FOREVER CLEAN

This is the story of a normal school set in a normal town in Northwest England. 

Well! I say normal in the sense that everything is at it should be..Such as two hundred pupils of mixed gender one headmaster, eight full time teachers and two part time support teachers. 

Paxton high school consists of two buildings one housing the main hall, classrooms and gymnasium, headmaster’s office, staff room etc and the other building was solely used as a canteen with a small annex. 

The headmaster in charge of this fine bastion of learning is called Mr Stump, Colin to you and I, Grumpy Stumpy to the kids and staff members not agreeing to his policies at the time.

 The headmaster’s trusty lieutenants were Miss Cole (Maths and PE) Miss Briggs (Science) Mr Pollet (Music and Drama) Mr Hunt (Art) Miss Baxter (Social Studies and Geography) Mr Elliot (English) Miss Conner (Languages) Mr Sucliff (History) the two support teachers were deployed in and around these subjects when and where needed. 

There 'is' one staff member who I haven’t mentioned yet and who just happens to be the star of the show, so to speak. (The Care Taker, Bob Crowther)

 

Bob was something of an icon at the school a legend even. 

Bob had been the caretaker since 1932 when the school first opened and rumour had it that when the local Mayor cut the ribbon and the school was officially declared open, Bob Crowther was already inside cleaning away, even though nobody could recollect ever employing him all those years ago! 

In fact no one knew an awful lot about Bob, he kept himself to himself and you were lucky to get one word out of him let alone a whole sentence. 

In fact the only time Bob did actually use that thing in his head called a tongue, was at the end of every evening and just as he was about to lock up, Bob would look back at the gleaming floor of the main hall and say four little words, “as good as new.” 

Another amazing statistic about old Bob as the headmaster affectionately called him, was in all the time Bob Crowther had been at the school he never missed, he never had one day off for illness and the school never in 76 years went a day without being cleaned. 

The local education board wanted to honour Bob, but Bob would always politely decline using the excuse why should he be rewarded when it was his job to keep the school clean..The truth of the matter was, Bob shunned the spot light and would rather be left alone to his beloved cleaning. 

*****

May 2013 and news came through that Paxton high school was to close its doors on the 16th July 2014..

The reasons were varied, the building was very old and the land around the school wasn’t adequate enough to develop and mergers with other schools seemed to be in vogue with the powers that be. 

In fact Paxton was to have a brand new name, called (The New Charter Academy for Education and study) 

There was mixed reaction from the staff and pupils on hearing the news but everyone accepted that progression was necessary and inevitable and what would be would be, all except one!  

Bob Crowther stared at Mr Stump as if he’d just been informed a family member had passed away and repeatedly kept mumbling the word “closing?”

 

 The Head felt genuinely sorry for Bob and knew the significance of what this news meant to the old Boy, he tried to make light of it, though he didn’t think it would do any good. 

“Come on Bob, cheer up,its not until next year and think of it this way, you’ll finally be able to put your feet up after all those years of cleaning and scrubbing.” 

Bob just carried on murmuring the word, “closing” to himself whilst wearing a hangdog look. 

******

One week later, it was a beautiful Wednesday morning to be exact; Mr Stump had just armed the alarm on his car, when Miss Conner and Mr Sucliff came running towards him.

Both teachers looked terrified and Colin Stump noticed straight away that Miss Conner had been crying.

Before the teachers reached him, Colin had fleeting visions of floodwater cascading through the ceiling or an irate door sized Neanderthal wanting to know why the apple of his eye had been excluded, however, it was none of the above.

The head met them both with a smile and cheerfully said; “well this is a first I’m usually through the door before the fun starts.”

Miss Conner began blubbering again and Mr Sucliff had an extremely serious expression on his face. 

“I think you better come and have a look at this,” said the shocked history teacher. 

“That bad eh,” said the head, who wasn’t smiling anymore, Colin’s sixth sense (every teacher has one to survive) told him something pretty bad had happened, however nothing prepared him for what he was about to see!!

The head and his two charges walked briskly over to the small Annex situated next to the school canteen..

As they were about to enter the Annex, Colin, noticed Miss Conner had stayed outside, “you ok? Said a now concerned Headmaster..Miss Conner just stared at Colin and shaking her head said,” there’s no way am I going in there.” 

That remark alone made the simple task of entering a room feel like scaling a two hundred foot pole covered in grease.

As the two men cautiously entered the Annex, Colin Stump suddenly glanced at Mr Sucliff and whispered, “where’s old Bob?”

The still shocked looking history teacher stared toward a partially open door and slowly lifted his left hand up to point at it.

The Head stared back at Mr Sucliff, then suddenly marched towards the caretakers broom cupboard, “Bob! Bob, are you in there?” 

As Colin swiftly opened the door he froze, just as if a witch had cast a spell on him.

 “Holy Mother of Mary” Cried the Head. 

“By the way,” said Mr Sucliff, “I don’t think he heard you..” He was right, Bob Crowther hadn’t left the building, well, not in body, because there, right in front of them was the school caretaker, or should I say ex school caretaker and he was as dead as a Dodo!

It was a shock in its self to actually discover someone dead; however the sight before them was too just bizarre to say the least.

Bob had died sat upright in his chair holding a mop in one hand and a bucket in the other, the crazy thing was, they were still in his hands.. Mr Sucliff whispered into the Head’s ear again and said, “the undertaker’s going to need pliers to get them out,” Colin Stump just nodded almost hypnotically.

He’d heard Mr Sucliff but he was too caught up on staring at old Bob’s face, Bob was wearing the most grotesque smile and what made it even more bizarre was the factBob’s eyes were still open and now a milky white and to be quite honest, the grisly visage before them was bloody terrifying. 

Colin Stump had had enough.. “Have you called the Police and ambulance,” He said to Mr Sucliff?

“No I wanted to wait for you first; I knew the old boy was dead so I guessed an ambulance wouldn’t do any good.” 

Colin Stump took control of the situation and gave instructions to make sure none of the kids saw poor old Bob and the Head also sent Miss Conner home, she wasn’t in any fit state to teach after seeing the grinning cadaver inside the Annex.

The headmaster made arrangements for old Bob’s funeral, as far as he knew Bob hadn’t any immediate family, in fact Colin Stump didn’t even know where Bob lived..Another rumour doing the rounds was that old Bob didn’t have a home and that he actually lived in the school.. He’d heard of people commenting that lights had been seen on in the school at one in the morning also mysterious clanging noises like the sound of a mop bucket.

 

The Head finished making the funeral arrangements, then made plans to honour Bob as in a special remembrance service in the main hall, involving of course the whole of the school. 

Two weeks after the demise of old Bob the normality I mentioned at the beginning of this story disappeared and so began a period of utter madness that would change Colin Stump's life forever!

******

 

The Head was in his office when there came a knock upon the door.. “Come in”, said Colin Stump.. A large chap entered wearing a high visibility jacket and carrying a yard brush.

The man with the brush sat down in front of Colin and said, “Is this someone’s idea of a bloody joke?”

“Excuse me,” replied the Head with a quizzical expression on his face, the man carried on. “You rang Paxton cleaning services and contracted us to clean the school, is that correct?” 

The Head still with a bemused expression on his face answered in the affirmative. “Well I’ve been here four days now and every single morning I’ve opened the school up at 7am, well,” the man paused while he scratched his balding head.

“Go on,” urged a suddenly interested Headmaster, the cleaner continued..“Well its just, I don’t really know how to say this but, the school didn’t need cleaning, in fact it was bloody spotless.”

Colin Stump suddenly sat upright and was now giving this cleaner his undivided attention. “What do you mean the school didn’t need cleaning,”replied Colin? “Exactly that,” answered the cleaner and he stood up, “come on, I’ll show you.”

The two men walked around the school, first the gymnasium, then the various classrooms and lastly the main hall, which were all absolutely spotless.

It was Colin’s turn to scratch his head now and he spoke again to the cleaning man.. “You’ve been here four days and you haven’t done any cleaning?”

“Nope,” answered the cleaner emphatically, “in fact the nearest I’ve come to cleaning is picking this brush up,” both men stared at the large yard brush.

 

“Then how the hell has the school stayed clean,” said a now rather worried Headmaster? “Search me replied the cleaner, you’ve either got really well trained kids who don’t make a mess which is bloody unlikely or you must have a mystery cleaner who comes in, in the middle of the night.”

 

Colin Stump just shook his head, what the hell was going on here? The school was spotless and if what this chap from Paxton cleaning services said was correct then something really weird was going on and Colin Stump was determined to get to the bottom of it.

He spoke again to the cleaner and said, “I’ll tell you what, I personally will meet you at the entrance to the school 7am tomorrow and we will both go in together how’s that?”

“Suits me,” replied the cleaner..“Who ever it is I owe em a pint and I’ll tell you something else,” he looked right into Colin’s eyes and said, “call me strange, but its like the old geezer who used to clean here as never been away.”

That remark momentarily brought back flashing images of the dead grinning caretaker into Colin’s head and he shuddered slightly. 

“Someone walk over your grave,” remarked the cleaner who himself was now grinning?

“Something like that,” replied the Head and turned to leave the hall and carry on with his day.

Before he left the school that evening Colin Stump embarked on the same tour he’d made earlier in the day with the cleaning guy and saw for himself the litter, smudge marks on windows, stains on walls and floors..The usual mess made on a daily basis in the average school and just as Colin was about to exit the building he could have sworn he heard the sound of a mop bucket being placed on the floor!  

 

 *****

 

A silver BMW crunched its way over some loose stones, then stopped. 

Colin Stump glanced at his watch and saw that it was five to seven; he looked around, then saw a green and white Ford van with the logo KEEPING PAXTON CLEAN emblazoned on the side.

The Head waited for the cleaner to exit his vehicle then jumped out of the beamer and set the alarm. “Mornin,” said the cleaning man,

“Good morning,” returned the head,

“Shall we see if the mystery cleaner’s been in again,” chirped the cleaner?”

“I can assure you,” said Colin, glancing toward the school, “that place was a complete mess when I left it last night,” he inserted his key into the front door and deactivated the alarm “and there shouldn’t be any logical reason why it still.”

Colin Stump froze again, just like he did three weeks ago on discovering the corpse of old Bob.

“I told you,” said an equally amazed cleaner, “this’s the fifth bleedin time now and if you ask me, someone somewhere’s yanking your chain headmaster.” 

The two stupefied men walked round the school, covering every room and everywhere was as clean as a whistle, no rubbish anywhere, no scuff marks on the floors or the walls. 

Colin Stump scratched his head again and said out loud to no one in particular, “that’s it; I’m calling the Police.”

The cleaner began laughing and Colin Stump, rounded on him asking what was so amusing?

“Think about it,” said the cleaner, “when the Bobbies arrive what are you going to tell em? Excuse me officer we’ve had a break in, oh really sir and what’s been taken? Nothing as far as I know, but they’ve done a bleedin good job on the cleaning.”

 

 Colin suddenly realised that the cleaner was right, it would sound really crazy and he would probably get a ticking off for wasting Police time.

 “I see what you mean,” Colin said..“Listen,” if you want my advice,” replied the cleaner, “I’d change all the locks and the alarm codes and see what happens after that, you are aware the firm will still bill you even though I haven’t actually done anything.”

The Head was about to question this and then realised it wasn’t the cleaner’s fault the school was being cleaned albeit in mysterious circumstances.

Colin nodded and assured the cleaning guy he would make immediate plans to have all the locks changed and would again meet him outside the school entrance first thing Monday morning.

Later 'that' morning a lock smith arrived and duly changed all the locks and handed Colin a brand new set of keys, shortly after that, the alarm company arrived and reconfigured the alarm system.

 

Friday evening and satisfied that adequate measures had been taken Colin Stump set the alarm and locked the entrance door with the new keys, he smiled to himself, if someone had been using the original keys and sneaking in to the school in the dead of night, though Colin couldn’t understand why, well, they wouldn’t be doing it anymore, HE was the only one with the keys.

*****

 

Monday morning 06.51 and a green and white cleaning van pulled up alongside a silver BMW in the car park of Paxton high school.

 Colin Stump had a smug look of satisfaction on his face this time and jubilantly jangled the brand new bunch of keys at the cleaner from Paxton cleaning services. “Crunch time,” smiled a nervous looking cleaner,

“Don’t worry, as from today “YOU” will actually be doing the job I’m paying you to do,” smiled back Colin.

The Head inserted the new keys into the main door and deactivated the alarm using the new codes.

Both men stood rigid and neither one of them spoke for at least two whole minutes. 

The cleaner was the first to talk and there was genuine fear in his voice this time. “Do you believe in Ghost’s Headmaster?” A stunned Colin Stump just stared into the main hall and particularly at the gleaming floor.

Again the tour of inspection round the school and again, spotless!

“I strongly suggest you get to the bottom of this,” said the cleaner, “because I ain’t setting foot back in here until you do.”

 

With that parting comment the cleaner departed, at rather a rate of knots it has to be said.

Colin Stump was utterly flabbergasted, there just wasn’t any logical explanation as to why the school remained clean without anyone actually physically cleaning it, but the truth of the matter it was, but by whom? It certainly didn’t clean itself.

The headmaster had a dilemma, he couldn’t really tell any of the staff what was going on, they’d think he’d gone off his rocker and say it was down to the shock of seeing a dead body, apparently developing paranoia and imagining things that weren’t there was a common side effect.

 

 Colin hadn’t developed paranoia and he wasn’t imagining the school being cleaned by someone or something unknown, so he decided there and then that the only way to get to the bottom of this was to stay overnight with a camcorder and finally unravel this bloody X file once and for all.

The Headmaster made the excuse to his wife that there was some vital electrical maintenance work needed at the school and that it involved staying overnight, it had to be him for insurance reasons and that it was only a one off.

********

 

About 8pm, Colin’s silver BMW parked up in a discreet position roughly one hundred yards away from the school.

Making sure he had his holdall with camcorder, flask and sandwiches plus a large rubber torch, Colin activated the alarm and proceeded toward the school entrance.

It was still light but Colin could have sworn he saw a light go on in the science room!He stopped for a moment and suddenly the whole reality of what he was doing came crashing down all around him and Colin Stump had to fight really hard to suppress the urge to bolt back to his car.

The Head took a deep breath and said out loud, “come on Colin, get a sodding grip,” he carried on and entered the school.

Placing the holdall and its contents in his office, Colin proceeded to do a sweep through the school using only the Long rubber torch he was now carrying.

There still was a sort of twilight and so he didn’t really need the torch as yet, but the plan was not to turn any of the school’s lights on anyway just in case it alerted the mystery midnight cleaner.

10pm and the school was now in complete darkness, apart that is from the faint glow of the Headmasters computer screen..Colin had decided while he was here he might as well catch up on some work and as such tapped away diligently on his keyboard.

1am and Colin yawned, he’d just done another sweep of the school and it was still the same as it was before, litter strewn, marks on the wall and floors etc.. He pulled a packet of fresh wipes out of his desk and hoped the invigorating lemon aroma would help him stay awake.

The Head glanced at his watch again through bleary eyes, 2.37am and by this time Colin felt like his eyelids weighed an absolute ton and it was getting increasingly harder and harder to stay awake, finally, he succumbed and the sandman weaved his magic.

Colin jolted awake and sat up abruptly!!

He quickly glanced at his watch..3.10am. He realised he must have nodded off and was just about to pick up the torch when he heard it!

Colin Stump froze and then rubbed his ears vigorously just to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. “No” he wasn’t, it was definitely there and Colin reached for his mobile, making sure he had his finger on speed dial.

As the now scared to death Headmaster slowly opened the door he realised the low humming noise was emanating from the main hall.

Armed with only the torch and his mobile phone, Colin cautiously crept toward the main hall and the source of the strange humming sound..As he approached the entrance, the humming got louder and louder.

 

 

 What Colin saw next made his blood run cold and he suddenly felt very ill.. 

Colin Stump had seen numerous ghost movies like Casper and Poltergeist etc, but if he hadn’t witnessed for himself what was now directly in front of him he would never ever in a million years believed it was possible.

Well for one thing he now knew where the humming was coming from.

Moving directly toward him in a steady left to right motion was a large floor buffer and the reason why at this particular moment Colin Stump’s mouth looked like it was catching flies, was the fact no one was with it. 

In fact It was actually buffing the floor on its own and that wasn’t the only thing, Colin had noticed immediately that the buffer wasn’t even plugged in.

The head was spellbound and just stared at the buffer serenely going about its business, 

Colin was suddenly aware of a new sound now and quickly turned around, he distinctly heard the sound of a metal handle clanging down on something.

As hard as it was to break his gaze from the amazing sight in front of him, Colin forced himself to walk towards the metallic clanging sound.

“Well” If Colin thought the sight of a buffer cleaning a floor on its own was far-fetched then the next thing he saw was just completely off the weirdness chart.

He was now stood in the main corridor between the classrooms and main hall, there again directly in front of him was something that you were only ever likely to see in a Disney Movie.

Colin Stump by this time was petrified, heading towards him were several brushes sweeping the floor and directly behind them, were several mops mopping (BY THEMSEVES)

He glanced in through the science room window and a horrified Colin saw various cloths and spray canisters spraying and wiping again (ON THEIR OWN) 

Colin was on fire, he was sweating profusely and he felt like his heart was going to burst, he had to get out of this place if he wanted to keep his sanity.

It was then he suddenly realised he didn’t have his camcorder, the Head quickly ran back toward his office..Just as he was about to enter, something instinctively made him duck.

As Colin Stump ducked down an object flew right over his head and smashed into pieces on the corridor wall behind him.

The Head stopped in his tracks and stared horrifyingly at the broken remains of his £600 Sony camcorder.

Seconds after the camcorder had landed on the floor a brush came along and swept it away, JUST LIKE THAT...Another new sound came this time and every hair on Colin Stump’s body stood on end as well as experiencing sudden bowel movements for the first time in his life.

The horrible cackling sound was coming from inside his office and Colin, even though every instinct was telling him not too, slowly prodded the door open wide enough to see inside.

It was like DeJa Vu all over again and Colin Stump was now pretty sure he was going have a heart attack!!

THERE, sat behind the Headmasters desk was old Bob Crowther!! 

 He had that same wild grin on his face; this time though old Bob’s eyes weren’t milky white like just when he’d died, they were lit up like a jack o lantern at Halloween.

 

 To Colin’s horror, the Ghostly apparition slowly got up and walked toward him.

The Headmaster tried his best to move, but he couldn’t, he was literally frozen to the spot and as soon as old Bob reached a terrified Colin, he leaned forward and into the Headmaster’s face.

Colin Stump felt like those horrible eyes were boring into his soul and at that precise moment old Bob spoke.

He only said four words but they struck the fear of God into Colin Stump who was already nearly out of his mind with fear...

"YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE.” 

As soon as old Bob said those words he suddenly reached forward and plunged an arm straight through Colin Stump’s chest, roaring with evil laughter as he did so!  

 

********* 

 

8.30am and there was a gathering of teachers and pupils outside the front entrance of Paxton high school.

“This is unusual,” said Mr Sucliff, “there’s always’ someone here as a rule and even if the cleaner’s aren’t here grumpy stumpy always is.”

There was a murmuring of agreeance then one of the other teachers said, “has anyone rang him?”

“Four times,” said Mr Sucliff, “it just keeps ringing and ringing.”

“Well this is no good,” remarked Miss Conner who had now fully recovered from her ordeal in the Annex, “we’ve a school to run and these are all new locks, the only one with the keys is Stumpy.”

A teenage boy’s voice suddenly piped up and said. “If you want in, you only have to ask?”

All the teachers stared at Trevor Garlic and Mr Sucliff said “and how do you propose to do that young man?

 “Well,” Trevor replied, “that’d be telling, but if you want to hang around here all day, suits us fine.”

The teachers all conferred and then said to Trevor, “can you do it with out damaging the locks?

“Yea” replied a smiling Trevor..

“Well, I suppose its ok, as long as you don’t do any damage,” stated Mr Sucliff who seemed to have taken charge in Mr Stump’s absence.

Every one parted while Trevor sauntered up to the door, reaching into his school blazer he produced what looked like a sort of Swiss army knife.

Mr Sucliff made a mental note to ask young Garlic why he was in possession of a sharp instrument on school property; however he let the boy carry on with the forced entry.

Trevor levered out a long metal spike that looked like a pick, then seconds after twisting it around there was a loud click and hey presto.

The door opened and a triumphant Trevor made a low sweeping bow, albeit to audible groans from the other pupils.

Mr Sucliff held his hand out for the knife and said, “don’t tell me Garlic, you’re going to be a locksmith when you leave school?”

Trevor just grinned back at the history teacher and said, “of course sir.” 

Just as Mr Sucliff was about to turn away from Trevor, a loud female scream came from the main hall.

 

“What the hell now,” uttered Mr Sucliff?

Miss Conner came running towards them and still screaming, said, “HE’S DEAD, OH MY GOD HE’S DEAD.”

All the teachers ran toward the main hall and the sight that met them would stay with them until the grave.

Mr Sucliff took charge again and quickly sealed the area off, “Oh my dear God,” cried Mr Hunt the Art teacher, “is he? BLOODY HELL he is.”

Mr Sucliff tried to take in the sight in front of them while he dialled 999 on his mobile.

The late Mr Colin Stump was in the kneeling position with his body arched back, one arm was raised up as if he was protecting himself from something, the other was clutching his chest.

That wasn’t all, for the second time in three weeks Mr Sucliff witnessed a dead person wearing a bizarre grin and horrible open milky white eyes!

The police arrived and were puzzled how firstly, Colin Stump appeared to be in the position he was and why he was in the school at that time in the morning and lastly. Never before had they seen Rigor Mortis kick in that quick..

The cause of death apparently , was a massive heart attack brought on by severe stress.

“Poor guy must have been working too hard,” commented one of the investigating Policemen.

A week later Colin Stump was buried in the same church yard as, funnily enough old Bob Crowther.

*******

Two replacements followed and both Headmasters later mysteriously died from massive heart attacks, shortly after that the school closed, eight months earlier than it should have.

The official reason was because of structural problems; the unofficial one was too many questions were going unanswered and the manner in which the Heads died had left indelible mental scars on the unfortunate staff that witnessed it.

Paxton High has now been totally demolished and is a brand new car park, strangely enough, even when it’s windy and there’s litter blowing everywhere, locals will tell you there’s 'never' any on the new car park and for some strange unexplainable reason, that whole area seems to stay... FOREVER CLEAN!!!!!

 

 

 

 THE END