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continuing. ‘Which means you only have to put up with me for another fourteen periods.’
    Sarah looked at him. He was looking at the back wall, not smiling.
    ‘When you get back from the break you’ll have a new teacher, who I know will enjoy teaching this class as much as I have.’
    Sarah willed him to look at her. She needed to know what this meant. She had to see his eyes.
    ‘Did you get sacked?’ Jerry Gleason called out. Everybody laughed, except Sarah who was now certain that this was exactly what had happened.
    ‘Incredibly, enough, no.’ He smiled, but it wasn’t real. ‘I’m transferring to Brisbane.’
    Still he wouldn’t look at her. Brisbane? It couldn’t be true. She tried to take a deep breath but there was no air. A hand closed over her arm. ‘You okay?’ Jamie whispered. She shook her head no.
    ‘Why the sudden move?’ Jamie asked.
    ‘It’s not sudden at all.’ Mr Carr addressed his answer to the back wall. ‘My wife’s family is in Brisbane. We’ve been planning the move for some time. I confirmed my new position with the department this morning.’
    Sarah’s stomach contracted, and her throat filled with bile. Covering her mouth with her hand, she pushed her chair back and ran from the room. She heard Jamie say her name, then Mr Carr said ‘What’s the mat–’ Then Jamie said, ‘You fucking creep.’ She made it to the garbage bin in the hallway just before her breakfastcame up. When she finished vomiting, she found that Jamie was standing beside her and the classroom door was closed.
    ‘Fucking creep,’ Jamie repeated.
    ‘Go fuck yourself, Jamie.’ Sarah wiped her mouth and headed back to Mr Carr’s classroom.
    One day, for pleasure simply, we were reading
    Of Lancelot, and how love overpowered him;
    Alone we were, and free from all suspicions
.
    Often that reading caused our eyes to meet
,
    And often the colour from our faces went
,
    But it was a single passage that overcame us:
    When we read how the desired smile was
    Kissed by one so true a lover, then this one
,
    Who from me never will be taken
,
    Kissed me, his body all trembling, on the mouth
.
    …
And no more did we read that day
.
    Sarah handed the slip of paper back to him. ‘What the fuck is this?’
    ‘Dante Alighieri. It’s from
Inferno
, Sarah. You haven’t read it yet, I know, but you will. You’ll read it after I’m gone and you’ll think of me. You see Francesca and Paolo–’
    ‘I won’t read it.’ She tore the paper from his hand, ripped it in two, then in four. ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this.’
    ‘Sarah, last night was insanity. You know that don’t you?’
    ‘I thought it was… I was happy.’
    He stood up and ran his hands through his hair. ‘Try and understand… I walk in the door at nine-thirty when my familyhave been expecting me since six. My shirt is ripped. I have bite marks on my chest. I have blasted scratches all over my back. My wife starts crying and I can’t get her to stop. Then my…’ He took three deep breaths. ‘The girls were still awake. They were crying too. It was…’ Mr Carr pressed his forehead against the blackboard. ‘I had to make a choice, Sarah.’
    ‘What about me? Do I get a choice?’
    He was quiet for too long.
    ‘So that’s it?’ Panic was rising in her. Her mind scrambled for something – anything – that would change his mind. ‘All that–everything you, we, did and all those things you said to me. I don’t believe you didn’t mean it. I know you did. Our souls are joined! I know they are. I feel it every time we, God, I don’t even know what to call it. But we are one in it. You know this is true.’
    Mr Carr knelt at her feet. He buried his face in her lap. She wanted to hurt him, to knee him in the jaw, punch him in the face, kick his disgusting balls. No, she wanted to
want
that. She wished she could hate him.
    ‘What can I do to make you stay?’
    His words were muffled by her skirt, but clear enough. ‘Nothing.