The pop pop sounded through the ususally quiet halls of Brentwood Academy like a firecracker going off. All the children in Mrs. Macy's second grade class looked up almost in unison from the spelling tests they were taking, including Regina Mcgowan. Nervously the dark haired, blue eyed girl began to chew on the eraser of her pencil. Fire crackers? Who could be setting off firecrackers in the hallway?
It was the Friday before Christmas break. The children were antsy to say the least, ready for the holiday to commence. A tree was set up in one corner of the room with presents residing underneath for each child. Mrs. Macy felt it her duty to make sure each of her students had something to go home with, knowing that her scholarship students were unlikely to get much at home During Christmas every child deserved something to open.
At the odd sound she too looked up from the papers she was grading, her brows furrowed in confusion. Swiftly she rose to her feet and strode toward the closed door. She looked out the window, hoping to find the cause of the disturbance. She saw nothing amiss at first, but still it bothered her. She intructed her students to remain seated, opened the door, and stepped out into the hall. She would find the cause of the sound.
Regina watched her go with trepidation. Something was not right. She could feel it. Though she was only seven, she had an uncanny ability for knowing when something was wrong. Perhaps it was living in a house with a father who was often absent, or a mother who drank just a little too much, but she was certain she could feel the same stale expectation in the air. There was someting bad on it's way.
Suddenly the sound blasted its way through the hallway again, this time accompiened by a woman's scream. Regina jumped as she realized the cause of the sound. Gun shots. Her father, though often absent, was a police officer. She would know that sound anywhere. When he was home he often brought out his guns and would shoot pop cans off the back fence posts. This was the same sound, though louder, the echo more contained in the closed in space of the hallway.
The children all looked at each other fearfully. Was Mrs. Macy all right? Surely she was on her way back.
Suddenly the intercom buzzed to life. It was their princepal, Mrs. Sherwood. In a whisper she instructed the teachers to lock their classroom doors and turn off all the lights. The animal was roaming the halls and they needed to keep it out of the classrooms and away from the children. At this point Mrs. Sherwood began to argue loudly with someone, a boy. By the sound of his voice he couldn't have been older than Regina's older brother Nickolas. He was eighteen and in high school. Angerly the boy accused Mrs. Sherwood of readying the children for corruption. He accused her of preparing lambs for slaughter. When she tried to protest, the pop pop sounded again. Mrs. Sherwood went quiet.
That was the moment Regina would remember all hell breaking loose. Her classmates began to cry, frightened, as the intercom continued to buzz with white noise. Again the gunshots began to sound in the hallway. Regina couldn't take it. She jumped to her feet and ran to the door, clicking the lock into place and flipping off the lights.
"Stop. Do you want him to hear you? Be quiet," she hissed. Everyone looked at her, but did indeed go quiet. They all moved to sit on the floor wordlessly. If they couldn't be seen through the window, perhaps the boy would pass by without trying to come inside.
As the minutes passed they could hear the gunshots getting closer. Other children were screaming. Teachers were begging for the gunman not to hurt their students and then they too would fall silent, the ear cracking sound of a gunshot would be their only answer. Regina slid down the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest,burying her face in her hands. Why was this happening? Why wasn't anyone protecting them?
Suddenly for a moment the gunshots went silent. What sounded like a woman's high-heeled boot clacked across the hallway floor and stopped in front of their door. Regina began to pray fervently the door would stay locked and keep them all safe. Against all reason, the door opened. Regina looked up fearfully as a woman stepped inside and closed the door behind her, clicking the lock back into place.
She was dressed in the oddest way Regina had ever seen. She was wearing a long blue coat with bright brass buttons and a black hat with cherries and daisy's affixed to the brim. Her hair was pulled back into a lovely efficent bun, and she carried the funniest looking umbrella Regina had ever seen with her. A parrot's head made up the handle. She was easily the loveliest woman Regina had ever seen. She was struck by how the woman seemed to glow, like the sun shining on freshly fallen snow. Instantly she trusted her.
Quickly the woman sprang into action. She sat her umbrella down on Mrs. Macy's desk and began to walk about the room, soothing each child with kind words and reasurrances. The crying stopped. All of children stared at the woman in hopeful rapture. Who was she? How had she managed to get inside without getting hurt?
For a long moment it seemed as though the woman hadn't noticed Regina sitting by the door. Finally she turned and beamed a radiant smile at the seven year old. She strode over and knelt down on her level. Regina felt all the air drain out of her body. This woman was going to speak to her.
"Hello Regina," the woman breathed and ran a hand over Regina's head, smoothing her flyaway curls.
"How do you know my name? Are you an angel?" Regina asked, confounded by the arresting visitor. Her voice was deliberate and high brow. She recognized the accent as British from the TV.
"No Dear. Nothing so nice as that. I'm here to make sure you all get outside safely. Are you all right?" She asked. Regina nodded wordlessly, captivated. "You did well to lock the door and turn off the lights. You were very brave. Are you frightened now?" she asked. Regina nodded again. "Don't be. I'm not going to let anything happen to you or any of your classmates. Are you ready to go?" She stood up and offered Regina her hand. Regina rose to her feet as well and placed her hand in the woman's white gloved one. She felt a gentle warmth spread through her body. It really was going to be all right now.
The woman walked over to the window and waved her free hand over the lock. Though they were welded shut, the window blew open. Regina could smell the cold air and the wintery grass. The woman let go of her hand and retreated to the desk to retrieve her umbrella. The other children began to crawl out of the window at the woman's instructions. Regina waited as each of her friends made it out and into the parking lot, her eyes still staring at the woman busying herself with the brass buttons on her coat.
"Who are you?" the little girl breathed. The woman looked at her and smiled gently.
"My name is Mary. You had best follow your friends. I'll be right behind you. Spit spot," she ordered. Regina nodded and crawled out the window, running swiftly behind her friends into the parking lot.
To her surprise, her father was already there with the other police officers, his uniform shiny and freshly pressed. When he saw her, he ran to her, pulling her into his arms and hugging her tightly. She saw a single tear run down his face, his lips moving in a silent prayer of thanks that his little girl was safe. He hugged her once more, and then sat her down. They had to go inside and stop this. She waited with the other children, her eyes still locked on the ground floor window, waiting for Mary to emerge. She never did.
An hour later her father wrapped her in a blanket and began to ask her what had happened. She told him how the gun had sounded through the hallway, how Mrs. Macy had gone to find the cause of the noise and never returned, how Mrs. Sherwood had argued with the nameless boy and then gone quiet. When she got to the point about the mysterious woman named Mary he had stopped her suddenly confused.
"What woman?" he asked. He couldn't seem to stop hugging her.
"The woman who opened the window for us. She came in and made sure everyone was okay before letting us out the window. She said she would be right behind me, but she never came out. You must have passed her in the hall Daddy. Where is she?" He only hugged Regina closer and wordlessly he thanked whatever being had been looking out for his daughter and her classmates that day. He had looked at the security footage. There was no woman that matched Regina's description on the tapes. The only thing caught on camera was a blinding shaft of white light that seemed to blow the window open and then all of the children had piled out. Only Regina and her classmates had seen her, this woman they all called Mary.