Miss Rajani, our games teacher, passed away suddenly. We were shocked, upset and sad. She was our favourite teacher.
“Remember, at the last interschool sports, Miss Rajani made us promise that we would get the rolling trophy this year also and then keep it in our school forever?” said Reema.
“Yes,” I said. “We must do this for her.”
Enter Mr. Gopal
So, all charged up, we went for our games period. We heard a shrill whistle. Stunned, we looked back and saw a man. We gaped. He was thin and tall and had a giant moustache that curved down and fell off his chin.
“My name Mr. Gopal,” he said. “I am your PE teacher.”
A sob caught in my throat and I said, “Miss Rajani, please come back.” But, of course, she didn’t; because death, as we all knew, was final.
The games period was awful. He did not let us play basketball or cricket. Instead, he made us pick up stones in the playground. When we asked him about playing cricket and basketball, he said he would think about it.
“But we have matches to play,” I whined.
“And trophies to be won,” said Kalyani.
He sniggered. “We’ll see about that.”
illustration for _YW talespin Illustration: Sreejith R.Kumar | Photo Credit: Sreejith R Kumar
Our faces fell. Just then, we saw Mr. Gopal’s moustache being pulled. He roared in pain. His eyes began to water and he staggered. We thought he was having a fit. But, just as suddenly, his moustache fell back into position. His face was red, he rubbed his cheeks and marched off.
“Whatever was that?” asked Gillian. Nobody knew.
Weird happenings
As the days went by, we noticed a marked change in Mr. Gopal. He was nervous and unsure, kept looking over his shoulder and was often found tip-toeing around. The senior girls had seen him being dragged around the sports field and others had seen him chasing his whistle as it flew ahead of him. He never went into the games room.
During one games period, Kalyani went to the games room and came flying out, her face white and her eyes wild. She said, “I saw her. I saw her.”
“Who?” we screamed.
“Misss Rajani.”
Back in spirit
We went in to have a look and sure enough, Miss Rajani was there sitting in her chair. She smiled. We were so spooked we rushed out screaming.
Slowly news spread that Miss Rajani was back. In spirit. One day, she appeared on the field and coached us as she used to. Mr Gopal stayed away.
On Interschool Sports Day, we were nervous as we had to beat St. Ursula’s, our number one rival. As the day progressed, we realised that we were not doing too well. Our last chance was the hurdles and the relay races.
The hurdles race began. Smitha was sailing over the hurdles and St. Ursula’s was close. Halfway through, St. Ursula’s took the lead and there was no chance that Smitha would make it. A gasp went up in our tent when we saw that St. Ursula’s student had knocked down a hurdle. She looked back, took the next one and dropped it too. She lost momentum and Smitha took over. We cheered until our throats were hoarse. At the St. Ursula tent, we heard the girl swear that she had not kicked the hurdles down.
The final event was the relay race. St. Ursula’s took off, their legs barely touching the ground. Their baton changes were swift and efficient. We were trailing. In the final exchange, St. Ursula’s dropped the baton. While they fumbled, Madhu, our final runner, took her chance and raced ahead. The girl from St. Ursula’s was overheard telling her PE teacher that the baton was snatched out of her hat. Hah! A likely story we thought.
We had won the cup and kept our word to Miss Rajani. It was a jubilant team that went back to school. As soon as we arrived in school, the Principal told Mr. Gopal to hand in his resignation. She had come to know that he had been planted in the school by St. Ursula’s to ensure that we were not trained.
When we arrived at school, we got off the bus with the sports captain holding aloft the trophy. We saw a misty form of Miss Rajani smiling at us. She gave us a thumbs-up sign and disappeared.
The trophy is now on display in our Principal’s room.
