Wisps of Wisdom

CHAPTER 2-2

"Oh hello. Trevor," she said. "Are you enjoying the races?"

"Yeah, I was too slow to reach the finals." He hesitated and gazed at the ground. "I shouldn't be grassing but…"

Karla frowned. "What is it Trevor?"

"It's the final race, the senior boys' one."

"What about it?"

"You know Adrian from Shearwater who is expected to win?"

Karla nodded. Adrian Malley was one of the best long distant runners in the school and was expected to win the senior event with only one other boy, Isaac Heffernan from Petrel considered to have a chance of beating him. The pair were competitive and apparently had been for years.

"So what are you wanting to say, Trevor?"

"It's all hush hush but I overheard a plan the Petrel guys have to make sure that Isaac wins." He gulped and looked around as if he was frightened that somebody could be watching. "It doesn't matter. I just thought you wouldn't think it was fair even though Mr White knows what's going to happen."

Karla frowned. Her deputy principal was almost a sports fanatic and could, in her opinion, be devious at times. "Go on," she almost hissed. "If someone is going to cheat, it is only fair to everyone that I know about it."

"They have planned to have their six or eight fastest runners surround Adrian and block him to give Isaac a free run. They'll be discrete at the beginning of the race but will close in on him in that extended section of the course, you know that extra kilometre added for the seniors. Some may even want to try to push him off the track where it crosses the second stream."

Karla knew the area and had almost had the course changed as it appeared to be quite dangerous, especially after heavy rain. As this extra part was only for the older age groups, she had, against her better judgement been persuaded to leave the course as it had been for years. There was no forecast for rain that day so the all clear had been given to use this original route.

"You were right in telling me, Trevor. It is not grassing when ganging up is considered for a team wanting to win. I'll look into it."

Trevor nodded and melted into the crowd. Karla called her husband Ryan on her mobile phone. "Are you around?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm over near the refreshment tent. Can't get near it for the crowd. Why?"

Karla repeated what Trevor had told her and added. "I don't want my staff to be involved but I want to go up that back track to see what happens. Could you watch the beginning of the race and see if there are early signs of Petrel guys, they're in the red tops, ganging up on Adrian. He'll be wearing orange."

"Sure, and if it looks as if that is happening?"

"Just call me."

"Will do. Have fun!"

*

Karla already wore gumboots, the name used in New Zealand for rain boots or the British wellies, so didn't mind the slushy conditions in the reserve. She took a circular route to the track so she would avoid the senior girls' race that would be coming through before the boys. There were a few marshals stationed at various points along the route to prevent runners from being lost and orange cones and large yellow arrows and signs showed where the longer course turned into a different track.

She stepped back when she heard a group of runners approaching. They were the senior girls who pounded by with the five fastest runners well clear of the main bunch. Behind them, looking more exhausted than the girls ahead were the slower runners and finally a couple who had given up running and just walked along chatting to each other.

She stepped out from behind a bush, heard the pair gasp and they began running again. Karla glanced at her watch. It would be about twenty minutes before the boys would be here in their race. She walked on and came to the section where the track wound down to the stream. The water wasn't deep and splashed around rocks that could be used as stepping stones before the track zigzagged up a steep slope on the opposite side. This would be the spot Trevor mentioned if they contemplated giving Adrian a push.

Her mobile rang.

"Hi Dear," Ryan said. "I'm sitting in our car. Oh they were so discrete but there are definitely a group of those red topped guys bunched up around the lad in orange. There are also three red T-shirt kids out the front. This whole group is already way out in front of the main bunch. Can't see them all keeping up the pace. I think it is all planned like a chess movement. I reckon that a couple of the front runners will drop back to replace those who are around Adrian at the moment."

"Any other syndicates involved?"

"Not really. There are a couple of orange runners and the other colours back a little. I think they're surprised by the tactics. Shall I take the car up the road in the reserve and check them out?"

"Good idea. Once they're away from the crowd they will probably stop being discrete and tighten their ring around him."

A few moments later Ryan called again. "Yeah, it's happening. Poor Adrain's being elbowed and one red topped guy, must be Isaac is getting ahead. Oh! Oh! "

"What?" Karla almost shouted.

"The group around Adrian is actually slowing down and stopping him from passing. At this rate there will be no way he can catch Isaac who is increasing his lead."

"Right!" Karla retorted. She clicked off and called the marshal at the corner of the gateway back into the school grounds. "Karla here. Will you get a rope across the track and flag down any runners. There will probably only be Isaac Heffernan from Petrel. He'll be there soon. The race has been aborted and will need to be rerun."

The teacher there sounded surprised but as Karla was one of the referees as well as being principal, she didn't query the request.

Now all Karla had to do was wait!

She heard the front runner before he appeared but by then Karla had slipped back so she was hidden in the foliage. It was Isaac who was running strongly and didn't even have much mud splashed over himself. After he thundered by and Karla stepped out onto the track, just as the main bunch of red runners surrounding an orange runner appeared.

She stood in the middle of the track just before where it wound down to the stream and held up her hand like a traffic officer directing traffic. The whole group just about tumbled over each other as they stopped.

"So it is true," Karla said in an icy voice as she stared at the boys all puffing and looking guilty. "You have purposely blocked Adrian so Isaac will win the race!"

"But…" one boy stuttered but stopped mid-sentence when Karla glowered at him.

"Is that true, Adrian?" she asked the boy in orange.

He pouted. "It's their tactics, I guess, Mrs Spicer, " he muttered. "They did manage to slow me down."

Karla glared around at the Petrel boys and also at more runners who arrived. "This race has been aborted. I am ashamed of your tactics I shall be considering whether all you Petrel boys will be be disqualified from the race when it is rerun. You will all turn around, walk back and tell the other runners that this race is over."

"Yes, Mrs Spicer," the gathering of runners whispered.

They stared at each other or at the ground before they turned and began the long walk back to the school.

After they had gone Karla called several officials to tell them of her decision and finally called Ryan. "Can you come and get me? There's a set of steps near here up to the road you're on."

"Right," Ryan replied and a moment later she was sitting in their car, still angry at all the events.

"Cool it," Ryan said. "Go back, rerun the race but don't show your anger."

"When?" Karla snapped. "Tomorrow?"

"No," Ryan suggested. "In forty minutes or so. Have a few of those fun races you were going to have at the end of the main contest for the rest of the school first, then the race."

"And the boys who ganged up on Adrian? Should I disqualify them? They damn well deserve it?"

"Do they?" Ryan glanced across at her. "If the idea was supported by Michael White or even if he turned a blind eye to it, isn't he the one you should reprimand, not the boys."

Karla turned to him and sighed. "Oh Ryan, you're right, of course. Sometimes I wish we were back at our little country school with our farm and a bunch of kids to look after."

"We had problems there, too. This one is really quite minor compared with everything else that has happened to us. So cheer up and be the respected and neutral principal everyone looks up to."

He grinned as he turned in the school car park, squeezed her leg and smiled. "Remember, be fair to everyone."

Karla nodded and walked over to the tents where the senior boys were beginning to arrive back. They gathered at the start line and waited with glum expressions on their faces. Karla asked one of the teachers for the loud hailer she was carrying and stood before the crowd. The silence was deafening as she coughed to attract attention.

"The senior boys race will need to be rerun," she said. "However, to be fair to the boys we will wait forty minutes before it is started. Meanwhile, the fun races we were going to held at this time will be continued. I apologize to students, parents and friends for this and hope you enjoy the rest of your afternoon here. Could the staff and volunteers running the fun races please start them as soon as possible. I'll hand you over to our DP, Sandra Bragman who is running these events."

"So what are you doing now, Karla?" Sandra asked after the loud hailer was switched off.

"Re-running the race," Karla replied. "Nobody will be disqualified but if there are any other breaches of the rules I'll not hesitate in disqualifying those responsible from not only this race but also from the district finals if they qualify."

She walked back to the starting line and found one of the teachers had all the senior boys sitting on the ground in three neat rows. Karla stood before them and ran her eyes over the faces. Most were apprehensive, a few defiant looking and a couple seemed to regard it as a joke.

She stared at the pair. "It is no joke," she said. "If you think it is, leave here at once and go home. Understand?"

The pair became serious. "Yes, Mrs Spicer," one muttered.

"Sorry, Mrs Spicer," the second replied.

Karla nodded and turned to all the boys. "After careful consideration I have decided to allow you all to participate in the re-run race. It will begin in exactly half an hour so keep yourselves warm and be ready at that time. I would not advise any ganging up or cheating."

Half an hour later, the spectators watched the senior boys race restart. Even the beginning was different with all four coloured t-shirts intermingled with no blocks of one syndicate grouped together. Karla stayed by the finishing line and watched, excited as everyone else when not one but three boys turned into the school grounds for the last two hundred and fifty metres of the four kilometre race. The final burst accompanied by the roar of the crowd resulted in neither Adrian or Isaac winning. A Russell McKelvie from Tern syndicate beat Adrian by a dozen metres with Isaac twenty paces further back.

Karla turned and smiled at Ryan who was standing beside her. "A fair result, wouldn't you say?" she whispered.

Ryan grinned. "No doubt someone will moan about the boys being too tired for a re-run but I'm proud of the way you handled everything."