“What do you
mean all the girls are down at the plaza?” Ulf asked. “What about
the boys?” He didn't want the answer, because he knew it the moment
he asked the question.
“You wanted
breakfast for the guests. We didn't plan for it so I sent down
everyone who could prepare it,” Noriko said and looked up from her
laptop.
Outside the
windows he saw the pool, since a few weeks drained of all water and
left in dry desolation. Memories from summer, especially one which he
shared with Christina, played in his mind. Was that really only
three months ago?
“Look, Noriko
you did nothing wrong,” he said. “It's just that some things here
make me so frustrated.”
She looked back
at him, and her eyes showed no awareness why he should feel
frustration. Not her fault, he decided. Just me who can't
wrap my mind around the gender differences here.
There was no time
changing that during the last day of their festival. For the moment
he needed to accept that cooking mainly was a woman's chore. Accept.
He didn't have to like it.
“I apologise
for being so curt. You've done a fantastic job. Keep it up.” He
went for the door when he recalled one of his own rules. “You all
have. It's a pleasure working with people like you,” he said to the
others in the room, including council treasurer and a couple of
students from the planning committee.
It wasn't
entirely true, but sometimes well timed flattery did wonders, and he
needed miracles to pull them through the day.
One hour,
maybe two before hell hits us. He pulled the door shut behind him
and walked down the corridor. By the stairwell he turned and made it
into the main building corridor.
He knocked on the
door to the main teacher room. There wasn't any teacher he needed to
talk to right now, but their windows faced the main courtyard and he
wanted to know what the queue looked like.
A few of the
teaching staff looked at him when he was let inside, but by now they
were used to him coming here just to walk to the windows with a
laptop in his hand.
“Jirou?”
“Jirou here,
you should call Kyoko. Out.”
Ulf followed the
main street with his eyes until it ended by the gates. “Kyoko?”
“Kyoko here.”
“Ulf here,
you'll have your first batch incoming soon. Over.”
“Understood.
We're ready. Over.”
“Good work.
Tell the rest I'm proud of you. Over and out.”
He looked at the
stalls on both of sides of the street. Too many of them took orders
where the students manning them shook their heads and pointed in the
direction of the plaza. It didn't worry him yet, but there were more
than a hundred guests queuing by the gates and through the tree line
bordering the school grounds he saw people walking in small groups or
couples as they were redirected to the service gates.
Ulf turned and
faced the teachers present. A full hour earlier than I had
hoped, but it can't be helped. “Excuse me, but may I
have a bit of your time?”
“Yes?”
He could only
hope the old goat had prepared them for the question he was about to
ask. “How many of you have your cars here and some spare time to
give us?”
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