Deadline for Writers
Prompt: I can’t
Word Count: 500 Exactly
Deadline: 4/24/2024
Title: STUCK by Tracy Kigsen
The door is stuck.
This was the lamest excuse for not going to work ever. But it was true.
At 5:30 a.m. I texted my supervisor upon the realization that leaving the house was not an option.
After getting out of bed, I had to pee really bad and noticed the door was closed. Living alone in this tiny apartment, I left it open and never realized it locked. I pulled on the doorknob and banged for who knows what reason, then finally found a plastic vase to hold my urine. Unable to aim like a boy, this process was quite messy. I cleaned up with an old towel and tried the door again, using all my strength, but to no avail.
The minutes passed and once my phone showed it was time for me to be at work, I texted Kylie that I wouldn’t be in today. She was angry because it was my day to open the gym’s front desk and it would take awhile to find backup. She asked if I was sick and wanted specifics, so I was honest.
“I can’t open the door.”
I was still waiting for a response and wished there was a window in this room, as it would provide a second exit and maybe I could scale the building like a superhero and get down to the ground, three floors below. But then I heard it.
Someone else was banging from another apartment. I heard a muffled, “Help.”
Had all the building’s doors closed, and locked, overnight? This was strange. Soon I heard lots of banging and foul language. Sirens screamed from outside, so folks were likely calling 9-1-1. I threw on a pair of jeans, my bra, and a hoodie and sat on my bed, waiting for the emergency responders to break down my door and set me free, along with the rest of the tenants.
The noise subsided; an hour passed. I imagined everyone being saved except for me. I decided to call the office and get a maintenance person up here. I Googled “Sunshine Apartments Rosedale, IL” and nothing. I refined my search to “Sunshine Apartments 9600 Edgemont Avenue” and still it was not listed. There was a Sunshine Lane in Aurora IL, a Rosedale Avenue in Decatur IL, and Sunshine Village in Toulon IL, but my apartment complex in Rosedale was not listed, so there was no website, no phone number to call.
I’d just moved in two weeks ago and had no reason to call the office yet, having been encouraged to do the leasing paperwork in person. Wait. The girl had given me her business card. I dug through my pile of clothes in front of the closet and found my wallet with the card inside. There was no phone number.
“Sunshine Apartments. Your Forever Home.”
What is happening? I backed up and raced to the door, throwing my full weight into it, feeling it disintegrate upon impact, and revealing an infinite white space beyond.