Chapter Eight
The Dark Shadow of Jasper
The door of Ms. Waffler’s classroom burst open, and the students poured into the hallway. The final bell always triggered a tremendous amount of excitement and happiness for the children of Hollow Oak Elementary. It signaled the commencement of much play and frivolity, in those hours that immediately followed the school day. There was much laughter, and hooting, and hollering, as they scrambled about the hallway, clutching at their backpacks and textbooks.
Among that sea of students were Neil, Jack, and Sara. They soon found Sara’s sister, Maria, who was a grade beneath them, and in another class. Together, the four friends (and teammates on the Green Beans) mingled among the hundreds of children that ambled about the hallways of the elementary school. They were surrounded by the sounds of animated talking, horseplay, and locker doors slamming open and closed.
The Beans remained close to one another as they traversed the hallway, discussing their plans. Now that class was complete, they were free to openly converse with each other about Lefty’s Manor, and the further investigation that it clearly required.
During lunch and recess, Neil and Jack had filled the sisters in on the events of the previous evening, including the exciting encounter with Titus, and the warning that he had delivered. The story immediately filled the girls with curiosity, and they were just as eager as the boys to explore the mysteries of Lefty’s laboratory.
Strange noises in the basement? Arcs of lightning? Wayward critters in the treetops?
“How,” Maria had asked, “could we possibly resist?”
They did not have a chance to discuss their plans for long, however. For it was during this normally jubilant ritual that heralded the end of the school day, in which a dastardly man known as the ultimate party pooper made his presence felt.
A solid wooden door was located in the hallway. It was a door that had been polished to a high shine, and its heavy hinges were built from bright brass. It was a door that the children of the school had learned to grant a wide berth, when passing by. For you see, they had learned to avoid the burly inhabitant who often lurked on the other side of this particular door. A large, brass placard was fastened with bolts to the center of it. Written upon the placard in capital letters was but a single word: JANITOR.
And it was this particular door that suddenly burst open, crashing and clanging as it did so. It boomed open with a sound like thunder in a valley, as a hefty palm shoved it from the inside.
The schoolchildren immediately took note, and scurried from the hallway. Those closest to the door when it had opened squealed in terror before fleeing, leaving behind dropped sheets of paper, which slowly drifted to the floor.
The Beans were just passing by the door when it crashed open. It was quite startling, and though their first impulse was to skedaddle like the other children, they held their ground.
The silhouette of an enormous figure filled the doorway. Broad shoulders stretched from one side of the entrance to the other, and the giant man nearly had to stoop down, to avoid striking his head.
Loosing a bellow that was more fitted to an ogre than a human being, the figure came forth from the shadows of the doorway. He rumbled, and bumbled, and grumbled as he went, glowering at the schoolchildren who were scrambling about.
It was Jasper: school janitor, father to Jebediah and Cletus, and all-around evildoer.
In a matter of seconds, the hundreds of children who had filled the hallway were gone. The previously boisterous place became still. Even Jebediah and Cletus had engaged in a hasty retreat. It went without saying… you did not mess with Jasper.
The Beans, however, remained where they stood. Although startled by the sudden (and rather noisy) appearance of Jasper, they held their ground.
Like the students that had fled, the Beans were also wary of this most fiendish of foes. But they would not run from him. Dread him, they might, but they also projected upon the janitor a spry defiance that he found downright exasperating.
Jasper had always treated them unfairly, and he routinely used his size, appearance, and dark demeanor to intimidate all children. But these four… Jasper could not rattle them, and it irked the janitor to no end.
Not long ago, the Beans had caught Jasper in the act of committing dastardly deeds, and confronted him. Though it was Jack’s dad who had ended up receiving the punishment for what Jasper had done, they had sent him a clear message, nonetheless. They would stand up to him… no matter what.
Jasper turned toward the Beans. He glowered down at the four of them, and his face contorted into a fiendish snarl. He loomed above, and his considerable shadow engulfed the whole lot of them.
“Well… well… well…” Jasper said slowly. He rotated the mahogany broom that was clutched in his hand. “And what do we have here?”
The Green Beans, Volume 2: The Strange Genius of Lefty O'Houlihan Page 8