OUR GOODBYE PODCAST

 After completing the course this year, we decided to celebrate by doing something creative, A PODCAST! Listen to the students talking about what they did, what they learnt and how they felt all along the year. We hope you enjoy it!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!

TRUE LOVE WAITS, by María Luisa Navarro Díaz

AGATHA CHRISTIE

After studying Agatha Christie's plotting style in her WHODUNIT stories, the students were challenged to write one using the same techniques this outstanding British author used. You can't miss María Luisa's work. You'll never guess who the murderer was!

True love waits

Leighton and Alice were the only students at Brentwood's Catholic boarding school for girls who hadn't returned home for the Easter holidays. The horrible storm that was stalking the region that week had postponed their departure for a few more days. Leighton had only been in school for a semester but she had already become Alice's one and only best friend. In places like Brentwood, time is so relative that any show of affection is magnified. You can meet your soul sister in an instant.

Leighton had been feeling unwell for a few days, she had spent the whole morning locked in her room without leaving but she was not willing to let a simple rhinitis bother her last days with her friend, so despite the storm they decided to go out into the inner courtyard of the boarding school.

−It's funny how the seasons transform the landscape ─said Leighton contemplating the courtyard view.

─What does not change for many seasons that pass is the character of Sister Leeds  ─Alice added.

Sister Leeds was the deputy director of the institution, although more than a deputy director she looked like a doberman. The girls were afraid of her. The interaction with her was limited to the geography classes she taught. At the opposite pole was Sister Sarah, the director of the institution. Caring, attentive to any problem, she was like the mother that everyone missed. All the students adored her and looked for any excuse to spend time with her.

Since they had nothing to do, they went to look for Miss Bedignfield, the cook who, like them along with the gardener, were the only people from the service who were trapped  in the boarding school.  Miss Bedignfield was the typical adorable southerner; whenever she could, she took out that she supported her entire family and that thanks to her ingenuity with the kitchen her family had never lacked a hot plate to eat.  Miss Bedignfield preferred to omit the terrible event in which she was involved. It is not known what happened but she  almost poisoned half of the students. Thank God everything was left in a couple of girls with diarrhoea for a few days.

 Miss Bedignfield was concentrating on cooking when Leighton hugged her from behind by surprise.

─Aside away! if my food burns Sister Leeds will kill me ─she shouted laughing.

Leighton loved cooking and gardening, the hours she didn´t spend with Alice she spent either helping to make the next day´s bread with Miss Bedingfield or pruning the roses with Robert, the young gardener. Alice was a bit envious, she wished she had something to be passionate about  but the only thing he was passionate about was the idea of turning 18 and being able to get out of there.

When they got bored with bothering Miss Bedignfield they decided to go and find the gardener. Robert was coverig the rose bushes with some kind of plastic sheet to protect them from the snowfall.

─What are you doing here? ─ he asked surprised.

─We are bored of being bored so we have decided to pay you a visit  ─said Alice.

─If you want something to do, why don´t you take these beautiful roses to  Sister Sarah? I´m sure she will be glad to see you.

Glad to have something to do, the girls headed rose in hand to Sister Sarah's office. 

Her office was on the third and top floor of the boarding school. When they got to the office door they saw the lights on in the room through the doorway, they knocked on the door several times but there was no answer.

─How strange  ─Leighton commented.

They kept knocking on the door insistently until they began to worry. The noise of the  knocking on the door was so loud that Sister Sarah would have heard it. A subject fear seized both of them and they decided to open the door. The gruesome scene that they saw next will never be forgotten. Sister Sarah was sitting in her chair surrounded by blood with half of her face destroyed by a shot  and on her desk table the word MATER in blood.

Alerted by the screams, Robert, Sister Leeds and Miss Bedigfield immediately went to the office and saw the horror firsthand.
Sister Leeds tried to put some sanity.

─I have notified the police.Don´t even think about touching anything until the police arrive.

─Unfortunately they will not arrive until the day after tomorrow, the snow has cut off all access ─answered Robert anguished.

─Won´t you  believe that it has been one of us? ─replied Miss Bedignfield.

─There is no one else on the property. Right now I want you all to write quickly on a sheet of paper the word mater, one by one. Alice and Leighton you are included. I don´t like you getting involved in this but you´re just as suspicious as the rest. I know you´re right-handed as well as Miss Bedignfield and myself included.The only left-hander there is Mr Robert so I don´t want to cheat.The sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can discover who committed this horrible crime.

One by one they wrote the word mater hundreds of times and quickly, but as expected this did not give any result.

─Can you believe that one of them is the killer? ─Leighton asked Alice when things had calmed down a bit.

─There is something strange in all this. Have you not seen sister Leeds too calm?  ─asked Alice sharped.

─She knew what to do at all times, it seems that she had investigated murders all his life.

─Finding the gun with which she was shot would help a little but not knowing who killed her or why is like finding a needle in a haystack ―added Alice.

They both remained silent,.They only got one certainty: there was a murderer among them.

Sister  Leeds had locked the horror room so they decided to look for the cook who kept crying and shaking.

─It can´t be. This morning I brought her breakfast and she was so normal.

Alice impatiently interrupted her:

─You say that this morning you brought her breaksfast

─Yes, as usual.

─How did you find her?

─I saw her a little bit more nervous than usual but I blame it on the mess of the storm.

─What time did you last see her?

─It would have been 9.

─Are you sure? ─added Leighton.

─ I couldn't bet my life on it but I would say yes. She asked me for an orange juice and in front of the pantry where the oranges are there is a clock and I saw that it was 5 minutes to 9.

─We found her at 9.45 so we already know that in those 45 minutes the Sister met her  murderer ─commented  Alice hopefully.

─Anyone else came up to see her? ─interrupted Leighton.

─I don´t know, I left her breakfast and went downstairs.

Leighton took Miss Bedignfield´s  hands and asked her almost begging:

─Do you know if someone could have a reason to kill her?

─I´ll just say that you don´t need to be very smart to see who hasn´t flinched  when they found the body.

As if they read each other's thoughts, they both knew what was the next piece to unravel this terrible puzzle. They immediately went looking for Sister Leeds, if she was the murderer they had to unmask her before the police arrived and could deceive them. 

They found the undaunted sister at the door of the room guarding the crime scene

─Sister, we already know who the murderer was  ─Alice snapped as soon as she saw her  ─The murderer is Miss Bedingfield!

─Don´t make me laugh  ─ she returned nonchalantly. 

─Why are you so sure it´s not her?  ─asked Leighton confounded.

─In this little Agatha Christie game that you bring you have completely forgotten about the only person with a reason to kill Sister Sarah who was in the boarding school.

There was a  puzzled look in their eyes.

─Why would an institution of such a level as Brentwood Boarding School hire an inexperienced gardener to take care of their beautiful gardens?

─Robert told me that he came recommended by Reverend Immer─ added Leighton ─ but I still don´t see the reason,  they were friends.

─Don´t be  innocent. ─replied mockingly Alice  ─Sister Leeds is hinting that they were more than friends. But...what does this have to do with sister Sarah?

─She would discover them and....two can keep a secret if one of them is dead  ─said solemlny Sister Leeds.

─He can´t hurt a fly! ─Leighton replied outraged─  and anyway If you also knew the secret..why  didn´t they  kill you too?

─Because I don´t have the same angelical reputation as Sister Sarah. They know that everything I told, them they wouldn´t believe me.

The two girls were petrified, but how  could they  ignore the connection?

There was only one way out of the quagmire.The girls went straight to question the gardener, if Sister Leeds wanted to frame him there was no time to waste.

─Robert, we can't tell you who, but someone wants to frame you and we need you to tell us the whole truth in order to help you.

─The ungrateful Bedignfield right? 

It was the last answer they expected.

─Don't look at me like that, she hasn't had time to blame me when she's the one with a huge problem on top of her   ―he repeated angrily.

The girls preferred to shut up and see how far he would go.

─Has she told you thanks to what she can feed her entire family? Or 
What did she mistake for salt and almost poisoned the entire boarding school? I am sure that she  shot with the gun she has to protect her merchandise.

―And the connection with Sister Sarah is.....? ―questioned Leighton demanding.

―The Sister discovered her and Miss Bedingfield solved the problem.

Leighton was in shock, the two people who along with Alice were her greatest support in that boarding school were not who she thought.

On the contrary, Alice seemed very thoughtful, she decided that she knew how to cheer up her friend Leighton.She just  had found out who the murderer was.

―Robert, quickly gather everyone in the room. I know how to solve this case  ―said Alice impetuosly.

Everyone came to the room at Alice's call. Unsurprisingly Sister Leeds did not go willingly.

―I hope you have a good reason why I shouldn't be guarding the crime scene.

―I promise you won´t regret it.

Even Leighton was expectant; she knew her friend well enough to know that she had indeed discovered the murderer.

―I have gathered you all in the living room because I know how to untangle this spider web  ―continued Alice.  ―In principle, everyone has a reason to want Sister Sarah to disappear.

The tension in that room could be breathed.

―Robert and Miss Bedignfield were hiding secrets that if revealed would end not only their job but also their reputation.

The aforementioned looked pale.

―Don't worry, your secrets won't leave this room.   ―she said  reassuringly― In all this time we have missed a person who has tried to deceive us all but only after carefully analyzing each of the facts have I been able to unmask them.

Alice approached Sister Leeds trying to get her to confess.

―I think it's time you left your cop game to a real cop and stopped making assumptions ―she said indignantly.

―You told us yourself. No matter what you said, no one would believe you. There is not a better way to improve your reputation than being the director of the best boarding school in Tourquay. You are the perfect suspects. You could have even agreed to end the life of Sister Sarah if it were not for the fact that none of you did it.

They all looked stupefied, they didn't understand anything.

―The murderer almost got away with it  if it weren't for the phrase“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart; which is the one that...... Leighton has applied with me all this time.

Alice looked at her friend with teary eyes while Leighton was smirking at her as if she was enjoying the show.

―Miss Bedignfield, Sister Sarah used to have orange juice for breakfast?

―No, she only had coffee for breakfast in the morning ―she replied, puzzled.

―What's the correlation between breakfast and Leighton being a murderer?  ―Robert interrumpted her.

―Leighton has an allergy to spring, which is why she had been sick for a few days, an allergy that causes rhinitis, the same type of allergy that is inherited from your parents.


―But she did the writing test like the rest and it didn't match her handwriting!  ―said Sister Leeds firmly.

―If Robert was the only left-hander and Leighton had no problem pruning the rose bushes with the only one special shears he had for left-handers, it was because ......Leighton is ambidextrous.

At that moment Alice went to the one who until then had been like her sister.

―That is why you chose the word “mater”, to blame Sister Leeds and at the same time as something subconscious because Sister Sarah was your real mother.

―You can't prove it  ―she said defiant.

―I just have to make a call to your mother to confirm that you are adopted and I am  sure that  in this boarding school  your adoptive parents saw you for the first time. So many hours with Miss Bedingfield gave you time to find out where she kept her gun.

There was a pause, then Leighton broke out suddenly: 

―You don't know what it's like to see how loving and attentive she was to all the students while she had no remorse for abandoning her daughter.

―But you could have told us, I can't imagine the pain you would have gone through.  ―Alice replied annoyed.

―Why getting sad when you can get even?  ―Leighton sentenced.


It was at that moment when Alice's world fell apart, the police sirens were heard coming.


María Luisa Navarro Díaz

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN AND OUR FOUND POEMS

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. Regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature, it is also lauded as an excellent work of horror fiction. The students in the group read this story, analysed it in class and finally and in teams, CREATED three wonderful FOUND POEMS.  

WHAT IS A FOUND POEM?? They are poems which take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage!

POEM 1

This is the last day, but it is enough

No person touches this paper but me

I want to astonish him

Now, why should that man have fainted?

POEM 2

Self-control he said,

don't write, only rest.

This paper looks to me

Why should that man have fainted? But he did.

POEM 3

A colonial mansion, a hereditary estate

a haunted house, too much fate.

He does not believe me, I'm sick.

What can one do?

A slight hysterical tendency,

what is one to do?

He hates to have me write a word

But I find I get pretty tired when I try.

This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern

in a different shade.

I cry at nothing, and cry most of the time.

Life is very much more exciting now than

it used to be.

I've pulled off most of the paper, so you

can't put me back!

OUR BOOK CLUB

We recently devoted two lessons of our course to doing a DEBATE on the short book DEAR IJEAWELE, OR A FEMINIST MANIFESTO IN FIFTEEN SUGGESTIONS, one of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's great works. If you've never heard of her, please, try to find one of her books. You can try in our school's library!