Excerpt from The Subjunctive Mood

“Good afternoon,” he said into the chattering void, and saw exactly no one take notice. He breathed in to say it louder – already tired to the bone from the strain of constantly, constantly shouting – when the door opened and someone came in. A late-comer?

He turned, and his heart did a double-take. It was the temp.

What the hell?

“Sorry to be late.” The smile he gave looked unsure, as if he was asking permission to enter – as he bloody well should. Taken aback, Jack just stood there gaping for a moment, until he became aware that the intrusion had grabbed the attention of the class. All the noise had died down, and an eerie silence filled the room. So there was still something that could make them sit up and take notice? Something out of the ordinary. Something from the ‘what if’ side of life.

“Oh, uh, that’s fine,” Jack heard himself say, because that was what ten years of training had drilled him to do: take any sudden change in his stride and make it part of his plan. “Class, this is…” He glanced at the temp, feeling his cheeks warm a little.

“Alexander,” came the quick reply, and Jack was jarred off course for a split second. Alexander. It was stupid, but that name… it just resonated within him. When he’d been a child, a weird loner with unorthodox interests, he’d made lists of boys’ names that he liked, and Alexander had always been at the top of those lists, every single time. He shouldn’t be thinking about that now, of course, but the mere sound of those syllables cut through his professional mask and revealed the person beneath – if just for a moment.

But of course no one noticed.

Alexander made a quick gesture as if to say go on, and Jack came back to himself. “Uh, yes. Today we’re going to revise the subjunctive mood…” What’s he doing here, isn’t he done for the day? “So…” He looked down, shuffled his papers, felt his heart beat a little quicker than usual. The class was still strangely quiet. Now that he didn’t have to shout just to be heard, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. “Um… so we’re doing these exercises… you can use the computers if you want…”

There was a collective groan, the first sign of life since Alexander came in, and Jack relaxed a little. Good. Dismay and complaints. That I can handle. Same procedure as yesterday, and the day before that.

Or will this day be different? Find out in The Subjunctive Mood for free!