Derek opened the school up next day. I met him outside and we went into the front doors. The cleaners, who congregated at the front gate every morning came in with us. I’d decided it was best to open the school from the front entrance doors rather than from opening the gates in Manbey Street and then the rear door of the school and make your way through an empty school in the dark, turning on lights as you went.
It was a break from
decades of routine but it made sense to me. I should have made the change
before. It was strange to think that walking in with 14 old ladies of
retirement age was any form of protection, but I saw it as a deterrent to
anything that might happen. There were now too many witnesses. Less chance of a
Ghostly interruption, or so I thought!
One of the
cleaners, Flo, started moaning to me at the top of her voice about doors not
being unlocked in time for her to get into them to dust the surfaces, which was
all they really did in the mornings, unless they were cleaning up after a
meeting the night before in one of the rooms on their area. It was almost
impossible to understand what Flo was saying sometimes so you just smiled,
nodded and agreed.
Derek was making
his way around unlocking doors and being directed by the cleaners which was a
fatal thing to do. They knew the routine but were taking advantage of the ‘new
guy”.
Flo was shouting at
him which was standard procedure as she had been born stone deaf. She could lip
read, which was good sometimes but bad other times, like when John had been
subjected to a deafening torrent of abuse from her before she stormed off, only
to turn back and stare at him just as he whispered, “Bugger off you old cow!”
under his breath resulting in her throwing a mop at him. He got his own back by
sitting in an armchair watching her vacuum the staff room carpet. He flicked
the plug socket off and the vacuum died. Flo spent the next ten minutes
cleaning the pipe, emptying the bag, replacing the bag, shaking the hoover and
then, at the moment when she took the head off the metal pipe and stared down
it under the light, he got up and flicked the switch on and shot out door and
up the first staircase. No one knew until that moment that Flo wore a wig. It
was never the same once it was retrieved from the hoover bag.
This was a day when
the pupils came in to discover who their new form teacher was going to be and
to discuss what they wanted to achieve at the end of the school year. It was a
new way of planning and a little confusing for them. It confused me, but it was
nothing to do with us. The cleaners finished and left. Derek went home and I
stayed.
I’d written my
resignation letter over the weekend. Well, Wanda had. She was determined to get
me working with her. I had thanked the people at the council; I’d cited a new
job offer away from the council as my reason for leaving and gave the required
2 week notice. I read it sitting at a table in the Library next door to our
office. I put it in an envelope. I would place it in the internal mail bag that
was picked up every morning at 9am by a council worker in a van. There were no
emails in those days.
As I'd read it I
was aware that three books had fallen off of the shelves. There was no reason
for it. I picked them up one by one. One book was called ‘D.O.S. computing.’
And the two others were Denis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out and Anthony D
Hippisley Coxe’s Haunted Britain. ‘Who the hell picks the library books?’ I
thought.
I smiled as I
looked at them and put them on a shelf. I told myself that I was soon out of
here.
A few things
happened with the staff and kids that involved me but apart from those it was a
very quiet day until 4pm when Derek arrived. Just before he put his head around
the door I heard a little bit of movement outside and some strange footsteps.
Quick and light footed they came nearer to the door and then..
A dark Brown and
white Jack Russell sat in the doorway staring at me expectantly.
“Good afternoon”.
Derek said in a rough fake goofy dog voice from behind the doorframe.
“Hello Bruce!” I
said to the dog. He walked nearer and sat between my feet, leaning into my
right leg just below the knee. I reached down to stoke him and he immediately
lay on his back with his legs in the air.
He was a very friendly,
lively, fast dog. Full of energy and very alert.
Derek set off to
check parts of the school and lock them up. Bruce was following behind, his
tail wagging furiously, looking for adventure. Nearly all the kids and most of
the teachers had gone. I should have too, but Wanda was picking me up at 5:30
so I waited for her. The cleaners had emptied their bins and dusted down and
were leaving. Next day was a normal routine.
Suddenly I heard
Bruce barking and growling. Then some doors closing and being locked. They were
being locked frantically and noisily. I got up, threw my newspaper on the desk
and took off running down the corridor, (again, at what I didn’t know) just as
Derek and Bruce got to the corner. Bruce was staring at the locked corridor
doors, barking madly, giving it his best and directing his rage at what was
there on the other side. Derek bent over with his hands on his knees looking
like he was having a game of leap frog, catching his breath.
Bruce was barking
so hard his paws were coming off the ground.
I looked down the
corridor to where the doors were and we followed him as he walked towards them.
Each blue door was solid apart from each one having, at head height, an eight
inch by five inch glass window in them. I looked through one of them at the
point where both Giles and I had seen the shadow figure. There was nothing but
an empty space of corridor with the science lab doors on either side.
I turned back to
Derek.
“What happened?”
He took a moment to
catch his breath. Bruce had calmed down and was sitting at his feet.
“He started barking
in there and when I looked I saw someone in there near the cupboard where all
the chemicals are kept. I couldn’t make out who it was. It was in the shadows,
a figure, big, it was dark and it just disappeared. Bruce kept on barking and I
grabbed him and we got out into the corridor but it felt like it was coming for
us. I had to pull Bruce down the corridor and I locked the doors. He wanted to
get it!”
“You keep saying
‘it’” I told him. “What do you mean?”
“That thing you
were telling me about, what you and John saw.”
“Right?” I replied,
“I heard a voice
saying, GET OUT!”
I was amazed and
obviously looked it.
“Seriously Dave.
It was a horrible voice! Over and over again.”
I had been standing
with my back to the doors and I leaned back on them to think, now aware that
our problems were getting more regular. I slowly became aware of the doors
being slowly pushed from the other side, making me stand up straight, they
moved about an inch. I looked back through the glass but there was nothing.
We walked back to
the front entrance.
Derek had to ready
the Library for the Womens Institute meeting. I knew he was glad it was next
door to the office, I would have been too. Wanda beeped the hooter of her car
outside having seen me in the hall.
Tomorrow Giles was
calling with his findings…
Bruce lay down on
the mat in the office.
Till tomorrow…
“See you tomorrow Del!” I said waving at Bruce.
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