Chapter Four – School Gets Worse, Worse and Worse
At school the children continued working on the hut. They had enough rocks of the right size, but now they needed branches of the right size. Ekk sent them into the woods to get them. He gave the children strict instructions before they went into the woods. He told them,
‘Don’t die.’
They all nodded their heads solemnly. They were in agreement with Ekk on this.
It took the children a long time to find the right size of branches. It took Olgan and Jet all day just to find two. They arrived back, two long branches across their shoulders, and their tongues a suspicious dark red.
The next day ,when it was time to go searching for branches, everyone followed Olgan and Jet. Ekk stayed behind to snooze in the sun. Soon the whole school was feasting on a currant bush. Lint ate so many berries his hands turned red. When he couldn’t eat any more, he picked a few giant leaves and made parcels of berries to take home to Ma and Tan.
He had five parcels wrapped up, when there was a sound in the woods behind him like a mammoth charging. Lint dropped his parcels of berries, and ran for cover. Moments later Ekk appeared. He looked round the clearing and spotted the parcels of berries on the ground. He picked them up, turned on his heel, and walked back to the village. He didn’t bother looking for his students. He had some berries to eat first.
But he did have a lot to say the following morning, when the school lined up in the clearing. A lot, that is, for him.
‘More branches,’ he bellowed.
He had brought with him his stone club. He hefted it up into the air and took a swipe at the nearest boy. This happened to be Lint, who ducked and danced back out of reach.
‘Get line!’ Ekk bellowed.
Tentatively, Lint did. He kept his eyes on Ekk’s club all the time. To his relief Ekk moved along the line. He stopped briefly in front of Unta, gave him his customary crooked smile, a blast of foul breath, and moved on. When he reached Olgan, he brought his club down fast, hissing through the air. But Olgan was smart and quick; she was ready for it. She danced back a step and then as soon as the club was on the ground, stepped back in line.
Ekk moved on up the line. He stopped at the top, opposite Dec.
‘More branches,’ he growled.
Dec nodded.
The children worked very hard that day. Ayat dug holes for the branches that were supposed to be support posts, Dec and Ithil held them in place, and Olgan tied them to other branches. The rest of the school were busy bringing back more branches. By the end of the day, the skeleton of a hut stood in place.
Lint was amazed at how much they had achieved. Every time he had returned from the wood, the hut had grown more hut-like. Even Ekk, he thought, must be pleased. But he was wrong. Ekk pointed to the hut and told the children,
‘Too small. Tomorrow make bigger.’
And with those encouraging words, he sent them home, exhausted and demoralised.
The following day, Ekk bellowed for the children to line up and said,
‘More branches.’
It was exactly what he had said yesterday. It was exactly what they had done yesterday. There was a silence. No-one moved.
‘We did that already,’ a lone voice muttered.
Every head in the line moved from side to side to see who had spoken. It had come from somewhere down the bottom end of the line.
‘What?!’ Ekk roared, his face turning red.
‘You told us to get more branches yesterday, and we did,’ the voice repeated. ‘Look.’
And, for emphasis, Unta turned and pointed at the hut.
Ekk opened his mouth, saw that it was Unta who had spoken, and swallowed a huge mouthful of air. His mouth twisted and writhed. Eventually it settled in a murderous smile.
‘Make bigger,’ he said. ‘Much bigger,’ he added. ‘Big, big and big,’ he continued, gesturing with his hands.
Lint rolled his eyes. School was getting worse, worse and worse.
‘But…’ Unta began.
He stopped when he was elbowed sharply in the ribs by Kelc.
‘Shut up,’ Kelc told Unta, ‘you’ve done enough damage.’
The children were tired from yesterday, and no one felt like doing any more work. They worked half-heartedly with one eye on Ekk. As soon as he fell asleep, work stopped altogether.
When Ekk woke up sometime later, the hut was deserted, and there was no one in sight. Ekk marched off into the woods in search of his disobedient pupils. He found Olgan, Dec and Ayat in the middle of a thicket of blackberries, juice running off their chins and down their fingertips. He sent them back to work on the hut.
Jet and Ithil were a bit deeper in the wood, and trying to climb a tree to get the fruit on its outermost branches. They, too, were sent back to work.
Unta and Hohn he found in a bog. They were amusing themselves, jumping from stone to stone across it. Kelc had squatted down at the edge, and was trailing a stick through the wet ground, making patterns. Ekk shouted at them unintelligibly for a while and then resumed his search. The boys continued what they were doing.
Ekk kept searching. The longer he searched, the more annoyed he became. He traipsed through the woods growing hotter and crosser with every moment. Eventually, fed up from walking, he gave up. He headed back to the hut. The boys were obviously dead, he decided. Good thing too, he thought. That little new boy runt was obviously trouble, whatever his name was. Ekk had never liked him. It was a shame about Ban. He had been a promising student. He had a strong right arm and a wicked punch. Ekk had thought he might make a good teacher.
On his way back, he collected Unta, the chief’s son. Ekk didn’t want him to die. That would have made big trouble for Ekk. Then, when he arrived back at the hut, Ekk saw Ban and Lint. They were helping with the new hut. Ekk was unable to contain his disappointment.
‘What doing?’ he asked Lint.
Lint looked puzzled.
‘I’m helping.’
‘No you dead,’ Ekk told him, and stormed off, not waiting for an answer.
Lint didn’t know what to think. When was he supposed to have died? It didn’t make any sense. Only one thing was clear. Ekk wanted him dead, and that was not good. School was clearly not going to get any better for him.