Mr Pope’s Diaries
by Patrick O’Connor
“YOU’LL never guess who I’ve just seen?”
Dave guessed that, by the sound of Nathan’s voice on the phone, he wouldn’t be able to guess.
In fact, Nathan didn’t even wait for Dave to answer before he told him.
“Popey, I’ve just seen Mr Pope, going into the library.”
Mr Pope was Nathan’s old maths teacher. When he was at school –which was over 10 years ago now – Nathan hated maths. But he hated Mr Pope even more.
Nathan was always whinging about being given poor marks in maths, about being picked on by the teacher, about always ending up in a detention supervised by Mr Pope.
On their last day of school Nathan raced out of the gates, turned round and looked back at the premises before screaming at the top of his voice: “Sod off Popey!!”
“Dave mate, I’ve got a great idea, I’ll get back to you,” gasped Nathan before ending the phone call.
Dave was frankly gobsmacked by Nathan’s crazy plan but as so often in their friendship, he shrugged his shoulders and went along with it. They had been pals since they were 10 but Nathan, as well as being physically much bigger and much better looking, was always the dominant one and always got his own way. Dave was never strong enough to resist.
“I just want to get my own back on the old bastard, give him a taste of his own medicine,” said Nathan when they met up later.
Dave looked worried but Nathan tried to reassure him: “Nothing too heavy, it’s just a bit of a laugh.”
Apparently Nathan had waited outside the library and then followed Mr Pope home so he could find out where he lived.
He then got on to his computer and quickly knocked up a very official looking invitation to a fictitious school reunion and posted it to Mr Pope.
The next part of his plan was made possible by the fact that Nathan worked at an estate agent’s who had just come into possession of a former community hall which was due to be demolished to make way for housing.
It was still in a reasonable state and Nathan was able to get hold of the keys, thus providing the perfect venue for the ‘reunion’.
“We’ll bung some bunting up to make it look real,” said Nathan
“And then what?” asked Dave. “What happen when he turns up – if he turns up at all.”
Nathan was a bit vague about this part, except to say that he planned to give Mr Pope a piece of his mind.
“If he doesn’t turn up, then I’ll think of something else. It’s been on my mind for years.”
“What has?”queried Dave.
“Payback time.”