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Sarah Sues Santa – P.J. Leonard

Chapter Fifteen: The Secret Room

As Sarah queued to hand in her tray, she noticed that the other kids started to clean the dining room,
grabbing cloths and wiping down chairs and tables while others grabbed brooms and mops from a
big cupboard at the back of the room and started to clean.
“What’s going on?” said Sarah as she handed her tray to Margaret.
“Chores,” she said, “Everyone has a place they need to clean.”
“Oh,” said Sarah, “Erm…where do I –”
But Margaret waved her hand. “You already did your chores this morning,” she said with a kind
smile, “You go and relax, dearie.”
“Oh, lucky you!” said Becky and Anna.
Sarah headed out of the dining hall. Children were scattered everywhere, brushing the floor and
wiping the windows. She wandered around, not really sure where to go or what to do. Her mind was
too full of what Becky and Anna had told her. Was what they said true? Was Mr. Vekil really a bad
man? As Sarah watched two little boys on their knees scrubbing a grimy floor with old socks, Sarah
had to agree. What kind of person makes kids do cleaning on Christmas Day?
Sarah rounded a corner, and snapped out of her daydreaming. Looking around, she noticed that she
was far away from any of the other children and their cleaning. This corridor looked a little brighter
than the other ones she’d seen: big windows on one side looked over a courtyard covered in snow.
And on the other wall was a long line of lockers, each with a number. Is one of these mine?
Maybe…but what number would my locker be? Straightaway, she knew the answer. Number 12,
her house number. She went to locker 12, and there was a turn-dial with all of the letters of the
alphabet on it. She rubbed her chin. Her password…what could it be? It could be any word...
She spun the dial around and spelled the word SANTA. The locker didn’t open. Maybe her
surname? PEBBLETON. Nope, that didn’t work either. Think, Sarah…a word that is important to
me, something I will never forget…
Sarah smiled. Of course. How could it be anything else? UBERWOMAN. The locker clicked, and
she pulled it open. Inside were her clothes. She immediately pulled out her jeans and dug a hand
into her pocket. Her fingers closed around a scrunched up piece of paper. The ticket. She still had it.
She could finally escape.
She looked around. Nobody else was here. It would be easy to just open one of these windows,
climb out, use one of the drainpipes to climb up onto the roof and escape this horrible place. She
slid open the window latch, and laid a hand on the glass. No, she didn’t want to leave just yet.
Something about this orphanage and Noel Vekil…it was like a mystery that hadn’t been solved.
And Uberwoman never left mysteries unsolved! Besides, Santa had sent her here for a reason.
Maybe this was it?
She slid the latch shut and locked the window again. No. Not yet.

Sarah walked around the maze of corridors and up the stairs to the second floor. This place is huge!
Far bigger than an orphanage needs to be. Many of the rooms were empty, or stacked with old
tables and chairs. But then she came to a door that was locked and bolted. Every door she’d seen
had been wide open…except this one. That just makes me want to see inside. She rattled the handle,
then immediately stopped, wincing as the sound echoed down the corridors. She tried to peek
through the crack under the door, but it was too narrow. She stood on tiptoe and tied to see through
the dusty windows on the door. At first, she nearly jumped away in fright – were those ghosts
inside? – but when she looked closer, she saw that that it was a huge white sheet stretched over
something big, so big it filled the whole room. What is that?

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