We headed in to week two of classes on Monday morning fresh from the weekend but still not liking Neville and all that conspired before the course began. I wasn’t the only one with a beef against him though I might have been the one who aired mine the most. I mean I had wasted two months waiting for this course to begins since he moved the date. I had blown through most of my savings while waiting, yes traveling around, but still it hadn’t been the plan. I really had wanted to be able to stay and look for a job in Prague or elsewhere in Europe, but you need money for rent and food and stuff while you are looking for work. I was just so annoyed that he had screwed up my plan. He did the same to Jacqui and she was equally hating him for it. As a matter of fact he screwed with everybody in at least one way or another financially and we just didn’t like it much.
But it is hard to be angry forever (but it can be done with the right amount of energy) so I decided I would attempt to be nice. It’s a bit hard to surpress the anger though because whenever you speak with him and he acts like a condescending idiot. So I TRIED but I don’t think I ever really succeeded. It was at this point that Neville and I cleared the air a little and he decided to try and play nice (again I’m sure he was more worried about the course reviews than making me happy), regardless I really did try to be nice. And how was I rewarded for this you ask? Ok, you didn’t ask but I’m going to tell you anyway. Neville wrote to Jacqui, Louis and I inviting us for a day out in the National Park – Divoká Šárka which was right near our flat. He wanted to know if we wanted to go for a Hike as it was important for everyone to find a nice quiet place were they could be reflective and this was his usual spot. He thought we could go just the four of us or if we thought it would be a good idea we could take the whole class. We could go one day after class.
Jacqui opened the email first (I didn’t have email at home). She laughed and said no way in hell was she going anywhere with “that man”. Louis read the email too. He didn’t have much to say. Neither one of them wanted to go and let’s be real I didn’t want to go there with him, but I felt I should attempt to be cordial so I wrote back (the next morning from Starbucks) and said I’d love to go and we should all discuss it further. Well since I was the only one to respond Neville took it as a yes and that it would be just the two of us. He wrote back and said we could go Thursday after class since it was our early day off. He also noted we could get a beer at dinner at a place he knew right by (or in) the park.
Whew, thank Goodness he suggested that date as I wasn’t available because of my lessons with David at the Bank. I wrote back and suggested Friday (thinking he would never go for it since he was usually at his country cottage for the weekend and it would interfere with his leaving early for the weekend). Imagine my surprise when he wrote back that Friday would be good – weather permitting – and he’d get back to me. Oh Shit! I think I had a date with Neville and that was not good. I mean if he and I walked off into the woods together one of us wasn’t coming back. This was NOT a good idea. I started to panic. How was I going to get out of this gracefully? I prayed for rain and I am not the praying kind – nor the kind that EVER wants rain. I truly believed that Neville was going to loose my ass in the woods, I would never be found and probably eaten by wolves (or the Czech equivalent) and this little hiking trip would solve all his problems. He would keep my security deposit, not have to mail me my certificate and not worry about me giving his school a bad review somewhere online where he had no control. Crap!
I told Ashley the problem and she said laughed, but also said that she’d come along. She thought it might be fun! Really? She had to teach in the morning till 12:00 but said just hold him off till the afternoon and we’ll all go together. So it was decided that IF he brought it up again she would come and I felt safer. Luckily for me he didn’t bring it up again. I successfully avoided him at all costs that week. Or maybe he was the one successfully avoiding me. I think he was just as scared of being alone with me as I was at being alone with him. And I could go to Divoká Šárka without him whenever I wanted. It was only a few blocks from my flat. So that is exactly what I did a week later with Ashley and Louis.
Leslie Merryman 