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“At first I thought it was
sergeant coming to check on us,” my student said.
Military personnel were on duty around clock to supervise boys.
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“S-sss-some,” he stammered.
“Something pulled blanket off his bed,” his roommate finished.
By now, all of boys looked frightened.
“I don’t want to stay here anymore,” said one young man.
“Me, either.”
“I’m calling my mom to tell her to come and get me.”
“Me, too.”
“All right everybody,” I said. “Take a deep breath.”
I waited for them to take a deep breath.
“Now let it out slowly.”
They all did.
“What else happened?”
Other boys described pranks of a similar nature — waking up in middle of night freezing cold, only to discover that their window was wide open when it had been shut and locked hours earlier; math books that had been sitting on their desks when they went to sleep were in bottom of garbage can when they woke up; uniforms were switched so that when they started to get dressed in morning, they discovered they didn’t have their own clothes.
“Hmmm,” I said. “Who do you think would play tricks like that?”
My students considered question for a few moments.
“Well, it kind of sounds like something we would do,” said one young man.
“Hey…it DOES sound like something we would do!”
“You mean you think it’s a real person…?”
“Or is it a ghost, one of those guys that’s buried here…?”
“I think it’s one of us.”
“But even if it’s a ghost, it’s still one of us — a cadet.”
“Yeah, it WOULD be a cadet, wouldn’t it…”
I smiled to myself as they continued their discussion. At least they didn’t seem so frightened anymore.
For rest of fall incidents continued. Then they stopped as abruptly as they had started. Either culprit was afraid he was going to get caught, or else. . .
Wait a minute. You don’t suppose there really WAS a ghost?
Naaa. . .couldn’t be.
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