Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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LITERARY One cold night last Fall, l created a ghost! This incident occurred in the school On a Saturday night after dinner, all the Chinese boys met in the centre room of the Lower Centre Corridor, After a short general conversation, we switched to ghost stories. Everybody, except Fred, was afraid that when it became late no one would be willing to go anywhere alone At about eleven o'clock, Fred grew tired of what he considered a long and pointless chat and decided to leave. l can't remember who thought up the crazy idea, but we all agreed that it would be fun to frighten Fred a little by mak- ing him think that there was a ghost in the school that was after him. Fred lived in the Lower South Corridor in the first room to the right of the staircase facing the backyard of the school. His roommate was away for the weekend. This created the perfect situation for our plot. Eddy and I were to execute the plan. We opened the window of the room in Lower Centre, took off the screen and sneaked out onto the roof of the Meeting Room. We tried to keep low so that Fred would by no chance see us. We crawled to the retaining wall and hid beneath it. Then, Eddy started to flash the flash- light we brought with us while l bounced tiny pebbles off the panes of Fred's window at regular intervals. Fred was studying in his room. At first, he ignored the distractions completely. As we continued to perform, he became more alert. He tried to look out of the window. ln the darkness he saw nothing Hidden as we were, we were not detected His curiosity grew as time went on Then, the effect of the ghost stories we had been telling began to take hold of him He rushed out of his room, he charged into the room on Lower Centre and asked the boys for help. Those in the room pretended to know nothing of the episode and asked Fred what was going on, Fred re- plied in terror that he thought that a ghost was about to get him. To heighten Fred's dismay the boys in the room held out a light in an attempt to search the roof. They were, of course, cautious that the light should not reveal us in hiding During this search, Eddy and l bent as close to the roof as we could. Whenever the light came near us, the tension was so great that I unconciously held my breath, After an almost endless search, they gave up As soon as the flashlight they used was turned off, they began to discuss the matter facing the centre of the room away from the window. Eddy and l sneaked very carefully back into the room next door, Once inside, we sneaked quietly into the corridor and knocked on the door where the discussion was taking place Come in, someone called. We did, Whats wrong with you Fred? You look so frightened, was all that l said. - Philip Ching THE VOYAGEUT-I 29

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First Cigarette . My hand shook as I opened the box of matches. I pulled one match out and slowly scraped it along the sandpaper side of the box. The match flared brightly and burst into a small orange flame. I took out the cigarette that I had borrowed from my mother's pack- age and put it in my mouth. I held the flame to the end of the cigarette and puffed madly. Almost at once I began to choke. After my fit of coughing had subsided a bit, I inspected the end of the cigarette. Surely enough, it smoul- dered brightly and I settled down to en- joy my first cigarette. I took another puff and again began to choke wildly but determination had the better of me and I continued to smoke that cigarette. After a while, I did not cough so frequently and began to take account of my surroundings. It was decidedly peaceful in these woods but my eyes were out of focus and everything was a bit hazy. I took another puff and to my surprise and delight I didn't choke or gag even once. Two puffs without incident later, I was a confirmed smoker. I had almost finished this first cigarette when a feeling of dizziness swept over me. I quickly stamped out the remaining butt and began to walk home. My pace was uneven and I staggered from time to time. lust before stumbling through the front door, I knelt beside the verandah and was violently sick to my stomach. Aside from these minor difficulties, 'II taken my first Iurch towards ind had smoked my first - lan Mossop 30 LITERARY Migration It was almost time for Maria Concepcion to get ready for Mass. Like most of the Uxmal inhabitants, she usually began every Sunday or Holy Day with Mass. This morning be- fore the service, Maria wished to linger for a few minutes to watch the daily activities outside her window. She pushed the blanket off and knelt on her bed to see what was happen- ing outside. Yesterday Maria would not have stayed to peer. Yesterday the garbage man did not come by and by this hour the heat and the stench rising through the window would have been unbear- able. Luckily, Uxmal now had an of- ficial garbage collector most days. Since there was a sewer which ran down the middle of the street that often became clogged with dead cats and dogs, the appointment of a garbage collector was a great step to- wards modernization. As Maria listened to the sharp cries of water-boys hoping to sell their wares, she heard the door open and looked to see her sister, Anna, enter the room with two pails of water which she had purchased only seconds earlier from one of those shrill water-carriers. Maria rolled from her bed, which was little more than a straw mattress on the floor, and folded her blanket on top of it. She moved to the back of the room where a wooden tub sat on the ground. As she eased herself into it, Anna poured the water over her. She sat there watching the drops run over the edge and fall onto the floor where they quickly vanished into the packed reddish earth. She felt a quivering sen- sation come over her. Maria heard the door open again