Number One Gerbil Carer

George had escaped. Ricky knew that he would get in trouble and inside him he sensed the beginning of the terror he always felt when the whole class looked at him. They would jeer and sneer at him if Miss Lesslie wasn’t there. Ricky’s saviour wasn’t going to be in the playground, though, was she? He looked up at the wall clock. It nearly looked like it usually looked when the dinner bell went. He could already smell the stench of the over-boiled vegetables. Just a few minutes then, to try to get George and put him back in his cage. Then he would need to brace himself for the torment of the playground.

Miss Lesslie had seen the class gerbil fall to the floor. It was strange because Ricky was always so gentle and caring, yet it looked almost as if he had thrown the animal down on purpose. She had made Ricky the Number One Gerbil Carer to help keep him out of the reach of bullies as much as to develop responsibility in him. It gave him an excuse to use the classroom when the others were out in at play. She held the lid on the reactions of everybody, but already some of the class were staring at Ricky or nudging one another, preparing for their so-called ‘fun’ at dinner time. One or two took sidelong glances towards their teacher, and if they thought she wasn’t looking they gestured or pulled faces at Ricky. Anything to remind him how pathetic they thought he was. Simon held his nose at the supposed stink of his scruffy classmate. Miss Lesslie didn’t see, but Ricky did and his heart sank.

Ricky was pathetic, but not in the sense that his class meant it. He was a ‘child at risk’ according to the school records. Miss Lesslie knew he was clever, though he didn’t like to show it, but he hadn’t had the home background advantages that others enjoyed or took for granted. Sam always went abroad for his holidays. Both Emily’s parents were lawyers of some sort. Two thirds of the parents of the class had degrees and some of the others owned their own small businesses.

Ricky’s home didn’t even have newspapers except for the Thursday freebie which often found itself thrown back at the papergirl with a snarling, powerful oath. Ricky’s stepdad was a builder’s labourer. Always cash in hand when he was paid and a fair proportion of that money went on cigarettes and beer. His stepsister was nine years older than Ricky and would leave school soon. Unofficially it seemed like she already had. Ricky didn’t like her. She was always loud and smelt of stale smoke and cheap scent, and her friends treated him like a no longer wanted doll.

The bell went. Miss Lesslie put down her reading glasses and instructed her class to sit quietly. Ricky had already established that George was under the bookcase, news that was met with rapidly silenced surreptitious sniggers. He was on his grubby hands and knees seeing if George was going to come out. Two at a time the teacher dismissed the class, standing on guard by the door to prevent a further dash for freedom by the gerbil. Finally there were just two people left in the classroom. And George.

Miss Lesslie told Ricky that George might be frightened and hiding. She suggested that Ricky back off a little to see if George would come out by himself. Ricky liked Miss Lesslie. She was really kind, always spoke calmly and kindly to him and she did what she could to stop the others picking on him. Friends are people we play with and share our sweets with so Miss Lesslie wasn’t a friend exactly but she was nearly as good. George was Ricky’s best friend. He often stayed in the classroom with George at break times and told him stories about what he wanted to be when he grew up or where he was going to visit, or maybe just some news about the others or his family. Ricky wasn’t aware of his loneliness and isolation when he was with George.

The door shut behind Miss Lesslie. She’d told Ricky that she’d be back in ten minutes and hoped that George would be back in his cage by then. Ricky could look after the classroom and George while she was gone, she told him. She often left him on his own like this. She knew he was reliable – and anyway, there was too little trust these days. Sometimes he used the time to read the more difficult books that the other children shunned. They didn’t know he read these avidly on his own. He liked the explorers best, astronauts and Columbus, and that Norwegian with the difficult last name. But today he wouldn’t be reading. He was watching George explore the shadowy place under the bookcase.

‘Sorry I dropped you, George,’ said the boy. ‘You can come out now – it’s safe and I’ll look after you properly.’

The gerbil’s eyes glinted as he looked back at the boy. It took a tentative couple of steps forward and stopped to investigate a long lost crisp that had been swept under the bookcase by the cleaners.

‘C’mon, George. I’ve put some nice fresh bedding in your cage and some water and food.’

Again the Gerbil looked up. He scuttled forward and then stood still as Ricky’s familiar small hand reached over to pick him up. Ricky had never dropped George before in all the time he’d been Number One Gerbil Carer. He felt so guilty. He knew the feeling from home because he got blamed for everything. This time was different because he really was responsible for dropping George.

‘Sorry, George. I didn’t mean to drop you when I took you out of the cage.’

‘And I’m sorry that I nipped your finger,’ Ricky thought he heard George reply.