Wisps of Wisdom

by Ross Richdale

  *

  A somewhat bashful looking Sandra met Karla at the school car park. Also waiting there were Tena Prescott and another woman that Tena introduced as Molly Coull.

  "We found out one thing," Sandra said.

  "And that was?" Karla replied without even attempting to hide her annoyance with her deputy.

  "Dean and Shane's bags are still in their lockers. I used a master key to open them. Wouldn't they have taken them if they intended to leave school?"

  "Possibly," Karla retorted but relented for it served no good to continue to blame Sandra. She was obviously as distressed as the two parents her accompanied her. "What else have you found out?" she continued in a softer tone.

  "I called a few of their friends but nobody had seen them since the last morning period. Rosemary, that's one of the girls that hangs around with them a little, did say that yesterday she saw the pair looking at that tree that crashed through the back fence. When she asked Dean about it yesterday afternoon he said they found something but was none of her business." Sandra shrugged. "Rosemary is a little like them in personality. They're really quite good friends but pretend not to be."

  Tena nodded. "That's probably right. Dean has mentioned her a few times. I think he's quite taken with her but says she’s a pain at times. You know boys his age who'd rather fantasise about the more popular outgoing girls than the quiet ones like themselves?"

  "Okay. We'll start there," Karla said

  It was now after six thirty but there would still be a couple of hours of daylight on this late spring day. The tree in question was still across the fence and there had been no attempt to have it cut up or the fence repaired. Karla frowned for she would have had the groundsman fix it straight away rather than leave it since the storm of four days before. She said nothing, though as they walked up to the tree.

  There was certainly evidence of the bows being pulled aside and in one damp spot she saw a footprint.

  "Karla," Sandra called. "Look across on the other side of that slip. Isn't that a door connected to a drainage tunnel of some sort?"

  Karla pushed a branch aside and joined her companion. Sandra was right. Tucked in the middle of the slip was an old wooden door hinged to a concrete drain. It was closed but it looked as if one side was half rotten and had been pulled away for pieces lay on the ground beneath the tree bows. She stepped forward and peered into darkness. There was a concrete tunnel there. The air smelt musty and the concrete itself was blackened with age. At the base of the door were a couple of footprints facing it and all around, smaller branches had been bent away or snapped off and tossed aside.

  "They've been here," Karla said and turned to Sandra. "Thanks. You did well."

  Her DP gave her a small smile. "After stuffing everything else up earlier in the day, it's the least I could do. I'm sorry, Karla."

  Karla smiled back. Perhaps she had been too harsh on her. "No, if you hadn't thought of calling Rosemary we would never have guessed they came over here. That was good thinking."

  "So what do we do now?" Sandra asked.

  "Something has happened to them so we need help from professionals. I'm going to call the police."

  "I already did that," Tena said. "They were very polite but said that unless there was an accident or evidence of foul play they wouldn't be following it up for twenty-four hours."

  "Did they?" Karla said. "Well we have that now, don't we?"

  She reached for her school mobile that already had the local police station number on memory. "Good afternoon," she said when it was answered. "This is Karla Spicer, principal of Joseph Ward Junior High School speaking. We have an emergency situation at the school and I wish to speak to your most senior watchtower officer present."

  A moment later a male voice spoke. "Inspector Phillip Te Kahu speaking, Mrs Spicer. How can I help?"

  Karla explained everything.

  "You were right in deciding not to enter the tunnel, Mrs Spicer. I shall get an officer and dog handler to you as soon as possible and contact other experts who can help. Someone will be with you within a quarter of an hour."

  Only ten minutes later she heard sirens and a police car and utility vehicle arrived, drove across the field and pulled up beside them. Two police officers climbed out of the car while another two walked to the back of the utility and opened the door. An Alsatian dog jumped out and ran up to one officer.

  "I am Sergeant John Lennox and this is Wanda, my dog. She's a tracking expert. Which one of you ladies is Mrs Karla Spicer?" the dog handler said.

  Karla stepped forward, introduced her companions and in turn was introduced to the other officers.

  "Leave it to us. If the boys are inside this tunnel, we'll find them," Sergeant Lennox said after the police officers inspected the entrance and asked them all the details about what had happened.

  Three officers changed into safety gear including helmets with inbuilt flashlights, waterproof coats and tramping boots while the fourth said that he would wait with them at the entrance. Using an axe and crowbar, the three soon had the door smashed open and stepped inside. Karla watched the lights from their helmets until they disappeared around a bend in the tunnel ahead and the lights disappeared.

  She turned and smiled at the constable remaining, a young guy in his early twenties. "Thanks for coming so quickly," she said. "It's been a worrying time for us all."

  "That's okay, Mrs Spicer," he replied. "As the sarge said, if the boys are in there Wanda will find them. She's one of our top search and rescue dogs."

  *

  Unlike the door that they had discovered in the slip, this one had not rotted and was built of solid native timber. Dean had now resorted to trying to push the pins of the hinges out with the pliers and screwdriver that he had bought with him. Starting on the bottom of three hinges, he managed to twist back the metal a little with the screwdriver so there was enough room for the pliers to grip and edge out. With the bottom hinge detached he was now working on the middle one. With it broken, he hoped that they could pull the door back without having to remove the top one. It was slow work, though so every so often he swapped with Shane who held the torch.

  Shane was thoroughly miserable and made only a half-hearted attempt at plying the hinge open before Dean took over again.

  "It's hopeless," Shane muttered. "And the torch is getting dimmer. Reckon the batteries will give out soon. What's the time anyway?"

  "After half-past six. Mum will be looking for me by now."

  "Not mine. Sometimes I go to Dad's and don't always get home until seven," Shane muttered. "Anyway, who would find us in here?"

  "So it's up to us. I've just about got this hinge off." This one was proving hard for he couldn't get enough metal protruding to grip on with the pliers. To make it worse he had gouged himself with the screwdriver and the handkerchief he'd wrapped around the wound was soaked in blood. "Can you do a bit?"

  Shane sighed but swapped while Dean sat back and rewound the handkerchief while at the same time held the torch in his wounded hand. He frowned for the light was certainly weaker. At their rate of progress it would be at least another hour before they could get through the door. He looked down and saw a line of light under the door.

  "Shane," he called. "The lights out there have gone on!"

  Shane stopped and stared at the line of light. "Looks like it but how?"

  "Who knows? Perhaps there was some sort of time switch..."

  "But somebody would still have to turn it on," Shane gasped. "There must be someone out there." He began shouting and thumping on the door.

  Dean took a more pragmatic approach and shone the torch around. Yes, as he had thought, a light switch was just inside the door. When he switched it on, lights all along their tunnel came on, bathing them in almost dazzling light.

  Shane turned and grinned. His face was covered in streaks of dirt and his yellow jersey was also grimy. "You look a mess," he said.

  "Yeah, you could do with a shower yourself."

&nb
sp; With their spirits up, even the stubborn hinge didn't seem so bad now.

  "Stop!" Shane said a moment later. "Listen!"

  Dean, who had been banging the hinge with the screwdriver handle, stopped and frowned. Something was scratching along the base of the door.

  It stopped and he was sure he heard a muffled bark. "We're here!" he shouted. "We're stuck behind the door."

  Shane joined in the shouting as they both stood back and watched the door. It was swinging in!

  A large dog squeezed in the partly opened door followed by a man with a yellow helmet and jacket. He was in a uniform. My God, it was a policeman!

  "Hi there, boys," the policeman said with a grin across his face as he patted the dog. "This is Wanda who found you. Your mums are waiting outside. This is a silly place to spend the night, don't you think?"

  *

  Dean followed Shane out into the cavern to where two more policemen in their helmets and coats stood grinning at them.

  "I'm John," the policeman they first saw said. "With me are Andy and Colin. You two are Dean and Shane but which of you is which?"

  Dean spoke up and nodded over at his friend before asking. "How did you know where to come?

  John grinned. "Oh we put two and two together but it was the girlfriend who guessed where you might be."

  "What girlfriend?" Dean asked.

  "I think her name's Rosemary. She saw you two over here yesterday."

  Dean felt his face burn and was going to protest that she was not a girlfriend but just a pain in the butt who kept annoying them. However he caught Shane's eyes and grin. "Rosemary," he said instead. "Yes, she's a good sort."

  "You're a lucky guy," Colin said. "If she hadn't noticed you yesterday, I doubt if your principal would have come over to this side of the football field."

  "Our principal?" Shane gasped. "Did she come back to look for us."

  "Yes, she's up there with your mums." John said. "I heard that nothing at Joseph Ward Junior High escapes her knowledge."

  Dean stared at Shane whose grin became a worried look. He had never been in trouble with Mrs Spicer before but knew that even the toughest guys or hoity-toity girls in the school treated her with respect.

  As one of the biggest guys in their class had said only a week before. "If Whitey roars, you might take notice but if Karla stares directly at you with her icy blue eyes, man you're really in deep trouble! I reckon she could freeze the prime minister with that gaze."

  Dean's thoughts were interrupted by Wanda, who sort of crouched down, stared straight ahead and gave a low growl.

  John turned to her. "What is it, Girl?"

  The dog looked up at him but remained slunk down with her tail dragging on the ground.

  "We should go?"

  Wanda sprung to her feet, gave a small yelp and headed to the other door that was about ten metres away.

  "Come on," John said. "Wanda knows something and wants us out of here. Let's go!"

  Dean with Shane right behind him, followed John at a fast pace while the other two policemen came up the rear. He recognised the tunnel and even noticed the piece of ticked pad paper by the stairs they had come down. The lights continued to glow but appeared much duller than earlier.

  The policemen were fit but Dean was heaving as they climbed the stairs. Shane appeared worse and was gasping and bathed in perspiration by the time they reached the second landing.

  "Keep going, Lad," a policeman from behind them said. "We're just about there!"

  There it was! Dean could see the sky outside and the pine tree bows. He stepped out, grabbed a bow held aside for him by Andy and pushed his way through.

  He jumped in fright for there was an ear-shuddering report; he felt a rush of hot air behind and was thrown by an unknown force right across the grass ahead. He hit the ground and managed to turn to see flames roaring across above his head like a horizontal furnace followed by another roar, like an Aussie jet fighter at a recent air show he had recently attended.

  This was followed by black smoke that poured out of the door they had just left.

  Oh hell, the whole place had blown up!

  *

  To Karla, in some ways it was like the car accident all over again. She was chatting to the constable when she saw John and the dog appear. The police sergeant said something to the dog who ran forward twenty metres or more before squatting down, John held back the tree bows and she saw the boys and policemen appear.

  Suddenly, the ground shook, there was a muffled boom and orange flames shot out of the door mere metres above the boys and policemen's heads as they were thrown off their feet onto the grass. This was probably what saved them for flames shot over their heads before sort of being sucked back. There was a second boom and putrid black smoke poured out of the entrance and towered into the air over them. Debris whistled over and landed in the grass with several pieces of burning wood starting small fires in the dry grass.

  She was on her feet and over by the boys but not before both mothers had grabbed their sons and held them in tight hugs. Karla turned and saw the policemen were all on their feet and John was patting his dog while Sandra just sat there looking confused.

  John came across to her. "Wanda saved us, Mrs Spicer," he said. "She knew the place was going to go. I've learnt to trust her completely."

  "What caused it Sergeant?" she asked.

  "Who knows? Perhaps there was a spark when the lights came on that ignited a fuse, vibrations caused by the boys who were banging on a door they were stuck behind or even our footprints may have shaken a brittle fuse. The cave below was filled with live torpedoes, probably from the Second World War but there could have also been other explosives packed in the shelves. When one ignited it would have set the rest off like a giant fireworks gone crazy."

  As he spoke there was another tremendous boom, more flames shot out of the door and black smoke engulfed them. Like the others, Karla had a coughing spasm, her eyes smarted and she was sure she could smell her own scolding hair. She turned when she heard another rumble and felt the earth shake again

  Across from them all, the ground cracked in a massive circle across the cricket pitch. Starting in the middle it sunk, straight down with the sides tumbling in like an inverted cone with grass and soil sliding into the middle. It all happened so quickly that if anyone had been there they would have been buried alive.

  The fire suddenly stopped hissing out of the door, the black smoke turned to brown and afterwards white, followed by nothing but a sort of hissing fog.

  John was beside her. "It's collapsed in on itself, Mrs Spicer. I'm no expert but I believe that the cave and tunnels have collapsed and suffocated the explosions."

  "And Wanda saved all your lives, today?"

  "Yes. This is the second time she has saved my life." He grimaced and rubbed his chin. "I'll tell you about the first, sometime."

  Karla smiled at him. "I'd be interested in hearing about it John. Thank you for finding our boys. Just look at them and their mothers."

  The two mothers were still clutching their boys.

  John nodded. "Yes, this is when my job is all worthwhile. So many times it doesn't end up so successfully, you know. Wanda will be given that little extra bit of steak tonight."

  He rubbed the dog's ears, shook Karla's hand and walked away to talk to his constables. She was about to join the mothers and the boys but decided to talk to Sandra who still just stood there with an almost vacant look in her eyes.

  "It's okay, Sandra," she said and hugged her.

  "I let you down," Sandra almost sobbed. "I should have immediately followed up the report that the two boys were absent from afternoon periods but instead I did nothing. I just assumed nothing was wrong when it was."

  "And nine times out of ten nothing would have been wrong," Karla replied. "It was an accident and one waiting to happen at any time. Imagine what it would have been like if this explosion and sink-hole had happened five hours ago when the field was filled with our kids durin
g one of the syndicate's sports afternoon?"

  Sandra nodded and stood up. "I must get across and see how the boys are doing."

  "Yes," Karla replied. "And later would you like to have a coffee down at the mall? It'll be my shout."

  Sandra smiled. "I'd like that," she whispered. "What a day from hell this has been."

  *

  CHAPTER 19

  Karla called Jon and closed the school the following day. By nine the place was swarming with military and civilian personnel with all manner of electronic equipment in use. A mechanical driller rumbled in beside the crater and began drilling into the soil. By mid-afternoon, a man who introduced himself as a geology expert attached to the Auckland University declared that the area was safe and the school could reopen the next day. However, the field should remain off limits as the sinkhole was unstable and could sink further especially after the heavy rain that was predicted that evening.

  He also stated that electronic probes had found no trace of unexploded material or any active burning beneath the surface. It appeared that the cavern and tunnels had all collapsed and suffocated the initial explosion. Once the sinkhole had been stabilised it could be filled with rocks and topsoil before being planted in grass.

  Dean and Shane’s parents were appreciative of their sons’ rescue and Sandra was so remorseful that Karla decided it was of no value to reprimand anybody and treated the whole incident as an accident and narrowly avoided tragedy. It was only with Ryan that she discussed the strengths and weaknesses of her deputy principals.

  "I think it's that part about being on Trade me in school time that has made me weary of Sandra," she said a few days later. "More so than her inaction when the boys were reported absent from their afternoon classes."

  "And why is that?"

  Karla pouted. "Sort of a trust thing. I gave her every opportunity to tell me she was on the site without actually telling her we knew about it but she clammed up. What if something else serious happens at school when she is acting principal? Will she just try to hide it?"