It Was Here a Minute Ago

A lot of things went missing at our middle school. It was a running joke that a ghost was stealing things. It had been a problem ever since the school was founded in the 1960s. Items would just vanish. Students losing things is not unusual for any school, but it was a constant issue at our school. Even things put in the lost and found bin would disappear from there sometimes. In addition, items would disappear from students' lockers and pockets, and sometimes the culprit would steal from a girl's purse and curiously take everything but the money inside. Students lost homework assignments with such frequency that some teachers no longer even bothered penalizing them for it. Volumes would go missing from circulation at the school library, and custodial tools would go missing from the janitors' closets. One time a small willow tree disappeared from the school court yard, leaving behind only the hole where it had been planted.

I was a student there in the early 1990s, before the school ever got around to installing security cameras. The phenomenon was just considered a local idiosyncrasy of our school and didn't disrupt our lives enough for anyone to be too concerned about it.

Then some time when I was in 8th grade, our principal went missing. He went missing from the school, having just been in a staff meeting minutes prior. The police canvassed the campus, but found no trace of him.

A few years later, it was discovered that some of the school's foundation was sinking. Some geologists were sent to diagnose the problem.

Beneath a disused storm grate in the courtyard, they found a passage. The passage led to a limestone cavern that was not previously known to exist.

Inside the cavern were all the missing items. Library books, clothing articles (lots of hats in particular), calculators, and boxes of homework sheets going back to the 1960s. They also found a box containing the suit and tie our principal was last seen wearing.

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