Horror BEFORE Christmas
I also suggested to mother that Mrs Dalrymple could move in as, not only has Balmoral got more than three bedrooms and benefits from two broom cupboards and places to store stuff, it has more room for Mrs Dalrymple’s corgi to stretch its little legs. As an added advantage, because of the acoustics, it could be used as a great place to summon ‘our dear departed’ or as Tamsin likes to describe them, ‘the dead’.
I was to find out later father was going to donate a mountain of money to Denham Hall. Well this news should put me in good standing with Miss Sefton for starters. Tamsin should follow in my wake; she is always skating on thin ice.
Where was I? Oh, Tamsin was talking about starting a secret society in the Boadicea dorm. Heavens knows why. It was the initiation rites that worried me, like getting tattoos done or having to use secret passwords to get in and out of the dorm, or something just as stupid.
It will never work. You can bet your life Nurse Mayo would find out quick smart. I sometimes wonder whether it’s a genetic thing with Tamsin, although her mother appears to be quite normal and her father, well apart from playing the clarinet and stuff, also appears reasonably sane.
Oh I must tell you; Colonel Carter-Brown our neighbour who lives at Ruthin Castle was a military man. He entered the army with the rank of Colonel. I would like to tell the Colonel my father, Lord Campbell, was also a military man, a Major General but in contrast to the Colonel’s upbringing he was from a poor, disadvantaged, underprivileged family from the Glasgow slums.
Well that’s not true. I just made that up. Father was not actually brought up in the slums nor was he in the army. It just makes him sound more interesting.
You must excuse me as my writing might appear somewhat disjointed but it is early in the morning so I am not up to speed….yet.
This is the last year of college for a number of us girls. Smarty-pants Phaedra, that’s Phaedra Gascoigne, reckons she is going on to university when she finishes college.
Now I was reluctant to relate this story because I know Charlotte Patterson will accuse me of indulging in toilet humour just to attract blog readers but that is not the case. It did happen and no doubt it will go down in Denham Hall folklore just like the story of the hedgehog that someone put in Naomi’s bed, that’s Naomi Brideau, so it has to be chronicled for the history of Denham Hall.
The first indication I had things were not as they should be was when Tamsin’s prank took effect. I suspect Tamsin purposely timed this escapade for the last evening before the Christmas break. It was signalled by an eerie scream I heard from the direction of the Pankhurst dorm toilets. I am not quite sure how to relate this story.
Again Miss Sefton the headmistress was unable to immediately discover the perpetrator who was responsible for this disgusting prank but we all know it was someone whose name starts with a ‘T’. She is the only person that I know who’s twisted, warped mind can possibly finds this action amusing.
I am at loss to understand how this person I write of can possible dream these pranks up…….. ‘Praps it’s a gift. Personally I feel sorry for her future husband.
It was in the Pankhurst dorm toilets that this vile incident took place. I won’t go too deeply into the more sordid details but briefly someone, no names mentioned, replaced a blue toilet freshener thingy with a red one that sits on the side of the toilet bowl, its purpose being that when the water in the toilet is flushed it exhibits a nice, clean, sanitary blue colour as opposed to….with a red one.
I am perspiring. Frankly, I really don’t know if I can continue to relate this story, but I will try.
Anyways, as a result of this replacement, when the toilet was flushed instead of a nice blue colour appearing in the toilet bowl what the poor girl saw who had just vacated the toilet was a distressing scene of a bowl its contents swirling like a raging maelstrom of a disturbed crimson cascade of water disappearing into the stygian darkness of the netherworld.
‘Stygian’ is a good word. It means extremely dark, gloomy, or forbidding. I looked it up on google.
Off-topic I am thinking of writing stuff of more classical nature.
Whoever is responsible for this prank is treading a very fine line. At best there will be a call-out by Miss Sefton at the morning assembly when college resumes in the new year.
I know what is going to happen. It will be a repeat of the actions of the miscreant that, with a black felt marker pen, added words to the college notice board. After it had listed the virtues of the college, ending with reference to King and Empire, the words ‘When we used to have an empire, that is’ were added.
Miss Sefton was unable to pin that misdemeanour on Tamsin either as there were no witnesses because it was done under the cover of this stygian darkness I referred to earlier.
Gentle readers what I do remember most vividly about the toilet incident that took place in the dead of night was the terrible, lingering, agonized screams echoing and bouncing off the walls of the corridors from the direction of the Pankhurst dorm toilets most of the night. It was bizarre.
The really good news was it was not Naomi Brideau who was the victim of this despicable crime because I can recognize her screams. No, among others, it was a newish girl to the college, Christine someone or other.
