Chapter 4

The last three years tended to roll into one. They had official times, but these were more honoured in the breach. Therefore, the last litres were poured in as a continuous stream as the tank was refilled; it was approximate guesswork. The result was that possibly these last groups had more of a dose than earlier.

One welcome detail was that the head and deputy head were used to following the same routine at the same time, that had taken some difficulty to be sure. It had finally been checked by one of the boys calling at just this time, pretending to be a parent. Sure enough, neither Mrs Halbrook nor Miss Haverthwaite were available, they were preparing for bed. Not that they went to bed then, but they changed, ready. Miss Haverthwaite, in addition to her deputising duties, was one of the four teachers with responsibility for the senior school. There were only three houses in St G’s, but the deputy head was available to help out when (as did happen) girls became too boisterous ... She wasn’t huge, but she was at that age where weight sticks to the body. She might, once, have entertained thoughts of a happy marriage living in a delightful rose strewn cottage, but now she was married to her job. She was strict, she believed in education but her belief was linked to shouting a lot.

The other teachers were all younger, another reason for Miss Haverthwaite helping. Ms Emily Jackson was actually only twenty five. Being responsible for the senior girls was not a popular job because it left little free time in an evening once they had settled down.

“Well? Lads, now comes the challenge. Dieter, send signal one.” Duncan was in charge now. The plan was Harold’s, but it was right that Duncan was in charge. They even had ‘repeat command back’ as part of the organisation.

“Sending Signal One.” He flashed three long flashes – that meant ‘signal coming’ - then two short flashes. One could easily be missed, so two short flashes meant ‘one’. They could have used morse code, but this made sense to them. They saw the signal come back. The others began to move across the park. They were to wait just beyond the lawns, not easily visible.

“Shall we?” Duncan opened the door down to the stairs, and they started. A young face appeared from the year one bathroom. “Hello.”

The face smiled. “Hello.”

“Put you hand on your head.” The girl did it.

“Well done. You are having an odd dream. Go back to bed.”

“Okay, goodnight.”

The three boys smiled, it was working. They moved down through the school, three other people were met, two teachers and a student. The teachers accepted their instructions with alacrity both went back to bed. “Wait,” said Dieter, “Pull up your nightdress to your waist.” the teacher, Miss Dong simply did so. Dieter had not expected that she would not be wearing pants, the view of a massive black curly lawn at the top of her legs was clear. “Thank you, just testing. Off to bed then.” Miss Rose Dong would wonder about that later, wishing she had been part of the target group.

Now they felt confident, the magic was working.

The girl was a senior, “Oh, name? Ah yes, you can come with us if you like, to meet your friend for the next couple of days.”