24 October 2007

Night Guard: Keeping danger out? Or keeping the kids in?

So for the past two nights, I've been skulking around a dorm full of schoolchildren, here to visit the aquarium and learn some marine science. Their teacher claimed they were all "little angels" ... yeah right. The girls were trying to sneak into each other's rooms so they could chat all night, and the boys were probably planning wee hour expeditions into the woods. Hence the need for a skulker.

I walked around the building every twenty minutes or so, making sure to pass each room slowly and that my shadow fell across their windows. I kept no particular pattern, and would often stop right after reaching the end of the row to see if anyone came out after my passing. Then I would sometimes go back the other way. At erratic intervals, I would stop in the middle and peer into their rooms to check that they were actually in their beds (the second night, many more of them had their blinds tightly closed...). Thusly did they all know that I was right there the whole time... lurking in the shadows... waiting to strike should anyone try to escape.

It was very quiet both nights. The kids thought I was awesome and thanked me for keeping them safe. The teacher wants me to do it again for them next year.

2 comments:

Jim Wright said...

You did a good thing.

Last year I did something similar for my son's school's six graders when they visited the Alaska Challenger Center in Soldotna. I also had the duty that night to drive into town and pick up 50 pizzas. Man, that's a lot of friggin' pizza.

MWT said...

Wow. And if it was cold out you probably didn't need to turn on the car heater!

It was fun. Very boring after about 3am though, and by 5am I was trying hard not to nod off. But it was definitely an interesting change of pace from what I usually do with my nights.