October 2019
Often, I've been hearing metallic sounds. To me it sounds like something or someone is digging through bins of hot wheels cars, like the ones in Sam’s room. Every time I hear it, my first assumption is that the dog is getting into trouble but I usually see him close by. If I don't see him, I'll go running into the room to bust him, but there's never anything out of place. I can name a number of times when Nora would get locked in a bedroom and start screaming and crying trying to get out. This feels really weird to me because this child ceratinly knows how to open doors on her own. One time she got locked in the bathroom with the lights off and nearly had a panic attack, but then again, who wouldn't?
Recently the kids and I have had experiences with the doors getting locked and we can't seem to unlock them, as if someone is holding down the little lock button on the other side of the door knob. (Side note: Our door knobs have those old push in locks with a small hole on the other side. Usually a toothpick or bobby pin is the best way to open it when it’s locked.) Let me tell you about one crazy incident in particular:
The kids had a friend over and they were all playing in the bedrooms together when I heard a commotion down the hallway. Sam started yelling for me to come and help unlock his bedroom door. I yelled back that I was busy in the kitchen and if they wanted help, they could come get a toothpick to unlock the door themselves.
I reached into the cabinet and grabbed the toothpick container and handed it to Sam and off he went back down the hall. It wasn't long before I could hear the two of them struggling with the door again. They were adamant that the lock was broken and they couldn’t open it. At this point, I was frustrated because I had to stop what I was doing and unlock a silly door. I came stomping down the hall and took the toothpick from his hand. I carefully stuck it into the hole and felt where the release button was. I gave it a push, but the toothpick slid off to the left. I tried again and this time it slid off to the right.
I started rationalizing and concluded that the lock was not popping open because someone was holding the button down on the other side. I could even feel the resistance on the whole door knob, like someone was holding it with their hand with their thumb pressed in the middle. Honestly, my next thought was "Damnit Nora." She was my only real suspect because she likes to play with the doors and she has a hard time listening when to stop messing around. It made sense to me that she had cheekily locked them out.
After another failed attempt at popping the lock, I grew irate and shouted, “Let go of the door!” because my brain had firmly deducted that someone was messing with me. When I stuck the toothpick into the hole again, the lock popped right open, as easy as it should have been the first time. I opened the door, all hot and ready to have a talk with the child on the other side of it, but the room was completely empty. I even searched the closet, threw the blankets off the bed, checked behind the curtains- I was that certain about what I had felt. I turned around to see the kids in the doorway watching me nervously. The look on my face must've scared Sam because he asked me what was wrong. I didn't want him to know how freaked out I was so I said that it was nothing and went back into the kitchen to finish my work.
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