The One Who Answers the Roster

The Urban Legend Research Club spends one night in a schoolhouse empty for three years. President Lin Cheng treats the outing like a duty roster. Secretary Xu Bai writes everything down. First-year Nan Yin claims a spring trip. Second-year Zhou Ye waits at the door. The legend is simple. Overnight in an old classroom, and you are written into that year's attendance book. When your name is called, you answer. Those who answer are read out in the morning and become students of the building. The lights come on by themselves. Four names appear on the blackboard. Then a fifth: Wuwu. A woman's voice starts roll call. Lin Cheng says, don't answer. What follows is a locked night of empty fuse boxes, a second padlock, cold cocoa, a window broken that afternoon, a fifth shoeprint, and two attendance books. One book is for the office. One is true. Eleven years ago someone answered present for a girl who was not there. Tonight the roster wants that answer again.