The Day I Locked Myself Out

A TRUE STORY by Robin Stewart

 

Well, here's how it started. It was Tuesday, Semptember 1st, 1998. I was home alone because my parents were both at work and my sister's school started already. I had just finished checking my email, so I closed the internet connection to work on my home page. I realized that I needed a tree, and I good way to get one would be to take my video camera outside, videotape a tree, and then hook up my camera to the computer and save the image. Then I could touch it up a bit in PhotoShop.

So I went upstairs, got my camera and a battery, then went downstairs, undid the bolt on the door, turned the knob, opened the door, opened the screen door, went outside, closed the main door, started to close the screen door, and realized that I didn't need my sweatshirt on and I also should put on some shoes.

I turned around, grabbed hold of the knob, and tried to turn it, and tried to turn it, and my heart froze in my chest. My heart beating hard, I tried once more.

No luck.

Thump-THUMP, thump THUMP. I ran around to the other door, which was locked also.

I stopped to think. Both of my parents were at work, 45 minutes away. To come to give me the key would take 45 minutes, and they would miss an hour and a half of work because of the return trip. And besides, I didn't even have access to a phone. Then I remembered that Jesse had a key to our house. But who knows where he was, and I remembered again that I didn't even have a phone, nor could I remember his number. I could call up my mom, ask her for Jesse's number, then call him. But still, I didn't have a phone. Well, I could go over to the neighbor's house to use their phone, but that would be so humiliating... and I didn't even know if Jesse would be home.

I ran around to the back deck, climbed up onto it, and checked the door there. Again, no luck.

Okay. Calm. Time to switch to criminal mode. Aha! I remembered that you can take out the screen on the window from the outside. Now, please, please, let me have opened a window so I could get through. I ran-walked around the house, checking every window.

Every window was closed.

Well, as you can imagine, I was really scared now. I was running out of ideas. If ONLY I had even opened a window...

I looked up... and saw the window to my parents' bedroom upstairs was open wide. If only I could get up there... A ladder.

I looked around. I immediately saw the loooong, orange ladder that we had gotten when we remodeled the house, lying on the grass. I picked it up...

Well, tried to pick it up. I got it about a foot off the ground. That thing was heavy! I dragged it until it was just about right under the window, trying to not make very much noise in case a neighbor would think someone was breaking into the house. I set it down, rested for a minute, then hoisted it as high as I could, lost my balanced, the ladder swung around, hit me on the head, and I dropped it to the ground. I rubbed my head, knowing that there was no use trying to get that thing up, it was too dangerous.

Well, by now I was pretty freaked. I dragged the ladder back to its resting place, and sat down next to it, closing my eyes. After a few seconds I opened them... blinked... and saw the smaller, gray ladder lying under the deck. I could only hope that this ladder was a lot lighter the the last one. I picked up an end...

And easily pulled it out from under the deck. I carried it to the spot under the window, put it up against the house, and, again trying not to make much noise, pushed one half of the ladder up to its fullest extension.

But it didn't look good. That window was high. I climbed up the ladder, but it wasn't high enough. I thought, could I grab onto the tiny ledge outside the window? Could I stand on the one over the window below? I stopped myself. It was way too dangerous. If I fell, I would break my neck for sure. I carefully climbed down, ready to give up and go over to the neighbors house.

Then a thought popped into my head.

I was off and running, carrying the ladder around the house to the front where my sister's bedroom window (thankfully, she gets hot easily) was open. The screen was on, the blinds were closed, but the window was open. It was fully as high as my parents' bedroom window, but the catch was that the front deck was below it, which gave me another 3 feet or so. Plus, the awning over the door was under the window, so I figured that could save my life if I fell and maybe I could climb from that into the window.

I set the ladder under the window, right next to the awning, and extended it until the top was resting just below the bottom of the window. I climbed up, but realized that the ladder was really to the side of the window, and I didn't really know how safe it was to stand on the awning, plus the angle of the awning looked pretty daunting and I didn't know if I'd slip off.

I climbed down and moved the ladder over to the other window to her room, so that the ladder was resting dead center just below the window. It was a little more risky than having something to stand on, but I figured it wasn't too dangerous because the top of the ladder was so close to the window, and not off to the side.

I climbed up. I removed the screen. I thought of just dropping it down to put it back later, but decided I could hold it. Now there was the obstacle of the blinds. I reached through the blinds and...

Fortunately I was on the side with the string that you pull to raise the blinds. I breathed a sigh of relief. The string was hard to pull, especially through the blinds, but slowly and surely I raised the blinds about 3/4 of the way.

I stepped up a rung. I couldn't believe I was doing this.

Carefully, I pushed the window open a little more, slid the screen through the window, and attempted to throw it onto my sister's bed. It didn't quite make it, but it was good enough.

I stepped up again, so I was on the very top rung of the ladder, and stepped inside.

Onto the the window sill, that is. I now had the challenge of getting to the floor, because my sister's 'book' case was just below me, at the same level as the window sill, and the screen was resting in front of that. I really didn't want to upset anything on the book case because so far I hadn't broken anything or done anything that I couldn't undo. I reached over to pick up the screen and chucked it onto the bed.

I stepped over a little on the sill.

It was a little risky to jump over the shelves, but I had been through far riskier things just now and I was confident in my jumping skills, so I jumped...

And gently landed on the soft carpet.

I couldn't believe it.

I had just successfully broken into our house, without actually breaking anything. I just stood there for a minute, mouth open, breathing hard.

Finally, I ran downstairs, unlocked the door, but left it open for good measure, took down the ladder, carried it around back, and slid it back under the deck. I took my video camera and sweatshirt back into the house, then went up to my sister's room and was able to put the screen back after a few minutes of trying. I slid the windows to how they were originally, lowered the blinds, and went downstairs to write this.

 
the end

 


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