Better Late Than Never (Fiction)

Prompt

Terence was late for school again. To be honest, Terence was late for school every day. But this was late even for him.

His teacher had long since accepted that Terence ran to a timetable that nobody else could fathom, and that no amount of detentions, canings or extra homework would make the slightest bit of difference. But Mr. Green liked to think of himself as a progressive. So it suited his image of himself to find a way to teach Terence, despite the obvious difficulties.

The facts that Terence was a genius, and his father was on the PTA, had nothing to do with Mr. Green’s attitude at all. Or so he had persuaded himself.

One of his tactics was to tell Terence what classwork he had missed and ask him to research it himself, and present it to Mr. Green after school the next day.

Terence was usually able to do this in a matter of minutes, and since he liked Mr. Green well enough, he usually humoured the teacher.

But today, it had all gone wrong, in ways that neither of them could have foreseen.

My Part Of The Story

The assignment was simple; or so Mr. Green thought. Terrance was supposed to write an essay on his dream home. It was for one of the newly introduced subjects into the syllabus. Something about moral education. Mr. Green was happy to obliged as he felt it would instil some sense of responsibility into Terrance - he was wrong.

Terrance did appear later in school that morning, with his father, Bruce Payne. Mr. Payne was a regular so Mr. Green didn’t think much of it. In fact, he thought Mr. Payne again had cause to drive Terrance to school himself. This wasn’t the first time.

So it came as a surprise when Mr. Green got the message that the Rector would like to see him in his office. During school hours? It didn’t make sense to Mr. Green. Anyway, he told his class he would be back soon and marched off to the Rector’s office. He half feared that Terrance was going to be expelled after all. He had grown so attached to the boy that he didn’t think he could bear it. Of course, it was because he saw potential in the little boy - nothing more. It didn’t matter who his father was. He silenced the thoughts in his head. He was in front of the office already. Two quick raps on the door and an old tired voice told him to come in.

As he had gotten used to, the Rector was standing behind his desk, Mr. Payne was sitting while Terrance stood at a corner of the room with his head bowed. There was only one difference though. Just as Terrance saw Mr. Green, he looked away suddenly. What was that? Anger? Grief? Was something wrong. Did…

“Mr. Green, good to have you here. There is…” The rector began as he gestured to Mr. Green to take a seat.

“What have you been doing with my son? I’ll get you arrested and locked up for life.” Mr. Payne was read in the face.

Mr.. Green was surprised. All he did was tell the boy to write on his dream home. Was something wrong?

“Sir, I don’t understand. I only told…”

“You told him to dig up issues that were long buried. Who exactly do you think you are? I can make the rest of your life miserable.”

“Mr. Payne, let me handle this, please.” The Rector pleaded.

“You had better do or you’ll be losing your job pretty soon.” Mr. Payne announced as he stood up, grabbed Terrance and walked out of the office.

“Sir, I don’t…”

“You don’t what? You didn’t know Terrance is technically your son?”

“Sir?”

“Don’t give me that nonsense. You gave the boy an assignment that made him visit his sick mother. For Christ’s sake, what do you hope to gain from this? Blackmail? Of course, you should know better than that.”

“Blackmail? My son? Sir, I don’t understand.”

“Hmm. For some reason, I believe you Mr. Green. I don’t know why. I wish I don’t. Anyway, it turns out that the sperm bank you donated to while in Washington is the same sperm bank Mr. Payne and his wife visited when they wanted to have a baby. It might not be obvious, Mr. Payne is sterile.”

“Oh my God…”

“Well, I don’t know why or how but Mrs. Payne somehow knows the name of the donor. It was you. Now that woman’s mental health is unstable. What were you thinking when you suggested Terrance could have a talk with his mum?”

“Sir, I didn’t… I never thought…” Mr. Green stammered while the neurons in his brain short-circuited.

“Well, you know how it is. You have to leave this state at once. Under state laws, you are not allowed to announce to that boy that you re his father.”

“I assure you sir, that wasn’t my intent...”

“Really? Everyone knows of your obsession with that boy. In fact, I still have this feeling that you knew all along.”

“Sir, I didn’t. But now that I do…”

“...you will leave this town and never come back”

“No sir. I’ll go to my son and tell him I’m his father.”

“Mr. Green, are you out of your mind? What is wrong with you? Do you want to spend the rest of your life in jail?”

“But sir, he is my…”

“Your what? Son? Oh common. If you were dreaming of spending time with a son of yours, it is too late already.”

“Well sir, it is better late than never.” Mr. Green announced as he walked out of the Rector’s office.

That evening, Terrance received a long letter smuggled in by housekeeper.

This is my entry for the Fiction contest - Better Late Than Never by @kiwideb . She provided the first 200 words (or so). This is actually a very late entry. I doubt if it’s valid. But then, it’s better late than never.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings

[Image source: Wikipedia Commons]