Explore the school some more

Joe figures that while he is here and young again, he may as well have some fun. It is a bit of a thrill compared to his usual life, this sneaking around after dark, checking out an alien yet familiar world. It’s like a strangely detailed virtual reality game to him – it doesn’t quite seem real, but it is realistic.

Besides, the adrenaline that is now coursing through his veins is not going to let him go to sleep now: he’s 18 again, he’s full of hormones, full of energy, but with the curiosity of a mature scientist. But it’s such a difference to his usual laboratory-based lifestyle – he’s here now, in an environment that presents danger, the danger of being caught messing around after lights-out – and it makes him feel like James Bond or one of those Second World War PoWs escaping the concentration camp.

Halfway down the stairs, he figures he may as well continue on down, have a look at the old place, have a look at the ground floor, now **** to his nocturnal explorations.

The place is just as he remembered, albeit dark and empty, and a little cold as he’s wearing only his pyjama bottoms. But the adrenaline keeps him warm, even if he has to keep tip-toeing along as the marble floor of the school’s entrance hall is freezing on his bare feet.

Happily, the stone floors on the ground floor – marble here, polished stone there – is entirely quiet as he scampers along them – quieter than the wooden boards upstairs, which have the slight risk of creaking.

Joe has a good look round, reminding himself of the old place, but sticking to shadows unless he is confident of his security. He keeps his ears pricked up, alert for anything, but there is no sound whatsoever. The whole place is still.

He sees the dining room again, the assembly hall, the locker rooms, the classrooms, the changing rooms – all the old places he hadn’t seen for decades. It’s great – so nostalgic. But after a while, the old haunts are a little dull. There’s no one there. Why should there be? It was safe. But these places were all places he’d seen before.

Perhaps it would be more interesting to sneak somewhere he wasn’t supposed to go. After all – you only live twice. But where?