As I stand here in this large doorway, I try to remember of what happened in the past 3 hours.
Even though she was still mad at me-which I know because she's horrible at hiding it-my mother called me, her 24 year old, drop out from law school, son, to help her clean out my recently deceased aunt's house. Why? I have no idea, but because I'm attempting to make amends with her, I said yes.
As I drove I wondered about all the mysterious dusty things that could possibly live in her house. The thing with my aunt, is that she was basically cut off from society when she graduated college. My mom had always tried to get together to talk, but she was always "busy". I'm not really sure what she ended up doing, and how she paid her bills for the large, Victorian house she bought. But she managed, so I could honestly care less.
When I got there I saw my mom's dirty grey Jeep renegade, no surprise there, she's had that thing for ages. As I stepped inside, I was overwhelmed with a strong mildew smell. I almost had to turn back and go outside for air, but my mother walked silently into the end of the dusty, not-very-well-lit hallway. So I was left with no other choice but to follow her.
After I walked into the kitchen, she finally looked at me. "Hello Neal," she hesitantly says, like she isn't sure if I'm her son.
"Hi Mom." I reply because I couldn't think of anything better.
"Well let's get started on this house shall we?" She just has to avoid any conversation between us, doesn't she? I thought to myself. "I'll start in the living room, you can pick anywhere to go. And a big dumpster should be coming in about an hour, so for now there are garbage bags behind you," she tells me. And then she's gone, like she couldn't get out any faster.
Being the curious one I am, I just end up walking around the big house for a good five minutes before I came upon a chain leading to a hatch, which I can only guess to be the attic. When I try to pull it open, it won't budge, so I have to jump up and use all of my body weight to get it to fly down, and release a dust cloud that takes over the entire room, like I was in the desert during a dust storm. After my coughing fit subsided, I tugged down the foldable ladder strapped to the inside of the hatch.
As I entered the dark upstairs room, I looked around until my eyesight adjusted and I felt confident enough to walk around, and not fall through a hole in the floor (which I'm sure are scattered around). There were rows of shelves lining the walls, and all I could see were what looked like boxes on top of boxes, all with numbers on them. Maybe dates? I made a mental note to myself to ask Mom about it, though she probably wouldn't have a clue. Then I saw, towards the back of the room a gap in the shelving, which was just calling my name.
In the short distance from the ladder to the wall, I tripped 6 times! On what? I had, and still have no clue, and it's kinda scary honestly. When I got there, I could make out a door because I saw hinges, but it seemed to be boarded up. No, it doesn't seem to be boarded up, it most definitely was boarded up. And whoever did it was in a rush too. The nails are bent in different directions, and some only halfway in. I still wanted to know what was in there so I looked around for something to pry the boards off with. To my surprise I actually found a crowbar on top of one of the shelves (crazy right? I mean, that only happens in movies!). So I went and started in on the door.
By the time I was finished, I had a pile of boards and nails on the ground, and I could feel the sweat dripping down the inside of my shirt. But sweat is a part of life right? Ok so where was I... oh right! When I stepped inside the door, I tried to find a light switch, but when I tried to step, there was nothing to step on, so I plummeted a good thirty feet.
Somehow I was stopped mid-air and upside down, when I heard a light buzzing noise (and, mind you, I was in pitch black darkness, and hearing a buzzing noise was as creepy as this house). When I feel myself being rotated to an upright position by some unknown force, is when I really start to flip out. After I freak out for a good 5 seconds (which seems longer than it is) I finally calm down and am now looking at 4 little, dull, baby blue, fluorescent lights. And from the small amount of light they were giving off, I could see what looked like some sort of hole or tunnel. Before I could even try to think of what the small black hole was, I was shot into it like a rocket.
As I was being thrown around like a small child in an adult size seat in a fast roller coaster, all my thoughts are all blurred together and I don't have enough time to even think about where I may come out, when I was thrown to the ground with, what had to be, the impact force of....well, enough for the wind to be knocked out of me.
After I had regained the ability to breath and picked myself up from the dirt floor, I looked around to find two large opaque glass doors directly in front of me. I was in a small room only about 8 feet across and 6 feet wide, and on the walls on either side of me, they both had the same type of hole I was spit out of.
As I looked to the hole on the right of me, I heard some whooshing noise, and a large fellow, probably in his late forties, popped out, feet first with grace - unlike me - and his hands were full with a large stack of folders and loose papers. He walked right passed me and went to the far door, bent down slightly, to place his eyes in front of some advanced lock, which I figured, to be a retinal scanner. A laser then had scanned his eyes and I heard a click come from the doors.
He stepped back a little and just looked at me, like he was expecting something from me, and i just looked back because I had no clue what I was supposed to do.
"Aren't you going to open the door already??"
"Oh, oh, yeah sure." I replied hesitantly.
I carefully stepped forward and placed my hand on the cold metal door handle, and opened the door. The man rushed past me and though the door. What I saw amazed me, there was an entire organization down here. People at desks, other people talking on phones walking around, a mail cart was pushed through the large room, there were doors that had important titles on them like "Supervisor ", "Head of Research", and
"Director" to my left. Where I saw a hallway with 6 elevators on my right.
At this point, I was so overwhelmed with what I was seeing, all I could do was stand here in this large doorway.
YOU ARE READING
The Organization
Adventure{Small addition to background of the story} Neal Connary dropped out of law school, with one more year to go. And even now, four years later, he had no clue what he wants to do as a career. He's always been fascinated by government, but he didn't li...
