It seems like years since I passed through this long hallway, but in reality it had only been a few hours. Then it was in a very different setting. Students' laughter, talk, gossip and screams filled the air as they raced to their next class. How strange it was that this place, which had been bustling only hours ago, was now utterly silent, forgotten and, with the exception of me, alone.

All I could hear as I strolled through the hallway was the sound of my footsteps scuffing against the dirty tiled floor. I looked in awe at my lonely surroundings, consisting of locked rooms, lockers and darkness. I had walked through this hallway hundreds of time, yet I had never seen it like this. I stopped outside of one of the classrooms and looked in. The room was motionless and filled with rows of empty desks. To me it seemed that the desks were patiently waiting until Monday for people to once again sit in them. I wanted to enter the room and somehow restore life to it but it was not my destiny. The room, like all the others, was locked.

As I continue to roam through the hall, the peace of this place started to surround me. It was so calm and even though it was deserted, there was a certain sense of tranquillity and comfort that flowed through it. I started to have the sense that perhaps something great had happened in this place, but that I had come too late to see it. Then again, maybe I was just too early. As I slowly walked past the blue lockers filled with people's books and possessions, I pondered what this hallway had seen. It had heard the complaints and confidential secrets and knew all the tragedies and successes that had happened in this school for decades. Yet, unlike people, it did not judge, nor mock, nor laugh. It was just there and until Monday came, it was utterly forgotten.

I approached the large red exit sign and opened the door. I entered the outside world and behind me I left the loud bang of a door that disturbed the utter silence in the building. Once again the hallway was alone. As I strayed farther and father away from the school, I suddenly turned back in wonder. The school had such a harsh and strong exterior; red brick, cement pavement, locked doors and few visible windows. Yet, what you couldn't see from the outside was that behind the rough exterior, this place was not so tough. Could it be that behind this facade it was patiently waiting and dreaming of the day when the students would once again walk down its halls? How could it ever stand the immense sorrow that it experienced when students graduated and left, never to return? How could this place bear knowing so many secrets and not being able to tell anyone? How could that school endure being alone? 1