“It’s starting to look as though I am,” insisted the lecturer.   He was puzzled at the recent behaviour of Chris, who up until a few weeks ago had been one of the best students in the class.   Now Chris arrived five or ten minutes late for every class, slept through half of the class and yawned through the other half.

The lecturer made a mental note to speak to Chris after class.   “Probably spending too many wild nights on the town, or burning his eyes and brain out in the nearest video game amusement parlour,” thought the man.

Chris continued to stifle yawns behind the lecturer’s back, as the grey-haired man returned to his blackboard to chalk up diagrams while he lectured.   At times it seemed as though the man was talking to the blackboard itself and not to his students.   Scarecrow, as the man was known by his students, behind his back, certainly was ‘an eccentric old bastard’ as one of his students had once stated to his face.   Nearly two metres tall, with anaemic skin that seemed almost glued to his bones, despite the fact that the man never seemed to stop eating.   Even now, as he lecturer to the blackboard, he was stuffing himself full of cold chicken sandwiches that he had bought at the canteen across the road from the school.

Chris wondered how Scarecrow could make a profit teaching night school when it seemed certain the lecturer ate at least twice as much in food as he was paid each night.

Scarecrow began to become more and more inarticulate as he lectured to the blackboard, and filled his mouth at the same time, so Chris decided to study something a bit more interesting.

Sonja Juchster sat two rows in front of Chris, screwing her eyes into a squint, desperately trying to make sense out of Scarecrow’s lecture.   Chris felt sorry for the young girl.   A day student at the tech, Sonja had started to take extra lessons at night, toward the very end of the year, in a last ditch bid to make up ground in her worst subjects.   But Chris did not like her chances much, with Scarecrow’s lectures to contend with.