The Incredible Roommates

It was tragic.  I’d walked clear to the music building, started in, and realized my keys weren’t in my pockets.  And I’d shut my door behind me.  

Never, ever, a good sign.  

Of course, there was the slim possibility that the reason I hadn’t grabbed them on my way out was sheer forgetfulness on my part.  They could still be dangling from the lock, or worse, still in the ignition of my car.  I tromped all the way back to the apartment, hoping upon hope that they were where I hoped I had left them.

My hopes were shattered.

 There were no happy skulls dangling with my keys, waiting to greet me.  No chibi Sesshoumaru or chibi Roy smirking at me. 

 I was desolate.  I couldn’t get into my room.  I couldn’t get into my locker in the music building.  Locked away from my life, my music, my books and writing. 

 Of course, the first thought I had was to check with the Resident Assistant.  Not there.  “Try the other RA, in apartment six.  Her name is Jessica.”

 “Sure, thanks.”

 Jessica, the other RA, wasn’t home either.

 Lauren, who’d assisted me in my failed hunt for an RA, stood with me as I stared in abject misery at my door.  While I was wallowing in misery, wishing my keys were on the stand by my door, but knowing they weren’t, Lauren leapt to the task of trying to break in my room. 

 “Can’t pick the lock,” she said, pulling a card from her pocket.  “I did that last year, and I could never use my key again.  We’ll try this.”

 And try we did.  Well, she did.  Two cards perished at the hands of the malicious door before Shawna joined us.

 “If we had a rope…” Shawna began.

 The light bulb went on.

 Tragically, none of us had a rope.  But that wouldn’t have been a problem, really.  Wal-Mart was just a hope, skip, and jump away.  Buying some wouldn’t have been a problem.

 The problem was the building.

 Oh, what a clever building it was, foiling our carefully laid plans.  A ledge only a finger width wide.  No trees to climb, or even sling a rope from.

 “You know,” I said thoughtfully.  “We could always lower someone down from the apartment upstairs.”

 Shawna and I exchanged looks.  The same thought had occurred to her.

 It was a good idea, really.  It would have been easy, and highly entertaining to go upstairs and ask, “Hey, do you have a rope?  Oh, and could we borrow one of your rooms for like…ten minutes?”

 “It’d be dangerous, though,” I said.  As if everything else we hadn’t thought of and discarded hadn’t been dangerous.  Cat burglary, even for a good cause, was apparently dangerous. 

 “We could tie the rope around her waist,” Shawna suggested. 

 “That’d certainly be safer,” I agreed.

 “No,” Lauren said.  “That hurts so bad.”

 Defeated, I returned to stare mournfully at the door.  This was the second time in two weeks I’d done this.  Of course, the first time it’d be ridiculously early in the morning, and I don’t even remember shutting the door.  Somehow it’d gotten shut though.  Then, my keys had been on the small table by the door.  It’d taken some work, two wooden spoons, a spatula, twist ties, and some tongs, but I’d managed to get them. 

 My keys were not on the table.  There was no hope of rescuing them.

 But thinking of the tongs had given me an idea.  A good idea, and insane idea.

 The best idea I’d come up with all night.

 “Lauren,” I said as she and Shawna joined me.  “Could you get me your tongs?”

 “Why?” she asked.

 Shawna had already figured my plan out.  “If someone could reach through and turn the knob…”

 Exactly.

 See, that evil damned door had one weakness.  It was flimsy.  It was such an easy thing to push at the bottom.  Enough to slip a hand into the room.  Enough for an arm.  But not enough to bend and reach the knob.  With tongs, there was chance.

 Lauren brightened at the idea, though her enthusiasm dimmed almost instantly.  “It’ll just slip.”

 “Not if we cushion it somehow,” I said, thoughts of TP, wet wipes, and paper towels running through my head.  “Make it sticky.”

 “I have double sided tape,” Shawna declared triumphantly.

 Our plans were changed, rather abruptly, when Lauren related our struggles to Sharley.  Who came up with a brilliant plan. 

 Only they failed to mention it to me before they shushed off to implement it.

 We caught up with them at the neighbor’s apartment.  A tall skinny guy, cutely geeky, blinked at us, giving us that look that said we must all be somewhat crazy.

 “We won’t make you do it if you don’t want do,” Sharley promised.

 A bat of her lashes over her big blue eyes, and he was won to our side.

 In an incredible feat that would have had the cheerleaders green with envy, she climbed up his shoulders.  Only to be thwarted by the screen.

 A screw driver, supplied by my beloved—and unlocked—car defeated the screen in one fell swoop.

 Again Sharley surprised us with her skills in acrobatics.  Smooth as can be, she slithered through the window, fan, coffee mug, and rolling chair posing no obstacle to her incredible skill. 

We’d done it.  We were in.

And my door was open.

 We parted with Jason, the cutely geeky guy, with profuse thanks and promises of cookies.  For his stunning strength and stunningly kind heart, he deserves fresh baked, homemade cookies.

 Because of my incredible roommates—and one geeky neighbor—I was able to enter back into the safety of my world.  There were my keys, hiding innocently in my blankets on the bed, far out of reach of the door.  But that’s all right.  I forgive them.  Things could have been so much worse than they were.

 Thank God, Goddess, and all that is holy for some of the most incredible roommates.