Mimeograph Billy

It was about a week before Halloween, and our 6th grade reading class was reading. Our teacher decided to give us a break and let us hear some creepy stories. She told us that the story was entirely true, and that she was getting chills just explaining about it.

Anyway, our school had originally had a mimeograph. This was one of those really old copy machines that you had to use a crank to operate, and only printed in drippy blue ink. It was replaced by a copy machine in the exact same spot. Our teacher went in one day to use the copy machine and print some worksheets. There were a couple of students sitting in the office for detention, watching her. The machine began to shoot out the papers much more rapidly than she had expected, and while it was printing, a blue piece of paper caught her eye.

Now, there were no blue papers in the machine-she had inserted the paper before she started. When she picked it up to see it, she noticed that it was printed in strange, drippy ink, like the mimeograph type printing. When she began to read it, a story unfolded.

A young boy who had previously gone to our school, she did not give a date but did give a fake name "Billy", was a good student. He rarely got in trouble, but one day he was sent to the principal. He fumbled with his long tie, neccessary to the school's uniform. We don't have uniforms any more. A teacher walked in and printed some things on the mimeograph as Billy watched. When he left, Billy decided to play by the mimeograph and crank out some papers. Somehow, his tie got caught in the machine and pulled him in with it, crushing his small body to death.

When the secretary walked into the office, she gasped and was shocked. She hadn't a clue of what to do, but knew that if word got out that Billy was killed, the school would have a horrible reputation and legal action would most likely be taken. She called in a janitor to clean up the bloody mess and take Billy's body to the dumpster. She then called his parents to tell them he had run away.

Billy had printed the note as a way to communicate with our teacher. She decided to show it to the principal, but it disintegrated in her hands. With that, she freaked and told the principal and many other teachers.

After the occurance, the entrance door to her classroom slammed shut often and opened when it was locked. This scared the crap out of us, the students! But Billy got what he wanted, exposure. The kids told practically everyone as soon as they heard the story.

We're trying to find out more about our school's history, it's well over 90 years old.