The Door

A Creative Nonfiction by Andi Magnuson.

 

Becca, Chelsea, and Brittany share a room in their mother’s house where they wake up to a locked door.

Lying in bed still. Chelsea doesn’t know if she really wants to get up yet. She wonders to herself if the door will be locked again. So Chelsea lies there in wait for a couple of minutes longer before she makes her way to the door. When she does get to her feet, she slowly walks to the door, grabs the handle, and the door will not open.

Today, Chelsea will be stuck again, but what will she do with her time? She does not know yet, so she tries to wake her sisters to tell them that the door is locked. Chelsea walks over to Becca’s bed on the bottom bunk. She grabs her covers, shakes her a little and says, “Wake up.”

“No,” says Becca with her eyes half-open. Then, she rolls over towards the wall.

Chelsea shakes Becca harder and says, “The door is locked again.”

“Are you sure?” says Becca as she gets out of bed.

“Yep,” Chelsea says “check for yourself.” Becca checks the door. They both look at each other.

“Maybe we should wake Brittany up?” Chelsea says.

Becca looks at Brittany with a tear in her eyes and says, “No, let her sleep. The longer she doesn’t know, the better.”

“I know,” says Chelsea. She looks at Becca, “She’ll wake up eventually and find out.”

“Don’t,” Becca says as she looks at Chelsea. Then, she slowly turns to look back at Brittany.

Chelsea looks to Brittany also and says, “Ok, I won’t.”

Becca, the oldest sister, rules the roost. She never hears no and always gets what she wants.

Chelsea, the middle sister, tries hard to get attention, but falls short, stuck between her two sisters.

Brittany is deaf and at this time hardly speaks. Their mother spends most of her waking time trying to teach her how to talk. That is, when she remembers she has children. Brittany does pretty well for a three-year-old. She is most definitely the cutest and the sweetest of the three sisters. That is why Becca and Chelsea do not want to wake her.

Instead, they look around to see what they are going to do today. They see that they have a toilet training seat for them to use and some food on a t.v. stand. In the look on their faces, you can tell they both wonder how long they will have to stay in their room this time.

The room is clean considering the fact that three young children share the room. The closet is full of clothes, and there is one large dresser. Also, in their room is a bunk bed and a day bed. Their room has some toys, but not many. All of the batteries are out of the toys they do have so not to make any noise. The only window in the room is up against the side of the bunk bed.

This is not the first time they have woken up to a locked door. Every time they do wake up to a locked door it seems to stay locked longer than the time before. The first time it was locked for most of the day. The last time the girls were in their room for three days. None of the girls know how long they will be in there this time.

Becca finds some coloring books and asks Chelsea if she wants to color. Chelsea says “yes” and goes on to color with her sister. They spend an hour of the day coloring when their little sister wakes up.

“Good morning,” Brittany signs and says.

Both of her sisters look at her. “I wish it was a good morning,” says Chelsea.

Brittany says “Why?” and signs “What’s going on?”

Becca looks at Chelsea then looks at Brittany and says, “The door is locked again.”

Brittany cries. She is so little that it is hard for her older sisters to see her like that. They both go and wrap their arms around her. Finally, after a while, Brittany stops crying.

Becca looks right at Brittany and says, “There is not much for us to do today. We were coloring while you were asleep. Do you want to color with us?”

Brittany signs and says, “yes.”

The girls spend most of their day trying to waste time until the door reopens. Unfortunately, for them, the wait will be much longer this time than before. They think that the door will be unlocked on the third day some time, but it is not. The third day passes, their food is gone, they have nothing else to drink, their toilet is giving off an odor, and still they are stuck. Then a week passes. The girls are hungry and weak. So they have to do something.

“Let’s go to Connie’s house and get something to eat,” says Becca while she gets a new set of clothes on.

Chelsea looks her way and says, “Ok, but what if the door opens?”

“I don’t care, I am hungry, and I need to use the bathroom,” says Becca.

Brittany butts in shortly and signs, “I am hungry too.”

Chelsea then says, “Let’s go.”

Becca opens the window and all three of the girls go outside, and walk across the street to their neighbor’s house. Connie is a very skinny older woman who is nice to the girls when they come over. None of the girls tell Connie that they went out the window to get to her house, so Connie thinks they just came to see her like usual. Connie gives the girls some snacks. Each of the girls use the bathroom, and they stay for a bit then head back home.

When the girls get back to their house, they climb into the window. The door is still shut. They all sigh in relief because they were afraid to know what would happen if the door was open when they got back. They have gotten away with going out the window to get some food, so they continue to do so every day for the next five days. Connie just thinks they are there to visit her, and love the visit because she is not able to have children of her own. The girls enjoy the time with Connie, but they mostly enjoy the time out of their room for a while until they go back home.

After returning home, the girls decide not to go to Connie’s house if the door is locked in the morning. Instead, they will go to their Pawpaw’s house. Morning came and the door is still locked. The girls get out of bed and start to get ready for the long walk.

Nanny and Pawpaw live on the other side of town. It is a very long walk for the little girls, so they know they have to dress appropriately. Becca and Chelsea both make sure Brittany is dressed correctly and has her tennis shoes on.

They all go out the window and are on their way to Nanny and Pawpaw’s house. The girls walk behind the houses in their cove, so no one sees them leave. Then straight ahead to the road that leads all the way to the creek.

The creek is nice, but it is not that big. From the road, are some palms you can see from a distance before you get to the creek. Once you get even closer, the land descends until you reach a large sand bar. The water is low because of drought. This makes the sandbar look bigger than normal.

Once the girls reach the creek, they have to get to the other side. They all look for what they think is the best way to get across. Chelsea finds it-about ten feet from where they are standing is a couple of large stones sticking up out of the water close enough together that it is easy for them to cross.

It is a hot day. The wind is blowing, but not enough to keep the girls cool. It seems as if the longer they walk, the harder the sun is on them, especially since they have nothing to drink.

Not even the heat can stop them from being kids. To try to make their walk less strenuous, they play games like red light, green light. They also take some breaks to relax for a couple of minutes. In those breaks, that is when the creek is the most fun because that is when they play with whatever animals they can catch. They play with frogs, snakes, and lizards. They probably would not have even played with the snakes, but this snake kept trying to take their pile of frogs they have collected along the way. Not once did they consider that some of the snakes at the creek were poisonous. Thank goodness, none of the girls were bitten.

When they finally get to Nanny and Pawpaw’s house, no one is there, and the door is locked, but Chelsea knows that Pawpaw always leaves the window in the bathroom unlocked. They climb into the window. Then it is time for all of them to get something to eat and drink. They eat whatever they can find and fall asleep on the couch. They are tired after the walk.

After sleeping for a few hours, they wake up to their Pawpaw saying “How in the hell did y’all get here?”

Becca looks up at him with a fear in her eyes that Chelsea and Brittany also share and says, “we walked.”

Pawpaw scratches his head while saying, “Why did y’all walk here, and did y’all walk all the way from your mom’s house?”

“Yes, we did walk all the way from mom’s,” says Chelsea under her breath still sitting on the couch.

Pawpaw, not believing what he just heard, asks again “Why did y’all walk from your mom’s to here?”

“Because our door has been locked for a long time, and we are hungry,” says Becca sinking into her chair further and further and looking down at the ground.

Pawpaw’s eyes widen, his cheeks go flush, and he almost grits his teeth saying, “What do you mean the door was locked?”

“It has been locked longer than a week Pawpaw,” Becca says while still looking at the floor.

His eyes start tearing, and the flush drains out of his cheeks. He is still mad, but now the anger is stepping aside for a new emotion. He crouches over the girls and says “Have you eaten this week?”

“We’ve been going to Connie’s,” says Chelsea. “She gave us some snacks.”

Pawpaw then collects Becca, Chelsea, and Brittany into his truck. He is going to get to the bottom of this locked door business.

He looks back at all the girls in the mirror and says, “Is the door still locked?”

All the girls answer together, “I don’t know.”

The flush creeps back into Pawpaw’s cheeks when he says, “Well, let’s find out.”

He drives to the cove behind their house and he gets out of the truck. Then, he walks up to the window. He opens up the window. He checks to see if the door is locked. It is. He then climbs out of the window and walks back to the truck.

When Pawpaw gets back into the truck he looks into the mirror and says, “We are going to go out to eat, and then we will go back to my house.” He pauses for a good long minute and continues “Let’s see how long it takes for them to figure out y’all are not in the room.”

After being at Pawpaw’s house for two more days, Rhonda calls and tells Pawpaw that the girls are missing.

Pawpaw responds to her saying in the calmest voice I have ever heard, “No, they are not.”

“Yes, they are,” says Rhonda in a voice that could instill fear into the bravest.

“No, they are not missing!” Pawpaw yells over the phone.

Rhonda is now confused. “How do you know?” she says.

Pawpaw gets a look on his face that reminds me of an angry demon saying, “They have been at my house for a few days now, and this is the first time you have said anything about them not being there. How in the hell did you just find out they were missing?”

Rhonda, scared beyond control, states back,

“I can’t remember what happened, but I remember thinking strongly that I did not have children. Then, a little while ago I had a strong urge to find my kids because it was quiet in the house, so I went to check on them. They were gone and I went frantic looking all over the house for them.” She begins crying and says, “Dad, what is wrong with me?”