The Sinister Ms Duke

Tim is convinced Ms Duke is sinister. She doesn’t let him see his Grandma very often, just tells him that she needs to rest or is already asleep. His parents don’t seem to notice that Ms Duke keeps Grandma away from them. All he hears them saying is how wonderful Ms Duke is; how Grandma is getting much more rest now Ms Duke is caring for her. But he knows the truth and is going to expose Ms Duke for the evil monster she is.

At only 13 Tim finds it hard to get the grown-ups to listen. Yesterday evening when they were having tea he tried to talk to his Dad. But Dad was more interested in reading his paper that had been delivered too late for him to take to work with him that morning and didn’t pay any attention.

This morning when he was eating his Weetabix for breakfast, mashing it up to get the milk to soak in, he tried to talk to his Mum.

‘Mum, is Grandma going to come to my birthday party on Saturday’ asked Tim.

His Mum is not paying much attention as she rushes round the kitchen, frantically making Tim’s sandwiches for school and washing up at the same time, while trying not to spill anything down her suit.

‘Sorry love, what was that?’ she replies absently, putting the milk back in the fridge. ‘Come on Tim, eat up or you won’t be ready when Tommy arrives and you’ll both be late for school.’

‘My party Mum, is Grandma coming?’ Tim tries again.

‘We’ll talk about it tonight, Tommy’s here’ as they hear a knock at the door. Tim sighs, knowing he won’t get any further talking to his Mum that evening.

It’s sunny as Tim and Tommy walk to school, something they’ve only been allowed to do since the school year started a couple of weeks ago. Although it is September, it doesn’t feel like autumn has arrived yet.

‘What did you Mum and Dad say then?’ asks Tommy.

‘Nothing’ says Tim, kicking a stone along in front of him with his hands in his pockets. ‘They’re too busy to notice anything anyway, even if they did listen to me.’

‘I’ve been thinking – what you need to do is find out what Ms Duke is poisoning her with, then they’ll have to listen, won’t they?’

Tim stops scuffing at the stone and pauses to think, his head tilted to one side ‘but how do I do that?’

‘We could go to the library after school, there must be books telling you about poisons. I’m supposed to be at recorder practice but I’ll pretend I have to be home early to Miss Scott, then I should still be home on time and my Mum won’t know.’

Tim scratches his ear as he thinks ‘or books on murderers that have poisoned people!’ his face lighting up at the idea they might be able to solve it, before drooping his head ‘my Mum won’t notice if I’m late as she won’t be there, and I can’t imagine Ms Duke will be too bothered if I’m not there hassling her to see Grandma’. They trudge on to school, never appealing at the best of times but when you have a plan you’re desperate to put into action it’s even more dreary a thought.

Finally the bell for the end of class goes. Tim normally enjoys history. Mr Lewis makes it fun, creating stories about the types of people who lived in the long ago times they’re learning about. Today though he couldn’t wait for it to finish and is the first up from his desk, with Tommy close behind.

‘Boys’ calls Mr Lewis ‘what’s the rush?’

‘Urrrm, um’ they dither, struggling to stand still long enough to reply.

‘Well?’ Mr Lewis raises one eyebrow.

‘It’s my birthday...’ starts Tim at the same time Tommy replies ‘my Mum ...’

‘Well which is it?’

Tim doesn’t like lying, particularly to his favourite teacher. ‘Tommy’s Mum wants to know what I’d like for my birthday. She said we’re to go straight to meet her from school’ he mumbles.

‘On you go then, you mustn’t keep Tommy’s Mum waiting.’ Mr Lewis shoos them out of the door ‘wish I still found my birthdays so exiting’ he says to himself, turning back to the pile of exercise books on his desk waiting to be marked that evening.

‘That was close!’ exhales Tommy as they make their escape out of the school gate, checking round for anyone else that might get in their way. They scamper along with excitement at the thought of the mission they’re on. If this works...

The library is quiet when they arrive. They pause inside the entrance trying to work out where they need to go – they’ve never needed to find books on poisons or people who poison before!

‘We could ask someone’ Tommy thinks aloud.

Tim frowns ‘do you think we should? What if they think we’re up to something?’

‘I know...’ mummers Tommy, as a librarian approaches.

‘You look a little lost, boys, can I help you?’ she asks, with a kindly smile.

‘Yes miss’ starts Tommy, pausing as Tim nudges him, worried about what he’s going to say. ‘We’re doing a school project’ Tommy continues ‘it’s about poisons.’

The librarian pulls back, the smile disappearing ‘I’m not sure you should be looking at books about poisons’ she frowns, looking around for her colleague.

‘But miss, we’ll get in trouble if we don’t do our project.’ Tommy starts to fidget.

‘It’s so we know what the poisons are, so we don’t accidently hurt ourselves with them, drinking or eating things that are bad for us, that sort of thing’ Tim says authoritatively, standing up to his full height. ‘Nothing bad miss.’

The librarian lets out the breath she had been holding and smiles again ‘oh that’s ok then. Let’s see what we can fin for you.’

As she leads the way into the library, the boys look at each other with a smile, ‘phew, close one!’