Pacifiers

Chapter 2

We took a plane to Providence and from there it was a four-hour drive to Scamperville. I was restless and flabbergasted and hence couldn’t sleep for most of the car ride and was just looking out of the window, waiting for a sign to indicate “Elsa Hope boarding school up ahead.”

When the board for scamperville appeared, I’d be honest. The place was not what I had expected. It was strangely empty and kind of barren. All I saw upto EH was around 30-40 houses, a few shops and diners and petrol pump. It was as if I had come to the most non-happening place in the world.

“A boring place for a boring person. Great.” I muttered to myself.

“Are you sure you want to study here?” asked my dad

“Yes dad. If the town is like this that doesn’t mean that the boarding school is the same. What I saw in the pictures pasted in grandpa’s diaries, sure tells me that it is an amazing place.”

My parents looked sympathetically at me as if saying,” She is such a naïve person.”

5 mins later we came to these huge iron gates. The security guards were strangely behaving as if on military duty. One of them came up to us and said,” What is it that you desire?”

I was taken back. Who says “What you desire” these days? My dad replied saying,” This is the Elsa Hope boarding school right? My daughter is a student here, starting this academic session.”

The guard looked at us for a few seconds, which seemed like hours and then said, “You may proceed.”

“What a strange way of talking”, murmured my mother, voicing my thoughts.

The gates open and what we saw was beyond imagination. It was better in reality than in the pictures. My eyes were fixed on the school which was  a Victorian style castle but I could still feel the mouths of my parents drop.

“Wow!” we all exclaimed.

The driver stopped the car at the main entrance to the school where a royal purple carpet had been laid. We took out my suitcases and went inside. There were chandeliers all over the place with beautiful carvings and photographs laced on the walls. All this reminded me of a movie that I had seen set in the 1800s and I was just expecting to see people or rather teachers and other staff dressed up as queens and kings and noblemen of that era.

Just then a woman who was probably in her 40s wearing horn rimmed spectacles came up to us and said,” Please leave your suitcases here and proceed to the auditorium for the initial orientation.” We did as she said and all along the way the beauty of the place enthralled me. Some people might find it eerie but not me. There were many people bustling about, teachers parents and students alike moving to the auditorium.

Just before moving into the audi something or rather someone caught my eye. On the door of the small room hidden next to the auditorium was an old man sitting and crying on the floor. He looked up at me and I don’t know whether I was hallucinating or it really happened, but I saw him mouth the word, “Beware” to me.

“Scarlet, what happened? Lets go.” asked my concerned mother.

“Nothing, I was just distracted for a second.”

The hall was gigantic with a huge stage and hundreds of chairs put for the guests. We picked up 3 seats in the 7th row and waited for the orientation to begin.

After a few mins the most elegant lady that I had ever seen in my life dressed in a red shirt with a black skirt and jacket, with her brown her tied up in a neat bun came up on the stage and began speaking.

“Welcome all to the Elsa Hope Boarding School. I, Davina Schuster, the principal of Elsa Hope  would request all the parents and students to take their seats for delay is something that we don’t preach and practice here.”