Boarding school revisited

I always found returning back to boarding school after each holiday very difficult.  Lying in bed, I would cover my head with my blankets, and pushing my face firmly into my pillow, would as quietly as possible, shed more than a few tears.  It was always the same at the beginning of each term.  I would be woken in the middle of the night by the distant whistle, as well as the slow chuff, chuff, chuffing of a train being shunted into a siding.  I would lie motionless in bed, as I waited for the train to gather momentum until all the chuffs began tripping over each other, in a frantic effort to reach the finishing line.  At this point, fresh tears would spring to my eyes, as the cold reality of being at school once more, and not on the farm hit home.

We slept in a very large dormitory with about thirty beds, as well as matching lockers and chairs.  At one point, I refused to have my locker standing next to my bed at night, as there seemed to be noises emanating from it.  Each night, much to the amusement of the other girls, I would pick up my locker and trundle it to the opposite side of the dormitory, only to retrieve it once more the next morning.  This must have gone on for a good six to eight months.  I was convinced that there was a little man living in my locker.  On reflection, I was probably going through some sort of crisis in my head.  

Having to get out of bed at night to go to the bathroom was a major problem.  As many children will know, that there under the bed, resides a large animal, ready to pounce at a moments notice.  When I felt brave enough, I would stand on top of my bed and jump as far away from it as I could in order to live to tell the tale.  A mad dash down the dormitory and across the washroom with large shadows playing across it's walls, and into the toilets, would have my heart pounding wildly.  A moment of great relief, before having to make the mad dash back again.  On those nights when I didn't feel brave enough, I would find myself dreaming of floating down a nice warm river.  In the cold light of day, I would have to deal with the fallout and the subsequent embarrassment.