And I know. I know students are upset, confused, depressed, negotiating this . . . tragedy. We all are.

They stare at each other.

DANIELSON: Are you?

KHADIM: Am I what?

DANIELSON: Are you okay?

KHADIM: Am I okay about what?

No response. Stare off.

About what? About Lia?

Beat.

DANIELSON: You want to talk about Lia?

KHADIM: Do you?

Beat.

DANIELSON: Lia Winston was a troubled girl.

KHADIM: Yeah.

A moment. Danielson breaks it by hitting Khadim’s file.

DANIELSON: (smiling) Perception!

He holds the file up.

DANIELSON: Nobody’s contained by a file, isn’t that right?

Nobody’s contained by a rumor. Or a census, or an evaluation or diagnosis or . . . anything, when you think about it. And if that’s so, then all we really have left is perception, isn’t it? Perception becomes reality.

The onion is still the onion, no matter how many layers you peel off.

Even if there is so much underneath.

Danielson stands up.

DANIELSON: Do you want to see something awesome?

Khadim essentially rolls his eyes.

DANIELSON: Perception and layers and what have you. For example, this:

A map. On my wall. In my office.

He removes the map from the wall. A large round metal door, like a safe without a combination, like a portal, is in the wall. It has a small circular window that is totally black and scratched up, impossible to see through.

DANIELSON: Voilà.

KHADIM: What is that?

DANIELSON: First admit that it’s awesome.

KHADIM: No.

DANIELSON: It’s a door.

KHADIM: To what?

DANIELSON: There’s about thirty of these little doors in different rooms throughout the school.

KHADIM: You can go in that?

DANIELSON: Not anymore. Once upon a time, these were crawl spaces connecting every major room in this giant school. Now, these doors are sealed shut.

But the tunnels are still in there, like the arteries or veins of this place, leading down into the basement and then deeper down underground . . . to the North Pool. Ever hear of the North Pool, Khadim?

KHADIM: No.

DANIELSON: Well, it isn’t a pool. It’s a bomb shelter.

Back in the ’50s . . . people were scared of . . . you know . . . annihilation.

Why do you think they called it a pool if it wasn’t a pool?

KHADIM: No idea.

DANIELSON: It sounds better. Let’s go to the BOMB SHELTER would freak kids out.

Danielson puts his hand on the door. And then he puts the side of his face against it, as if he were trying to listen to whatever’s on the other side.

DANIELSON: There would be drills. Kids would crawl through these tunnels, scurrying down into the bowels of Sheff High. Where they’d all gather in this giant bathtub of concrete that would supposedly keep them safe from nuclear holocaust. Crazy times those were, huh?

KHADIM: Yeah.

DANIELSON: I think it’s a piece of history. Cold War history. A relic of the past. But also, for me . . . it’s a reminder.