Episode 2.6: The Teacher’s Lounge
Transcript
Part 1
Ellis East Elementary Walkthrough, May 18th
The Teachers’ Lounge
After climbing the side staircase and taking a right, the teachers’ lounge is the first door on my right, in the back portion of the second floor. On the other side of the hall are only banks of lockers. There are a few banks on the right side of the hallway as well, between the classroom doors.
Entering the teachers’ lounge, the first thing I notice is the chandelier.
[Dryly] There really is a chandelier. I always assumed I imagined it. Like, it’s something out of a children’s book, assuming the teacher’s lounge has a chandelier.
[Academic voice] It appears to be original to the building. The chandelier is in the empire style, and appears to have been originally used with candles, but rewired for electric lighting at a later date. The wiring is not visible, suggesting a high quality update. Given the time of day, light is refracting through the crystals, casting rainbows on the wall and the large oak table underneath the chandelier.
The table is lined with twelve high back chairs, all pushed into the table. It is otherwise empty. The only other items in the room are a small table by the wall, and a home use refrigerator in the southeast corner. The refrigerator is covered in an assortment of magnets–some shaped like the alphabet, others obvious souvenirs.
To the left of the door from the perspective of entering the room, there is a small bathroom, with a sink, a toilet and a shower. The shower curtain is covered in goldfish and reminiscent of the 1990s, though it is free from any mold or mildew. There is also a cabinet, presumably for teachers’ personal effects.
Part 2
Audio Diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume, July 3rd, 9 pm. Recorded in my home office.
Okay, in the spirit of not putting things off, I am examining the following items:
The file labeled “Anna-Georgina Plume” from the basement
The box from the basement that had fallen out of the broken cabinet
The cedar chest is still outside in the shed, I’ll have to explore it later.
Starting with the file with my name on it.
[paper shuffling sounds]
It’s a fairly standard school record by the looks of it. Kindergarten through third grade, corresponding to the years I was a student here.
Let’s see. [For each item on the list, there is a beat with paper shuffling between]
Report cards.
Medical information.
Emergency contact information.
State testing results.
School pictures.
A mostly empty disciplinary record that does note the time I went off in the woods without permission.
There is a letter here from a school psychologist noting that my “vivid imagination” was not an immediate cause for concern, but it should be continued to be monitored to ensure it did not lead me into any trouble. The final line reads “though Anna-Georgina remains convinced that someone else was with her in the woods, she seems otherwise oriented to reality. I am convinced that she is not of further danger to herself. In fact, I am not wholly unconvinced that Anna-Georgina was in the woods alone that day. I would recommend investigating the possibility another child, maybe an older child, lured her into the woods as a joke.”
Outside of that, the file is unremarkable. There are, however, some notes on pages that I am assuming were added later, as they are written in a thick red scrawl that does not match any of the pens or handwriting elsewhere in the file.
Everything written on here is nonsense.
Dye spelled d-y-e gone grim.
Uncoil Egis. [beat] That sounds vaguely familiar. I should look it up.
General Hobnobs. This one seems to repeat itself with increasing frequency throughout the papers.
Okay, best not to think too much about how my school file wound up alone in the basement with nonsense phrases written all over it, so we’re just going to turn our attention to the box, which also has its provenance in the creepy basement where I broke my arm.
[Sound of shaking the box]
Okay, so I’m opening it now…
We have a leatherbound book. Mahogany leather, unembossed, with green and white marble end pages. Judging by the binding, late 19th century. The pages all seem to be full, though they are written in an alphabet I do not recognize. A series of symbols, some of which look familiar, all of which look ominous.
Helena did say that Algernon was dabbling in the arcane…
There are also empty glass jars, a glass jar full of marbles, a deck of cards–playing, not tarot– and… a rusty knife.
[PA crackles to life and revisits the following lines from past episodes, PA, distortion effect]
Billy: You live in a haunted house [Recording from Ep 2.5]
Daryl: It just starts spinning backwards [Recorded from Ep 2.4]
Gate Lady: I merely asked you to find it [Recorded from Ep 2.5]
A-G: It mostly wants me to feel safe. [Recorded from Ep 2.5]
Part 3
Audio Diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume, July 4th, 7 am. Recorded in the former teacher’s lounge over tea.
The renovations on the downstairs bathroom will be finished next Wednesday and the painting and wallpapering will be completed by the end of the day next Monday. All told, I think we could swing a housewarming party around the 15th?
Let’s see, some assorted thoughts:
I feel like we could prop the front door and the door leading outside from the gymnasium to allow people to wander the building and the ground. If I do this, we’ll have to keep Rooibos and the dogs enclosed in their room.
We could set out food buffet style in the dining room and have a refreshment cart for drinks in the vestibule.
I think it might be fun to have the parachute out in the open sports field. I did say I wanted to have a parachute party at some point.
We’ll need to close off the office, the bedrooms, the archives, the dog room, and the basement. Otherwise, people can mingle.
We can use the PA system to play music in the school, but I wonder if there is a way to have some music outside as well.
Maybe we could see about using the projector in the informal living room to project some of the photos of the building I have found in the library boxes from Melinda Basil.
I should keep myself apprised of the overall… situation in the school. It does not appear to be malevolent, so it is likely safe to invite everyone, and we can minimize risk by keeping people off the carousel and out of the basement, but I want to make sure that it is safe before bringing a bunch of people in here.
Overall, that’s a good starting point. I will update my to-do list as planning progresses.
Early invite list
Family-Mom, Dad, Nana Plume
Assorted coworkers from Hollingsworth-Not Lavinia
Friends in the area- both Roses, Sierra, Andrea
Mr. Zaffre
Talk to Mr. Zaffre to see if there are any other school employees who might be interested in seeing what I’ve done with the place
Melinda Basil? She’s been very helpful.
Part 4
[A-G and Billy are walking through the woods]
Billy: What is it you wanted to show me?
A-G: You’ll see.
[Beat]
A-G: Okay, so there's this weird clearing where my friend George–who may have been a ghost–took me once.
Billy: Ghost friend?
A-G: The memories seem weirder the more I think about them. Anyway, I went back there while you were gone.
Billy: While you were sick?
A-G: Mostly better [says the next part as if blowing off the question] Anyway, I found it and it looked mostly untouched, except for the vellum envelope with the tiger charm.
Billy: So that makes the horse just found again from your childhood, the lion in the treeline, and now a tiger.
A-G: All animals on the carousel, too. But more importantly, Gate Lady–Sophia– hinted that they make up some kind of necklace.
Billy: And are we supposed to reach this clearing any time soon?
A-G: We should be there soon, see the path is spiraling inward.
[walking sound continues for a bit]
A-G: Well, this isn’t it…
Billy: Yeah, I think we’ve somehow just looped around and we’re on the same path we came in on. In fact, there is the last fork up ahead
A-G: And we took a right at each fork
Billy: We did
A-G: Well, let’s go back home. Whatever this is doesn’t want us to find it right now, I guess.
Part 5
From the letters of Helena Reeve, Recorded by Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume.
Letter dated January 2nd, 1896 to Miss Grace Thornwood of London, England.
Dear Grace,
Exciting news from Ellis Field. Last month, Lucy asked me to join the staff at the school as the librarian. As you know, I have been assisting her in the library since my arrival, but with the increase in student enrollment this academic year, she can no longer handle the work as librarian and dean of the school. She had mentioned advertising the position a few months ago, so the offer came as a complete surprise. As you know, I do not have formal qualifications for the role, but I have spent the past five years in this library, so I feel ready to take leadership of the library.
James continues to enjoy his work teaching Latin. He has several students who are doing independent study work with him. While it leaves him busy, our lives are centered around the school, so his work has not created distance. It is refreshing to see him so happy with his work. Lucy has given him a measure of academic freedom that he has not known in other schools.
My friendship with Lucy continues to grow. Often, I see more of her than I do of James these days. She continues to be ebullient in her advocacy for education. She has introduced me to the philosophy of progressive education and continues to surprise me with the perfect book every time I seek out new reading. She has taken an interest in Elizabeth’s education and is teaching her to speak French.
Elizabeth continues to flourish in the school environment. She has been learning independently from many of the professors at the school. She does continue to talk about the school as if it were a person, and at times I catch her seemingly deep in conversation with no one else visible. However, she is not without friends her own age. She has befriended Karl, the son of Lydia Messinger, who oversees the school’s kitchen. She has been teaching him the French she learns from Lucy, and I seldom hear them speaking in English when they know adults are around..
There is one overarching concern with Elizabeth: her continued fear of Mr. Hobbes. She hides at the slightest mention of him, and I cannot say that I blame her. He continues to be in a foul temper at all times, and his presence casts a long shadow. However, the past few weeks have been a needed respite–he left very suddenly without explanation. Initially he had promised to return before the opening of the new term, but Lucy has received word that he will be gone for at least this term. Everyone has been able to breathe easier with this news, especially Lucy. I do not understand why she continues to tolerate her brother. He is very much her antithesis and does not contribute much in terms of academic rigor to the faculty of the school. Nevertheless, I will continue to monitor the situation as it develops.
It is getting late and I want to walk back to the library to ensure everything is in good order.
Until I write again,
Helena
A-G Plume commentary: Well, it certainly seems as if Algernon continued to worsen. I have pinpointed the last known reference to him in school records in 1897. I had previously dated him to 1905, on faculty rosters, but there seems to be a discrepancy between those lists, which merely list the staff in the county records, and the school’s course records which don’t have him teaching anything after 1897. I need to look into this further to determine the cause for the difference between the two documents.
Part 6
A-G: Audio Diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume, July 4th, 2 PM
Double: Recorded in our home office, formerly classroom 1-A
A-G: What the– You’re… me.
Double: For the moment, We are, yes. A memory of you on the day you returned to us after years away. A reflection. A reflection of a memory.
A-G: Why?
Double: Our more subtle attempts to contact you have failed.
A-G: You haven’t been subtle.
Double: Haven’t We?
A-G: You turned on the carousel in the middle of the night. The only way you could be less subtle is if you set off fireworks.
Double: Yet– nothing.
A-G: You didn't exactly give me a list of action items. Also, you broke my arm.
Double: That was not us. We have… lost control of the basement.
A-G: We? Are there many of you, or is that like a royal we?
Double: It is… somewhere in between. We are what We need to be to keep our structure safe.
A-G: Structure.
Double: Yes. Haven’t you figured it out yet? We are-
A-G: You’re not a ghost of a person.
Double: Correct.
A-G: You’re the school, aren’t you?
Double: Yes.
A-G: So, George was…
Double: There was a George once, just like there was a Mindy once.
A-G: So nothing happened to him?
Double:We are certain many things happened to him over the course of a long, happy life. We saw him sometimes, as an adult. He used to come to the library. He knew your grandmother, based on the conversations they had. Though We had not seen him for a while when your grandmother’s library closed. [beat] But your George was very much like We stand before you now–a form to serve our purpose. You needed a friend. We wanted to be your friend. Thus, George.
A-G: Can you do this with anyone? Double them, I mean.
Double: If they’ve been here, yes. But We like to go for distant memories. Less confusing that way. Though We did appear as your grandmother once.
A-G: the storm?
Double: You were taking unnecessary risks. It was the only way to keep you safe.
A-G: So why are you doing everything you’ve been doing? Do you want me out?
Double: On the contrary, We want you to make a home here. But We have to stop- [a distant crash sounds]. Oh no. We don’t have much more time.
A-G: What can I do?
Double: Tongue of fire
Feather’s plume
The razor’s edge
The rose in bloom
A-G: What does that mean? You’ve got to give me more than that
[Beat] She’s gone. They’re gone.
Part 7
Ellis East Elementary Walkthrough, May 18th
The outer wall–to the west–is exposed brick. There is a radiator on this wall, which is about 3 feet in height. Above it are windows that span all the way to the ceiling. They are covered with curtains with an avocado and orange pattern from the 1970s. It is splotchy and the white background of the pattern has yellowed with age. There is a line where the curtains hit the window sill. The portion of the curtain below it is much less faded due to lack of sun exposure. The windows overlook the side yard of the school, which has the flagpole, open green space, and a small parking lot for teachers on the other side of the sidewalk.
The room is about half as narrow as the classrooms. The three remaining walls are painted white. Among the refrigerator magnets there is a paper held to the refrigerator with a magnet in the shape of Florida. On the paper is a drawing in pencil of a sideways crescent with a plus sign on the right point.
I leave the teacher’s lounge and proceed down the side hallway which branches off to the main hallway to the first of the two auxiliary classrooms.
Lavender Evening Fog is a fiction podcast. This episode was written by Victoria Dickman-Burnett, directed by Ben Baird, produced, mixed, and edited by Nick Federinko and Victoria Dickman-Burnett. Executive Producers are Ben Baird and Victoria Dickman-Burnett. The voice of Anna-Georgina Plume is Victoria Dickman-Burnett. The voice of Billy is Nick Federinko. Amy Yap and Tony Barrett are briefly reprising their roles as Sophia the Gate Lady and Daryl the Carousel Repair Technician, respectively.The Lavender Evening Fog logo was designed by Alicyn Dickman and our Season 2 concept art was designed by Matt Lowe. This episode is brought to you by the feeling of finally getting some rest after moving everything you own from one location to another. . This episode pairs well with Paris Black Tea and Oat milk.
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