Once there was a woman who liked to drink alcohol. She would call it her hobby as no day would pass without her drinking at least a case of beer. Yes, she was a drunkard. The only problem was that she was a high school teacher. She was a great teacher and she knew how to explain everything clearly but if something frustrated her, she would be angry at everyone and start shouting and hitting the learners. She really scared them when she was angry.

One day she hit a student in her class, Michelle, with a duster on the head and she bled. But lucky enough the school had an emergency room so they rushed her there. Michelle’s mother didn’t take the matter to the police because the principal convinced her that it was all a misunderstanding. Michelle’s mother was such a humbled and understanding person. The principal sent a letter to Michelle’s mother. In the letter he was apologising sincerely and asking Michelle’s mother not to sue the school. Michelle’s teacher, Mrs Solomons, went to Michelle’s house to apologise. At least she was a little bit sober when she went there.

“I’m so sorry about what I did to your daughter, I don’t know what came over me,” she apologised.

“It’s not a problem at all,” she answered. “Can I make you a cup of tea?” she offered.

“No thank you, I have to be somewhere else,” said Mrs Solomons as she rushed out of the house. Can you guess where she went? The tavern.

The following day, she went to work drunk as usual. The principal called an urgent meeting and all he could say was, “Mrs Solomons, you are fired with immediate effect and reason being is coming to school drunk every day and hitting children for no reason!”

Mrs Solomons was so drunk that she couldn’t defend herself so she just left crying heading for the tavern to get more drunk. She got so drunk that she could not go home so she slept on the tavern floor and woke up the next day. She then remembered that she was fired and thought of taking revenge.

She sent the principal a message that reads as follows: If you don’t give me my job back then all hell will break loose.

The principal just thought she was drunk again and didn’t pay any attention to the message. When the principal didn’t reply to the message, Mrs Solomons thought of another plan. She arranged for some men to come to her house and she told them to kidnap the principal’s children on their way to school. They did so. Mrs Solomons then took pictures of the children and wrote a message alongside the picture.

If I don’t come back to work then I’m gonna be bored and I’ll start thinking of something stupid like playing with a pistol on their heads. Oh and by the way keep your job I want money; one million rand in cash.

The principal took a loan from the bank with no hesitation. He paid Mrs Solomons and told her to go take the money at a bank immediately. Little did she know that there were policemen waiting for her to take the money and arrest her. She fell for the bait and the police arrested her. She tried to break loose but the police were just too strong. She slept in a cell for a day before she went to court.

The following day she pleaded guilty and went to prison. The principal called her and thanked her for not hurting his children. She went days without alcohol and that made her weak every day until she couldn’t take it anymore and she committed suicide.

Michelle asked the principal to bury Mrs Solomons with the loan he took and promised that her mother would pay it back. Michelle’s mother didn’t have a problem at all. He used the money for the funeral and everything went well. They even buried her along with a case of her favourite beer. Michelle wrote ‘RIP’ on a piece of paper and put it in her casket. From then on she went to Mrs Solomons grave every day to tell her about everything that was happening in her life. She was her dead diary.

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