the week as well. Is everything all right?’ Daisy asked when Fred had greeted her on the phone.

‘I’m all right, Mum. I’ve just been doing some work so I can earn some more money and kept myself busy. I did more hours than usual last week. That’s why I didn’t phone,’ Fred answered, lying on his back. His legs were stretched on the bed in the university room, and his head was rested on a cushion against the wall while he spoke on his mobile phone.

‘You’ll have more money then, and also, it’s good to have something to occupy yourself with during the holidays.’

‘Yes, Mum. That’s true. How is everything at home? How is Mildred doing at school?’

‘She seems all right at the moment, but a little reserved than usual at times. I haven’t spoken to her about what’s happening at the school. I’m sure she would tell me if something troubled her. Your father is fine. He just works hard in the fields, which he says he likes doing when I advise him to employ people.’

‘I’ll be coming home for the weekend. Is it all right if I bring my friend Don? He likes farm work, and we could give Dad a hand. We’ll convince Dad to let us help him,’ Fred said.

‘You think your friend will want to do any more work during his holidays?’

‘It was his idea. As I said, he likes farming and he likes our home.

He says our home makes him think of Bethlehem.’

‘Really? What a wonderful thought! Does Don go to church?’

‘Yes. He’s introduced me to his Christian friends as well.’

‘Yes, you can bring Don. He seems a good friend to you. I didn’t realise he had a Christian background when he came with you last time. So, that means you’ll be home for the evening meal on Friday.’

‘That’s right. We’ll be at home about six.’

‘Good. See you then, darling.’

‘Send my love to Mildred and Dad. Bye.’

‘Bye, love.’

After Daisy had put the phone down, in her bedroom, she could see her face on the mirror of her dressing table, where the phone lay. She ran her fingers through her short brown permed hair and remembered that her perm needed to be retouched that week. As it was early evening, she rang the hairdressing salon, hoping they would be there because they worked late during the week doing working people’s hair.

‘Fred is coming home on Friday and asked if he could bring his friend Don with him. I told Fred he could bring Don. Apparently, Don likes coming to our home. He says the farm is like Bethlehem,’ Daisy said to Jim and Mildred.

‘What a thought about our home!’ Mildred said, genuinely smiling.

‘He must be Christian then,’ Jim commented.

‘Yes, he is and has introduced Fred to his few friends.’

‘It’s not a problem having him here,’ Jim said. ‘Oh, and they’ll be helping you in the farm if you need any help. Don likes farm work.’

‘There won’t be much for them to do. I’ll be on the tractor,’ Jim answered and paged through their television times to see if there was anything worth watching on TV. When Jim decided to put a detective film on, Mildred walked to the conservatory. She didn’t like watching detective films, thinking they were too serious, and chose sitting in the conservatory. She paged through some women magazines which had sewing patterns and crochet inspirations. Thinking of the farm as Bethlehem made her heart happy and reminded her of the days when she had gone to Sunday school with Fred when they were little. She realised that she should stay like that since that helped her to have a sense of belonging somewhere, spiritually, and not only home. Mildred thought of Ivy, Doreen, and Sam that they were not like her. They belonged to another group which was not very good, and someone should help them change. She forgave them and had peace in her heart. She hoped that everything would be all right during science lessons with them now that Miss Symonds would have spoken to them. Meal times brought them together as usual, in the farm, and Daisy had given up asking Mildred to help with clearing up and tidying the kitchen. She expected Mildred to do that without being asked, and Mildred at times did that when Fred was home.

‘Today’s young people don’t fall in love as early as we did, darling. Fred isn’t involved with a girl yet,’ Jim said to Daisy when they were left alone in their sitting room. Mildred had gone to her bedroom.

‘Are you expecting the children to be like us?’

‘Mildred is still young, I understand, but Fred is nineteen now, and he’s a reasonably good-looking young man. He could easily be friends with a girl,’ Jim replied.

‘No. Leave them to decide what to do when they want. Just because we were seventeen when we met, it doesn’t mean they should be the same,’ Daisy said, looking at Jim across their coffee table.

‘I agree on that. I suppose we should love them because they are our children and accept them so that they are confident that they are accepted first, before they can do anything else,’ Jim said, thoughtfully.

‘Got it, darling. Though I don’t know how I can accept the way Mildred keeps her room. It’s so untidy! I need to learn how to do that. I’m tired. I think I’ll retire early tonight.’ Daisy got up yawning.

‘Kiss or no?’ Jim asked. Daisy walked towards him, and they kissed before she left the sitting room and walked up the stairs.

‘Good night, Mildred,’ she said when she got to the hallway upstairs, where the bedrooms were.

‘Night, Mum.’

In the morning, there were more people on the way to the train station and always were in a hurry to catch their destined trains. A few were already wearing coats, and it was not even October yet. Mildred joined the crowd as everybody quietly walked to the station, and the sound of their footsteps faded when they got there. Some made a queue to get tickets. There was an uncontrolled order in the train as Mildred and other pupils stood and held on the train pillars while most of the passengers sat and read newspapers. The majority of the passengers were destined to London, and the pupils were standing up because their journeys weren’t long.

Science lessons for the first time in a long time were peaceful, and Miss Symonds gave Mildred a warm smile during the lessons, which was well received and appreciated by Mildred. Mildred confidently smiled back and tried avoiding the three classmates, but she was not very successful when she was in a tense atmosphere at the end of the day on her way home. Sam, when pushed by the other two girls, hit Mildred’s shoulder, and all three laughed without saying a word to her. After taking a deep breath, Mildred kept as far away from them as she could, and for a moment, everything around her blurred as if she was in another planet, unbelieving how they could do that to her. Why? she thought. Why do they do this to me?

She would normally have a mug of tea and a cake when she got home, but this afternoon, like a few other afternoons, Mildred went straight to her room and lay in bed on her tummy. She did nothing and lay there until Daisy decided to go and knock.

‘Are you all right?’

‘I’m resting because I feel nausea. I can’t eat anything at the moment,’ Mildred replied.

‘Something’s wrong. You sound stressed. Have you had a good day?’

‘Not really a good day. Sam and her friends hit my shoulder after school on my way home, and I’m sure they did that deliberately,’ she said quietly, her head in a turmoil state. She also told Daisy everything which the three girls had been doing to her and that she had told Miss Symonds and had also told Fred.

‘Oh, dear. Should we pray?’

‘I’d appreciate your prayers, please, Mum.’ She sniffed as some mucus came out her nostrils, and she blew her nose with tissue papers, which lay on top of her bedside table. The prayer brought a special tranquillity, which caused Mildred to stay in the room and had a nap for thirty minutes. She was so refreshed as if she had come into a different home. She offered her mother a coffee while she made hers in the kitchen, and Daisy asked for a cup of tea instead and shared homemade biscuits with Mildred in the conservatory.

‘I’ll arrange to meet with the head teacher and the three girls’ parents next week. I hope you can wait till then, darling,’ Daisy said and had one of the biscuits.

‘I’ll have to wait and trust God.’

‘That’s right, my love. Your father and I will keep you in prayer. You ought to go back to church and mix with your friends really.’ ‘Not at the moment, Mum. I’m happy being friends with Nicola. She goes to church sometimes, and she’s coming around on Saturday while you’re at the cinema.’

‘Oh, really! And your brother and his friend will be here as well.’

‘That’s right,’ Mildred replied and rested her hands and arms on the sides of the bamboo-framed chair.

The trip from university to the farm was quicker than Fred and Don had expected when they found themselves arriving at 5 p.m. on the Friday they were expected. That all worked well as they had time to rest after the drive, before eating with the family. Being in a home environment was cosy and warm, compared to being in the university residence hall small rooms where they were staying that year. They both eagerly looked forward to moving to a house on the following academic year when they would be continuing on the same course. Don was also working during the holidays, and they were planning to have one week off and not work before going back the following year, but spend the week moving to the new house where they would stay with three other students.

‘Hi,’ Mildred said to Fred, and they hugged.

‘Hi.’ She shook Don’s hand, and they all sat in the sitting room while Daisy was in the kitchen talking to Jim. The oak kitchen unit and oak dining room furniture in the farmhouse brought memories of Jesus and Joseph when they did carpentry in Nazareth. The cattle had been mooing as well earlier, and Don heard them. He meditated on that when he joined the family at the table for dinner. Daisy and Jim had been very welcoming.

‘Do you drink any wine at all?’ Jim asked with a kind grin, looking at Don, while he opened red wine, which came out of a chiller at the centre of the table. ‘Yes, I’ll have some wine thanks,’ Don said and continued chewing his beef, which was so tender as though it had been cooking all day with lots of vegetables. Jim had brought lots of vegetables from the farm field, and they were perfectly cooked as ever. Daisy cooked stews well, and her dumplings always rose.

‘Don and I can water some of the vegetables for you, Dad, if you like, since there hasn’t been much rain lately. We’ll do that tomorrow,’ Fred said.

‘Yes, you can do that while I’m out on the tractor,’ Jim replied. ‘Your mum and Mildred can stay in the house. I’m sure there’s plenty to do before we go to the cinema with Mum in the afternoon,’ Jim continued.

‘True, darling, there’s always something to do in the house. I don’t know what Mildred will be doing, but I truly have things to do,’ Daisy replied.

‘I have things to do too,’ Mildred replied and didn’t want to talk about what she would be doing. Fred and Don kept Daisy and Jim occupied, and knowing Don was Christian brought some form of rest to them inwardly. Jim was less anxious about Fred and Don not getting involved with girls when Fred told him they met with Christians in university. Jim could tell that Fred and Don were different from some young people he knew. They were willing to help in the farm, and that help was needed. They were also not the kind of young people who liked going to nightclubs at weekends, but were more interested in keeping healthy when they played squash and tennis. Fred was sincerely compassionate about his sister’s life in her school with Sam, Ivy, and Doreen.

‘Have they been bullying you again lately?’ Fred asked as though he had been told about what happened at the school gate.

‘Sort of, and I hope they’ll soon stop doing this. Mum will be meeting with their parents and the head teacher as soon as she gets an appointment arranged,’ Mildred said while she filed her nails on Saturday morning when Fred and Don had just returned from watering vegetables and had joined her in the sitting room, where she sat.

‘It’s serious then if Mum is arranging all this.’

‘Don’t worry, Fred. It’s going to be all right, and I don’t like to be labelled as the bullied person. Please don’t,’ Mildred replied with a shy look, giving Don a quick look as well, and didn’t want the conversation to continue.

‘Are you going somewhere this afternoon or staying in?’ She deliberately changed the subject, put her nail file on the coffee table, and relaxed.

‘We’ll be playing tennis sometime. What are you doing?’

‘I’m expecting my friend Nicola at three, and we’ll be baking a cake.’

‘That sounds nice. We’ll try and be back to have that at teatime,’ Fred said. ‘Nicola is good company for you,’ Fred added.

Jim was very pleased with himself for the work he’d done in the fields. He took off his muddy boots, whistling, and cleaned them on the tap in their back garden. Daisy always had Jim’s slippers ready for him at the back door to put on, as soon as he came in when she knew he’d been doing work which involved some mud, in case Jim forgot to wipe his feet on the mat and walked on cleaned tiles of the utility room and kitchen. That morning, Jim took his thick grey