Playing along

She is fed up, sick and tired, ready to give up… How on earth is she going to stop people from breaking in into her small flower shop? They never steal anything, they just force the lock, place a few things out of place and then go… Her instincts tell her that the teenagers of the neighborhood have something to do with it. But she can’t prove it and therefore there is nothing she can do.

At the beginning she used to call the police almost every day, she even convinced the Chief police to assign a police patrol to guard her shop one night. But the old fat police man assigned to the task was sound asleep before the moon was fully up… The following morning when she found the door unlocked and try to show it to him, he tried to convince her that she left it open. They argued for almost two hours, till the chief got tired of both of them and started shouting like crazy. He said so many things and used so many improper words that, she blushes even now by just remembering them.

This incident spoils her days, no matter how happy she is, as soon as she reaches to the shop and finds the place unlocked, her day is immediately ruined. She tried changing the locks, from the very simple ones to the very sophisticated ones, but in spite of the changes, they still manage to break in…

Being a woman of action, someone who has faced so many challenges, she wasn’t going to allow a foolish game to get into her nerves, so she decided to get the bull by its horns and deal with the problem the best she could.
First of all, she had to accept the facts and get ready to swallow the reality - whether she liked it or not, she was on her own! Someone was messing up with her, playing games, trying to get something out of it. Then the best she could do is to play along and give them a taste of their own medicine, at least she could have a bit of fun with the whole situation.
The guy from the hardware shop couldn’t understand when she asked him to install six totally different locks on the shop door. He tried to explain several times that the high number of locks will not stop the guys from breaking in, it would just take them a bit longer, that’s it…
But she was secretly smiling, enjoying in advance the fruits of her master plan…

So the previous evening, she took her time closing each and every lock on her shop door. She closed one, stopped to look around, paused, secretly smiled and then proceeded to close the other one… and like a ritual she carried on in exactly the same way with each and every one of the six looks on the door.

Now as she approaches the door, she can hardly control the excitement, the adrenaline, the dry test of her mouth… her heart is bumping fast and her face is a transparent portray of the joy overwhelming her.
She stands and observes the locks, she can see the familiar marks of breaking in attempts. One of the locks is even a bit broken… with a trembling hand she reaches the door handle and slowly unlocks it and then gently pushes the door open, but the door refuses… so she tries again but a bit harder… once again the doors remains closed...

Without caring about what others may say, she started laughing, dancing and jumping, unable to control her happiness. She did it, she managed to outdo the fools and she did it with their own medicine, by pulling a joke…

The previous day, she didn’t lock all the locks, she only locked every other one, so the one that was trying to pick the locks was always locking three… HAHAHAHA and the best part of all is that she picked the idea from an Elayne Boosler show, after listening to one of her jokes.

© 2010 Gabriela Abalo

I got the inspiration to write this short story from a joke I read from Elayne Boosler... "I have six locks on my door all in a row. When I go out, I lock every other one. I figure no matter how long somebody stands there picking the locks, they are always locking three."

This post is a submission to Magpie Tales #25, writing on a theme of the above photo.