Читать книгу The Rooftop - Toby Hammerschlag - Страница 5

The early mist had lifted to reveal Darlinghurst East Public School sitting in the bright morning light, awaiting the arrival of the students for the first day of the school year. Bordering on the city of Sydney, the school sat wedged between the nearby rich, wooded suburbs and the tall, faceless towers of units and public housing buildings. A damp, sweet smell rose from the newly mown sports-fields, which produced a splash of green between the faded grey classrooms. The school buildings had once been red brick but were now a shade of mouldy grey. Alongside the solid office block, a spiral staircase wound its way up to the rooftop which looked out across Sydney Harbour, where the water shimmered silvery blue on a summer’s day but looked grey and menacing when the clouds hung over the city.

The wrought iron front gates with their intricate flower design were unlocked and thrown wide open to welcome the students. The children who lived in nearby leafy Edgecliff and Darling Point, in plush apartments and luxurious houses, began arriving in the latest models of shiny Mercedes, Land Rover and Lexus, which pulled up smoothly and silently to the front gates. They hurriedly waved goodbye to their mothers in their brightly coloured, floral summer dresses and fathers in their neatly pressed suits. At the same time, clapped out Holdens filled with children came to a stop with a grunt. Jostling children poured out of the public school buses that spewed exhaust smoke into the fresh morning air while the rest of the students came sauntering along with their friends. As the students flooded through the school gates, they became an indistinguishable mass of happy schoolmates.