Ghost: Books of the Dead - Fantasy Best Seller and Supernatural Teen Book: (Ghost, Occult, Supernatural, Occult and Supernatural) (16 page)

“I am sorry, but who are they?” she asked.

Grace looked at Mr. Kourim with a sense of hopelessness in her eyes.

“They are students of this school,” Mr. Kourim put in.

Grace already knew that part and she wanted to know more.

“You just want to know about these people, but why them in particular?” Mrs. West asked.

“Not just them,” Grace heard herself say. “I wanted to interview the initial residents of this area. Besides Mr. Kourim, they are the only ones that I know of. The others I met are mostly new.” In spite of her story-telling skills, Grace doubted if this tale was going to be convincing enough.

Mrs. West’s expression reassured Grace that her story was believable. She let out a sigh of relief when Mrs. West got up from her chair and allowed Grace to visit the school library. She would have her chance to see if there were any details from the old school yearbooks as well. Meanwhile, Mrs. West would check to see if she could get her hands on the school photographs of past years.

Grace thanked Mrs. West emphatically and shook her hand. While going out of the room her eyes rested on a photograph that was posted on the newly painted blue walls.  It was a picture of a man named Mr. Kourim. It was uncanny how he resembled Mr. Kourim sitting on the couch. For a brief moment, Grace’s eyes were transfixed on the photograph, and she tried to make sense of it.

Mr. Kourim answered the riddle himself. “That’s my uncle,” he said with pride. “He was the principal of this school for more than twenty-five years, before he passed away at the age of fifty-six. He made a fine teacher, I would say, and how I miss him.”

Mr. Kourim lamented for a moment, and then he directed his gaze to a couple of other photographs on the wall. They were all former principals of this school. Grace listened to Mr. Kourim’s stories about them with great concentration. The last photograph that was shown to her was that of Mr. Cooper. He was the principal right after Mr. Kourim. 

“He never got to take our class, but last I heard he was strict and very particular about discipline,” Mr. Kourim explained. “He is old and extremely ailing these days, barely moves and mostly keeps to himself. Mr. Cooper stays with his nurse and pet parrot, Tony. Sad for an active and energetic man like him,” he reasoned. “I feel bad at times.”

Mr. Kourim ended his explanation and Grace nodded her head. She realized that if there was anyone who could provide more information on the Keaton siblings, it would be him. However, she didn’t inform them of what she planned to do. Instead, she just bided her time and hoped to make the most of the leeway she was already given. Grace saw one of the security guards enter the room, and Mrs. West instructed him to direct her towards the school library.

“You will find Miss Gable,” she told Grace. “She is the librarian at the front desk. Ask her anything you want and she’ll be able to help you. She can find any book for you, or the year books to be more precise.”

“Yes, thank you” Grace said, expressing her gratitude.

“My eldest son is a librarian, too, you know,” Mr. Kourim stated. “He works at a university nearby.”

“Oh, that’s interesting,” Grace replied as they walked down the hall.

She went along with the security guard towards the library without offering much conversation. The library, to her surprise, was much bigger and more organized than she had expected. Miss Gable was waiting at the front desk and immediately greeted Grace upon entering the library.

“Hello, Miss June, Mrs. West just informed me that you will be visiting our library. So what can I help you with?” the young librarian asked.

Miss Gable was a confident woman who was only in her late twenties; she was polished and finely dressed. Her desk was neat and there were piles of books, files and other essentials stocked on one side. What attracted Grace’s attention right away was an engraved plate in a wooden piece. The words of the inscription read:
How does it end?
Grace picked up the piece and tried to interpret the meaning behind it, but it didn’t make much sense to her. Grace looked at it, and then looked questionably at the librarian.

“I’ve seen people favor quotes,” Grace began, “but never saw anyone keep something like this. What do you want to see the end of?”

“A lot of things, and some things in particular,” Miss Gable answered cryptically. She didn’t elaborate on it. She just opened her hand to direct Grace around the library.

Grace didn’t ask anything more about it either, but how she wanted to see the end of things herself. The quote distracted her momentarily, but she quickly remembered her reporter story and snapped out of it. She smiled at Miss Gable and asked her to direct her towards the section where the year books and school record books were kept.

“Section three, fourth row,” Miss Gable said quickly.

“What about the school news? Are there any compilations of them?” Grace asked.

“Only once in a while does our school generate great news,” the librarian explained, “when our students win at Spelling Bee, the local art competition or maybe their acts of bravery get noticed in the community. You will find everything in that section,” she said.

“Is there any news about former students who made it big around their time or maybe they’re known around here, even after they left?” Grace asked.

“How former are you talking about?” Miss Gable asked.

“I don’t know ... about thirty to thirty-five years back,” Grace said.

“I am not too sure about whom you’re referring to, but you will find all the information you are looking for in that section. I’m sure of that,” Miss Gable assured her. “Ask for any help and I will assist you.” Miss Gable was kind enough to mention where the nearby study tables were, as well.

“Thank you so much, Miss Gable. It is so kind of you.”

Grace went about looking for the year books and the news about this school. The year books were right on the third row. They were kept in neat and proper order according to the year. Grace was impressed by the organization of it all. She was sure Miss Gable had something to do with that. Grace started looking from the top row and went down to the last. She took out one or two of the books and flipped through their pages. Grace smiled at the photographs of happy toothy children. Some smiled while others made funny face. Some of their eyes were closed while others looked amused, but there was one thing in common … all of them looked cheerful and content. Grace remembered her school days when the photographs were taken and how she dressed neatly for that that day.

Then, she took out the one year book which she guessed would have the pictures she was looking for. She was hoping to find the Keaton siblings or Mr. Gallagher and his sister. After a few pages, she found them all. Just like the rusted old photograph she had found inside the book of the two young siblings, the pictures were an exact match. The same face and eyes, and every detail in the yearbook photo screamed that it was indeed Mr. Gallagher and his sister. Grace quickly took out her phone and snapped a few photographs of the pages before she saw Miss Gable walking up to her.

“You need anything, Miss June?” she asked.

“No, I am almost done here, but where are the newspaper clippings?”

“Right over there,” Miss Gable said, pointing her towards the rack that held all the newspaper clippings.

Grace took one of them down from the rack and scrutinized it further. She noticed that there were several thin, brown hard-cover books on the rack, but there weren’t any dates mentioned on the covers. As a result, she had to take down several of them to find the one she was looking for. There were films of dust on the ones that were kept at the last row, but Grace couldn’t avoid them. She brushed off the dust layer from one of the books and opened it to go through the pages. There were old newspaper cuttings of feats and achievements by pupils of the school. Grace read the news of one student who was holding a shiny trophy. It marked a win at a racing competition. Then, one little girl held a square certificate indicating her triumphant win at a spelling competition. Several other clippings informed Grace about how a student saved an injured cat from the tree. There was another about a boy's extraordinary collection of stamps. Grace was getting frustrated because none of these were what she was looking for.

She didn’t find anything significant in the first book, so she took down the next one and started looking through it. She flipped through it page by page, but there was no information that could be useful to her. Her eyes were starting to burn.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?’’ Miss Gable asked politely, trying to save Grace some of the trouble.

“Have you been standing here all this time,” Grace asked in surprise? She was too engrossed in her search and didn’t notice the librarian standing behind her.

“Yes, I thought you might need my help,” Miss Gable said.

“Well, do you know if this student and this one,” Grace said, pointing to the photograph she brought with her, “were ever in the news for anything important?”

“Not that I know of,” Miss Gable slowly answered. “You see, there are so many students coming in out…”

Grace interrupted her, “But here I was under the impression that they were a couple of the brightest and intelligent pupils of this school, and lived in this town, in fact, Mr. Kourim told me so.”

“Mr. Kourim said so?” the librarian asked.

“So, it’s unlikely that none of you people here are aware of that fact,” Grace said, and then lowered her voice, “or are you trying to hide something?”

This time, Miss Gable looked mildly offended. “Hide something,” she repeated? “Why would I hide anything?” She put her hands on her hips defensively.

‘‘No one in here seems to tell me anything about them. Yet, Mr. Kourim told me something different.” Grace defended what she said earlier. “He told me that he recognized these people and they were star students at this school.”

“Miss June, I think that you’re reading too much into this. I was hired here only a year ago and I don't know much about former students. The former librarian, Mr. Carmen, and the ones before him: Mrs. Philip, Mrs. Alter and Mr. Joseph, might have known something about the students you are talking about, but not me.” She paused to square her eyes on Grace. “Mr. Carmen left town recently for good. Mrs. Philip had a heart attack last year and died. Mrs. Alter is not well. She retired almost ten years back, because her memory was failing. Mr. Joseph is the oldest, and if anyone would know something about former students, then my guess is it would be him.”

Grace let out a deep breath. She considered for a moment that anyone who would remotely know anything about the Keaton siblings was already dead, ailing or had failing memories. She cursed her luck and almost had no hope left about finding out anything about them.

Perhaps my search is futile
, she said to herself,
and there’s nothing more I can do
.

Grace closed the last newspaper clipping, but just then, something caught her eye. She put up a hand to ask Miss Gable for some more time. There was one article by the local newspaper which featured the Keaton sister, but oddly enough, it was just her initials mentioned and not her full name. The article mentioned an incident that happened when she was about twelve years old. The girl claimed to see ghosts and there was evidence of it as well. It said that she had learned the art of conjuring spirits. The article continued on the inside page, but that section was not part of the school collection. It was missing from the record.

“What is this about?” Grace asked Miss Gable.

“Oh, this I heard from my uncles,” Miss Gable said dismissively. “This young girl, Miss Keaton, claimed to have seen ghosts, and supposedly she learned some witchcraft or spell casting or something like that.”

“But why is this news in a primary school library,” asked Grace? She was surprised, but encouraged by this latest discovery. Finally, she was getting somewhere.

“I heard this incident put us on the map,” the librarian explained. “The girl got pretty famous and her brother, too. I think that is what Mr. Kourim must have meant when he said they were well-known. But if you ask me, I’d say that this was the news that made them famous as individuals more than being good students of this school. That’s just my opinion, but others might think differently.”

“A young girl sees ghosts and that makes news,” Grace said, shaking her head. “I guess I don’t understand what journalism is all about,” Grace said aloud. It was just an attempt at baiting Miss Gable.

“That was many years back and you probably can’t imagine the impact of such stories forty years back.”

Grace smiled, more to herself than for Miss Gable. “The rest of the story is missing and I need to look into it,” she said. “Can you tell me where I can find the full story?”

“Try the local library,” Miss Gable answered eagerly. “It stores all local news from the past fifty years and you’ll get all the information you need there.”

Grace nodded her head affirmatively. This meant she had to look all over again, and in a new place this time. On the bright side, she was making some progress. She wasn’t in a position to give up, so she took some notes about the article and gathered her belongings.

She turned around and said, “Thank you, Miss Gable.” The librarian was nonplussed, so Grace grabbed her hand. “Thank you for helping me and I am very grateful. This town has a story to tell indeed,” she said sincerely.

Then, Grace made her way out of the library. Mr. Kourim was waiting outside when Grace walked out. He seemed pleased to be at the old school and wasn’t in any hurry to leave for the day.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked.

“Not quite, but I did find something else,” she said, waiting for any reaction from the elderly gentleman. When none came, she said, “I came across a news article about the Keaton sister. I think you forgot to mention the details to me.” Grace waited for Mr. Kourim to answer.

“Oh, that news,” Mr. Kourim said, casting his eyes to the ceiling. “The news about the Keaton sister seeing ghosts was certainly remarkable. That story made some news, but I didn’t buy it.” He shook his head. “I never believed it could be real. I didn’t think it was important enough to mention, but they were good students and I think that is important, not some goof story.”