CHAPTER 6 A STUPID DECISION

 

We reached the end of term a few weeks later and the six week holiday period began.  This was when major cleaning, painting and decorating happened and any other remedial work was taking place. A team of contracted electricians came to rewire that old school.  After about a week there was an incident on the top (third) floor hall of the school where an electrician was on top of a tall ladder on his own checking live wiring against dead.  He felt his ladder shake and looked down to find no one there.  The metal ladder would make a loud cracking noise that echoed around the empty hall like it did when he climbed the steps to go up it.  This happened 2 or 3 times when he suddenly looked down and found himself staring at a child of around 12, in old style burnt and smouldering clothing and with burnt features standing at the base of the steps.  The ladder fell sideways and his right leg slipped between the rungs and his foot twisted as he hit the ground. He got up and staggered limping from the hall and down all the flights of stairs.  He never came back, refused to work there again and eventually had to go on one of the electrical companies other jobs in Newham.  
I went to visit him in hospital to find out what he actually saw but he wouldn’t speak about it. Eventually he did, that’s how we know about the burning girl. He looked terrified and had left the school and got one of the others to take him to Newham General.  He had suffered a Potts Fracture, quite a serious injury to the whole foot area.
And then it happened.
One night I had a booking for a football team to use the floodlit play area for training.  I had to be there from 6pm until 10pm to activate the floodlights from inside the school and to be there if anything was needed.  I stood in the corridor of the school that linked the old school to the new.  The doors were all locked in the school.  No one could get in or out without the keys I carried in my pocket.  At 630 the players arrived and looked over towards me and I waved.  I turned on the floodlights and would return at 10 to switch them off.  I went back to my office and watched the portable tv.  At 10pm I went and opened the door to get in the corridor and looked out at the floodlit area.  Empty.  I turned off the floodlights but became aware of water running.  I had stood here earlier for ten minutes in total silence. I walked over to the door of the toilet block, opened it and stepped in.  The noise was really loud.  In the block were about 30 toilet cubicles around the edge and at least 30 sinks in a centre reservation with a central wall with mirrors above the sinks.  EVERY sink had its taps turned on full. 
The room was filling up with steam as if it had just been done.  The taps were difficult to turn off as they had all been forced.  I turned them all off and the silence was deafening.  There was no way into this washroom other than the locked door I came through. 
 
Back in my office I considered waiting for the Night cleaners to tell them what had happened but I didn't think they would appreciate it.  I drove to the pub instead and met up with a couple of friends.
"Cheer up Dave, it might not happen!"  Darryl told me as he brought me out of my thoughts about the evenings activity.
"If I tell you something, do you promise not to laugh or tell me I am losing my marbles?" I asked him.
"No!" he replied.
I spent the next 30 minutes telling him about all the things that had happened since I started work at the School.  Every detail.
After I had finished he sat there for a few seconds staring at me.  
"Well? I asked.
“Fucking hell!” he blurted out, "I didn't laugh, and I know you haven't lost your marbles.  If I was you I would get out of there like a shot and never go back!"
I nodded.  It was the logical thing to do, but life isn't logical and we make stupid decisions sometimes.