His appointment with Zubair was at eleven. He’d have to take the film into school he supposed. Late on, with Pauline half-asleep, he’d asked her how bothered she was about becoming the mayor’s wife. She said she couldn’t care less. He said he was thinking of resigning his membership. He could stay as an Independent. Pack it in completely in three years’ time. They could look at the Spain idea. Do it a bit earlier than they’d planned. Pauline rolled over and muttered something. They sat in a semicircle in the Head’s office. The room was too small for them all, really. The Head was perched on the edge of her desk, not sitting behind it. The new Deputy, Daniel Bell, was standing. Jim felt uncomfortable, hemmed in, wanted to stand up. Michael sat to his left, then Mohammed and his dad, then Rhys Woodhouse with Karen, who seemed to have become the family spokes-person these days. Jim thought that at least it wasn’t the girl who’d given him such a mouthful down Juniper Close.
