Episode 3.4: Classroom 3-B
Transcript
Part 1
Ellis East Elementary Walkthrough, May 18th
Classroom 3-B
The classroom is at the end of the hall, on the other side of the library opposite the music room. Beyond the door is the final bank of lockers, and then the back staircase, which is functionally identical to the side staircase. The room is mostly empty, its floor polished wood like the rest of the rooms I have visited on this side of the building so far. It is notable that the exposed walls are painted a pale lilac color. Like the music room, there are built-in cabinets sitting open and empty. Similarly, the western wall has the trademark row of windows, with a radiator underneath and shelving on either side of it. There is a large paisley rug in the middle of the floor in vermillion and royal blue, covering about half of the room's floor in total. There is an Encyclopedia Britannica on the shelf, the 1998 edition. It is mostly complete, but volume 13 is missing–which is the first entry of the macropedia and seems to be topics before “the arctic.” [to self] that includes architecture.
Part 2
[Party sounds in the background]
Billy: So you’re certain it was empty?
A-G: As far as I could tell.
Billy: What was it like down there?
A-G: Can’t say, we’ll revisit this question in the daylight.
Billy: Well it seems like everyone has regrouped here. There’s your dad. [To Mayor Plume] Duncan, has the game ended?
Mayor Plume: Yes, everyone back and accounted for. Is everything okay? [beat, now to A-G] Georgie, what’s wrong? Where were you two?
A-G: I stepped away from the party for a moment and returned to find an unlocked basement and sardines in progress. We had to make sure no one was down there.
Mayor Plume: [almost to himself] The basement isn’t safe. [Beat, to A-G] Mum and I made sure they stayed on the first floor.
[concerns] Georgie, you seem upset about something else.
A-G: How was the basement unlocked? Who opened the trap door?
Mayor Plume: It’s okay. Everyone is here.
[Beat]
A-G: Dad… did you already know about the trap door?
Part 3
A-G: Okay, here we are.
Contractor: You said there was a trap door?
A-G: Yeah, but we took out the hinges, can’t be too safe… Anyway, before we get down there, I want to make sure that everything is structurally sound.
[beat, some noise as if the contractor is inspecting]
Contractor: Those stairs are safe. They seem to be carved from solid stone. [beat, voice is distant, as if in the bottom of the staircase] There are lights down here. [lightswitch flip]
A-G: Okay, I’m coming down.
Contractor: What’s with the jug of water?
A-G: Oh, it’s nothing
Contractor: Okay, we’ll, I’m going to have a look around [footsteps walk away]
Billy: [whispered] Is that Daryl’s holy water?
A-G: [whispers] He left me like five jugs of the stuff after everything that happened at the party, I figured it couldn’t hurt to bring it down with us
Billy: Fair enough
[There are footsteps as if they are walking around
Contractor: So, this is really cool. I don’t see anything structurally dangerous… I think my work here is officially done. But would you mind if I poke around? You don’t see a full sub-basement like this every day, or, well, ever.
A-G: By all means, just… be careful.
Part 4
Audio diary of Anna-Georgina Plume, July 16, 2 pm
We just concluded preliminary exploration of the subbasement. I called a contractor to inspect it because I wasn’t certain of the structural safety. I am still uncertain of the [pause, she is clearly choosing her works very carefully] existential safety.
The sub-basement has rough stone stairs leading down to a central hallway-like empty antechamber. Despite the rough nature of both the basement above it and the stairs leading down into it, the antechamber has an elaborately tiled floor, patterned in an art deco motif. The doors are wooden, with a pattern complementing the tile, and the stonework above each door has sharp angular lines, further adding to the theme. I would hypothesize that these rooms were decorated in the 1920s.
There are five rooms branching off this antechamber. Four of them are classroom sized and appear to be used for storage, but storage of much older items than those upstairs. I have not–to date, found many school items predating the 1970s, with the exception of yearbooks, class photos, and school records. But textbooks, furniture, school supplies, play sets, literally everything you would imagine from the day to day workings of a school, have all largely been from the past 50 years, usually from the past 30 in most instances. The items in these rooms are older. Boxes of textbooks from the 1950s. Flats from school plays that I cannot personally date. Furniture, some of which looks to be very valuable. Eventually, I want to take an inventory of all of the items stored down there, but I want to observe for signs all is well before spending extended amounts of time down there.
But the discovery in the fifth and final room was the most startling–An empty swimming pool. The pool was decorated in the art deco motif of the entire basement. It was tiled in a rich emerald green with golden accents and surrounded by pillars with fan-like decorations. I did not have the tools to measure the length or width, but at the pool’s deepest it is 6 feet and at its shallowest it is 3 feet.
This discovery is huge. There is no evidence that this was ever here in any of the records I have found. But even more strange– I am to understand that the [pause, clearly trying to choose her words carefully] abnormalities surrounding the basement are caused by Algernon Hobbes–his death, his lingering anger–and yet the decoration of the sub-basement suggests that it was at the very least decorated after the deaths of Algernon and James Reeve. I must investigate this further. There must be a story here.
Part 5
[Formally]
Notes on Public Sculpture in Ellis Field, Part 1
July 16, 2:30 pm
Recording by Philip William Ochre
[informally]
Okay, A-G, I’m trying this…
Ellis Field, Ohio is a small town that would be otherwise unremarkable were it not for its approach to green space and public sculpture. In the 1980s, facing the same blight as many other small towns in the Rust Belt, many houses were abandoned as residents left Ellis Field for areas with more job opportunities. Small town population decline. It’s a story we know well.
But what Ellis Field did differently was they converted a number of abandoned, condemned buildings back into green space, effectively making the remaining houses more desirable for new residents. The masterstroke in all of this was the brainchild of Mayor Duncan Plume, who has a passion for public art, as well as fondness for gazebos that is lightly teased and parodied in the local paper. Plume connected with a number of sculpture artists, many of whom are from the Black Swamp Region of Northwestern Ohio where Ellis Field is located, and coordinated grants for funding of public art to decorate these green spaces. The result is a village that appears to have been built around a sculpture garden. The result gives any famous sculpture gardens a run for their money.
The first point of our exploration is the perfect example of an artist integrating their art with the landscape. We will start on the edge of town with “The Garden of the Stars”
[muttering to himself] Okay, that’s good. How does she focus on work? Like “oh, the basement that tried to kill us? There is another basement underneath it. Well, time to go look at the archives I guess and see what’s happening with the burgeoning romance between Lucy and Helena… I mean, the history of the school.” Really, how can she compartmentalize this all?
Part 6
[Sounds of Billy and Anna-Georgina carrying something heavy]
AG: Audio Dairy of Anna-Georgina Plume, July 16th, 4:30 pm
We are behind the school, we have removed the cedar chest from the shed. It is time to rip off this bandaid.
Billy: What makes you think it will be bad?
A-G: It’s from the basement.
Billy: Rip the bandaid off, and then we can do a double feature movie night. We’ve got plenty of leftover food from the party.
A-G: Deal. I’m feeling Scorsese. Maybe the 1973 classic Goncharov and then the critically acclaimed dachshund romance Hugo
Billy: Whatever you feel up to.
A-G: Okay, so there is a rusty lock on this. I found bolt cutters in the janitor’s office.
[There is a rattling and then the click of the bolt cutters cutting the lock, the creaking of the chest opening]
Billy: Ugh, I hate the smell of mothballs
A-G: Occupational hazard, I guess.
Billy: What’s in there?
A-G: [gasps] It’s beautiful. [To the recording] It’s a dress. Fashion history is not my field of study, but I would say late 1920s. Chartreuse velvet with elaborate beadwork, cap sleeves, drop waist, in pristine condition. I will make inquiries with a preservationist to ensure that it is properly cared for.
Billy: Anything else?
A-G: Hmmm, here’s a charm.
Billy: Is that another horse?
A-G: No, there is texture to it… those are stripes. A zebra?
Billy: Another carousel animal. What else is in there?
A-G: More clothes. Same era, less formal. And some.. Documents. I swear, I’m going to have an aneurysm if I find more poorly preserved documents.
Part 7
Audio diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume
Well, I seem to have reached the end of Lucy and Helena’s story, so let’s look in the next box from the library. This box is the one labeled 1912-1917. Wait. I think. The handwriting is unclear. Is that 2? Upon further inspection, it’s 1912-1927. And the next box is, yes, that’s right 1927-1930. Don’t ask me how that happened, there is literally a 2 in 1912, at any rate. Moving on. [exasperated] Not going to cast aspersions on Ms. Basil’s handwriting, but clearly labeling things is a key skill! Come on, Melinda!
Moving right along.
What I have here is a folder of photocopied letters.
The first of them is dated January 1st, 1927.
Letter from Elizabeth Reeve-Messinger to someone known only as R. Elizabeth would have been in her early 40s at the time, if my math is correct. I have a PhD in the humanities, so my math may not be correct.
Letter reads
Dear R:
Our return to Ellis Field occurred inauspiciously on the day before Christmas Eve, in the middle of a snow storm, which was strangely punctuated by thunder. The odd weather has cast an eerie mood over the whole town, and persists even today.
We received a warm welcome from Lucy and my mother, and have settled in the guest rooms in the house across the street from the school where they moved when the school made the shift to being a public school.
I have mixed feelings about this return. This is the place where my father died suddenly in a fashion that neither my mother nor Lucy can explain. They claim his death was an accident, though they can relay no further details. This has long haunted me over the years, and upon leaving for my college education, I have not been able to bring myself to return until this journey.
And yet, returning to the school feels like returning to an old friend. Walking the hallways, I feel the connection to a past that I had pushed for my memory, a happiness that shines on me throughout the building. As you are well aware, we are returning to Ellis Field upon my mother’s retirement for me to take over the direction of the library. Karl is opening a law practice in Ellis Field, and Geneva will continue her final year of high school education at the school at Ellis Field.
Geneva is, of course, upset about the change in scenery. Ellis Field is a far cry from life in Chicago, and she is leaving everything she has ever known. The only time I have seen her express anything but sadness was when we were touring the school, particularly the library. Seeing her among the books has given me hope that we can adjust as a family. She has resumed writing and has asked that I enclose a couple of her poems for your feedback
AG Plume commentary: The poems are not included in the papers I have received. Resuming letter.
One decidedly unsettling matter: My mother and Lucy are undertaking a project in the basement of the school. Specifically, they are bringing in an architect to examine a previously unused space under the basement and convert them into usable space. It should be noted that the school building still technically belongs to Lucy and has been leased by the school district, so she is entitled to do what she wishes with the school building, though they have not really been any good reason for why they might do this. I hear them whispering about how this is important to their plans, but they always stop talking when we enter the room. I believe I heard them using the word consecrated but that cannot possibly be what I actually heard.
It is growing late, and I still need to reshelve many books in the library.
Please write back soon!
-E.
A-G Plume commentary: Well, there is the subbasement, I guess. Consecrated? [to herself] Lucy, Helena, what were you up to?
Part 8
[PA Noise and then a series of tones, followed by radio static]
[Voice Similar to Anna-Georgina Plume, only with a transatlantic accent]
Good evening! This is Radio Ellis Field! Today is February 1st, 1927, and I’m your intrepid hostess, Rose in Bloom. Next the local news but first, Alice, Where Art Thou?
[Alice Where Art Thou plays]
A-G [herself]: Well this is new.
Part 9
Ellis East Elementary Walk through May 18
[sound of A-G tripping]
Oof, the corner of the rug is turned over. At least no one is here to see me trip. I mean, this recording, I guess. Anyway, there is not much else to report in this room, but, what’s this… There is a piece of paper under the rug. It has a symbol that looks like an upside down bracket. Since there appears to be nothing else here, and I don’t want to trip again, I will finally go next door, to the library.
End Credits
Lavender Evening Fog is a fiction podcast. This episode was written by Victoria Dickman-Burnett, direction and script supervision by Ben Baird, produced, mixed, and edited by Nick Federinko with additional editing by 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. The voice of Mayor Duncan Plume is David Girman. The voice of the Contractor is Jen Park. The Lavender Evening Fog logo was designed by Alicyn Dickman and Ms. Bitey, our carousel opossum was designed by Matt Lowe. This episode is brought to you by everything falling apart. This episode pairs well with a rich black tea with notes of sweet maple.
Alice Where Art Thou was composed by Joseph Ascher with lyrics by Wellington Guernsey and performed by Carmela Ponselle. The song is in the public domain and was made available through the Library of Congress’s National Juke Box.