The Red Road Read Online Free PDF

the junior school, but about half were new to St
Christopher’s that term. I recognised none of them from my own time
in the junior school.
    Next term, I would be shifted into a different
dormitory, either to be another prefect (likely to second years this
time), or to the third-year dorm. I hoped to be spending the summer
term in the third-year dorm, so I would be able to concentrate on my
studies without having to deal with excitable, irritating younger
boys (and I knew they were, as I’d been one twice before, myself).
    A couple of the larger dorms in the
school had two perfects. I was the sole prefect in here, the dorm
containing only eight beds, including mine – two bunk beds and four
singles. The beds were still all made, slippers, dressing gowns and a
handful of other items such as books and alarm clocks remaining where they had
been left that same morning. They would likely remain there until St
Christopher’s returned to normal.
    The only person here, I put the
radio on and listened to the DJ talking with a guest about something
or other for a little while. I wondered as the news came around if
they were going to mention the incident at St Christopher’s and
that the school had been closed, but they never did. It was a long
shot given that the incident had only occurred that afternoon, and
that the station I was listening to, Capital FM, was London-based.
The reception could sometimes be weak, but on most days it was fairly
clear. I’m not sure why I listened to that station in particular;
maybe it was because most others at the school did.
    I looked at a piece of work on my
desk that I’d been doing before lunchtime – a large rectangular
diagram of a plant cell. They were a little more complicated than
animal cells, having a few extra parts to memorise and label. I
always tended to get chlorophyll and chloroplasts mixed up, too. The
rest I could remember.
    With little else to do, I considered
quickly redrawing it, just to reinforce it in my mind. I gave up when
I was unable to locate any pencils. Clearly one of the more
boisterous of the first years I looked after in the dormitory had
helped themselves to them, to do a crossword or something. I would
have to make a better effort to secure them in future. I thought
about hunting through the boys’ bedside lockers, to see if I could
locate them, before I decided to just buy some more during the break.
    I switched off the radio as Take
That came on, deciding that with the time approaching ten I
should get into bed. I switched on my lamp and turned off the main
lights, put on my pyjamas and grabbed my Wilbur Smith book. I wasn’t
in the mood to read it though, and after about a page and a half, I
set the book aside. I felt more in the mood for something light. I’d
seen a copy of a film magazine, Empire or something else,
floating around the dormitory the previous day that I felt was more
apt. I got out of bed and had begun to hunt for it when there was a
brief knock at the dormitory door. It opened before I could say
anything, and I was relieved to see Mr Somers, my housemaster, in the
doorway.
    “Hello, Joe,” he said, looking
around at the empty beds. “Are you in here all by yourself?”
    “Yeah,” I said.
    “Okay, well could you grab your
duvet and pillow and come down the hall, to 2E? I thought it would be
best if we all stayed in the same dormitories tonight, and most of
the other boys are first and second years, so I need you to look
after them.”
    “What about the sixth formers?”
I asked.
    “They’re okay up in their
rooms,” Mr Somers said, before indicating for me to come along.
    I got out of bed, locating my
slippers and putting them on. I noticed as I did so how the bottoms
seemed to be crusted in mud. How did that get there? I
wondered. I hauled my duvet and pillow off my bed and carried them
down the echoing hall of the silent first floor to 2E, the only other
dormitory that had its lights on. Mr Somers followed me in,
explaining