Short Stories 2

By Patrick Remy

Big thrill in the Big Apple: The hilarious adventures of Mrs Monfort & Paddy in NYC with a group of French students
Safari: The hilarious adventures of Mrs Monfort in South Africa
Un uf is enough: The bad trip of a French teacher
Ragamuffin: A British teenager in Portobello stands up against her teacher during the 1960s
Unsustainable: "The Big one" has struck California...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jul 11, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499087505

Patrick Remy

Patrick Remy was a teacher in France for 42 1/2 years. He used to teach English in high school & University. He started writing 2 years ago to keep in touch with his students. His short stories are originally pedagogical on a fiction basis. He features the differences between French & English (as well as some of his former colleagues). He has also written essays, autobiographical stories & a theater play. He lives in a small village in Champagne (France).

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Patrick Remy.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014911660

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-8751-2

Softcover        978-1-4990-8749-9

eBook              978-1-4990-8750-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/07/2014

Xlibris LLC

0-800-056-3182

www.xlibrispublishing.co.uk

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Contents

Big thrill in the Big Apple

Big thrill in the Big Apple The return

Safari

Un oeuf is enough

Raggamuffin

Unsustainable

Unsustainable Part 2

To Annie

Big thrill in the Big Apple

(a thrilling story by Paddy. R. Chandler)

Every year, the students of Marie-de-Champagne High School in Troyes—in the French county of Aube in Champagne, France—used to go for a one-week trip to NYC.

Their teacher was a great fan of the "city that never sleeps" and very much involved in the process of teaching her students in a practical way.

So, notwithstanding her colleagues who told her that it actually was a trip for the well-to-do—though students from every class (in both senses of the term) were represented—the snubbing remarks from grumbling teachers who thought it was too zealous to go there during the first week in the spring vacation (of course they were only thinking, as French teachers usually do, of their own welfare & defense of privileges), she stuck to it.

The project was not easy to achieve for, in France, it has to be accepted at the local education board meeting. Lots of opponents arise against such projects—in the name of laïcité & all that kind of stuff directly inherited from the beginning of the 20th century, when Jules Ferry established the principles on which French education still rests today.

The students were chosen according to their motivation which they had to show in an application letter (with—sometimes attached—a few pleasant drawings, paintings & even pop-ups)

Then they were briefed 4 times—at meetings with their parents—by their teacher who warned them not to do anything wrong, be careful about their ID papers & all that sort of things, no smoking no drinking in public places in the Big Apple . . .

Eventually, D-Day came &, very early in the morning they took a taxi-shuttle (all of them very much thrilled by the prospect of spending one week in NYC).

That year, the flight departure had been, as usual, with its current lot of apprehensive students who, otherwise, seemed to be quite unimpressed by their teachers in class. Some had sworn they were never ill on a plane but you had to hold their hand! . . . a routine for Mrs Montfort and her colleague, with whom she enjoyed spending a few days far from the ambiance of the high school.

So, as usual, they landed at NYC’s Kennedy Airport on that Saturday 13th april 2013 after the Boeing 747 had veered over the landing strip—to the great thrill of all the students on the aircraft: 30 of them exactly—after flying over Normandy, southern England & Ireland, south of Iceland, Newfoundland Canada, Martha’s Vineyards National Park, Nantucket Island & Long Island (that’s when the thrill began to grow!)

As they disembarked from the plane, the students were so excited to discover the Big Apple that they forgot all the briefing from Mrs Montfort: they thought that was IT! They were THERE! No matter what could happen! §, from now on, they could boast to their friends at the school! They had made it! (not yet!)

In the arrival hall, some of them started to take photos as they were all so excited &, at once, a big brawny blue-uniformed club-wearing mustaccioed black guard threatened to break one of the students’ cameras in 2 (from his build, he could have gulped it down!)

Then they waited for more than one hour (Mrs Montfort always busy calling on her mobile phone for the person in charge—for, as usual, the travelling Cie hadn’t been warned of their arrival at Kennedy airport—for a bus to take them to their youth hostel in 47th street (a 15 mn walk from Times Square, close to UNO’s Buildings). There, they could have a first glimpse of NYC’s life with the taxi drivers striking jokes at the Frenchies (which the latter could not understand! . . .)

At last, the bus arrived! . . . an old dilapidated bus driven by a crazy Chinese who drove very dangerously while talking to Mrs Montfort in his loudest tones! . . . The Gods (probably Phaeton & his golden horse—driven cart) were on their side & they arrived, quite safely, at their address in 47th.

After disembarking all the luggage, they had a small one-hour rest for Mrs Montfort wanted to make the best of the stay &- she had warned her students—they all departed from the Youth Hostel at 9:00 pm (some of them completely knackered) to discover NYC by night from the top of the Empire State Building. Worn out as they were, some of them didn’t know if the slight loll at the top of the ESB was due to their exhaustion from till morning, or the wind, or the altitude, or the crowded place…)

Anyway, they came back to the hostel in a state of complete haggardness; but promised to each other to recover for the nights to come! . . .

Actually, the following day was even more exhausting for Mrs M was very sporty & capable of imposing them quite a hectic rhythm while her colleague at the rear of the little troop did his best to keep up the pace & rally the strayed students to the flock as a sheep dog would have.

Paddy (such was Mrs Montfort’s colleague’s nickname) had the fright of his life before going through the current checks before taking the ferry to Ellis Island. He was already taking off his belt, jacket, watch, all he had in his pockets & ready to put them in a container when one of the students appeared in front of him & said I’ve got a 12-blade bowie knife in my pocket! What should I do?

Paddy couldn’t believe his ears for the students had been briefed 4 times! & the customs-officer was just behind! So he just reported it to him. The customs-officer said in his most impressive tones: "OK! I don’t want to hear about that but get that thing out of here!"

Phew! . . . Paddy was relieved & they confided the crime weapon to the assistant at the "bike rental" nearby who took Paddy’s name & phone n° on a slip of paper.

After visiting Ellis Island & its Museum of Immigration, the party of students disembarked & the first thing the foolish student wanted to recover was his 300-euro 12-bladed bowie knife. So, Paddy went with this student to the "bike rental". The assistant was still there—a big broad-shouldered black lady. They asked her for the bowie knife but she declared:

A customs-officer came in your name to recover the bowie-knife, so I gave it back to him!

So, Paddy & the student went back to the customs hall & asked for the customs-officer whom he had had to deal with. Unhappily, he was off-duty! . . . (too bad!)

When they came back to the youth hostel, the excursionists decided to have a little outing to Time Square & paint the town a little red! (pinkish) They first went to M&M’s where they remained in ecstasy at the adverts billboards at the front of the building (all yellows, greens, reds, blues! . . .). They stole a few packets of sweets (cutting off the code bars with a cutter for the alarm signal not to ring at the gate)

Then, they went to Times Square & got enraptured at the sight of all the billboards. That was IT! They were THERE! Their dream had come TRUE! They were in the BIG APPLE! The world’s center!

But it was already 1:00 in the morning & they had to come back to the Youth Hostel! The way back was relatively difficult for their feet were aching as they had had to follow Mrs M’s infernal pace all day (& it was