Chapter 4

Wednesday started out dreary. All my classes seemed to be slow no matter how busy I kept. Mum had given each of us boys note for our school offices to let them know we would be out Thursday and Friday. The only good thing on Wednesday was lunchtime.

Each of the kids there said words of sympathy. Cheryl had talked to Tracy about our double date and word had spread. I told them that I really didn’t know my grandfather not having seen him since I was very little. One neat thing was that Tammy Woodstock had joined us and was sitting next to Tom Wilson. I guess his serious side was working!

I told everyone about our plans and that we would return on Saturday.

Tom Morton asked, “Could we do an afternoon matinee on Sunday?”

I replied, “I don’t see why not. I’ll check at home to be certain but let’s plan on it if everyone can go.”

I really hadn’t planned to start something but the next thing I know Tom and Tammy are included in our plans. The backseat would be crowded with four of us in the back. This created major dress questions. So many that Tom Wilson and Tammy change seats, so the girls could plan their apparel.

Tom Wilson reverted to the class clown. He pointed out that Mr. Watkins the tenth grade English teacher room is on the ground floor. That his desk, if tipped sideways, would fit through one of the classroom windows. He had hall duty at lunchtime. If he was distracted several people could hand his desk out the window to others waiting. Then the desk could be taken anywhere.

Now, this was all theoretical discussion of course. We debated what to do with the desk.

Tom Morton came up with, “One of the emergency exits for the auditorium is just down the way. If someone opened that door we could leave it at the center of the stage.”

Then I had to open my big fat mouth. “We could do it before a school assembly. It would be close timing but wouldn’t it be neat if when they opened the curtains the desk was sitting there.”

That led to further planning questions. How many people would it take? We figured six; two in the classroom, two outside, one person to open the auditorium door. Then there would be one person to make certain that Mr. Watkins didn’t come back into the classroom. The two in the classroom would go out of the window and help move the desk.

There was a concern about the desk drawers. It was a big old wooden desk with three drawers on each side plus a center drawer in the middle for pens and pencils. We didn’t want those to come open and dump their contents. We decided to take the drawers out and leave them if they were not locked. Any that were locked would stay as they wouldn’t be a danger of coming open.