When he left the boardroom, Julian went to the library and found himself just sitting in front of the clock, listening to its measured ticking and welcoming the feeling of respite it gave him. Respite against the feeling that, without Parker’s Piece, the school would be like a face with a front tooth missing. He couldn’t begin to understand how the board could consider this.
“Hey, Julian.” Ryan was walking through the stacks, having entered the library’s second floor from the other end. Tess and Hieu followed Ryan in. Julian was a little surprised that Ryan had brought the other two along, but they all seemed concerned.
“What’s up? Why’d ya have to skip out? We all noticed that you were really worried.”
Julian, nervous to explain himself in front of all of them, hesitated, and then pushed on, his anger driving him. “It’s Parker’s Piece.”
“What about it?” Tess asked.
“They’re talking about selling it.”
“No way!” they chorused in response.
“I heard three or four of them talking about it. Especially this one guy, Mr. Stryker. He was pushing the idea with some of the others, saying the school needed the money.”
Hieu spoke up, “But Dr. Stephens would never allow that, I know he wouldn’t.”
“Quite,” said Tess.
“Actually, the board makes those kinds of decisions, not the Headmaster.” This was from Ryan. “My dad used to be on the board, and he told me what they do. They make the big financial decisions, and they hire the Headmaster. So he has to do what they say.”
Julian spoke up. “It sounded to me like Dr. Stephens was unaware of it. And Stryker gave me the creeps. He was scary somehow, and it seemed like he didn’t like Dr. Stephens very much. He kept glaring at him like he thought he wasn’t doing a good job. He was taking about how the school needed to go in a different direction, or something.”
The room was quiet as they thought about Julian’s news. They all saw jogging through the meadow every day on the way to practice as a special ritual.
“We have to do something,” Julian said. “Parker’s Piece has been a part of the school since the beginning; can you imagine the place without it?” Julian hesitated again. “I’m just starting to feel at home here. I can’t let them destroy this place.”
“What can we do?” asked Hieu. “We’re students. We don’t have any say in stuff like this.”
“But we do!” exclaimed Tess. “This is what the newspaper’s for! We can do an editorial about this. It will make everyone argue about it, and influence opinion.”
“But it’s just a student paper,” Ryan said.
“Wheesht! Alums read it, teachers read it, board members read it. I know. I manage the subscription lists. And it’s published on the website, for crying out loud! We could reach a lot of people this way.”
Julian thought about what Tess was saying. “You’re right. An editorial is a way we can get the word out. But we need to know a lot more to do it right. We need to know the history of Parker’s Piece, and what exactly they want to do with it.”
“Well, OK,” said Ryan. “But how will we find that stuff out? And how can we talk about it without admitting that you eavesdropped on a board meeting?!”
Tess, clearly taken with the idea of a heroic editorial changing campus history, said, “We cross that bridge once the piece is written. As to the first problem, we just use the school archives.”
“Where are they?” Julian asked.
“In the library. There’s a whole room devoted to school history. I’m sure Ms. Bibfeldt would be charged that someone was interested in it.”
“I think Dr. Stephens mentioned that to me, when he said he had found mention of the clock in the library.” This statement of Julian’s drew blank stares from Tess and Hieu.
“Oh, you mean the one that’s back in the library?” Tess asked.
Since Tess lived in Mcguire and Hieu lived on second, they knew nothing about the clock other than what Dr. Stephens had told the whole school. At this point in the conversation, Julian felt much more comfortable and explained that the clock was a part of the school’s history too and that Dr. Stephens was interested in it. For now he said nothing else about it, and Ryan, sensing Julian’s caution, said nothing.
“OK. So we use the archives,” Hieu said. “But how do we find out what the board may be up to?”
Ryan had the answer this time. “The full board meets every two months. But they have committees that meet more frequently. One of them’s the finance committee, and I bet this will turn up on their agenda!”
Julian surprised himself with his next statement. “We have to find a way to listen in on the next meeting.”
“Are you nuts?! That’s a one-way ticket home!” Ryan said.
“I don’t care. We have to stop this.” Julian spoke with more conviction that he had felt about anything in a very long time, perhaps ever.
Soothingly, Tess intervened. “Look, let’s get the editorial done, at least the part on the history, and Ryan and Hieu can work on a way to find out more about the board. Ryan knows how it works, and Hieu is a whiz with his Mac. Maybe he can figure out a way to listen in remotely.”
Hieu looked startled. “Well, I’ll think about it. But that’s pretty serious.”
“Couldn’t it be done, though? Ya know, using a mic and a wireless transmitter?” Julian asked.
“Yeah. I think it could. But I’m not saying I’ll do it.”
Julian understood the hesitation. “That’s OK. Just think about it for now.” He looked around at all of them. “Look, you all, I really appreciate this.”
Ryan looked reassuring. “Julian, this is our school. We don’t want this to happen. Let’s start by doing the research on Parker’s, and then we’ll go from there. Everybody agreed?”
They each agreed that they were in, and further that Julian and Tess would work on the research, while Hieu and Ryan would make a plan to learn more about the board. Then they would weigh the risks. Agreed on this, the group dispersed to go back to their dorms. Julian had heard the term “band of brothers” before. Now, even though they were plotting something risky, and even though one of the “brothers” was a sister, he was thrilled to know what it meant.
~
Before Julian and Tess could begin their work, events took a turn that made the two problems of the board’s intentions and research into Parker’s Piece run together. They also squarely connected the clock with the other events. Tess came running up to Julian at the beginning of lunch the following Monday. Julian was waiting in line at the entrance to the dining hall, but at her urging, he quickly followed Tess out of the dining hall and over towards Bowes.
“Ryan and Hieu will meet us in the library,” she said breathlessly. “You’ve got to come now.”
Reaching the first floor, they saw that Ryan and Hieu were indeed already waiting in the study room.
Julian shut the door behind them as Tess opened the screen of her laptop, which was sitting on the table. “Check this out,” she said. “The news about the board plans is coming out!”
As the screen came to life, the others crowded around to see that the machine held proofs for stories from the upcoming edition of the school paper. The story she pointed to had the bold headline “Board Discusses Sale of Parker’s Piece: Direction of School Questioned.” “It tells it all right here: ‘at this past weekend’s meeting of the Board of Governors, Mr. Stryker, a newly appointed board member, proposed a plan to sell Parker’s Piece, which would net the school twenty million dollars of needed endowment.’ Apparently the board met again on Saturday, and this all came out. It says ‘the discussion by the board was heated, with proponents upholding both positions. The Headmaster, Dr. Stephens, would only say that he was working with the board to support the best interests of the school, which he was sure would win out. The matter has been referred to the Finance Committee of the Board to discuss in more depth. In the meantime, faculty and students who wish to voice opinions on the issue should contact Ms. Cavenaugh, chair of the Finance Committee.’ That makes it sound like Dr. Stephens is being railroaded.”
“I bet that committee will be meeting soon. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on and how to stop it,” Julian said. Then he noticed the other headlines in the proof. One, over an editorial, said: “Are We Charting the Course? Board Discussion Raises Leadership Questions.”
Gulping, Julian asked “What’s this? Is the paper questioning Dr. Stephen’s leadership?”
Tess replied, “That’s by old Ackermann. She’s the sponsor, and she just loves to have her say. It’s no secret she hates Dr. Stephens. Supposedly she was passed over for being a department chair. Let’s see, what does it say? Quite. I’ve heard her havering on about this in newspaper meetings, about how the school needs new direction, and that we need to operate more like a business. I reckon that means selling land to make money.”
“But that’s just how that Stryker guy was talking in the meeting!” Julian exclaimed. “Ackermann is supporting him against Dr. Stephens! We’ve got to get to the bottom of this.”
Turning to Hieu and Ryan, he said, “You guys figure out when the committee meets next and how to listen in. Tess and I will get going on the research. We only have a little time before break.”
Looking at each other, they all nodded silently, except Tess, who said “quite right” before they all filed out to grab lunch.
~
Julian and Tess agreed to meet in the library the next evening. Since his grades had improved lately, Julian wouldn’t have to attend study hall. Julian was afraid the time would drag slowly before they could get to work, but between classes, practice, and homework (including a nasty chemistry test involving electron covalence), the time actually passed quickly. The two met in the lobby as quickly as they could after dinner and were relieved to see that Mrs. Bibfeldt was still there. Some days she went home at the end of athletics, but tonight was a duty night for her, so she would be on campus until 10:00. Julian knew that they would need her assistance to use the archives.
With their laptops in hand they approached the circulation desk. I don’t know why, thought Julian, people are always afraid of librarians. He had always liked the librarians at the public library at home, and Mrs. Bibfeldt was certainly pleasant. She was usually so pleased at student interest that she was happy to help. She looked up and smiled at their approach, the wrinkles on her face seeming fixed in permanent smile lines, her short gray hair framing a face on which she perched gold wire-framed glasses.
“Mrs. Bibfeldt . . . we were wondering if you could help us use the archives,” said Tess.
“We want to research the history of St. Eligius, and especially Parker’s Piece,” Julian added.
She looked shrewdly at them. “So you’ve heard about that, hmm? I can’t say I was pleased to hear that the board is discussing it. Still, I am glad to see some students taking active interest in their school. Things are quiet now; we can go right up.”
She turned and grabbed a large key ring with a few keys from a peg behind the counter and led them across the first floor and up the stairs. They entered the second floor at the end opposite where the clock sat in its alcove. The archives were located in a small room on the left. Squinting, Mrs. Bibfeldt jiggled the key into the lock and then finally turned the knob and opened the door. Fumbling absently for a light switch, she found it and flipped the light on. Her apologies for her slowness (“I need to get up here more often and get things straight . . .”) were cut short by her gasp as the light flooded the room.
It was a total mess. Books had been pulled from shelves and thrown to the floor. Boxes of clippings, pamphlets, and brochures were dumped out everywhere. There wasn’t a surface on the floor, table, and chairs that was not covered with materials from the archives.
“Oh, my goodness! What has happened? I was just in here last week to drop off something and things were fine. Who could have done this? How?”
Julian looked slowly around, the pit in his stomach returning with force. “Is that key always hanging on the ring behind your desk, Mrs. Bibfeldt?”
“Yes, it is. I know it’s not terribly secure, but really, who would want to break into the archives? It’s the archives.”
“Somebody. You say you were here last week?” Julian and Tess looked at each other. Could it be a coincidence that the board had met this past weekend and now this had happened?
“Yes, I was in the room Wednesday or Thursday, and no one has been in since. At least,” and she frowned ruefully, “no one who is supposed to be in here.”
“How can we tell if something’s missing?” Tess asked.
“Well, I know pretty well what’s here, and there is also a catalog here somewhere that I try to keep up to date.”
Mrs. Bibfeldt began to search around the room, leafing through the disarrayed stacks and looking in boxes. Tess and Julian tried to help but weren’t sure what to look for. Finally, beneath a pile of old letters, she unearthed a large, very dusty, blue three-ring binder. Clearing some space on the table, she set it down and opened it. Tess and Julian crowded around to look. There, in typewritten pages that abruptly changed to word-processed text, was a list, apparently of everything in the archives, from commencement programs dated 1922 to the original deeds of the school’s property to publications by various faculty members. The list went back a long way, successive librarians having maintained it through the years.
“Now, you said you wanted to find information on the history of the school, and on Parker’s Piece in particular.” Mrs. Bibfeldt began flipping pages, skimming the entries. “Well, the standby is St. Eligius Episcopal School: a Short History, written back in the 60s. It’s here somewhere. There’s also information on the original land acquisitions from the diocese, back around 1910 or so. Ah, here it is,” she said, flipping another page. “’Packet: deeds and ownership, Parker’s Piece.’ It says it’s on shelf 5A, and the Short History is on 6B. We’ll have to look through a lot, I’m afraid.”
The three of them began digging through the disheveled piles. Privately, Tess and Julian wondered if it was hopeless, but they pitched in. After a few minutes, they realized that this approach was hopeless.
Julian said, “What if two of us pick up material and call out what it is, and one of us finds it in the directory, and calls out the shelf, and then we can put things back and hopefully find what we want at the same time?”
“Bless you, Julian,” said Mrs. Bibfeldt. “That would save me a ton of work, if you don’t mind!”
Tess smiled and said, “Quite. Let’s get on with it,” and they dug in. Taking turns sifting and reading the directory, they proceeded through what seemed like tons of old programs, books and articles by masters, old report cards donated by alums, and lots of other junk.
Julian couldn’t help getting sidetracked by some of the things he found. “Hey, did you know that in 1943, the entire senior class signed up for service in the war? And that in 1969, only 10 out of 60 did?”
“Fascinating, Julian,” smirked Tess.
Eventually, when it was almost time to get back to dorm, they realized that they were pretty much done, and the two documents they sought were missing. Almost everything was back on the shelves, and there was no Short History to be found, and no documents relating to Parker’s Piece. The leaden feeling in Julian’s stomach, abated by the distraction of helping Mrs. Bibfeldt, returned with a vengeance. Everything they were looking for was gone!
“This can’t be a coincidence!” Tess said as she placed a last file on a shelf and wiped her dusty hands on her jeans. “I’m thinking somebody doesn’t want anyone to know the history behind Parker’s Piece. Somebody’s nicked it.”
“Do you really think that’s true?” said Mrs. Bibfeldt. “I thought maybe this was just a prank. But to think someone actually stole something is terrible!”
“It certainly looks that way,” Julian said. Standing at the directory, Julian paused, and gasped aloud.
“What is it?” Tess asked.
For a moment, Julian couldn’t find words. “There’s something else missing, something even more important.”
“What?” Tess asked. “What could be more important?”
Julian was looking down at an entry, dated 1975, which said simply, “Personal journal, Latin, circa 1925, by E. Drake, former history master.”
“My great-grandfather’s journal, his journal from when he was here, when he gave the clock to the school, used to be in this room.”
~
Mrs. Bibfeldt stared up at Julian from where she had squatted awkwardly to wedge a thick collection of letters onto a lower shelf. “Your great-grandfather’s journal? I’ve actually been meaning to mention it to you, ever since Dr. Stephens put the clock back in here.”
“He really kept a journal? It’s here?!”
“Well, it was here. It was an old leather bound journal, the kind that used to be very common before computers, when people actually wrote by hand. It was apparently some kind of account of his time at St. E’s. But I never really read it.” Here the old librarian grinned sheepishly. “It was entirely in Latin, and my Latin has always been bad. I learned it in school, of course, enough to read titles and the like, but I never took to it. Dr. Drake, though, was a real scholar and kept all of his private writings in Latin, I believe.”
Julian suddenly had a premonition. If the school history was gone, and the documents related to Parker’s Piece, and Dr. Drake’s journal, what about . . . ? He raced out of the room, leaving Tess and Mrs. Bibfeldt mystified. He ran down the passageway between one of the balcony railings and the overflowing stacks, fetching up in front of the shelves where the clock stood. At first glance, it seemed fine. But looking closer, Julian realized that not only was it not ticking, but that marks in the dust on it showed that it had been handled. He realized with a start that the pendulum was missing. As Tess and Mrs. Bibfeldt approached, Julian opened the glass door, to see that someone had unhooked the pendulum and taken it, as well as the key to wind the clock. Why whoever it was had not just taken or destroyed the clock itself he couldn’t understand, but they certainly had made sure that it would no longer run.
“They’re gone, the pendulum and the key! Somebody doesn’t want the clock to run, just like they don’t want us to know anything more about Parker’s Piece or my great-grandfather.”
Tess had a puzzled look on her face. “Why would somebody shut down the clock? What’s it have to do with anything?”
Julian didn’t answer.
“This is very strange,” said Mrs. Bibfeldt. “I will certainly inform Mr. Perry and Dr. Stephens of these events, and they will get to the bottom of it.”
“Yeah, sure,” Julian mumbled.
She paused, as if uncertain to say more. “Julian, I don’t know if it’s important, but I do know that one thing mentioned in the school history was Dr. Drake and this clock. He apparently insisted on the clock being here in the library. Others on the faculty at the time thought he was a bit mad about it. Yes, it seemed a nice gift and all, but he seemed overly insistent that it be in this building. Then, when he left the school in 1925, he took it with him.”
“That’s a bit mad,” said Tess. “I wonder why it had to be in this building?”
“There’s nothing special about this building . . .” Julian said, watching Mrs. Bibfeldt frown.
She cleared her throat. “Except that it is at the heart of the school. Without a good library, a school is nothing!”
“Yeah, you’re right, Mrs. Bibfeldt. Sorry.”
He and Tess then told Mrs. Bibfeldt that they needed to get back to dorm and left for the stairs, her thanks for their help in their ears. Julian had just one thought in his mind: they had to find that journal. In the 1920s, when the school was just beginning, Dr. Drake had wanted a very peculiar clock at the heart of the campus. Today someone was out to change St. E’s fundamentally with the sale of Parker’s Piece, and clearly that someone saw the clock as somehow getting in the way. They had to find that journal. It held the key to the whole mystery.
~
The mystery didn’t get any clearer when the newspaper was actually published the next day, Wednesday. Tess had already read all the proofs, but for Julian, Hieu, and Ryan, Wednesday after lunch was the first chance they had to see the complete paper. Mrs. Ackermann’s editorial in particular made Julian angry. The four were sitting around a table inside the dining hall, discussing the paper. Julian looked up from his copy to say, disgust in his voice, “Not only does Ackermann say that the sale should be approved, but then she goes on to say that the clock is a example of what is wrong with Dr. Stephens’ leadership, that he is ‘more worried about old clocks than about ensuring the school has resources to purchase new technologies’ and that ‘he is perpetuating the past instead of looking to the future.'”
“That’s stupid,” Ryan said. “We have plenty of computers. Jeesh! Every student has a laptop, and a lot have tablets and phones.”
“It’s just Ackermann’s way of downing Dr. Stephens,” Tess said. “If you really know what’s going on, you know it’s not true. But if you don’t, it sounds like he’s doing something wrong.”
“Well, she can say what she wants, I guess. But if she’s the one who ransacked the archives and stole the pendulum, then she’s our enemy,” Julian said.
“Julian, tell me about this clock. Why’s it so important?” Tess asked. “I heard what you said yesterday in the library, but it seems a bit dodgy. Tell us the deal.”
Hieu chimed in as well, “Yeah, tell us about the clock. Obviously it is important. But why?”
Julian looked at his three friends and saw Ryan nod encouragingly at him. So he took the plunge and told them about his bringing the clock back and why, and how it made him feel.
“I didn’t feel anything wonky yesterday,” Tess said.
“That’s because it wasn’t running. The thing is, up ’til now I thought that the clock was just something that made me feel better, but now I think it’s more than that. I mean, it must be, if whoever damaged it also took my great-grandfather’s journal.”
“Whatdya mean?” Ryan asked.
“Somehow, whoever this is–and I bet it’s Stryker, in league with Ackermann–thinks the clock is a threat to his plans to sell Parker’s Piece. Why else would he take the journal and shut down the clock?”
“Why the journal? What could that have to do with Parker’s Piece?” Tess asked.
“I’m not sure, other than I think it must talk about how the clock works and what it does. We’ve got to find the journal, and get the clock pieces back. Somehow, it’ll help stop what’s happening.”
~
Julian had read about what sailors in the age of sail called the “doldrums.” Apparently in some parts of the ocean, ships could get stuck in regions where there was absolutely no wind, sometimes for weeks. That could lead to sailors going mad or even dying if supplies ran out. While the situation wasn’t that dire, Julian found having to go home for Winter Break at the end of the week to be maddening. It called a halt to their progress, just when it seemed vitally important to be working together towards their goal of finding out what was going on. And the events of the break––his father’s remarriage––instead of just being difficult, were a huge distraction from what Julian found that he actually cared about. Not that he wasn’t happy, at some level, for his father. But the school, his new friends, the clock, and the legacy of his great-grandfather: all of these seemed far more important. Julian and Tess did use part of the break to write a draft of their editorial, exchanging versions online. Though they had to write it without any special knowledge of the school’s history, they could now take the opportunity to mention the recent events in the archives and connect them with the proposed sale of Parker’s Piece. But they couldn’t really finish without Hieu and Ryan, and they certainly couldn’t publish it. Grinning at himself because of the irony, Julian found that he could not wait to return to St. Eligius.
Copyright 2021, Alfred Reeves Wissen