It was my wife, Joanne's first day back teaching school after the summer break. During the holiday she had been informed by the Principal (by letter, I might add), that she would now be teaching 12C. This worried me. 12C had a reputation throughout the school; all the kids - if you could still refer to them as such - were around the seventeen or eighteen mark, sometimes older and most had been labelled with what we politely refer to as "learning problems". In reality, the whole class is a collection of older teenagers with little or no hope of an education or even much of a future. But it was me that was worried, not Joanne.
Standing at 6ft in her stockinged feet, Jo is an almost Amazonian type of woman. She is a natural brunette, but with the aid of peroxide, her now silvery blonde tresses fall in curls over her wide shoulders. She has a full, voluptuous figure with long, long legs and keeps fit with regular visits to the gym. She seems not to understand the meaning of fear and I doubt that she has ever encountered a situation she couldn't deal with. I poured us both a drink and awaited her return.
"Hi honey, it's me!"
I glanced at my watch: 6.15 - right on time as always.
"In here, Jo." I called out from the lounge, "there's a drink here for you."
Jo burst in through the lounge door in her usual blustering, high speed fashion. Her shoulder bag containing books to mark and a collection of pens, pencils and odds and ends was flung into the corner. She flopped down next to me on the sofa with a deep exhalation of breath and took the proffered drink. A sip of the drink and a kiss on my cheek and I knew that the day's work was over.
Over dinner we discussed our respective day's. As my day in the city was little different from any other money making day, we talked mainly about Jo's first day back and about the dreaded class of 12C.
"They are not that bad, really" Jo said defending them. "It's just that nobody has really given them a chance to learn, is all."
I doubted the total validity of her comment, but admired her nonetheless for her dedication and sense of duty. I had always admired her. From the first moment we met her striking looks took my breath away. At forty seven I'm fifteen years older than my wife and to be honest, I never thought she would give me a second glance.
She was first employed in my company as a secretary and was a terrible flirt. She knew all her male colleagues (and a few of the other women as well), could hardly keep their eyes off her and she made the most of it wearing short skirts and low cut blouses to show off her wonderful curves. I was immediately smitten, but the more she realised my interest, the more she seemed to flirt with the others - almost deliberately teasing and exciting me. She has had several affairs since we married which I am fully aware of and fully support. I have always known that a woman like Jo would never be content with just one man.
She caught me staring at her - a pastime I always find most pleasurable.
"What is it?" she asked, breaking my daydream.
My reply was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. It was our housekeepers night off so I volunteered to answer the door.
"Hurry back!" Jo giggled with an evil grin. "You never know, I might give you something more to look at!"
With the expectation of an evening of sexual pleasure now ahead of me, the interruption of the front door was annoying. I decided to try and get rid of whoever it was as soon as possible.
"Hey man, we come to see Miss Richards - she in?"
The small group of Hispanic looking teenagers crowding around the door didn't seem as unkempt as they usually do to someone of my age, but they all wore the same uniform of jeans so baggy and loose they looked like they needed fixing to their hips with a nail gun! I sighed deeply. There were three of them, two lads and a girl, all chewing gum and all trying to look past me to see if their teacher was lurking somewhere behind me.
"That's okay, Don. You can let them in." called Jo from somewhere behind me, "I promised to help with their literature test."
I sighed again and opened the big oak door wider allowing the teenagers admittance. This was typical of Jo. She never stopped. Her assistance was always given freely and at any time of day or night. As one by one the youngsters passed me I knew that my own personal gratification would have to wait until later. Jo threw my an apologetic smile as she ushered her students into her own personal office. I smiled back and waved my hand in acceptance. It was okay, I could wait!
After clearing the dishes I picked up the morning copy of "The Times" and carried the newspaper with me into my den. I had been irked by the fact that I had not had time to complete the crossword that morning and was determined not to allow the compiler to beat me. As I settled back into a comfortable armchair and opened the paper I could hear Jo's voice from her office next door. I pondered one particularly tricky clue for about ten minutes before the answer finally leapt out on me. I filled in the letters and smiled smugly to myself as I realised that this made the remaining clues much easier to solve. Five minutes later I was refolding the paper content that I had won yet again. For a moment I sat and listened to the muffled voices next door and then a wicked thought struck me. I rose from the chair and flicked a switch on the security monitor. All twenty rooms in the house had been fitted with a closed circuit camera and were all monitored from my den. The screen flickered into life and I pushed buttons switching from room to room until I came to the camera in Jo's office. I slipped the headphones over my ears and immediately heard the voices from within the room.
"It's no use man, we aint gonna get it. We just aint smart enough!" The thick, accented drawl belonged to the smaller Hispanic lad. All three were obviously having trouble and were becoming quite agitated.
"Yeah, man. We can't do this." The second lad joined in, supporting his friend's statement. "What's the point anyway - we can read good enough!"
"What, you mean you think it's too hard, Tommy?" replied Jo switching her teaching direction onto a path of attack. "Too hard for tough guy's like you and Miguel?"
It was a challenge to their credibility, but for once, Jo's teaching methods seemed suddenly to backfire on her. Tommy cupped his crotch in a standard gesture of defiance and glared at Jo.
"Not as hard as this, man!" an open switchblade suddenly appeared in his other hand. "Or this!"
The room went quiet. Jo, still apparently unperturbed by this change in direction, simply stared at Tommy as he brandished the knife. I felt that I should probably do something, but the look in my wife's eyes told me that she was completely in control.
"So, I make you hard, do I?" she said "come on Tommy, you don't need the knife. Show me how hard you are!"
Both Tommy and Miguel looked confused at each other and the girl, Della, I think, suddenly became more interested. The lesson looked like it was about to take on a completely new direction.
"Wha...what you mean, man?" stammered Tommy. He was still holding his crotch with one hand, but the switchblade in the other suddenly looked like it weighed more than he could hold.