Chalk Dust & Broomsticks, Chapter 11

It is the night of the Halloween Party and Gerald hears scary wailing in the boiler room.

Chapter 11 - The Halloween Party - 1113 words.

Just before the school broke up for half-term, the Friends of Primrose Primary held a Halloween Party. Althea, who had been trying and failing to get the staff to feel "as one," agreed to attend, determined to keep a watchful eye on things.

Her attempts at unity had been disastrous. At the last staff meeting, she'd declared the Infant Staff could no longer take their breaks in the old Infant staffroom.

"I want you to come over to this half of the building in future," she commanded, emphasizing the shift.

"But we won't have time!" argued Mrs. Cracker, who took the Year 3 class, Robins. "It's too far to go, and we only get twenty minutes for a break and a toilet run. It's too demanding: plus the fact that we must leave our half of the building unattended apart from the ancilliaries"

"You'll get used to it," Althea shot back. "I want no more 'us and them.' We are one school now."

"It's just not practicable" argued Mrs. Cracker, determined on this occasion to have the last word.

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Plan B

Mary Pink smiled grimly to herself. She still had the mysterious letter that Althea Gardner had dropped. In it, the signatory, Alex, spoke carefully of the future of Primrose Primary. Mary was finding the secret impossible to contain, especially after reading that Alex noted morale had "noticeably declined" and that it would soon be time to put "Plan B" into action.

It wasn't clear, from the letter, if Alex was male or female, but it was crystal clear that Alex had Althea's best interests at heart and zero consideration for the staff.

Mary's thoughts snapped back to the meeting when Althea flapped her papers down.
"I have, as you know, been observing the classes," Althea stated, "and have decided to make some changes with effect from the start of next term. Miss Pink will be coming out of the Nursery and taking over in Mrs. Cracker's Year 3 class. Mrs. Cracker will be going into the Nursery Unit."

A stunned, absolute silence fell. Timid Mary Pink realized immediately that she would be out of her depth in Year 3. She would be seen to fail, giving Althea the perfect opportunity to get rid of her and jeopardize the care of her elderly, ailing mother. Mrs. Cracker felt much the same. She had little experience of nursery age children (3-4 year olds).They were being set up.

A cloud outside the staff-room windows darkened and hung in the sky like a suffocating, grey pillow.

That evening, Mary took her mother some flowers. Later, sitting in bed at home, she made a decision. She would share the contents of that letter. Someone else had to know what was going on. But who? Who can I trust? She dropped off to sleep thinking about it.

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The Lord of Misrule

The Halloween Party was going to be fancy dress. Gerald, the caretaker, was not looking forward to it. He hated strangers running around the school, and on Halloween, the Lord of Misrule was apt to make an unwelcome appearance. Compounding his natural apprehension, he'd been hearing an eerie, high-pitched wailing noise near the boiler house, the place where he kept a secret stash of whisky. Gerald had developed the jitters.

In the upstairs room of her cosy cottage, Shirley was preparing a spell. Her three black cats, Sparkle, Little Mo, and Bast, watched as she lit a black candle and wrote some magic words on a piece of white sheet. Carefully, she folded the cloth and dropped it into the heavy black cauldron in the fireplace, where it burnt instantly to dust.

"That should do it," Shirley said to Sparkle, who rolled over for a tummy tickle. Halloween, the time the veil between worlds is thinnest, signals the end and beginning of the witch's year. Tonight, the boundaries were open.

Mrs. Catchpole, the 71-year-old Chairman of the Governors, was also looking forward to the party, despite having just signed a new school policy demanding staff retire at 65. The art department, under Mrs. Van Gogh, had carved the pumpkins, adding an atmosphere of "death and decay" to the hall. By six o'clock, the Disco was set up and the children--unrecognisable under their sheets and plastic masks--were raring to go.

The Haunted Hall

Althea decided to stay in her office, briefcase packed, just in case she had to call the emergency services. By seven, the Disco was in full flow, but one or two braver children escaped the hall, running up and down the corridors.
Gerald started patrolling. He walked past the boiler house in the dark. There was that noise again: a strange, high-pitched, insistent wailing. He peered around the door, saw nothing, and moved on.

The Disco ended with a grand Conga all around the school, winding its way out to waiting, anxious parents.

Althea stayed late. When all the helpers had gone, the school seemed quiet and eerie. She packed up and locked her office. Glimpsing down the corridor, she noticed a white shape apparently floating towards the far end where the gymnasium was.

"Drat," she grimaced. "One of the children is still here."

She started down the corridor, her footsteps echoing. As she rounded the corner, she felt a shiver and saw the ghostly child disappear behind the wooden horse. She quickened her step, finding the gym door ajar. The white shape passed through, and Althea hurried after it.

Just then, a terrifying wail emanated from the boiler house, and sweat broke out on Althea's overwrought body. She opened the end door and ran out, heading toward the boiler house entrance. The door burst open and Gerald stumbled out, blood trickling down his face from two deep scratches.

"Gerald!" shouted Althea, shocked. "What's happened?"

Gerald was agitated. He had finally faced his fears and entered the boiler house, finding a trapped ginger cat that promptly leaped at him, scratching his face before running off to freedom. "That cat must have been in there for days," he uttered.

"Never mind the cat," said Althea. "One of the children is still at large. I just saw him in his white sheet running out of the gymnasium."

A door slammed behind them and both adults turned just in time to see the ghost disappear into thin air like smoke in the wind.

The final magical words of Shirley's spell echoed in the still night:

"Cauldron of Changes, feather on the bone, Arc of eternity, ring around the stone, We are the old people, we are the new people, We are the same people, wiser than before."

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