janine and mrs Penrose

JANINE AND MRS PENROSE by GAVIN CLOSEY


Mrs Susan Penrose,daring misbehaviour,looks down her glasses at Janine;Whom decides to take up the challenge,being a bit of a tomboy, wearing her school cap round the wrong way,she spits bubble-gum onto the floor, making a tiny, but noticeable sound,which makes Mrs Penrose fly into a rage. She grabs a knife from inside her desk draw, and wields it in Janine's direction making Janine and the rest of the class, duck for cover, under their desks,like a town escaping an earthquake or tsunami.Because, Janine hears an evil laugh ,like in the movies, where the mad scientist has succesfully experimented on a victim, she peeks around the corner, of her desk, seeing the teacher with the knife pointing at her throat, it brings back memories from Janine's childhood, which come flooding back, as she peers, curiously, at the derranged teacher,and reviews a memory at five years old. Her Dad points a gun at her head,threatening her and her Mother,as Janine cries and beggs him to stop, but he goes on to shoot himself, however; sparing his family.
Suddenly, as if seeking her out, Mrs Penrose walks towards Janine's desk, where she, submerging herself back-underneath,holds her breath, hoping this mad woman, would pick on some other poor child.Janine hears time stand still, listening, her heart beating a slow death march, the teachers, clunck, clunk, clunk, clunk.....on the wooden floor,like the Germans bearing down on the Jews,the pause before the executioners axe strikes the final blow.Janine hears the teachers laughter, her cackling like a witch. " None of my children ever loved me", she hollers," they were only about themselves,they killed me in here."
She begins to cry-lowering herself to the floor-dropping the knife beside her, as she lay, on her back, as if contemplating her next move.
Janine came from under the desk to comfort her since she felt a connection with her turmoil,and didn't fear her, with the knife being dropped.She saw her point to her own heart as if to say, that's where her death had occured, inside her heart, her spirit!
"Please, don't hurt us Mrs-"she said, in a wimper,she too, not containing her tears.
The teacher, too ,perhaps, feels a connection because she looks the crying child in the eye, beginning to wipe her own tears.
"I loved them so much, but Johnny, my husband getting cancer, it's the final straw, I can't go on! "
She moves herself, from lying on the floor,kneeling,bowing her head as if defeated.
" Don't! Mrs Penrose. I don't want to happen to you, what happened to my Dad!
"What was that?"
"He killed himself."
"I 'm..." she pauses as if considering where it had all gone wrong, " I.."
Since the teacher is distraught and momentarily incapacitated, Janine seizes the opportunity as she escapes the classroom looking for help, saving her and her classmates from potential death.
Janine, she notices is gone;Mrs Penrose,letting out a shriek, frightening the class,picking up the knife, making an incision,on her bare skin,draws massive blood.
Meanwhile, Janine runs for help, finding no one, because all the teachers and students ,apart from Mrs Penrose's class, were competing in inter-school sports, until she finds the school secretary, who rings the police.
Two hours later, in a waiting room ,Janine her mother, and a middle aged man,huddle together in what seems to be a prayer.He, then, rushes inside to a room, within the building.Ten minutes elapses. A nurse comes to them, telling what appears to be, bad news. Janine cries, but her mother tells her not to blame herself,allthough; Janine will always blame herself, for the death. The death of Mrs Penrose. She blames herself because she should have stayed with Mrs Penrose, pacifying her from suicide, but she didn't, and this will always haunt her.


Three days later, Janine feels the touch of her mother,a portly-kind- faced woman,putting a hand on her shoulder, while talking to the, same, middle aged man: Mr Penrose. They are in Janine's mother's house, her name is: Jamie. When he talks to Janine, he is showing her a newspaper-clipping
"It's a case of incorrect diganosis,dear,do you understand what that means?
She sees him continue,noticing her puzzled expression.
"It means when they thought something was going to happen to me,they got it wrong!"
"Yes sir," says Janine.
She thinks she understands,and is wanting herself to seem grown-up by apparently understanding.
" The news paper interviewed me making a lot of what they call here..(He looks at the newspaper-clipping picking it up from Jamie's table,and reading from it) :"The irony of his wife tragically killing herself while her husband had only six months to live,survives, being wrongfully diagnosed with cancer."
He sets the article back down looking at Janine for comment.
She still is wearing a cap: a baseball style now,again, on the wrong-way round, this makes Jonathan laugh heartily,probably, she thinks, because of her flicking her eyelashes at him,which ,seemingly, brings welcome relief to what appears to be an intense moment for him.He regains his train of thought continuing on-
"Just as well, I made them check the CT scan again-"
He guffaws,making Janine smile at him, grinning, broadly.
"Yeah, I would have done chemo, and they would have taken credit for saving me,blow,the buggers."
Janine, noticing her mother comfort Jonathan, who, still, showing the strain of losing his wife, suddenly, seems to hold her a little, too, long, which reminds her, of how tenderly, her father used to hold her mother.
Since, Janine sees her mother, attempting to pause her embrace,she remembers, what her mother must do!
" Jonathan," says her mother, pausing, pulling, gently away from him," there's something I must tell you."
" Yes," he looks, slightly, concerned.
" Your wife....Susan she killed herself because of your..your illness."
He looks at her, in amazement, as if his world is tumbling down.
"I can't believe! it." He screams."It was supposed to be me dying, not her! Why? Why? Susan?"
While, he seems to reflect on life, for a minute or two,Janine, whose mother seems to join in,with her, pretending to read magazines, giving him time to think, after a while, he smiles.
" How about a trip to Disneyland?" he jibes, lovingly, at Janine.
" Wow,can we! She looks, expectantly, at her mother, who nods.
' Of course! But isn't it too expensive, Jonathan?"
"No." He reassures.Since I think I will be getting a payment for this wrongful diagnosis,as it has caused me a huge amount of heartache, and worry.But especially "so," of Susan, "God Rest Her Soul."She would want us to be happy. The three of them embrace tightly, in a circle;Until dawn they sing, firstly, "Calafornia Here I Come!"Then a medley of different songs, from the different generations.


And ,"Calafornia, they did come," the following year, as a family, to Disneyland, in Anaheim, Calafornia. After that, they returned to their hometown,where they live, happily, to this day.