Night School

‘Night School.’ Jo’s voice was weary as she rubbed her forehead. ‘They’re all Night School. We’ve looked everywhere – this is all we’re going to get. Let’s go and turn it in.’


After searching the dining room and the library, they found Isabelle with Jerry and Eloise in the empty great hall. The stench of scorched wood and plaster was thick and nauseating. The electricity was still out in here, and the generator had been turned off, so it was dim and hard to see. Faint ambient light coming in from the hallway shimmered on the smoke particles still dancing in the air. They looked, Allie thought, like tiny black crystals. She could see that one wall was entirely blackened as far up as the ceiling. Small piles of rubble still smouldered here and there. But otherwise, the room was less damaged than she’d expected.

Isabelle scanned the list quickly and handed it to Jerry who looked it over and nodded.

‘Thanks, you two,’ Isabelle said. ‘You did a brilliant job.’

‘But so many are still missing!’ Allie protested.

Isabelle had circles under her reddened eyes. She looked so tired Allie felt guilty for bothering her.

‘We know where they are, and they’re fine,’ she said, putting her arm around Allie. ‘Don’t worry about them.’

‘It’s all the Night School guys, right?’ Jo’s arms were crossed tightly across her chest.

‘You know we can’t talk about Night School with you, Jo. But I expect you also know the answer to your own question.’ Eloise’s voice was sharp.

Jo held her ground. ‘I’m sorry, Eloise, I just think it would be good if we were all a bit more honest right now than we usually are.’

Isabelle squeezed Allie’s shoulder gently and let go before turning to Jo. ‘And a lot of teachers would agree with you,’ she said, to Allie’s surprise. ‘But right now, we just have to get through the next twenty-four hours.’

‘How many people were … killed?’ Allie’s voice was small.

‘One, Allie.’ Isabelle’s voice was filled with sympathy. ‘And I’m so sorry you had to see that. If you want to talk about it with any of us – we’re here any time.’

Allie, who thought she could feel nothing, was surprised to feel a tear run down her cheek.

Where did that come from? she wondered, dashing it away.

As they walked away, Jerry squeezed her arm, and Eloise wrapped her in a warm hug.

‘Hang in there, lovely,’ she whispered.

When they’d gone Jo turned back to Isabelle. ‘How’s Lisa? Can we see her?’

‘She’s not awake yet. The doctor said she needs to rest.’ Isabelle looked at them with concern. ‘There’s some food in the dining room. I’d really like you to take a break and get something to eat. I’ll come find you there if we need you.’

Although it was hard to even imagine eating, at her insistence Jo and Allie headed down the dark hall. The dining room had a hushed, exhausted feel. It was early morning now, and light streamed with inappropriate cheeriness through the big windows. Tired, dirty students sat or slept at most tables – plates of half-eaten food in front of them. At one end of the room a buffet table was piled high with sandwiches, and big copper urns held steaming coffee and tea.

They stood in front of it, staring at the food. It just seemed weird to care about eating right now, but after filling their plates they found an unoccupied table; pushing aside the used cups and saucers to make room. For a while they ate in tired silence. Jo sat lotus-style, her white-blonde hair fluffed around her head in a disarrayed halo. Allie bent her leg to pull one foot up onto her seat and leaned her elbow on her knee. At rest, her face looked pale and worried. She finished a sandwich and pushed her plate away.

‘What did you see?’ She asked the question with no warning.

Jo looked puzzled for a second, then widened her eyes. ‘Last night?’

Allie nodded.

Jo put down her cup of tea, and her face clouded over. ‘Oh Allie it was crazy. Where were you, anyway? At first, everything was beautiful, you know? Gabe and I were dancing, and then suddenly there was a noise – like a big bang – and the lights went out. Then it all got really confusing because it was totally dark, everyone was running to where they thought the door was, and people were screaming that they couldn’t get out, and then a table got knocked over and the fire started, and the smoke was … awful. Just awful.

‘Gabe and I got down on the ground so that we could breathe, and made sort of air masks out of napkins. We got to where we were far from the fire, and then he said he had to go and see what was going on – like, why people weren’t getting out of the room. And then he was … gone.’

Allie waited for more, but Jo stopped and tore the crust of her sandwich into little pieces.

‘What happened then?’ she prodded.