Part 1

Ellis East Elementary Walkthrough, May 18th

Classroom 2-B

The door to the classroom is a split door, and the top is open. The bottom [sounds of a jiggling door handle] is locked but I can lean over [it sounds like she’s leaning over to do this] and unlock it [lock clicks]. 

For purposes of orientation, classroom 2-B is directly above the kindergarten classroom, while classroom 2-A, which we just left, was above classroom 1-A.

This classroom is empty. Like, honest to goodness empty. There are no shelves, no blackboards, no boxes, nothing. The walls are bare, exposed bricks. There is literally nothing else here. The western wall is lined with windows, but the room is otherwise unremarkable.

Part 2

Audio Diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume, date and time unknown. 

I’ve been exploring the hallway. It’s got four rooms like this part of the floors below it, and they all appear to be different offices. There is a door at the end of the hallway that leads to a large ballroom. The ballroom is large and open with large windows lining the top, much like Nana Plume’s descriptions. The floor is a black and white chessboard pattern, with golden filigree pattern around the edges.  On the back edge of the ballroom is a small stage. Like the rooms in the hallway, it is lined with ferns. 

There are about ten round tables surrounding the stage. They have about 12 chairs at each table.

I’m feeling tired, I am going to take a seat and rest.

Part 3

Me again… Still here…

There doesn’t appear to be any way back down to the rest of the building… Assuming I’m really on the third floor. So I guess I just stay here for the foreseeable future.

 There is a small room off to the side of the ballroom with a settee. I’m resting here. I do have Nana Plume’s fieldnotes with me, so I might as well read through them. 

June 5th, 1954

Sophia watches me work intently. No one has been able to tell me what she does around here, but they all seem to be on friendly terms. She is fascinated with my work, which is largely focused on the importance of community archive keeping. 

 Over the years, the librarian of first the Normal School and then the public school has kept great records about the community in Ellis Fields, the daily happenings, the town’s relationship with world events. I believe that my project will seek to reconstruct pivotal moments in history with stories of the people of Ellis Field based on what I can find here.

A-G Plume commentary: Nana referenced this, she just never seemed to be able to find it for me to read it. 

The Matriarchs seem to have come to terms with Arthur, though he is still uneasy around them. I did warn him that I come from a family of formidable women, but I don’t think he understood quite what he was getting himself into. 

June 6th, 1954

All morning I have been hearing heavy footsteps on the back stairs, like an angry man is coming up to join me in the archives. Sophia has visited thrice, but she seems like she is looking for someone. The final time I see her, I ask about the footsteps. I am under the impression that the school is largely empty during the summer and the third floor is off limits to the general public. The only people supposed to be in the school are my mother and grandmother, whose footsteps I recognize, and the custodian, Mr. Francis, who walks with a limp, so this has to be someone else.

Sophia did not answer, but instead she said “Promise me you’ll tell me if you see him.”

I don’t know who he is, but the process of elimination means that it should be fairly easy to determine. 

June 7th, 1954

Last night Arthur and I dined at Carelli’s Italian restaurant on Main Street, and he mentioned that the past few nights, he’s had trouble sleeping and he’s been going for walks around the block. The night before last, he noticed that the gate to the school was open. 

He saw a small light in the front window of the second floor, and tried to look up to see who it was when he noticed the light was moving. He thought it was someone inside the building with a candle. The whole matter is curious, but I must not let it distract from my research.

June 8, 1954

Collected notes from the records that I have been able to piece together

On this day in the Ellis Field School

1886

Algernon [Last Name illegible] gave a tour of his basement chemistry lab

Supporting materials: records in a ledger book from the front office. 

1911

The high school orchestra gives a free concert for the community. Orchestra director Melvin Harvis is quoted as saying “I am especially proud of the work our students have put into this concert. Our violin section is the best in Northwestern Ohio, and the concert was welcomed warmly by members of the community. I foresee this becoming an annual tradition.” 

Supporting materials: Newspaper story from the Ellis Field Gazette–A-G Plume commentary–this was before the newspaper was renamed the Ellis Field Gazebo–a program of the event, and the annotated conductor’s score. 

1928

The inaugural series of swimming lessons in the sub-basement pool started. At 8 am, there was a swimming test to place swimmers in levels, and then classes would continue on a weekly basis. There are five levels-complete beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, highly advanced. Each class will meet one day a week at 1 in the afternoon.

Supporting documentation: Flyers for the swimming lessons, Records of enrollment, and the paperwork documenting the insurance of the pool for lessons. 

Side note: it appears my father taught these classes.

1944

Community gathered in the front vestibule to listen to the radio to hear the reports of the invasion of Normandy.

Source material–Ledger, personal journals.

Side note: I remember this event…

A-G Plume final thoughts: I’m starting to feel really tired. I am going to rest some more, and hopefully wake up to some answers.

Part 4

Billy: [calling out] Anna-Georgina! [beat, talking to himself] Where is she?

[footsteps]

She is nowhere on the ground floor.

[footsteps]

Why are the carousel lights on?

[footsteps on stairs, door sound, light click]

She’s not here in the basement

[wind howls]

I should get out of here

[footsteps up the stairs with a second set of footsteps following lightly, door closes, more footsteps on stairs–one set] 

Anna-Georgina!

[door opens]

She’s not in the archives

[footsteps, door opens]

She’s not in the library

[footsteps, door opens]

No 

[footsteps, door opens]

No. 

A-G where are you?

Part 5

[There the clinking of a teacup being set on a saucer]

Lucy [she is kind, but there is a sternness to her voice]: Good morning

Anna-Georgina: [as if waking up] Where am I?

Lucy: [warmly] There’s a little alcove off the ballroom where I put a table for tea.

Anna-Georgina: The ballroom?

Lucy: There appears to be a question hidden in that statement.

Anna-Georgina: Am I really on the third floor?

Lucy: Yes, dear. You haven’t left your home.

Anna-Georgina: How?

Lucy: I summoned you. Or requested your presence. Summoned sounds so harsh, don’t you think?

Anna-Georgina: Then you must be…

Lucy: Correct. 

[beat]

Anna-Georgina: So are you a memory or…

Lucy: Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a brother and sister. Where he had faith, she had doubts. And yet, his faith bore him no ability, while despite her doubts, she had abilities beyond his imagination. This, as you can imagine, created a rift between them. The rift would have deepened, yet tragedy struck, drawing them together. And yet, his resentment was silently growing. Yet she felt like she could not leave him behind. And so he followed her, a leaden weight around her ankle, pulling her down wherever she went.

And then one night, everything came to a head. Her abilities fully realized, the rift between them would never be healed… As the years wore on, they both pretended nothing was wrong, but simmering beneath the surface was soon palpable. 

When the unthinkable eventually happened, the tensions between them created a tether, allowing him to remain. Until he is gone, I stay here, to keep apprised of the situation.

Anna-Georgina: So that’s a no?

Lucy: I called you up here–

Anna-Georgina: So the third floor still exists? How?

Lucy: The school is an old friend. They remember. But I called you up here because you need to stop Algernon. As long as he is here, his pain is hurting the school, making them sick.

Anna-Georgina: So what do I do?

Lucy: We’ve given you everything you need… But you have to act quickly… Check your records. The past has answers.

[beat]

Anna-Georgina: How are you able to be here? You’re not like the others. You’re real.

Lucy: Let’s just say that I put myself into making this place what it is, so I decided to stay and keep an eye on the place. 

Anna-Georgina: What about the others? Helena, Elizabeth, Great-Grandma Vivi? 

Lucy: I hear their echos, but it is not quite the same. Sometimes it is strong enough that it feels like I’m with them. That’s really the best I can hope for.

A-G: Doesn’t it get lonely?

Lucy: I have Sophia… And you are bringing new life into the place. 

[beat]

Lucy: I can’t keep you here much longer. Wait in the hallway until a staircase appears. It should take you back down to the second floor.

[Beat]

Lucy: Oh and Dr. Plume?

Anna-Georgina: Yes? 

Lucy: You already know half the story. You simply have to remember…

Part 6

Audio Diary of Anna-Georgina Plume… Time is still meaningless. Still in the ghost third floor, stairs haven’t appeared. 

Let me see if I can read another of Nana Plume’s entries while I wait.

June 9, 1954

I just looked up from my desk to see a man standing in the shadows watching me. He looked strangely familiar, his face a complete mask of anger, but also pain. I froze, but before I could say anything, Sophia appeared, and in the split second that I looked away from him to see her, he was gone. 

She would not give me an answer as to who he is, though I am certain, he is the man she had been referring to earlier. 

I do not know— 

A-G Plume commentary: The entry trails off here. 

[there is a warm swelling sound and a door opening]

That would be the stairs. 

[footsteps down the hallway]

Well I am just going to to head downstairs and start looking into the past like Lucy encouraged me to do.

[footsteps on stairs]

[sounds of A-G falling down the stairs]

Part 7

[sounds of a body fall]

Billy: A-G! Where did you go! 

Anna-Georgina: [incoherent] Stop Algernon. Need. Archives. Stop. Algernon.

Billy: Let’s get you into bed.

Anna-Georgina: NEED to get to Archives

Billy: No, you need to rest. 

[louder body fall]

Billy: Anna-Georgina! 

Part 8

[Sound of a phone being dialed]

Billy: [On phone] Hi Duncan. [pause] She’s still asleep. [pause] No, she seems physically fine, other than just exhausted.[pause] I don’t know where she went. There was no sign of her, and then she just showed up rambling incoherently. [pause] No need to come over, I’ll keep you posted.

[beat]

Billy: [ to himself] What happened, A-G? Where did you go?

Anna-Georgina: [weakly] Billy?

Billy: [Warmly] Hello. How do you feel?

Anna-Georgina: Tired. But I have work to do.

Billy: Work can wait. Dr. Eldridge is coming in from Hayden’s Landing to check you 

Anna-Georgina: No, it’s okay. Let me just sit up

[beat]

Anna-Georgina: Whoa…

Billy: are you okay?

Anna-Georgina: I may just close my eyes for a bit. Just to stave off the lightheadedness…

Billy: Take your time. [to himself] Where did you go?

Part 9

Ellis East Elementary Walk Through, May 18th

There is one detail about the room that I omitted. The floor is painted to look like a tapestry with a unicorn in the center, in the style of the middle ages. It covers the entire floor, and is varnished over, so it remains undamaged. The unicorn sits under a tree, with a woman sitting beside it. Medieval art is not my area of expertise, but I have only ever seen this motif with blonde women, but this woman has auburn hair and green eyes. The tree has purple flowers, and there is border of purple flowers surrounding the edges of this painting. The artist’s signature is in the corner, an M. Basil. As there is nothing else to see here, I am going to go up the hall and cross to the other side to classroom 2-C.

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 Lucy Hobbes is Kat Falk. 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 finding something unexpected in a place you’ve already looked. 

This episode pairs well with a pu erh tea blended with pistachios.