I work in a kindergarten. There is something not right – part 3.
Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/18nqdvw/i_work_in_a_kindergarten_something_does_not_seem/
So, now that you guys know about this kindergarten and a little bit about it, I don’t have to divulge as much nor tell you as much about this place, mostly because you already know and because I cant tell you too much about the kids since the laws are quite strict.
This kindergarten is, as I said, quite old. I think the kindergarten was established in the year 1930 or something but, don’t quote me on that. Since that time, we have had some expansions and added some buildings. As far as I know we were not a kindergarten until 1998 but before that we were a school so there are some remains here that hark back to that time. One room amongst others are, not exactly sealed, but no one uses it. And as such we only refer to the room as “the time capsule” since most of the old interior are not used. The reason we don’t use it is mostly because the room is tiny and trying to fit 20-30 kids into it is a hopeless endeavor and would probably be a hindering environment for the kids. Thanks to that it is mostly used as a storage for toys that are not used. It is also such that an old, and then I mean old, chalk board on there. We employees like sometimes to leave messages just to mess with each other. Like “Tom (fictional name) you left the coffee on” or “Sara (another fictional name) you forgot to flush” or my favorite so far “Tor, you forgot a kid outside”. The door to the time capsule is kind of central so most of us walk past it on our way towards the break room.
Now the reason I tell you this is because once a year it is in use. And that is when our biggest children, the 6-year-olds, are quitting and goes to school. Then we host a huge sleepover for them as a grand finale and a final farewell to the kids. It’s a fun and also bittersweet moment for us and also for the parents. The way we mostly do these kinds of things are that the adults that are with the kids (mostly me and some others who volunteer) and a couple of the parents sleep there with the kids. They usually sleep in their classrooms (I found out that I can use that instead of “department”) together with the parents whilst me and 2 others sleep in other places. The gym room is popular there since it has mattresses that are really soft.
This year, before the summer vacation was a blast. The kids were high as balls on sugar and running up and down the halls yelling and screaming. The parents were a little bit shocked since some of them have never seen their children like that and only thought they were small angels instead of the devils some of them could be. Me and the two others who were employed there, just watched and thought “yep, them children be devils when you send them here with only sugar in their blood” and let me tell you people. That is a small victory in our book. Some vindication of seeing parents have a shocked look upon their face, when the whole year they have been going “no, no, my child is an angel”. Serves them right, I think. Either way. Our job then is to often have food prepared and press in the code to the alarm systems so that they don’t go off in the middle of the night. This year it was a barbeque and by gods. Whoever made that meat, and that marinade is a god in my eyes.
The kids were given sugary treats, soda, popcorn and a movie and off they went. You could practically hear the zoomies in them. Now for reference. Thirty kids on a normal day are “normal”. Its sometimes challenging and sometimes not. Ten kids on sugar are a whole another level of “holy balls, this is loud and insane”. As the song from offspring goes “the kids are not alright”. There is always one or four who yells to loud, there is always the cranky one and its always one who wets the sleeping bag. Standard issue really. We always know who is going to do what, so we ask the corresponding parents to join. Schadenfreude, I guess.
This night though was…different. I mean it started standard and great enough. The parents were happy, the kids were insane and me and the other 2 were contended to just watch the insanity and craziness whilst we were speaking with the parents. Keep in mind that the kids were high on sugar and were on the kindergarten in what essentially was their free time. It was also just them. They did not need to share; they did not need to even try to behave. They were free. It is a humbling experience since you miss it yourself.
Now remember this is in Norway. We are a cold country most of the time but in summertime we truly shine, I think. We can hit -25 at our worst in some parts of the country and + 25 some other parts of the country. I have never been quite good with warm weather. I think myself that +20 is too warm. The perfect temperature is +15, for me at least. But this night. A cold breeze came with the nighttime. I checked the temperature when I started to get chilly, and it showed +4 on the gauge. Which is weird and rarely happens, but it happens. Most of us were in shorts and t shirts so we went inside. Luckily this was about the time where the parents were trying to force the kids to bed.
I say force since they are so high on sugars that they probably could have run to Oslo and back and not be winded. But eventually they were able to. Afterwords we sat on the adjacent classroom, talking to the parents and drinking a beer with them. Now this is important. Drinking beer is strictly forbidden. But we always do it with the parents since it helps them relax a little bit and it makes them see that we employees are just people as well. The kids might think we live in the kindergarten and never set foot outside, and that is okay. But it crosses a line when the parents think so as well. I say it is forbidden to drink beer since technically we are still on the clock, but our boss says that this is a good technique to make the parents see us in a more positive light. So yes, its forbidden by law but since our boss says it’s okay, I’m not the one to argue. As long as we don’t get hammered its all good. I mostly only drink two beers anyway. I prefer IPAs which sometimes surprise the parents “WellilBeDamned I didn’t know you like that” or something like that. It sparks a conversation most often and we get to know each other in a different way. This night however, one of the parents had gotten to know this information beforehand mostly, because this was their second son to graduate from kindergarten, so they were being sneaky and brought some stronger stuff. “Hey, I know you rather be at home and relax there so here have a drink on me” the parents said. “No, I can’t possibly”, “eh, who is going to know, its fine”. So, I had something a bit stronger. Not much mind you. You see in Norwegian culture, if someone treats you to a drink it is considered quite rude not to say yes. Especially during some kind of celebration.
I got a tiny bit buzzed. What they brought were not just a store-bought liquor or something like that, no. they had made it themselves. Some kind of moonshine but with blackberries or something like that, I can’t remember. Nonetheless it was strong. My other two employees who were with me just shrugged and took part as well, a tad more enthusiastic than me on the other hand. For some info about the other two. Both are women in their 50s and both have a happy marriage even though they complain about it all the time. “My husband does that, and my husband does this”. Sometimes I don’t want to deal with that, so I have trained myself to just go “uhu, yeah, yes, I agree, aha” and so on whilst nodding along. As we were going back to the gym room while the parents were staying with the kids the ladies with me just couldn’t stop and I was so, very, tired. So, when we passed the time capsule I said “well ladies, here is my stop”. They were both surprised and said, “are you not sleeping in the gym room with the mattresses?”. Now my dear readers. Here is the trick to working with aging women. Talk to them like they are still young with some jokes here and there. So of course, I feigned surprise and said to them “me, sleep in the same room as you two beautiful ladies. The rumors of this place.”. that made them giggle and said “alright, sleep tight” with a smile. And thank gods I were allowed to sleep in peace. Or I thought.
I went inside the old classroom, moved around a few things and got myself comfortable. The chill was still there but thanks to the strong alcohol I didn’t feel it as much, and when I crawled down into my cold but warming sleeping bag I lay there contently. I fell asleep faster than I would think.
A child’s laughter. I woke up. My eyes popping open instantly. I saw on the clock that it was around three after midnight. No child should be awake then, nor playing around. What were those parents doing? If they continued drinking and were out cold when I found them, I would have to have a serious talk to them about safety and such. I crawled out of my sleeping bag when I noticed on the chalk board someone had written “be quiet”. Thinking nothing on it I walked to the door. As I was touching the handle I froze. In a mirror in the classroom with me I saw a shadow. It was the bald man again. This time he was staring at me intently. Once again with his finger on his mouth and shaking his head. as he was mostly a silhouette, I can’t truly see his face, but I got the profound feeling he was telling me to not go into the hallway. Gripped by sudden fear I looked back to the chalk board. “hide” it stood there this time. Looking back to the bald man he pointed to one of the closets. I thought “fuck it, better the evil I know than the evil I don’t” so I quickly and quietly hid in the closet. It was quiet for a little while, then the door to the room slowly went open. For some reason or not I thought “I need some wd-40 for that door” since the only way I knew the door opened was the creaking. Fear does strange things to you, I guess.
If I were scared before I was terrified this time. And old but at the same time young voice said “den som ikke har gjemt seg nå, den skal stå” which kids say after they have counted during hide and seek. It roughly means “the one who has not hidden themselves yet shall stand” or more precisely in English it’s the old “come out, come out wherever you are”.
The closet I was in was cramped and completely dark. I heard a lot of moving about, some rustling and something was playing around with my sleeping bag and backpack. I stood there like a statue. After what felt like an eternity, I heard the door creaking shut. As I was about to open the closet and run for my sanity and life a voice echoed throughout the rom. A child’s laughter. Which continued down the hall away from where I had chosen my sleeping quarters. Safe to say, I waited another 15 minutes.
Finaly my legs, falling asleep forced me from my hiding spot outside to the classroom. Mayhem. That is the only thing I can describe it. My things were tossed around all over the place. The rest of the interior were not moved an inch, but my things were all over the place. And even worse my sleeping bag had scratches on it. Like someone had taken scissors all over the bag. Needless to say, I ran to my car and spent the night there. The next morning, I gathered my stuff from the room and hid it in my car before greeting the parents and the kids with some coffee and some pancakes. I had to keep up the façade that everything was alright. I carefully asked around if everyone had slept well. And they had. Not a noise. Nothing. And all the time that child’s laughter echoed in my head. old and young at the same time. I’m not going to sleep in that room anymore.