Part 1

Ellis East Elementary Walkthrough, May 18

The Playground

I leave the school from the back entrance, from the south. As I exit, there is blacktop with  four basketball hoops on opposite sides, beyond this, to the east of the school, is the ball field.

I approach the playground from the ball field to the south. The field is a large open space, with a fence to the south, separating it from the forest behind the school, and a row of six large oaks on the eastern edge of the field. The largest of the trees is in the southeast corner, with twisted gnarled roots that students used to play among.

 The first bank of playground equipment is on the northern edge of the ball field surrounded by small, smooth stones. There is a jungle gym with a big red tunnel joining a slide. a fire pole, a curved ladder, and a rope ladder. Next to it, there is a domed climber, with dark purple, lavender, and white joints where the bars meet,  and then a set of yellow monkey bars which follow a slightly twisting path. The monkey bars are right next to the last of the six trees on the back edge of the field and the custodial shed.

 Beyond this bank of playground equipment is a large, 2-story metal spiral slide painted white with purple lines. Beside the slide is another set of monkey bars, these are slightly higher than the yellow set and appear to be made of unpainted steel. Past the slide are two banks of swings, with about ten swings each. The bank on the eastern side has flat swings and the western bank has soft belt swings. 

Six feet behind the swings is the wrought iron fence. Beside the swings is a bank of five wooden see-saws with purple and white handles, and beyond that, the merry-go-round, which is purple with white bars. In walking through the playground, we are back at the front of the school. The walkway up to the school is lined with benches, which appear to have been made by the students in art class, covered in mosaic tiles. 

Maryann is nowhere to be seen.

Part 2

[Echo sounding] This is inflammation. This is the body fighting off an infection.

[Carousel interlude]

[Regular voice, still hushed whisper]

Audio diary of Anna-Georgina Plume July 21st,  2:40 am. The power is still out. I’m on the playground. Billy is once again checking to make sure no one is out here with us. We’ve been outside for about an hour and a half.

[beat]

Inflammation.

[beat]

Did Nana know? She seemed to recognize the woman in the library.

[beat] 

What are your secrets?

[carousel music plays in the background]

And now the carousel is running again. Three guesses why that is. 

[carousel music gets louder and distorted]

If he comes up here again, how do we stop him? 

Part 3

[Swings creak]

Billy: No one else out here.

A-G: At least it’s a clear night. The stars are nice.  

Billy: Small blessings, I guess

A-G: It seems like the noise has stopped. I don’t know if we should go back in yet. 

Billy: I wish there was some way to get the power back on at least

A-G: We need to have the circuit breaker box moved to the first floor.  I’m calling an electrician as soon as possible tomorrow. I mean later today, I guess. 

Billy: Well, I’m going to take another lap. We just seem so exposed out here.

Part 4

[Crunch of gravel]

Billy: I interrupted you earlier, you never did finish your library story. 

A-G: Fair enough

A-G: When I returned with the keys, I found that I could not bring myself to enter the library. I heard voices, though I do not remember what they were saying. There was Nana Plume’s voice, and the voice of the man, and the voice of another woman. The man kept getting louder, while Nana Plume and the woman remained calm. I remembered that the adjoining music room door had a keyhole, so I ran in there to look, but I couldn’t really see anything, and after a few minutes, I was found by my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Naves. She was always kind of a sourpuss, and she scolded me for spying and being in the music room when I was not supposed to be. 

I tried to tell her that something was wrong in the library, but she grabbed my arm and started escorting me next door. At some point, she stopped, because of the noise and got uncharacteristically quiet and told me to hide under the piano while she went next door, almost as if she had forgotten she found me where I wasn’t supposed to be. She didn’t move for a few minutes, despite saying she was headed next door. 

After she left the room, the noise next door got strange. The man’s voice got louder, until I heard, I don’t know, it sounded like a crash, and then a sound I can only describe as glittery, and then I heard a whisper, as if someone was standing above the piano, saying it is finished. 

The next thing I knew, Nana Plume was gently pulling me out from under the piano. There was a woman standing off in the distance behind her… [realizing] It was the Gate Lady. Sophia. She didn’t say anything, but she seemed very attentive as Nana Plume was making sure I was okay. Nana kept reassuring me that it was okay, I was okay. Once she seemed to have calmed down, she nodded at Sophia, who returned the nod and left abruptly. 

In the hallway, we found Mrs. Naves, who, in hindsight, looked like she was shaken by what she heard, and Nana Plume scolded her rather sternly for how she treated me. Specifically, she said that if she found me outside of school hours, that she was to assume that I was under her supervision, and to proceed accordingly. But then she ended the conversation saying “Do you know what you almost interrupted? Do you know what you could have done? How many people could have been hurt? 

Mrs. Naves slunk away, speechless. Nana Plume told me that she would explain what happened one day when I was older, but I honestly hadn’t remembered until now.

Billy:  Wow… What do you make of that?

A-G: Algernon has gotten loose before and there is some way to deal with him?

Part 5

[PA Noise]

[Transatlantic Accent voice]

Good evening, Ellis Field, the storm continues. Please seek shelter in a basement or underground shelter. I have received world that everyone at the school is headed down into the new sub-basement. Please remain safe. I will stay at the radio desk and keep you updated. Here is “Think of Me.” 

Part 6

Audio diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume, July 21st, 3:30 am.

It is an unusually calm night outside, all things considered. Being July, it’s also warm enough, though I am wrapped in a blanket. Rooibos has fallen asleep, and all is quiet from the dog’s side yard. 

I’ve got Geneva’s journal with me. I feel like I was on the path of something with the references to the second staircase. Maybe if I can just read some more, there might be more answers.

Journal of Geneva Messinger, entry dated May 12, 1927

We dedicated the sub-basement last night, which was earlier than expected. 

A sudden storm hit, and the school is a designated community shelter. Almost fifty people, not counting Grandma, Nana, Walter, Frederick, and I had gathered in the gymnasium after the radio announcement. My parents were at home, likely sheltering there, but the crowd started worrying about the weather and the possibility that the gymnasium was not the safest place to be.

Someone said “I know this place has a basement, Lucy.”

Nana Lucy seemed worried at the mention of the basement, and Grandma instinctively shook her head. 

“The basement is not safe. We cannot go down there.” She insisted.

“You would let us die?” Someone else insisted. 

“I do not believe it is that severe.” Grandma replied.

“Do you want to take that risk? I think the basement would be safer.” A very angry young man insisted.

Walter motioned to the stage, to the staircase to the sub-basement. “We could go down there,” He said, speaking only to Nana Lucy and Grandma. They nodded, and he then addressed the crowd, directing them down the staircase in the small room in the back corner of the stage. We gathered in the rooms under the basement, and the storm continued to rage outside.

Suddenly, the trapdoor between the basement and the sub-basement started shaking. Grandma ran up to lock it. She came back down to us looking frightened. 

“What’s wrong Helena?” Nana Lucy asked.

“It’s him.” She said, looking shaken. 

Nana Lucy called Walter, Frederick, and I over. She motioned to the pool, and we gathered around it. Above us, the storm continued, when suddenly, there were heavy footsteps above us.

I started to ask what it was, but Nana Lucy shook her head. 

A loud thud shook the ceiling above us, and she told us we had to hurry.

She asked me to recite a poem over the pool, but she made me promise that I not write down or recite the poem again, and to burn any copies that exist once it has been recited. Thus, I cannot write the poem here, but it was some of my best work. Once the poem was recited, she asked if any of us had any meaningful objects on hand. Grandma removed her emerald necklace and Nana Lucy submerged it in the water of the pool. After removing it, she gave it to me and told me to keep it safe at all times. After this had passed, the noise above us calmed and we waited out the storm. 

I do not know what I witnessed, but I am afraid to tell my mother about it, as she seems unsettled by the idea of anything happening in the rooms under the basement. 

Entry ends. 

AG Plume commentary: The next entry is dated September of the same year, and Geneva is in college in Chicago, so I do not think there is anything else there that would be of interest regarding the history of the school. But I do think she has given us what we need to find the staircase to the sub-basement.

Part 7

A-G: So if I’m reading this correctly, there is another way down to the sub-basement that bypasses the basement. Trap door in the little room behind the stage. 

Billy: Do we want to check it out? 

A-G: If we can get to the sub-basement through this bypass, I can run up the main stairs and get to the circuit breaker without having to spend as much time in the basement. 

[Footsteps crunch on gravel, a door opens]

Billy: Are you bringing Rooibos?

A-G: I don’t know what to do. It feels safer than leaving her carrier somewhere inside or outside.

[Sounds of Billy jumping up on the stage] 

Billy: Give me your hand

A-G: Or I can go around. I only have one good arm.

Billy: Just trust me

[Sound of Billy helping A-G onto the stage

A-G: Okay, let’s move the table out of this room. 

Billy: I see the trap door.

A-G: It may be locked…

[Door creaks open]

A-G: Or not. Take the lantern, please, and be careful

[Footsteps down the stairs]

Part 8

[Door creaks slides open]

A-G: The staircase leads down to the far end of the ante-chamber of the sub-basement, completely bypassing the basement. This will be usefully to get a handle on the space without having to go through the creepy murder basement. [beat] Maybe I shouldn’t call it that, given the actual murders.

Billy: A-G, you may want to come look at this. There is something carved into the handrail. 

[beat]

A-G: Shine the light a little closer. Vivi Messinger. Frederick Anderson. 1927. That would mean…

[Beat]

A-G: Vivi and Frederick Anderson were Nana Plume’s parents.That would mean… [Recording ends abruptly]

Part 9

Ellis East Elementary walk through, May 18th

Maryann!

She seems to not be here. That’s odd. Well, there are a few more rooms I haven’t investigated yet. Most of them on the second floor in the front of the building, so I am going to re-enter the building through the front door, and go up the front staircase, and start my exploration of that section of the building in classroom 2-A.

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 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 the feeling that everything is about to change. This episode pairs well with a smoky lapsang souchong. Lavender Evening Fog returns on Halloween for a 4th and final season.  In the meantime, ride your carousels, drink your tea, and we will see you again. 

Think of Me was recorded by the Manhattan Dance Orchestra under the direction of Al Eldridge, and is in the public domain, made available through the Library of Congress’s National Juke Box.