Continuing on with my life in drafts

A day late – this was one of the writing exercises I did in my Memoir class Zoom kick-off class tonight.

When I was a T’ai Chi instructor, I taught in a tower of the Conservatory of Music in Regina, Saskatchewan. It was, literally, a tower and there were what seemed some nights to be a million steps to get there. So basically, you got your exercise even before getting to class. But when you finally arrived in the one big room at the top of all those stairs, the 360 view of the city was worth all the gasping for breath.

One night, class was on Hallowe’en, and being Hallowe’en in a tower, there was a storm going on. And I mean, a real prairie storm with blustering winds and full on lightning and thunder. When I arrived in the classroom, I was alone. It was dark, and as I clicked on the lights, I wondered if anyone else would show up on such a dark and stormy night. People usually turned up early, but this night did not. I sat alone in the tower beginning to wonder if I was more nervous about the storm, for an axe murderer sneaking up the stairs, or because of the ghost that was known to haunt the tower making an appearance while I was alone.

“If you’re here, come on out and say hi” I thought, thinking it was maybe too weird to say out loud and if I did talk out loud, would I be tempting that ghost to appear?

Finally, about the time the class was supposed to start, I heard the stairs and people making their way up. I heard voices, friendly student voices, so I began to breathe more easily again. “

“You’re here! I was wondering if anyone would make it.”

“You’re here! We were wondering as we came up if class would actually be happening.”

Our voices overlapped, chasing any ghosts away.

“The ghost was keeping me company, so no worries…Happy Hallowe’en!”

And even as the storm still blew outside, it was the most fun, and spookiest class, we ever had.