Ty Schwamberger

Synopsis (back cover) and Excerpts from Night School.

Synopsis

Mr. Ben Sanders has gone missing and his infatuated student Brenda is determined to find him. She and Ben’s friend Tim are concerned his disappearance has something to do with the screams that came from a house on Denison Street and the mutilated bodies that are popping up all over town.

Things are about to become more complex in Brenda’s life. She uses the “skills” she has learned from being the community Peeping Tom to play detective and piece together clues to hopefully create a map to Ben’s location.

During the search for Ben, Brenda & Tim come face to face with seedy characters wandering the streets at night; drugs dealers, prostitutes and oh yes, all those dead bodies.

Who is this maniac running loose on the streets at night? Why does he do it? What does he want?

Brenda and Tim will find out soon enough.

Excerpts (scroll to the bottom to hear an additional excerpt)

Ben looked up at the clock on the wall and saw what time it was.  2:50.

Only ten more minutes to go and I am outta this place, Ben said to himself as he closed the textbook he was teaching out of.

Even though it was only Monday, Ben felt as if it was a whole week of school coming to an end.

He looked up from the closed textbook and scanned the classroom.

He saw some of the students chatting quietly, some studying the minute hand on the clock, while others passed notes between one another.  Ben couldn’t care less of them passing notes during class, as long as it was done quietly and didn’t disturb anyone else.

He looked up at the clock again.  2:55.

Only five more minutes now and I can go home, run, eat and relax.

Ben heard a crackle above his head.  It sounded like wax paper being crunched together into a ball.  Tilting his head up and back, he realized it was the speaker that the morning announcements were normally done through.  Tilting his head down and forward, he saw the students also heard the noise and were interested in what the announcement may be.

Could be about the upcoming Friday night football game, which just so happened to be homecoming as well, Ben thought to himself, as the principle’s voice came through in a booming fashion.

“Attention students…..this is Principle Walters speaking…”

Yeah, no shit, we know who you are, ran through Ben’s mind as the announcement continued.

Ben never did like the Principle at Mid-Day High School.  He always seemed like a pompous asshole that thought he was better than everyone else just because he was the Principle and made important decisions.  Sometimes he made the large decisions without even conferring with the school board.  It had gotten him into trouble before, but he never lost his job.

Ben remembered one time in particular.

The school parking lot needed to be redone with black-top a few summers ago.  There was one teacher that did this type of work on the side during summer vacations, but there was a policy of hiring teachers to do such work for the school.  The principle didn’t even take bids from other companies that specialized in such work.  Instead he gave the job to the teacher and made it look like he hired an outside company by fudging work orders and invoices.  Eventually, news got out who was doing the work when one of the school board members drove by the school and noticed who was spreading the stone and black sludge across the parking lot.  The school board member had gotten out of his car, walked up to Mr. Jones and asked what was going on.

“Just doing some side work,” replied Mr. Jones.

“Who gave you such authority,” had said the school board member.

“Principle Walters gave me orders to redo the black top of the school parking lot, along with the small parking area by the football stadium.”

“How are you getting paid for this,” asked the board member.

“John gave me half of the payment upfront while the other half I am going to receive after I finish the job”

“What sort of check was this?”

“A check, you know, paper, my name on it, signed by John.”

“Don’t be a smartass, Pete, was it a check from Mid-Day,” asked the board member.

“Yes.”

The school board member proceeded to turn around and make his way back to his car.  On the way over to his black Cadillac, he pulled a cell phone from his trousers, punched in some numbers and raised the small unit to his right ear.

From what Pete had told Ben of the incident, he stopped working and a while later Principle Walters had pulled up in his car and began talking to the board member.

Pete said that there had been some yelling and finger pointing and he was told to go home.  In the end, the Principle was never held accountable for his actions and the city department finished off the parking lot.

The Principle continued with the announcement.  Ben had missed the beginning.

“…according to the police department, Miss. Peterson was found at her west side apartment…funeral services have yet to be planned…we will keep you informed”

The speaker on the wall crackled a few more times and went silent.  A moment later the voice returned.

“As a reminder, there are school counselors available if you need them in the guidance office…thank you.”

The announcement ended and Ben peered out over his students.

Did I just hear that right?  Something about Miss. Peterson and funeral services?  Maybe it wasn’t about her but about her mother or something.

Ben had known from rumors among the school staff that her mother had been dying of cancer.  Maybe that was what happened.  Her mother passed away and she was found in Miss. Peterson’s apartment.  But that didn’t make much sense to Ben.  He realized that the Principle wouldn’t have announced that Miss. Peterson’s mother had died.  It had to be her that died.  But when did it happen, what did she die of?  I just saw her on Saturday at the faculty party.  Were the thoughts going through Ben’s head as the final bell rang.

Students got up from their desks and proceeded to hurry out of the classroom.

Ben followed them out the door, walked down the hall and opened the door to the school office.

Blog Talk Radio Program (listen to a 12 minute excerpt of Night School)