Colorado and Adora had nearly finished their first ever term in Year One at Half Hitch Elementary School
And what a term they’d had. They’d learnt how to plant seeds, and paint, and stand on one leg and then how to stand on no legs. You see, Half Hitch wasn’t a normal type of school - it was all about using your imagination and trying to make - as the headmistress Mrs Perrinpeas would always say - “trying to make the impossible, possible.”
Colorado and Adora had loved every day, but there were still things about the school that they couldn’t understand. The three strange and magic things about the place. For one, the stairways sent you in the wrong direction. So if you walked up from floor 2, you’d end up on floor 1. And if you walked down from floor 2, you’d end up on floor 3. It took a bit of getting used to, and no-body, not even the older boys and girls - or even the teachers! - could explain why.
And the second thing, well, the ceilings would change colour depending on what mood you were in. If you were angry, the ceilings would be red, and if you were happy, they’d shimmer a light yellow, and if you were confused - they’d go a shade of green. And like with the stairways, no-body knew why.
And for a third thing, it sometimes rained indoors. No-body could see how this was useful, and Ms Keepgood the caretaker would forever be running about with a mop and bucket, cursing the old place.
So as all the pupils walked through the gates on the last day of term, just after an extraordinary sports day, Adora and Colorado felt a little bit sad. Yes, they had the holidays to look forward to, but they’d miss the school and they didn’t really like the idea of having to wait six weeks to have more adventures in it.
“You know all the weird stuff that happens at Half Hitch?” said Adora to Colorado as they walked down the road.
“Yes?” replied Colorado.
“Well why don’t we try and figure out the mysteries by ourselves? No-body seems to know anything about them - maybe we could be the first.”
Colorado liked the idea. “You mean, like Half Hitch detectives?” he said.
“Exactly,” said Adora.
So instead of going straight home, they headed for Horsmarlonerpool library.
Miss Kelvingrove, the librarian, was busy putting returned books onto her cart to go back onto the rows and rows of shelves when the two friends walked in.
“Miss Kelvingrove,” said Adora. “Have you got any books on Half Hitch, our school?”
“Oh, yes!” smiled Miss Kelvingrove, happily. “New books or old books? We’ve got Major Dubbin’s book about his time at the school, although it is rather long, and then in the History Section we’ve got old books about —“
“The history section, please,” said Colorado and Adora nodded.
“Very well. This way.”
Miss Kelvingrove led them to a rather dusty old corner of the library where the very old books were kept. There was a desk with a beautiful blue glass lamp and two chairs for people to sit and study.
“There are books about Half Hitch on this row here,” said Miss Kelvingrove. “Have fun.” And off she went to get on with her work.
Colorado and Adora looked at the spines of the old books to see what they were called. “Half Hitch, a History” said one. “The School of Horsmarlonerpool” said another. “The Heads of Half Hitch”.
“The Heads of Half Hitch?” said Adora, thinking that sounded a bit creepy, and pulled the book from the shelf.
Looking at the front cover, which had engravings of several very distinguished looking men and women she realised “Oh! It’s all the old headmasters and headmistresses of Half Hitch. Well this might give us clues. Let’s try and find the first one who was a bit odd.”
They opened the heavy old book under the blue light on the desk and started at the beginning. The very first headmaster had been a Mr Harrydog. Then, after him, there was Mr Pogerola. Then Miss Elphinstone. And then, the fourth, was a very odd looking man. He had ears that stuck out, and a tall hat, and a bunch of flowers in his hand.
“Mr Galati,” read Colorado. “A man of much laughter and an interest in the impossible.”
“Oh, yes! Let’s start with old Galati,” said Adora and went back to the bookshelves. After a little bit of searching she found the book she was looking for “Giacomo Galati - the Peculiar Headmaster of Half Hitch.”
Bingo!
As they read, they realised that old Galati was interested in magic, but wasn’t very good at it.
“He must be the man who made all the strange things happen!” said Adora. “Because think… Stairways that go the wrong way. Ceilings that change color. Raining indoors. None of them are useful. It’s silly magic! I reckon it was old Giacomo Galati’s doing!”
The next day, even though it was a Saturday, the two friends headed back to Half Hitch School. Ms Keepgood always left a door of the school open in the holidays in case you wanted to go in and paint or play, so it was easy getting in. They decided they’d head straight to Mrs Perrinpeas’ office. “My door is always open,” she’d say. So what was the harm of going inside? They weren’t really up to anything bad. They were DETECTIVES.
In the old files on Mrs Perrinpeas’ bookshelf they found the diaries of all the old headmasters and headmistresses. And right at the top, four along from Mr Harrydog, was one marked G. Galati.
The diary was so old it nearly fell apart in their hands, but inside they found lots of spells and their ingredients. There was one that turned stairways into slides.
“That’s how he messed up the stairways!” said Adora. “He didn’t turn them into slides. He just got it wrong.”
And one for corridors that cleaned themselves.
“That’s why it always rains inside!” laughed Colorado.
They decided that they’d try and make their own spell, using some of the ingredients Headmaster Galati had used. They went to the kitchens and found cheese, and basil. And in the science block they found iron filings and bronze. And in the playground they found clover and a buttercup. And then, they sat in the downstairs corridor and mixed it all up before saying Galati’s magic chant “Be thee, no mystery, be thee, no mystery.”
And guess what happened?
Nothing.
“I suppose if Mr Galati couldn’t do spells, then we can’t either,” said Adora, and tided away all the ingredients and returned the diary to Mrs Perrinpeas office.
They walked back out the school gates, and went off to enjoy their holidays.
But back in the corridor, something strange was happening to one of the walls… A plant began to grow out of it. And higher up, by the ceiling, some other leaves began to break through.
Well, six weeks later and the staff and pupils returned from their holidays for a brand new term. But when they opened the doors to the school they couldn’t believe what their eyes were telling them. Every corridor and every ceiling were covered in wonderful plants, flowers and herbs. It looked like a forest! Walking around, from classroom to classroom, felt like an adventure in the woods!
Mrs Perrinpeas the headmistress was delighted! The cooks were delighted - I mean they had all their fresh ingredients right there on the walls whenever they wanted them.
And the whole school smelt wonderful.
And did Adora and Colorado ever own up to doing it? Did they ever let anyone know that it was their spell?
Well of course they didn’t. Because they had no idea. They’d left before anything had started to grow, hadn’t they? So they just enjoyed their new, lush green corridors along with everyone else, unaware that they’d given Half Hitch its fourth big mystery.
