Light A Way

Epilogue.

"Do you like clowns?" Truthfully it wasn't the question Charles expected to hear as he tidied papers away which were on his desk. Holding some loose test papers in one hand he turned and looked to the door. Elsie was leaning against it with a notebook in one hand, and a pen hovering above the paper. She looked up slowly when he didn't answer, it seems his answer was going to be tallied down for something. The unknown something caused him to frown. Turning and leaning against the desk he placed the papers to one side and crossed his arms loosely.

"Why?"

"It's nothing to worry about, I swear!" Elsie said while lowering her hands and looking at him honestly. Managing to clip the pen on the notebook, she pushed a hand through her shoulder length hair and moved forwards. Over the years she had decided that though she accepted having short hair, and in part; she believed it did suit her, she did miss having long hair hugely. It had taken about a year for her hair to grow to the length of her chin, after another three to four years it was finally at a length where she was content with it.

Charles looked sceptical, "I still don't believe you." After all, it wouldn't be a first for her to ask him an important question, which was actually disguised as something casual.

"That's because you're paranoid." Elsie promptly said while stopping in front of him. 

"Am not." He pathetically defended himself while pushing away from the desk and taking to cleaning up the space. Honestly, some students were rather messy. Maybe he should invoke a rule where no one was allowed to leave for their next class, until they cleared away their previous mess. He scoffed over the thought while setting a chair right, looking back to Elsie all he received was a raised eyebrow.

"Private joke?" She asked with a growing smile. He did look rather lost within himself as he pottered around.

Shaking his head, and rather speedily ridding it of such an idiotic rule, which would never work, even if it was put in place, he gestured a hand to her. "Clowns?" He simply asked, trying to get the conversation back on track. He hadn't actually found where the topic even came from, and it caused him to grow a little more concerned.

"Ah! Yes, clowns." Elsie said with an enthusiastic clap and waved her notebook at him. "I've been thinking-"

"Knew it." Charles cut her off as he walked back to her.

"What? You never let me finish!" Elsie exclaimed shortly. "I've been asking the students their opinions on this, and they seem to think it sounds quite interesting...that is if I can pull it off." She explained quickly. Be fair there was a fair few students who avoided answering and walked away. But those she spoke to were actually really helpful.

It seemed although feeling altogether safe here, some children, and teenagers, were still on high alert. There had been a few in the past years who wouldn't say a word to another person for months. Slowly but surely though, they'd open up. It was the overly silent ones who were now some of the loudest, weirdly enough. It was like once they got going there was no stopping them. Truthfully, Elsie hated to admit it, they reminded her of herself when she was their age. Even more so when she was only a few years older than some when she first came here. Shaking her head she smiled. Reminiscing was not what she was trying to do with her day. No, she had important stuff to sort out. Such as getting an answer for the clown question. That was truly important.

"If I answer honestly, will you answer why you need to know?"

"An answer for an answer, yeah sure."

Charles looked her over before giving a small shake of his head. "Not really." 

"I'm making them a subject for my dissertation." Like she promised, she answered as truthfully as him.