The secluded room

I was in Grade 7 that time. This incident took place in the month of December when the days are shorter and the night is longer. It was a regular day at school. The lectures happened as they were supposed to. The recess happened as it was supposed to. But as the school day was about to end something unusual happened.

It was the lecture of science that was going on. Our teacher was teaching us about the commonly used chemicals in the school laboratory. The lecture had become very interesting because all students were intrigued by the school laboratory. The teacher wanted to show us how potassium permanganate changes the colour of water. Our teacher Mrs Kulkarni wanted a student to go to the school laboratory and issue a few milligrams of potassium permanganate on her name for class demonstration. I raised my hand to volunteer. Also I was the class monitor hence it would have been appropriate to volunteer for any responsibility. Mrs Kulkarni agreed and she wrote a note for the school laboratory operator for issuing potassium permanganate. I diligently took the note and headed to the school laboratory.

Our classroom was on the fourth floor whereas the laboratory was on the second floor. I went down two floors and reached the school laboratory. I had handed over the note from Mrs Kulkarni to the laboratory operator Mrs Joshi. She was ready to issue the requested item. She called me into the lab while she prepared the sample. While waiting in the lab I saw that Mrs Joshi was searching for the requested chemical compound. She went through several containers to find it. She then told me that potassium permanganate in the laboratory was over and we will need to go to the storage area to fetch it. She asked me to accompany her to the storage area. Later I understood why she was not ready to go there alone.

I accompanied Mrs Joshi to the storage area which was on the same floor but it was away from the classrooms. We walked through a long hallway wherein there was nobody. It was really unusual because at any point of time the school would never appear secluded. The teachers or administrative staff would always be found in the hallway and the corridors. But somehow the second floor always secluded. There would be nobody around on the second floor. While Joshi and I were walking, the only sound that was heard was our foot steps. There was a hunting silence in that haklway.

We reached the storage area that was locked from the outside. Mrs Joshi had the keys and she unlocked it. We entered that room. It was a dark and dusty room which had no visitors for a very long time. "Nobody comes here. I come here only when I need to refill some of the chemicals required in our labs. This room was supposed to be a computer room but somehow things did not go right and it became a storage area", Mrs Kulkarni informed me while searching for potassium permanganate. I stood there looking at the scary looking dark and dusty room. For a moment I felt like the sun has suddenly set. The room became darker and scarier. I felt like my airways were closing. I started hyper ventilating. It was a winter evening but I started sweating. Same was the condition for Mrs Kulkarni. It was visible from her face that she was petrified too.

She grabbed the chemical and we left from that room. I checked the time and it was just within 5 minutes that we had completed our task. In that room it felt as if we had spend hours. That secluded room was suffocating, unbearable, and scary.

It was a lesson for me to not volunteer for everything. Volunteering every time may not get you praise but sometimes it may also give you shivers.