18
The morning was passing agonisingly slowly, and with all the children now awake, toileted, and fed, Tracy found herself wondering how she was going to entertain eleven scared and confused children. In the classroom situation, it was sometimes difficult to get them to settle down and concentrate on their lessons, particularly at the start of the school day. They would laugh, joke and interact with each other like they hadn’t seen their friends for several weeks. This was different. This was not the classroom, and the children were not their usual exuberant, boisterous selves. There was a stillness; a quiet, incongruous hush among the group. The silence was not complete, but the snippets of conversation that did reach Tracy were restrained and softly uttered. It was almost like anything
