Stories are the framework of our lives. Without them, we have nowhere to hang our hats or retrieve our coats. We all begin in the Cloak Room…

‘Chet, you need to place your hat in the Cloak Room,’ Mrs. K. said. Chet dutifully arose from his first-grade desk and marched into the Cloak Room and subsequently came back without his hat. Billy B. had never heard the term Cloak Room. He thought what an interesting title for your hats and coats and at times your gloves and scarves and snow boots…the kind with the three buckles down the front.

‘What is the little door in the back of the Cloak Room and where does it lead to,’ Billy B. asked Jane? ‘I have heard that it leads to the band room…but someone entered it once and was never seen again,’ she said with a wicked wink. ‘Do you think that is where Buddy went as we have not seen him in class for two weeks,’ Billy B. asked? ‘Buddy was rambunctious enough to explore what is beyond the Cloak Room Door but if he were in the band room he would have been found by the custodian, Mr. Watson, that evening,’ Jane mused. ‘I asked Mr. Watson if he has ever seen anything strange happen in the building and he said to never enter the little door at the back of the Cloak Room,’ Chet said as he placed his hat on his head and they all peered into the darkness behind the little door of the CR.

‘I am reading the most interesting of mysteries,’ Neva J. said to the group as they piled into the 57′ Chevy. It was an exceptionally warm May 17 and she had the ragtop down on the car. ‘What is the title of your new novel,’ Jane asked? ‘The Cloak Room,’ Neva J. said with a wide smile. ‘Would you like to accompany us as we explore the secret door of our Cloak Room,’ Billy B. asked? ‘Let’s come back after dark and slip in through the back door and see if there is anything to the myth of the CR,’ Chet said.

Mr. Watson was busily buffing the hallway tile floor. It gleamed under his expertise. As the kids got down on their hands and knees to enter the half door at the back of the CR Neva J. followed with a large flashlight. Suddenly it was morning and Mrs. K. said,’ Chet please place your hat in the Cloak Room…and there was Buddy in his assigned seat.