--- category: "6" changed: "2019-09-09T22:14:49.000Z" comment_count: "0" created: "2013-09-26T23:36:00.000Z" featured_image: "birds_eye_view_of_boma.jpg" images: ix: 18 nid: 14 original_author: "Janet Woolley" path: "content/kenya-high-school" title: "B5 ... Kenya High School - a story (Midnight Feast)" type: "article" uuid: "4d1cc620-43cf-4945-b44c-e4c56f668c1f" --- _I was a boarder at Kenya High School for Girls, in Nairobi, from 1962 to 1968, my formative teenage years. From age 13 to 18 I spend almost my whole life there, apart from days out and holidays. This is a story based on a genuine memory from my Kenya High School days, which I wrote up during my 'Memoir Writing' course. I have changed the names of my friends as I can't remember who was breaking the rules with me._ I wake with Mary tugging my blanket. Blinking as my eyes adjust to the darkness and embarrassed at having fallen asleep (when we'd had a pact to stay awake till midnight), I quickly pull on my dressing gown and follow her, not forgetting to shove my pillow under the covers to disguise the emptiness of my bed. Luckily no one else stirs. Sue is waiting at the top of the stairs and wraith-like we descend to the basement. Once we reach the safety of the locker room we can use the torch, sparingly, but still no talking, just in case. A tin is retrieved from Mary's locker, behind her hockey pads; there is a smell of shoe polish and blanco. The prefect's shoes are on the shelf waiting to be polished by some unfortunate 'rabble'. We will get more than shoe polishing as a punishment if we're caught. My heart is pounding but there is no going back now, we're on a mission. At the rear of the locker room there is small window leading to a store room and one by one we climb onto the shelf, careful not to move the shoes, and squeeze through. Sue goes first as she's the tallest and its quite a drop down to the store room floor, she catches the tin then helps Mary and me down. I'm last and push the window to, without securing it so as not to impede our return journey, although looking back I wonder how we'll get up there. Now we can relax, confident that no one has seen or heard us, our mission meticulously planned and executed. I won't let Mary put the light on though, I'm still nervous, someone might see it and come to investigate. I'm a scaredy cat - afraid of breaking the rules. I can take the punishment but cringe with fear and embarrassment at getting caught and being shouted at. We sit on the floor, legs crossed, dressing gowns wrapped tightly, the pale moonlight seeping in round the loosely fitting door helps preserve our torch battery, and our faces light up at the contents of the tin: sugar daddies, black jacks and mars bars from tuck shop, the remains of Sue's Mums chocolate cake, and a packet of fizzies - which we have to lick as we have no water to dissolve them in...what a feast. We set about it greedily, almost forgetting where we are but luxuriating in our naughtiness and bravado. What a story we'll have to tell when we're back in the dorm tomorrow. Having polished off the contents of the tin we entertain ourselves by making animal silhouettes with the torch and telling ghost stories while giving our faces a scary glow by holding a torch under our chin. “_Who might know when the ghosts go by, you might be the next to die_ _They wrap you up in a big white sheet and drop you down about 6 feet_ _All goes well for about a week and then your coffin springs a leak_ _Worms crawl in and worms crawl out, they go in thin and come out stout_ _Your eyes fall in and your teeth fall out_ _And your brains come trickling down your snout_ _Your tonsils turn a sickly green and pus oozes out like Devonshire cream”_ “Time to go back to bed, I think” says Sue. We had had great fun but just pray that matron won't be on the prowl as we creep back upstairs, and that none of the prefects will be making a midnight trip to the bathroom. First though, we have to get back through that window to the locker room, more of a challenge than we anticipated. Sue gives Mary a leg up and finds a box to heave herself up. I am last as usual and being the least athletic and tubbiest I am dragged up and through the window by my partners in crime. Phew, the chocolate cake doesn't help and my knees scrape across the window ledge. We are not caught though and soon I am back in bed, but unable to sleep as the adrenalin races round my body.