And it’s a truth too horrible to contemplate

We started the day removing from the school’s database all the files that related to who supported the occupation, and who was considered dangerous by Ms Bland and her jolly crew. The people in the school who were considered to be the most likely to cause difficulty for the Norman Tradition, as the regime always referred to itself in school documents, were given a D rating of 1 to 5. Janice, Bodger, Binky, Havoc Blythe and I all got five.

Teachers and others who were thought to be positive about the regime and its reform and who would do its bidding were given “Plus” ratings of 1 to 5.

A single back-up copy of the lists of Plus and D marks was made and given to HB before we wiped the listings. It is part of his attempt to stop reprisals by some teachers on others who are thought to have been sympathisers.

Parents who removed their children are starting to send them back – but are now complaining that sports kit is missing from lockers, books from desks and so on. I wrote a standard note that tells them that we have had a number of changes and that we are looking into what is going on.

At lunchtime Havoc Blythe called our little band (we are now calling ourselves Class D5) into the head’s office. All the pictures have been removed from the walls, and a team of forensic scientists have been across every inch of the surface.

“The pictures, and the books removed from the library, which were all about to be returned, have all got traces of the toxoplasmosis parasite on them,” he reiterated. “This was clearly not an accident but the whole plan of the occupying forces in the school. For some reason they wanted to get the parasite slowly into the bodies of people who touched the books or the pictures – which of course would be children.

“It is a very unorthodox way of getting the parasite into the bodies of the pupils – but this is a resilient parasite and its spores can stay alive on paper for a short period of time.

“The parasite is normally found in mice and cats.”

We all looked at HB in total amazement (not to mention panic at the thought that we too might have picked up this parasite). I think every one of us tried to talk at once.

“I’ve fixed up for our group to be able to go into the General Hospital tomorrow morning and have tests done. If any of us have got the parasite there are drugs that will flush it out of the system.”

“But what does it do?” asked Janice.

“In the mouse-cat system it sits in the brain of the mouse, until the mouse is eaten by the cat, and the parasite moves into the cat. The cat dies, and its remains are eaten by a mouse, and the parasite moves into a mouse.”

“What part of the cat and mouse does it live in?” asked Binky.

I wished she hadn’t asked that, as I was feeling ill enough as it was. “The brain,” said Havoc Blythe.

“And it can live in people?” I asked.

HB said it could.

None of us needed any persuading to meet up at the hospital at 9.30 tomorrow.

For the rest of the day I sat in the office, occasionally touching my head, wondering if the odd thoughts I had been getting had anything to do with a mouse-cat parasite. I noticed Janice did the same.

At 3pm there was a commotion in the corridors as a group of 6^th formers launched an attack on a set of teachers who were holed up in the gym. It seems that the teachers had been identified as fellow-travellers with the old regime.

Normally I would have gone to help, but I really didn’t feel up to it. I urgently need that trip to the hospital.

This entry was posted on 16/11/2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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