poor washington school.

this is the school i went to from kindergarten to fifth grade. when i went there 25 years ago it was terrificly old (drafty windows, creepy basement cafeteria, tucked-in coat rooms, dark back staircases, unused rooms and uneven floors) and really fun (tucked-in coat rooms, dark back staircases, unused rooms, uneven floors ...).
sometimes, i'll catch just the right chemistry of wet boots, pencil shavings, chalk and miss zeitlin's clean, quiet smell and i'll be standing right back there, in my third-grade coat room, digging in the pocket of my favorite pink coat.
washington school has been empty for probably 20 years. my dad had thought about buying the building once, for use as boat storage - and what a grand idea that was!
but she just sits.
i really really really want to go back inside and remind myself what the coat room *looks* like, too - what it really looks like, and how long it is and whether there's another oddly placed closet within it. i want to sneak up a back staircase - although rodents debilitate me, so i hope it's not *too* dark - and peek into the library on the corner; i even want to go down to that dungeon that smelled like bologna and bananas and stale chips.
i hope i get to before they take her.