The Hunt for Excalibur

4 Glasgow History Week

Gracewill Primary was a relatively new school, considering the curriculum followed. Principal James Willard was reminiscent of the archetypical teacher, apart from the fact that he dressed somewhat like a wizard. The sixty-year old Brit had been teaching for most of his life, until the position of principal opened up at Gracewill’s old premises, a place he had long yearned to work at.

Principal Willard was a whimsical man, making him the perfect leader for a school of young children. His love for wearing an inverness cape over his suit perfectly complimented his borderline imperial moustache, giving the grey haired headmaster an appearance of a gentleman from the school’s heyday. Not a man for sports, he was tall, sporting a bit of a beer belly, which was probably what started his affinity for the cape business over his suits.

“Welcome to Gracewill, Dr. Gould,” he chuckled as he briskly traversed the floor of the front office to greet Nina. “I must say, it is an honor to host such a renowned historian at our humble academy, and I cannot wait to attend one of your lectures at the Edinburgh History Society next month.”

“Wow, that is a mouthful,” she jested with a wink and she reached out her hand to him. Both his soft, warm palms enveloped Nina’s dainty hand as he introduced himself. “The pleasure is all mine, Principal Willard. I am sorry that I answered so late, but I was tying up some loose ends after a disastrous train trip in Eastern Europe.”

“My God, I heard about that,” he replied seriously. “I believe you saved a group of international delegates from a terrible crash.”

Nina scoffed with a smile and tolled her eyes back in mock modesty. “Actually, I was one of those saved by my two colleagues. They deserved the accolade, in truth, but yes, we narrowly averted a terrible tragedy.”

Nina tried to keep her replies simple, but in fact, the light mention of the would-be catastrophe ordained by the Order of the Black Sun would have brought on global destruction. It merited a long and dramatic account, but she hardly had the strength to relive it, let alone explain the anomaly of physics that was employed for sinister agendas. For her peace of mind and that of the world, Nina elected to treat the ordeal as a train accident and nothing more.

“Well, I am very glad that you and your friends did something to save the people on that train, Dr. Gould, and delighted that you are still with us!” he cheered as he ushered the petite brunette into his office.

“So, Principal Willard, would you like to fill me in on the purpose of my advisory position here for the next week?” she asked as he sat down opposite her. The office reeked of wood polish and old carpeting, reminding Nina of her visits to the principal’s office during her high school career. To her surprise, she found herself feeling quite affected by the smell, jolting her memory back in time to when she was a diligent, but feisty student.

In the sharp morning light that permeated through the pallid blinds behind him, Principal Willard looked like an Olympian god. The grey halo of his sideburns and hair shimmered from the blinding rays as he folded his hands together. “We have a history week here at Gracewill every year and the faculty and I thought it would be interesting for a historical academic to advise us on the finer details. We thought it would breathe some new light into the tiresome old curriculum prescribed by the school board. You know, just to make things more exciting for the children before they grow up and discard it altogether.”

“Interesting,” she smiled. “I think it is a great idea.”

Of course she did. Nina would garner more attention towards her field and its exciting possibilities. If anything, she was hoping to plant some seeds in the young minds at Gracewill that would rouse such a wonderful curiosity for the past as she harbored. Although the school board were not paying her much for the pulling power she could bring them, Nina had enough money to spend her time spreading the word on the fascinating world of history.

“So, you would be interested in sitting in on our history classes, then?” he beamed.

“Aye,” she nodded cordially. “Which grades would I be sitting in on?”

“Mostly Primary 7,” he replied, gathering the papers printed for her to sign for the assignment, “because they are at a ripe age for inspiration, I believe. As I want all aspects and sides of historical events to be covered during lessons, I do not think the younger children should be included yet, you understand.” He pulled an adorable face and whispered, “Just for those more gory tales we all secretly prefer to learn about, hey?”

Nina laughed. “You and I, sir, will be getting along just fine.”

A knock at the door halted the merriment for a moment. From the other side a shrill voice spoke reluctantly. “Principal Willard? You called for me?”

The principal rose from his chair. “Ah, Miss April! Please come in.”

Nina turned her head to face the door. In stepped an extremely peculiar looking woman that had Nina staring without reservation. Light brown, reddish soft locks coiled onto her shoulders. Taller than the average woman, Miss April looked like autumn on legs. Her bright green eyes sat far inside her head, parted by a delicate narrow nose and shy freckles barely showed on her skin. Nina was fascinated by her rake thin body, her shoulders sunken behind alarmingly protruding collarbones and a long neck so slender that it barely supported her head. The thin neck was Nina’s speculative reason for the shrill voice of the woman as she spoke again. “Is this the famous Dr. Nina Gould you told us about?”

The beady green eyes pinned Nina, and it made her feel like an insect being scrutinized by a grotesque and curious scientist. “I am sorry if I am staring,” Miss April apologized as she drew nearer to Nina, “but I have seen you on the telly before and read about those scary expeditions you and those other fellas have braved. To be frank, I do regard you as a piece of history in the flesh, so it makes me stare.”

“Why do you see me as a piece of history, Miss April?” Nina asked as the women shook hands. Miss April’s pale hands were ice cold. ‘Probably the bulimia-induced anemia,’ Nina’s nasty side sneered inside her head. Something about Miss April freaked her out even more than the woman’s odd choice of words.

“Oh dear, I hope I did not offend you by saying so,” Miss April said sincerely, as she sat down on a less lavish chair as the one offered to Nina. “All I meant was, the adventures you have had and relics you have discovered sort of makes you a figure in the history texts of the next generation, see?”

Nina hated admitting that she liked the teacher’s sycophantic excuse. Miss April added to her statement with a softer tone, teeming with admiration. “Only, we get to meet you and speak to you already. You are not some long deceased historical figure leaving us with unanswered questions. We can ask you straight to your face.”

“That is quite the observation, Miss April,” Principal Willard smiled, clasping his hands together on the desk. Nina found the woman’s intense stare terribly disturbing, an expression of obsessive admiration coupled with a lustful foreboding.

“Aye, it is a very unusual reflection,” Nina agreed politely, desperate to change the subject before Miss April suggested a sacrificial feast or something. She quickly turned to Principal Willard and cleared her throat. “So, in conclusion, you just want me to observe Miss April’s classes and add bits in?”

“That would be wonderful,” she heard Miss April swooning next to her.

“That is correct, Dr. Gould. Maybe you can just add anecdotes or elaborate on some of the lessons,” the principal agreed. “It would also be interesting for the children to learn from two different sources in the same class, like a discussion between two history teachers, instead of endless sermons of the same old accounts.”

Miss April clapped her hands rapidly and lightly next to Nina, declaring her excitement. It was the first time she openly smiled, a beautiful gesture that only bewildered and unsettled the visiting historian. ‘Creepy woman,’ Nina thought. ‘So many levels of creepy.’

“Shall we introduce Dr. Gould to the class?” Principal Willard suggested.

‘Stop being a bitch. She is just happy to meet you, you condescending cow!’ Nina’s conscience reprimanded. “By all means,” Nina smiled.

In awkward silence Nina accompanied the wiry Miss April and the eccentric principal down the long corridor of uniform doors, each with a similar mat placed on the floor in front of them. It had an unsettling air of perfection, like a pedantic prison for young minds. Contrary to what people assumed about the historian, Nina had never been a fan of the school system, but it was a short week for her to make some extra cash. After all, Nina hoped to impress the children enough to pursue her field of study once they hit high school.

The red brick halls reached ahead into the dark dead end where the boys and girls lavatories were located. Along the straight lines of the brickwork, wall-mounted hooks toothed the light brown pine they were fixed to. The precision was an eyesore for Nina. She found it oddly annoying how identical and repetitive the doors and hooks were. For a moment, she wondered if this was evidence of some sort of developing obsessive behaviorism.

“Here we are!” Miss April shrieked, smiling like a comic book psycho. To Nina the teacher’s shrill voice sounded far worse in the hollow echo of the hallway, but she kept on her poker face and smiled nervously. “I cannot wait to introduce you to them, Dr. Gould.”

“Smashing,” Nina replied, pulling up her nose in a sarcastic gesture Miss April either ignored or remained oblivious to. Upon entering the classroom, Nina’s critical state of mind shattered. It was not the children or the decorations that changed her mind, but the interior of the room. From where she stood, the school bunks were few and stood positioned in an amphitheatrical fashion. Like a lecture hall at the university she attended, the classroom resembled the old lecture rooms of English medical schools.

From wall to wall the shelves were lined with books and artifacts, the latter being replicas, of course. Nina felt right at home and this time her smile was genuine. What made it even better was the capacity of the class.

“Only a few students, I see,” she remarked to Miss April, who took her place at the desk at the center of the floor and clapped three times. She nodded, “Principal Willard believes in smaller classes for better individual attention.”

The class consisted in no more than seventeen children, most looking quite wayward, but attentive. Nina’s eyes briskly scanned across them all to assess the demographic.

‘Mostly boys,’ she thought, already adjusting her manner to accommodate their consideration. The young lads stared with saucer eyes at the pretty guest hosted by their history teacher. Her dark hair was back in a simple ponytail and she wore a blazer with her blue jeans and heeled boots. In short, Nina looked hip and professional, with a priceless bronze Celtic torc around her neck to match her bronze earrings.

One boy in particular found Nina especially engaging and she noticed him at once. However, she pretended not to have seen him gawking at her. She was used to male attention from all ages, but the boy’s persistent stare was peculiar.

“Children, for history week, I have invited a very special person to come and visit us,” Miss April announced happily. “She is a historian from Edinburgh University, among others, and her name is Dr. Nina Gould. Please welcome her to our classroom.”

Although the class were full of rather rugged looking young ones, they were remarkably obedient. Yet, this was not what took Nina aback. At their teacher’s request for Nina’s welcome, the entire class proceeded to knock on their wooden desks, a trait from a bygone time in formal academia. She did not know whether to find this lovely or weird, but nevertheless, Dr. Nina Gould turned on her charm and took a bow to the delight of the children in Miss April’s unconventional history class.