I'm at university in Edinburgh, nearly four hundred miles from my home town, just north of London. I've been here two years -- I'm 20 now -- and although I love this bustling city I still miss my old home. I try to get back there as often as possible, but it's not easy. Last time I went back though, I had an amazing experience.
I'd arranged a lads' night out with some of my mates and my kid brother, Nick. He's 18 and currently studying for his A Levels at the same school I attended, hoping to get good enough grades to join me at Edinburgh. Ours is a small town, with not many nightspots, but after starting off in a pub we headed for a new club that I hadn't visited before. Even before we descended the stairs to the basement entrance we could hear the throb of dance music. As the bouncers opened the door to let us in the volume became almost deafening, and we were hit by a blast wave of heat and the glare of flashing lights.
Although it was quite early the place was packed like a sardine can, and we shouldered our way to the bar. One of the other lads started to get in a round of Budweiser, while I surveyed the dance floor. It was heaving with gyrating bodies, but one in particular caught my eye. She was a little blonde, right in the centre of the crowd, swaying and waving her arms wildly above her head. She wore a gold lamΓ© boob tube which glittered with the reflected light from the overhead mirror ball, as did a little jewel nestling in her belly button. As she whipped her head around, her hair hid her face, but I was sure there was something familiar about her. I wondered if I knew her from school, but she didn't ring any bells as a former fellow pupil.
A couple of our group noticed my interest in her, and started nudging me and joking about me trying to pull her. I should say at this stage that I haven't had a steady girlfriend for some time. It's not that I don't like women, or vice versa -- I'm six feet tall, slim but well-toned with light brown hair and always had plenty of girls interested in me at school. It's more that I intend to return home when I finish in Edinburgh, so there's not much point in starting a serious relationship with another student who could be from anywhere, and might not be keen on settling in a provincial little London dormitory town. The girl on the dance floor, and the fact that I couldn't quite place her, intrigued me. It never crossed my mind to seriously try chatting her up, I just wanted to know who she was. She didn't seem to be dancing with anyone in particular so, giving the lads a grin and a wink, I started to make my way through the throng of dancers towards her. As I reached her, her twirling movements brought her round to face me -- and I got the shock of my life! I knew her from school all right -- but not as a student.
She was my old teacher, Miss Taylor. Well, I say old, she's actually only about 10 years older than me. I'd been in her form at school, and she had also bullied me through to the 'A' grades in my Modern History and Political Science A Levels which had clinched my placed at Edinburgh University. I'd had an odd sort of relationship with her -- I respected her immensely as a teacher, but there were times when she'd been a real bitch to me, slagging my work and making me re-write entire essays and projects. She grinned in surprise at seeing me, and shouted something. The music was too loud for me to hear her voice, but I could read her lips saying, "Well, Barry Robson -- hello." I nodded in reply, still amazed to see her there. She started to say something else, shook her head laughing then pointed to the bar with one hand, miming drinking from a glass with the other. I nodded and she took my elbow and steered me through the mass of dancers to a relatively quiet corner, at the other end of the bar from my mates.
She pulled herself up onto a bar stool, and I sat opposite her. I reached for my wallet, but Miss Taylor stopped me. "No, you hard-up students need to save your money, I'll get them." While she tried to attract a barman's attention I took in her appearance, which couldn't have been more different to the prim and proper teacher I'd known. Her corn blonde hair, worn in a bun at school, hung loose on her skinny bare shoulders, her fringe plastered by sweat to her forehead. She had twinkling green eyes, a slim nose just a fraction too long, a wide mouth and a pointed, dimpled chin. Her blonde hair, her elfin looks, her size (she's only about five-two, and petite) and her toned down Cockney accent could lead a person not to take her seriously -- until she's torn them off a strip, and they emerge from the wreckage feeling as if they've just been mugged by Mike Tyson's bigger, meaner brother. That evening her eyelids were painted silver, her lips cherry red, matching her finger and toenails, and she had glitter on her flushed cheeks. The boob tube emphasised a decent pair of tits that I'd never really noticed in my school days, her nipples forming little hillocks in the material. It stopped well short of her navel and that sapphire coloured stone I'd seen before, set in a gold mounting. In addition she was wearing a pair of white shorts that barely extended onto her thighs, showing off short, shapely legs, and strappy sandals. As the drinks arrived she took a long pull at a bottle of Bacardi Breezer -- clearly not her first drink of the night -- and grinned at me again, shaking her head. "Well, well, well -- Barry Robson. Of all the discos, in all the towns, in all the world..." She giggled at her Casablanca reference.
I took a swig of my Bud and, raising the bottle to her, said, "Thanks for this Miss. And can I just say, you look amazing."
She giggled again. "Yeah, I do, don't I. And you're not at school anymore, call me Wendy."
I glanced at the raucous scene around us and, leaning closer to be heard, said, "I wouldn't have expected to see you in a place like this."
She laughed and said, "Ooh, hold the front page -- teacher has a life outside school. Well, it was either this or mark the fourth year mid-term History papers. Actually, there are a few of us here tonight -- Rod Lacey, Susie Gordon..."
As if to confirm her words, at that moment a familiar figure loomed through the crowd -- my old Geography teacher, Mr Anderson. I greeted him politely and he half-nodded, apparently not remembering me. Placing a hand on Wendy's shoulder, he squeezed it gently and asked, "Are you coming over to join us?"
Without taking her eyes from my face she vaguely waved a hand at him and said, "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute."
Mr Anderson turned away, glancing sharply at me. I said, "Sorry Miss, er, Wendy, are you two...?"