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Organiser
des concours, décerner des prix et dispenser des cours
dans le domaine des arts et de la culture. Tels sont les objectifs
de la Fondation WORLD AND UNIVERSAL ACADEMY. |
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ÉLISEZ LE MEILLEUR ROMAN ET LA MEILLEURE NOUVELLE DU MOIS (JUILLET 2007) |
NOUVELLE/ROMAN 34 |
“THE SECRETS OF CUPBOARD 55” Chapter 1 [In Medias Res] MONDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER 2003. I found her offices by a most circuitous route. In my stressed state I took several wrong turns. A wrong right at Marine Parade then a guess at a left into Nelson Road North. Then I came past the statue of Britannia that faces inland. Unkempt and shabby was the condition of the old town grey streets thereabouts- dulled dimmer by the heavy autumn morning cloud. Such decrepitude was no longer a fitting setting for a monument to our most illustrious naval hero. Then by chance I took a turn at Wellesley Road, along a sharp right angle for Regent Road and parked the Benz opposite the Hollywood Cinema. Dashing up concrete steps I flapped suited and booted and with briefcase under my wing I noted the tarnished brass plaque marked, ‘Punch, Deenan & Flynn.’ Puffing and panting I announced my arrival to the disdainful face of a prissy secretary whose curt frown was unmoved by any excuses for my tardiness. “Mr Bloom? You’re almost half an hour late…you were scheduled for eleven…I’ll see what I can do.” Her long, bony arm she upraised dismissively gesturing that I should sit. Collapsing upon a soft pew I shuffled through a pack of tatty glossy magazines fanned out across a tired and chipped coffee table. I feigned unawareness of the disapproving gaze of Miss Prissy. ‘Hero to Zero?’ was the sub-heading that screamed out at me from amongst the pile. I settled back for a read. Is society pressurising the young to be too thin? Is the media hype too much to handle for teenage girls? Pressures to fit into that tight little dress and be a size eight. Can you get to six? Try for a zero! Those ‘puppy fat’ love handles must go! We asked Kirsty MacKilt of TV’s, ‘You Are What you Eat!’ to fill our readers in. Kirsty was straight to point and says it’s all down to the mentality of, "I want to look just like her. All the boys like her so much, she’s perfect, and she’s almost a zero!" And as for the boys, they never chase after plus twelve girls do they? So what do girls do? They make themselves vomit! “It wrecks the oesophagus, “ says Kirsty. Of course the alternative is to eat practically nothing, like low fat yoghurt or a crispbread, and then do a gym workout until you faint. So how do we win the battle of ‘Hero to Zero?’ The final answer lies within you, and not what other people think. Kirsty’s wise words are, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” A buzzer sounds to break the still air. “Miss Kearney will see you now, Mr Bloom!” Finally summoned I get a disdainful parting once over from the skinny Minnie sentinel. I smiled nervously and nodded. She looked like she had serious oesophagus issues herself. I rapped my knuckles on the heavy oak door and entered into a darkened and musty smelling office where a read-headed scribe was hunched over some papers scratching busily. “Good morning, Mr Bloom. Do please sit.” Brigid Kearney LL.B looked up to strain a weary eye over me. Daring not to break the hushed air I nervously took a seat in front of a grand old desk and faced my newest inquisitor. She perched regally on her throne now teasing and rolling an exquisite fountain pen between fine-boned fingers. Kearney, too, was now giving me that disquieting once over and I was starting to feel I was just another humdrum criminal passing across her desk. Kearney shuffled and sorted through papers looking reassuringly efficient and professional, just as my eccentric Irish blood brother and friend Mr Telemachus Johns BA PGCE had promised me she would. I did not for one moment doubt the considered advice of Mrs Brigid Kearney LL.B for she came highly recommended. She had something of a godly a reputation in these parts. I had been told she was originally from Holly Wells, County Kildare. The Old Country - the emerald green land of my forefathers. Then my new solicitor handed me a three-page document entitled, ‘Crown v Leonard Odysseus Bloom. Formal admissions pursuant to section 10 the Criminal Justice Act 1967: Specimen Charges Under the Telecommunication Act (Amended) 2003.’ “We don’t normally get the full prosecution arguments laid out like this prior to trial. They’ve done a sterling job on this….as I suspected… they have a very good reason for it.” Her steely blue eyes held mine fixed. “Please read it carefully, Mr Bloom. I am sure you must now appreciate that securing a conviction against a teacher in a high profile case like this would be significant feathers in the caps of both the police and Crown Prosecution Service.” The muted conservative tones of her dress, the stern demeanour, the immaculately cut and coloured auburn locks all soberly tempered the wear of her middle years. “I should also tell you. This is something the press will certainly lap up…so be warned.” I could so desperately do with a worthy flame-haired Celtic Athena up for the battle. I clung onto that quietly self-assured Irish lilt in her voice with every ounce of hope I still possessed in my gnawing, tortured mind. I quickly scanned the double-spaced words so neatly laid upon the pages then stuttered to interject. “But these are lies…all lies…just lies!” I noted the band on her wedding finger. Her tone became somewhat clipped and unequivocal. “Mr Bloom, the crux you should consider is this: shall we say- a sex scandal involving a teacher and a pupil? Every fictional event finds its locus in actuality.…. I’m not calling it a lost cause, not at all, not just yet…but please do think very hard on this.“
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Chapter 2 |
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| ÉLISEZ VOS MEILLEURS ARTISTES | ||
ÉCOLE Á DISTANCE ACADÉMIE DES BEAUX-ARTS ACADÉMIE DU CINÉMA ET DES MEDIAS ACADÉMIE DE L'ÉCRITURE ET DE LA PHILOSOPHIE ACADEMIE DE MUSIQUE ACADEMIE DE DANSE ACADEMIE DES ARTS-MARTIAUX |
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