A Bit of Earth by Rebecca Smith

A5, and some A6.
    â€˜I have always, always wanted one of those books,’ saidFelix. Poppy and Prue sniggered. A whistle blew. The children were counted. The walk back up the hill to school began. Felix and Miss Block took up their position at the rear again. They had to stop whilst Miss Block had a sneezing fit.
    â€˜Don’t… worry… Felix …’ she said between sneezes. ‘Tree pollen.’ When it seemed to be over Felix said, ‘Oh, I thought you were just doing it to annoy.’
    â€˜Felix! What a thing to say!’
    â€˜Oh, that’s just what Dad and me always say,’ said Felix. ‘You know –
    Speak harshly to your little boy and beat him when he sneezes.
    He only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases
    Miss Block smiled.
    â€˜And what else do you always say?’
    â€˜We say “Off with his head!” if we don’t like someone.’
    â€˜Well, I hope you won’t say it about me.’
    â€˜Oh, we only say it about people on TV. We don’t really know very many people.’
    That evening Miss Block went into the stationer’s on her way home. She bought two A4 ruled Black n’ Red books, two A5s and an A6 with columns. She didn’t know what he might do with that one. She knew that it was unethical, so she saved them for Friday afternoon. The Monday was an inset day, and somehow that made it less risky. At the end of school on Friday afternoon she called Felix back.
    â€˜These are for you. I do hope your dad won’t mind.’
    â€˜Oh, Miss Block. Thank you!’ Felix gave her a really big smile. ‘He won’t mind.’ Or notice, Felix might have added.
    He took the books home and showed them to Guy.
    â€˜Look, Dad, Miss Block gave these to me.’
    â€˜Block? Do you really have a teacher called Block?’
    â€˜Yes,’ said Felix.
    â€˜Block. Are you sure? Spell it.’
    Felix could.
    â€˜Good God,’ said Guy. ‘Are you really sure?’
    â€˜I only wanted to show you the notebooks,’ said Felix, rather cross. ‘She said on the first day that it was block like a brick.’
    â€˜Oh, I dare say it was originally Bloch. German or similar. Ask her.’
    Felix would do no such thing.
    â€˜Five books!’ he said, thrusting them at Guy’s stomach.
    â€˜Oh yes, very nice. Clearing out the stationery cupboard, was she? Funny time of year to be doing it. Usually do it at the end of term.’
    â€˜She’s new,’ said Felix.
    â€˜New brooms … new blocks … new block on the kids …’ mused Guy. ‘Wonder if she gets sick of people saying that to her.’ Actually nobody had yet.
    Felix took his notebooks and wandered away. Upstairs by himself he propped them up on his pillow so that he could admire their covers properly. Imagine having five! Just one would have been brilliant. He didn’t know why he had wanted them so badly.
    He loved the way that they were not only black and red,but said ‘Black n’ Red’ on their covers. Why would that be? Everybody could see that they were black and red. If it was to tell blind people that they were black and red, it should have been in Braille. Perhaps it was for people who were colour-blind, just in case they happened to hate black and red, but then why wasn’t everything labelled with its colour?
    Anyway, he loved them. They were smart, serious, and important. And they had hard covers that nobody could rip. He knew that Dad had one in the lab with A–Z, a little one with phone numbers. But in these you were allowed to put things in any order. He loved the way that the pages had margins. They had to draw margins sometimes at school and the ruler would always slip and spoil it. These had margins that magically swapped sides as you turned the pages and hardly showed through. It was several days before it occurred to him that he could actually use the books for writing in