THE MYSTERY OF GIRLS' SCHOOL

Miss M.P. What happened to?

After school, Ricky, Emmy, and Clovie arrived at the boarding house. The sentence “I’m Back,” written in red the previous night, had already been erased. The three young detectives, along with Woofy, cleaned up and went downstairs to check on Miss Marriott’s illness.

They asked a child and found Miss Marriott’s room. Just as they were about to knock, they heard a familiar voice behind them and turned around.

“You kids can knock on that door as much as you want, it won’t do any good. Miss Marriott went to the hospital,” Mrs. McGregor said with a smiling face.

Mr. and Mrs. McGregor were an elderly couple who had been in charge of the kitchen and cleaning at this boarding house for a long time. They were also great friends of our three young detectives.

“What happened? To M.P.… I mean… is Miss Marriott very ill?” Emmy said, rubbing her arm in pain after Ricky elbowed her for mistakenly saying “M.P.”

“To be honest, children…” Mrs. McGregor lowered her voice. “I think Miss Marriott saw that ghost too.” When Mrs. McGregor said this, the three girls looked at each other in surprise. Before this, they had thought that someone was scaring the children by pretending to be a ghost. But now, according to Mrs. McGregor, there really was a ghost in the school boarding house!

“MRS. McGregor, do you mean that Miss Marriott saw it too? Have other people seen this ghost before?” Clovie asked thoughtfully.

“Listen, children,” Mrs. McGregor said, glancing around furtively like a child doing something naughty and checking if their parents were coming. After making sure no one was around, she began her story again. “Don’t go telling anyone about this. Or the principal will say I’m scaring the children. The night before last, after you all finished eating, I was clearing the dining tables. Suddenly a girl came crashing into me and said, ‘Mrs. McGregor, over here… over here… there’s a ghost! Believe me, I saw it!’ Then another girl came and called her by name and told her to come along. What was the name she said?… Hmm… I can’t remember now. On one hand, it doesn’t matter to me. You might think it’s nothing to be scared of. But because of that story, I couldn’t sleep at night. After a while, I heard a soft whispering sound from the kitchen side. Can you imagine how scared I was? Then I sat for a bit and listened to the sound. Suddenly the sound stopped, and I heard something fall on the floor. That woke my husband too. After that, we both went to the kitchen, and the milk tin had fallen on the floor. The strange thing was, at that time, the door and all the windows were locked from the inside.” The three children and even Woofy listened to this strange tale in silence.

“Alright, but what was Miss Marriott scared of?” Ricky interrupted and asked.

“Alright. That’s what I was about to say now,” said Mrs. McGregor and began the story again. “You kids know that a few strange things have been happening in the boarding house lately. Because of that, even the teachers were disturbed, though they didn’t say it. On top of that, the final-year students’ exams are supposed to be held at the end of this month, so the teachers have been staying up late making papers. Last night too, the teachers were up making papers like that. I was making coffee for them because they were getting sleepy. You remember there was a power cut last night, right? Suddenly I heard a scream that made my whole body go cold. I was so startled that the lantern on the table almost fell.”

“What time was it about then? Because we didn’t hear any sound like that,” Emmy asked.

“I think it was close to 12 at night. And all the teachers’ rooms are on the lower floor. You all sleep deeply on the upper floor, so there’s no way you would have heard it,” Mrs. McGregor said.

“Yes, that must be it.” Annie said this and asked Mrs. McGregor to continue the story.

“Alright children… where did I stop… right… anyway, my husband and I quickly went toward where the sound came from. As we passed Miss Marriott’s room, her door opened. She was pale like a corpse. And one whole side of her was soaked in a red liquid. At first, I was scared it was blood. But Miss Marriott didn’t seem to have any injuries. Anyway, the Chinese language teacher who was in the room next door also heard the sound and came there. Miss Marriott ran to her, pointed toward her room, and tried to show something. But she fainted from fear. But my husband was brave enough to go into the room. I followed behind him. Miss Marriott’s candle had gone out. And that red liquid was spilled on the floor near the window, by the table where Miss Marriott had been. Miss Marriott spent last night in Miss Yoon’s room, the Chinese language teacher,” she said, ending her story.

The three young detectives were so absorbed in the story that they listened standing up. Only Woofy lay on the floor nearby. After thanking Mrs. McGregor, they went to their room to discuss it.

“I don’t understand,” Emmy said. “Does that mean there really is a ghost in this boarding house?”