A Place to be Me by Gordon Allan

Author:Gordon Allan [Allan, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholarcom Support services Ltd.
Published: 2025-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

“What a day in Vancouver. I’m bloody exhausted!” Harris bemoaned, collapsing into a dining hall chair and dramatically dropping his dinner tray for effect.

“Oh, yes, of course. This was your Saturday to play escort. Did the students give poor Mr. Tweedsmuir a hard time?” I asked jokingly.

Harris gave an exaggerated huff. “The first issue occurred just after the bus dropped everyone off at the parking lot near Chinatown. The Koreans let it be known that they felt snubbed. They’ve decided to rename the area in front of a Korean grocery store ‘Koreatown’ and have requested that we drop them off there in the future.”

“Yeah, right. Like that’s going to happen!”

“That’s what I told them. Then,” he continued, “we were almost thirty minutes late leaving because of a few stragglers. But the biggest pain-in-the-butt was that we hit a traffic jam going over that damn bridge you have to take from Vancouver to get to the Sea-to-Sky…”

“The Lions Gate?”

“That’s the one. Anyway, we were stuck for so long that Manfred nearly blew out his bladder. I had to get him a Coke bottle and conceal him at the back of the bus so he could relieve himself.”

“Sounds to me like Mr. Tweedsmuir needs a trip to the As You Like It,” I teased.

“Now you’re talking!”

“Good. Because there have been some developments.”

“That sounds ominous! Okay, let me take a shower and change first.”

“You know what, I’ve got some shopping to do at Kipling’s. Why don’t I meet you at the pub?”

An hour later, drinks in hand, Harris and I were lounging in a booth beside the pub’s fireplace.

“So, what are these developments?” Harris asked, downing some of his Scotch.

“I spoke with Joe this afternoon. He confirmed that nothing has been paid towards Thomas’ fees and that, when he phoned Mrs. Kang, she just listened, grunted, and then hung up on him.”

“That’s strange. What about Hymie? Did you get in touch with him?”

“He already emailed me. He’s had an earful from Mrs. Kang, who says we’re a bunch of crooks. Anyway, I’m going to phone her personally and see what’s going on. But something doesn’t smell right.”

“I’d concur.”

“But that’s not the half of it. It also appears the Major’s haphazard budgeting assumptions were not entirely on the mark. According to Joe, we’ve already blown through our budget and need to rein in expenses—which doesn’t make any sense to me when I look at my own budgeting.”

“You mean twenty students wasn’t our break-even?”

“Apparently not. But I’m not sure why, because my calculations still show twenty as the correct number. I also let Joe know we haven’t been frivolous in our spending—delivery costs for a golf cart and an unnecessary salary increase aside, of course.”

“Let’s not forget it cost us almost $4,000 to replace Stanley Lam’s Louis Vuitton suitcase we set on fire during the exorcism.”

“True! The Major practically had a meltdown when Koji shared that news with her. Honestly, though, who sends a teenager off to boarding school with a four-thousand-dollar suitcase?”

“Not sure,” Harris sighed, staring at his glass as though the answer lay hidden in the amber depths.

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