The Exam Papers Are Not in the Cabinet
advancededucation259 words
Forty-five minutes before the end-of-year exams, a panicking teacher discovers the papers are missing. The school secretary does not look up from her keyboard.
[The school office, 8:15 on exam morning. Mr Adeyemi rushes in, out of breath. Mrs Kowal, the school secretary, keeps typing.]
Mr Adeyemi: The exam papers. They're not in the cabinet.
Mrs Kowal: No, they're not.
Mr Adeyemi: The exam starts in forty-five minutes. Two hundred students, Mrs Kowal. Where are they?
Mrs Kowal: The students are in the hall. The papers are a more interesting question.
Mr Adeyemi: I locked them in that cabinet myself on Friday. I've got the only key.
Mrs Kowal: You had the only key. I had the lock changed on Saturday.
Mr Adeyemi: You what? Why?
Mrs Kowal: Because on Friday afternoon you left the key inside the staffroom kettle. Again.
Mr Adeyemi: That is... possible. But where are the papers?
Mrs Kowal: I had them moved to the head teacher's safe. Then I got the caretaker to check the heating in the hall.
Mr Adeyemi: On a Saturday?
Mrs Kowal: Somebody had to. I also had the seating plan reprinted and the clocks put right. Three of them were six minutes fast.
Mr Adeyemi: I honestly don't know what to say.
Mrs Kowal: I've had your pencils sharpened too, all two hundred of them. You're welcome.
Mr Adeyemi: Thank you. Really. Is there anything else I should know?
Mrs Kowal: Yes. Go and get your tie fixed before the exam. It's been on inside out since Thursday.
Mr Adeyemi: Since Thursday? Why didn't anybody tell me?
Mrs Kowal: I'm telling you now. In this school, I'm the one who tells people things.