Part 1

Ellis East Elementary Walk through– May 18th

The basement.

[Stairs creak]

The only way down to the basement by the rear door, to the south of the building.  There is a half flight of stairs from the first floor, which leads to a landing and the back door. Outside the back door is the faculty parking lot. However to the right of the staircase is a wall with a door, which leads to the basement. The stairs to the basement are wooden open stairs [slightly more informal voice, sounding anxious].  You know, the type that have no back to them, and as a kid you would go down them really fast, afraid someone would grab your feet. Yeah, like that. 

The basement is cavernous, with concrete floors and walls. It is filled to the brim with the detritus of years of being a school. The walls are painted a deep blue and the floor is painted black. The paint is peeling. 

Part 2

A-G: Audio diary of Dr. Anna-Georgina Plume.  August 1st, 10 am.  We are pleased to report that the doors opened up again this morning. Daryl and my father have gone home at my urging, Dad took the dogs too,  but Billy and Rooibos–

Billy: No way am I leaving you here alone. 

A-G: This is my problem, no one else needs to get hurt. Please take Rooibos and go stay with my parents until we figure this out.

Billy: I’ve made myself clear. And so has Rooibos for that matter.

A-G: She’s just being stubborn. Help me get her in the carrier…

Billy: A-G, are going to solve this together. The sooner you can accept that, the sooner we can work on stopping Algernon for good. Not another word about us leaving. 

A-G: I wish we could at least get the cat to safety

[Rooibos chirrups]

Billy: I think she can hold her own against the worst he has to offer. He seemed weirdly afraid of her.

A-G: Yes, that is a mystery to delve into for a future day. 

Billy:  So what’s your story?

A-G: My story?

Billy: You’re next, right. There is one more box? It has to be you. Your history with this place.

A-G: I’m not sure what I’ll find. It’s probably also worth putting it on the record that after my father told his story about this place, we looked through the box. It had some of Melinda Basil’s own notes from their exploration and a transcript of an interview she’d conducted with Dad about what he saw in the basement.

Billy: So now we’re going to open yours.

[sound of box opening]

A-G: Oh wow.

Billy: So tell me what this all means. 

A-G: It’s going to take awhile. 

Billy: I can put on the kettle this time.

A-G: Lapsang souchong please, I need something strong. 

Part 3

AG: Discussion between Billy Ocre and Anna-Georgina Plume about the latter’s history with the Ellis Field school. I am employing auto-ethnographic methods to carry this discussion further. Recorded August 1st in the Ellis Field school. 

I have in front of me a box of documents from the personal collection of Melinda Basil, who, in addition to working as a public librarian has served as a sort of de facto recordkeeper for the history of the Ellis Field School since the 1970s, working with my grandmother to ensure the documents were safe. 

[sounds of box opening]

Okay, so we have a brochure for summer library camps. Summer 2007.

Billy: Care to explain what that’s about?  

AG: Okay, you know how libraries have summer reading programs?

Billy: Yeah.

AG: Well we had one here, Nana Plume ran it for the county, with the assistance of Mr. Zaffre.

Billy: Just so I’m remembering this correctly: At the time, your grandmother had retired from running the school library.

AG: Yes. And then immediately started working part time at the county library, running the Ellis Field Branch, which was also located in the school library.

Billy: And Mr. Zaffre replaced her as school librarian. 

AG: Yep. She sort of adopted him. Which is kind of her nature, but knowing just how much of a family business this library was, it all makes sense, suddenly. [beat] Anyway, Nana had been challenged to increase engagement among elementary and middle school aged children, and I had been [she says the word sarcastically] challenged to get a summer job by my parents. She had a small discretionary budget, and together, we decided: library camp!  The building was empty during the summer and it had everything: books, space for art, a playground

Billy: A sentient building and a murder basement.

AG: We stayed out of the murder basement. [beat] We developed an eight week program, running for all of June and July.  Each week had a theme. Not to dive too deeply into the intricacies of running a summer camp, but we offered a discounted rate for multiple weeks, and yes, the whole thing was insured and above board. 

Billy: Naturally. I would expect nothing less from Dr. and future Dr. Plume.

AG: They still run this program, they just do it at the Hayden’s Landing library. It’s quite big now, they’ve got like 20 counselors, the YM and YWCA are involved, it’s a big deal. But back then it was just me and my cousin Rob. 

Billy: You never mentioned any cousins, I assumed the Plumes were a string of only children.

AG: We are. [beat] Rob is on my mom’s side. We went through school together. He was the captain of the basketball team. I was… well me. You heard what Dad said about fake IDs and sneaking into college lectures. But we had to have another counselor, the director of the library said they had to be male, and Rob made it sound like I was getting away with something by taking this camp counselor job, so to appease him, Aunt Cindy and my mother, we had to offer him the job. He… wasn’t completely inept.

So the first week of camp went well enough. The kids seemed to have fun, as annoying as I found my cousin, he seemed to do a good job, and it really was just hanging around the school,  playing games, reading books, and doing arts and crafts. We decided that every Friday the kids would stay later (like until 8 pm, nothing wild), and we would have a “campfire”. As this is a recording, you cannot hear scare quotes, but we were not authorized to have an open flame on the school grounds. We were, however, authorized to get pizza from Pizza Depot and Rose had a fake campfire prop she built for the school play that we could use. We set up our faux fire by the row of oak trees on the eastern edge of the schoolyard. 

Billy: Sounds like a fun evening. 

A-G: It was. Until…

Billy: There’s always an until.

A-G: When you’re a camp counselor, you learn really quickly to just intuitively know how many children are around you. If you’re supervising 8 kids, you can look at a group of kids and instantly know that there is 8. And if there isn’t, you can figure out in seconds who is missing. 

Billy: And who was missing. 

A-G: That wasn’t it. There were more children than there were supposed to be. [beat] At this point, that’s probably not the most surprising revelation, given the school’s… [pause as if struggling for the word] abilities. But at the time… It was terrifying. And while it wasn’t dark dark, it was close enough to dusk, and everyone was milling around, such that I couldn’t keep track of who was who.

My brain obviously didn’t instantly go to the “ghost children” place. I just assumed they were kids from the neighborhood. Occam’s Razor and all that. And we had more than enough pizza, and I wasn’t about to turn children away. But it was somewhat late. And even though summer in Ellis Field does lend itself to kids having the run of the town, I wanted to make sure it was okay. So I made the announcement that if you weren’t a camper at Library Camp, you had to get your parent’s permission to stay at the campfire. 

I was met with blank stares, and the kids asked me what I meant. At that moment, I looked out on the crowd and there were once again only eight children. Rob looked at me like I had two heads, and I chalked it up to everyone running around leading me to double count some of the children. And yet, when they went back to playing, I could have sworn there were at least two more. Yet whenever I got a look at the individual kids, it was only the ones that had been there all week. Only eight kids sat down around the fire for pizza, at any rate. 

That was the first time anything was odd during the summer, but it was certainly far from the last.  

The next week, when I looked over the children’s paintings that they had left to dry after arts and crafts, there was an extra one, which was dark and unsettling. Nothing directly violent or threatening–we had our mandatory training on what to look out for. It was just a painting of the school in a childish hand, but it felt wrong. And like I said, the fact that it was unaccounted for made it all the more worse. Rob, of course, told me I was overreacting, and that if it was an extra painting, it was because a student finished their project quickly and decided to make a second. But at the end of the next day, no one claimed it, and the following morning, I asked everyone directly, and no one knew who it belonged to. 

Billy: So do you think it was the school or Algernon?

A-G: Not sure. One day I sent the kids up to Nana Plume in the library while I cleaned up the cafeteria, and I heard kids running around the hallway. I went out to make sure everyone was being safe, and no one was there. I know this all sounds like garden variety, especially what we’ve gone through, but it was especially unsettling. 

And as little things would happen, Rob would continue to be in denial. I don’t think he set out to gaslight me, but I definitely noticed more than he did.

Billy: Because you were paying closer attention.

AG: Exactly. Like he was good with the kids, but despite our equal titles, I felt like his supervisor. To his credit, he kind of accepted the dynamic, so at least I didn’t have to figure out how to manage him without him knowing he was being managed. [beat] Plus, he didn’t keep doubting me for long. In the third week, he was leading a soccer game outside while I was setting up for arts and crafts, when he brought in the students like a half hour early. I was annoyed until I saw the look on his face. I’ll spare the description, as it would be cliched at this juncture.  I told everyone to sit quietly at the tables while we talked briefly. He told me he saw a small child go out into the woods behind the school, and he needed me to watch the kids while he went to look for them. He never really developed the immediate ability to look at the group and see who was missing, and no one was missing. I told him this, but he insisted that he had seen a child go out into the woods, and that while it might not have been one of ours, there was a child wandering in the woods right now and he needed to go look for them. I could not argue with his reasoning.  

I believe we’ve discussed how some of the trails have patches that are unsafe for small children.  So he went into the woods, and I led arts and crafts, and then Nana Plume led storytime, and then, because the kids did not get to play their soccer game, we played with the parachute in the gymnasium. Rob was gone about three hours. Everyone had gone home by the time he returned. He had covered the trails extensively and saw no sign of the child. He was going to call for a search, but Nana Plume discouraged him. She said that all of the kids from the camp were accounted for, and while she believed what he saw, if he didn’t find the child on the trails, it was probably one of a few local kids who knew the trails very well, and had likely left the woods and gone home. 

I don’t believe that now, but I trusted that my grandmother wouldn’t just leave a situation with a child in trouble.  

[beat]

Billy: So what happened next?

A-G: The fourth week of the program went by without incident. Neither Rob or I saw any additional children, no one disappeared, no voices, no additional art, nothing. It was strangely calm. I thought that maybe the emptiness of the building had gotten to us the first few weeks. As you know, this is a big place when empty, and we didn’t have a lot of lights on in hallways or rooms we weren’t using. So we just chalked it up to nerves. I think Rob and I even had a conversation where we both said as much. But then the fifth week…

The first day one of the youngest girls came up to me and told me “That boy is being mean to me.” 

I asked her which one. This girl wasn’t new, she’d been there every week. In fact, all of our kids this week had been in at least one prior week, so when she didn’t give his name, that had to be the first sign that something was wrong. She pointed over to a shadowy corner of the school yard. No one was there. 

Now, I’ve told you about second grade and the bully that no one else seemed to see. While that did not seem odd to 8 year-old Anna-Georgina, even after the scary encounter in the basement, 18 year old Anna-Georgina, started to think back on that story and wonder if maybe there wasn’t more to it. At the same time, it is possible that it was one of the other kids who just moved to somewhere else on the playground. Or a neighborhood kid who had dropped in on the playground to see what was happening. So I told her that if she saw the boy again, to send him to me and tell him I wanted to talk to him. 

Other kids soon started reporting similar complaints to both me and Rob, but the culprit could never be found. Whereas before, Rob would have chalked it up to game they were playing, the forest had changed his perspective and he was even more certain that something was up that I was. As you know, I always keep a healthy bit of skepticism.

Billy: Do I ever. 

A-G: But I wasn’t about to make Rob feel as unhinged as I had felt when he didn’t believe me. After about three days of the invisible antagonist on the playground–fortunately he did not come inside with us–he allegedly pushed a child down the stairs of the curly slide. They were lucky they weren’t seriously hurt, that’s a two story slide. 

After everyone left, we had a conversation with Nana Plume. She listened intently, and then told me she would take care of it.

Billy: And did she?

A-G: The next day, there was a school bus to take us all to Hayden’s Landing. We could use the children’s department in the Main Library, and the middle school next door. The final week of camp also took place there as well. She said a pipe had burst in the school, and the building would need to close for repairs. 

Billy: Is that what you think happened?

A-G: Of course not, but at the time, I was so relieved that I think I bought it so that I didn’t have to worry about what was happening in the school. It was no longer my problem. As a post-script, I ran the camp for the next seven summers. Until I was going into the third year of my PhD program and they gave me summer funding. After that first summer, it was always in Hayden’s Landing. They also paid me  a little more and made me camp director. It was a nice perk.

Part 4

[PA sounds, Hollow Algernon voice]

As you can see Miss Plume, I’ve learned a few tricks from the school over the years.

A-G: DOCTOR PLUME. You come into my home, you harass me, you break my arm, the least you can do is call me by my proper title, you jerk! 

Part 5

Billy: Okay, what else is in the box? 

AG: Just a second, let me mark this recording for the record. This is part 2 of a discussion between Anna-Georgina Plume and Billy Ochre about Dr. Plume’s experiences with the Ellis Field Building. Why don’t you reach in and tell me what you see.

Billy: Okay, it is a program: An Ellis Field Holiday in Lights? It’s dated 2010, and there appears to be some handwriting on it, but I can’t quite make out what it is saying. 

AG: Okay, that is the annual holiday festival in town. Dad gets really into it. They decorate all the gazebos, all the parks. You might be interested in it from a research perspective. But anyway, when this was a school, it would close for two weeks before Christmas and every room of this place would be decorated like a winter wonderland. They would do different themes, it was magical.  The fake snow budget alone was likely in the four figures. It wasn’t a holiday without it. 

Like, if we could fix what’s wrong with this place, I would love to do it again. 

But anyway, I was home for the holidays, and I volunteered to guide people through the school. We always dressed like Victorian Christmas carollers. We would lead them through pretty much the entire school, and then end on the stage, where guests could have hot chocolate and cookies. 

Billy: We’ve definitely got to do that. If– I mean we’re going to do that this December. I believe we will figure this out. 

AG: Anyway, I would volunteer every year, without fail. And without fail, there would be something odd. Nothing unsettling or anything like that, but once, when the school was decorated in a Dickensian theme, I opened up a door to an unfamiliar hallway, which was covered in twinkling lights like stars. Knowing what I know now, it was as if the school was trying to contribute to the decorations, without fully understanding the assignment. Another time, among the Santa Clauses in red and Pere Noels in green was a figurine of a man who looked very similar, just that his costume was yellow. I called him the Banana Man. 

But it was always like “hmm, this is odd,” not necessarily unsettling. 

Billy: So this place gets into the festive spirit?

AG: Very much.

Billy: That’s nice. So where did it all go wrong?

AG: No, nothing scary about this one.  But let me see this. Yes, that is my handwriting. Really, I think maybe the creepiest part of this is that someone has hung onto all of these parts of my life all these years. But yes. Let’s see, the notes say: Banana Man, Light Tunnel, Pirate Nutcracker, Purple Christmas tree… Okay, yes. These are all things that I found that just kind of seemed off about the festivities. I know now that it was the school, but I think at the time, I just assumed there was some sort of quirky artist behind it all. Dad has a lot of weird artist friends, because of the whole public sculpture thing. I think I thought maybe one of them was hiding these slightly odd decorations among the school.

Billy: It’s just a nice change of pace that nothing went wrong in this one.

A-G: Tell me about it.

Billy: What do you say we take a break? You’re looking tired, maybe you rest your eyes for a half an hour, I’ll be in with some tea, and we can finish the box?

A-G: As much as I don’t want to rest, I think I need it.

Part 6

A-G: [She is sitting up from being asleep] She put herself into it.

Billy: What? 

A-G: [More insistently]: She put herself into it.

Billy: Again what? Also maybe who?

A-G: Lucy. She put herself into the school.  She told me. Algernon told me. That is why it worked. When she tried to summon the genius loci. That is why I am able to see her on the third floor. That is why Algernon is hanging on. 

Billy: So what does that mean for us?

A-G: It means that after we finish talking about the contents of this box, we go have a conversation with one Mr. Hobbes.

Part 7

Billy: Okay, are we ready to dive back into what is in the box of your documents? 

AG: I suppose so [beat] This is part three of a conversation with Billy Ochre about my personal history with the Ellis Field School, recorded August 1st. [beat] Let’s look at what’s left of the documents.

Billy: [reaching into box]: There is only a file folder left, but it looks particularly full. 

A-G: Hmmm… Oh dear. 

Billy: What is the file, AG?

A-G: It’s my medical records… From my surgery.

Billy: So what does this mean?

A-G: [Sighs] I need to preface all of this by saying that I can imagine hearing all of these stories, it might seem weird with my history that I chose to live here. Some of these memories were lost. Not–to be clear–repressed, but I think it is important to remind you just how much of our day to day, we forget. The things from childhood may have struck me as odd at the time, but it is only through the perspective of adulthood that I really have begun to understand the degree to which these occurrences were outside of the normal. One memory brings others back. 

And so, my surgery. I… I had surgery while I was working on my Master’s degree. As Billy has alluded to, my partner at the time moved out rather suddenly while I was still in the hospital recovering from said surgery. It was a devasting time of my life, I would rather not dwell on it. 

Billy: I understand [trails off]

A-G: So I could not stay by myself after the procedure, so I came home. It was May–before library camp, but after school had let out for the summer. Nana Plume was still working in the library, so I spent a lot of time visiting her in the library, the building mostly empty. When the library was open as a branch, people would come in for books, but so much of the time Nana Plume spent  her was just her and the building.

[beat]

Oh.

[Dawning realization] OH.

Billy: yeah, maybe that was by design.

A-G: But I spent a lot of time here, while I was recovering. And then I started waking up here. I would find myself in the empty library. I was never sure how I got in, and I chalked it up to sleepwalking, but I could never figure out how I got into the building. 

I was concerned, but you know how my mother was–still is–and I was afraid to say anything. I was worried she would put me back in the hospital if they knew. I covered it by saying it was just early morning walks, and I think to some extent they bought the excuses. They may have suspected that something was wrong, but they never said anything. And then… 

[Rooibos chirrups, starts purring]

Billy: What?

A-G: I went to my doctor for a followup–I had healed at a remarkable rate. Like, he’d never seen anything like it in a 30 year career. Fortunately, he was a small town doctor, and didn’t think to research it. 

Billy: How do you know it was the school?

A-G: After everything you’ve seen, and all the stories you’ve heard, could it be anything else?

Billy: No you’re right. It’s just weird to think about.

A-G: Yeah, like in the end, it’s less about the big ghost story of it all, and it’s just taking care of me…

Billy: It’s almost poetic that you wound up back here.

A-G: Yes. [beat] and now it’s my turn to take care of it. 

Billy: You don’t mean?

AG: Yes. Algernon Hobbes,  you have matters to answer for.

[beat]

Billy: Maybe you can’t just summon him. 

AG: Well, I guess we’ll go to him. Moment of truth. Last chance to back out.

Billy: Not happening.

AG: Okay, but put the cat in the office.

[Rooibos hisses]

Billy: I don’t think she’s going to let you.

Part 8

Billy: Have I told you how much I hate this basement?

Algernon: The feeling is mutual.

AG: Hello Algernon.

Algernon: Usurper

AG: Drama queen

Algernon: The banishment will wear off eventually. 

AG: I plan to resolve this now

Algernon: How?

AG: I am giving you a chance to leave. To be at peace. To let go of all the anger and the hurt. You can just leave. You don’t have to be defined by the worst thing that you’ve ever done. You don’t have to hold onto the pain and resentment, you can just leave. 

Algernon: And what if I don’t. What if I insist on claiming the building as my own. What if I insist on taking over.

AG: Then you’ll have to go through me. 

Algernon: [quiet, almost hissed] then I will

[There is a very loud clap of thunder and discordant sounds]

Billy: AG!

Algernon: NOOOO!

Part 9

Billy: She’s not breathing. Oh No. 

Lucy Voice: Heal  my child… 

Sophia Voice: I am… free.  Can we help her?

[Rooibos purs]

Billy: Come on AG. You did it. He’s gone. We won.

[Carousel music. It is a new song, hopeful, then jubilant, victorious]

Sophia Voice: Breathe, Dr. Plume. It is not your time yet.

Lucy Voice: You will be well. You will have many more years here.

Billy: She’s breathing!

Part 10

A-G: [yawning, as if stretching out] Good morning…  Why am I in the guest room?

Billy: It was easier to get you up here. How much do you remember?

A-G: All of it, I think… But why am I here? I should have…

Billy: I wouldn’t think about it too much. You’ve been given another chance. Just make the most of it. 

A-G: But…

Billy: Don’t think too much about it… But you may want to come here.

A-G: Why? 

Billy: There were some renovations overnight, while you were asleep.

A-G: What?

[Rooibos Meows]

[sounds of footsteps on a staircase]

Mayor Plume: [winded from running up the stairs] Georgie, when did you have time to add a third floor? 

Part 11

Ellis East Elementary walkthrough, May 18th

The ceilings of the basement are slightly domed, with the ceiling the same color of walls. The room is large, continuing with tunnel-like hallways branching out to the north and west. I cannot go down these tunnels because they are blocked by all the items that fill the basement. 

Maryann: [From Upstairs]  Anna-Georgina?

A-G: Down here, Maryann.

Maryann: Why don’t you come back up here? There’s not much to see down there…

[Footsteps on the stairs]

Maryann: I wanted to find you because I’ve got a bit of a surprise for you. I found the key to the tower. Would you want to go up there?

A-G: Yes [to the recording]  You heard the lady. We are going to go back upstairs and continue on to the tower. 

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 Algernon Hobbes is Danny Huri. The voice of Mayor Plume is David Girmann. The Voice of Sophia is Amy Yap. The Voice of Lucy Hobbes is Kat Falk. The voice of Maryann is Danielle Roberts. 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 a voice from the distant future

This episode pairs well with a rock oolong tea with mineral notes.