 What Lies Hidden in Your Closet: Part Four
by puppy200010
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Twenty-seventh day in the Month of Swimming,
Today we finally moved into our new house. For
the past few days, my owner had been there, directing where furniture should
be moved and helping to decorate the interior. According to her, all we'd have
to do once we got there was unpack the suitcases that we'd bring with us, and
as we arrived and I looked at the inside of the house, I found that she was
right. I wasn't given a formal tour of the house, but she did point out the
bedroom that was to be mine. The room was rather large, and it had soft, white
carpet and pale blue walls. My owner had gotten me a new bed, and it was set
up in one of the corners of the room and covered with several shell-shaped pillows.
I walked over in awe to touch the soft satin bedspread that was on the bed,
and my owner smiled.
"I've got a surprise for you," she said, motioning
towards a door on the other side of the room.
"Surprise?" I echoed, glancing over at the door
that she gestured to.
"Yes. Go look!"
I did as she said and was amazed by the contents
of the closet. Several shelves had been built onto the walls, and all of them
were filled with brand-new toys. The most amazing part of the surprise was a
gigantic dollhouse, complete with an entire set of new dolls and beautiful,
detailed, miniature furniture. I gasped at the amazement of the closet and immediately
fell in love with it.
"This is your own personal playroom!" my owner
exclaimed, appearing happy at my reaction. "I went and picked all the toys out
myself. And, although it's not much, I've got one more thing for you..."
"More?" I said in shock.
"Yes," she said, presenting me with an expensive-looking
school set. It included a white quill pen, a small inkwell, and a silver ruler.
"I know how you like to write in that diary of yours, and I saw this while I
was shopping and thought that you'd like to have it."
I was speechless for a moment but finally managed
to find my voice. "Thank you," I said, clutching it to my chest and placing
it on one of the (very) few empty spots on the shelf.
Most of the afternoon I spent in that closet,
playing with the intricate little dollhouse and its occupants. Several hours
after I started to play with the house, my owner called me down to dinner, so
I had to tear myself away. As I ate my dinner, she suggested that I look around
the house, since I'd spent nearly the entire day in my room. I told her I would.
I knew where the kitchen, dining room, and living
room were from my first glance at the inside of the house, but I hadn't seen
much of the rest of the house. The staircase to the second floor was right outside
the kitchen, and I decided to start at the top of the house and work my way
down.
From the outside of the house, the second floor
looked like it was as large as the first floor, but it didn't seem like there
were many rooms there at all. All the rooms there were bedrooms. Mine was the
first one in the hallway, so I bypassed it. Next was a smaller bedroom, and
I guessed that it was probably a guest room, because other than furniture, it
didn't appear to have much in it. My thinking was confirmed as I came upon the
last bedroom on the second floor. Undoubtedly, it was my owner's. The walls
and floors were both a deep red, and the bed in the corner matched. It had a
red velvet bedspread that was embroidered with gold thread, making the whole
bed just look very... royal. I thought it was even more amazing than the bed
sitting in my own bedroom. My owner's closet doors were open, and I saw that
she had already unpacked and hung up her clothes in it. I looked through them
briefly, pushing all the hangers to one side to look at each outfit by itself.
Once all the clothes had been pushed to the side, however, I noticed something
in the back of the closet. A door.
Because of my curiosity, I walked behind
the clothes and was going to open the door to find where it led, but it had
no doorknob. How strange, I thought, starting to wonder if it was even
a door at all. I propped myself up against this section of wall to ponder what
this particular part of the wall was if it wasn't a door, and why it
had been put there, when suddenly... it moved.
The diary was becoming very interesting to Kalina,
and she started to read faster, her eyes flying across the page to absorb the
words as fast as they could. In the entry, Sury continued to tell what she found
behind the door, and Kalina couldn't help but wonder if the door was still there.
She nearly got up to go look but quickly realized that she couldn't. That door
would be in the closet of her owner, and it was the middle of the night now...
Her owner would be soundly sleeping in her bed and would wake up if Kalina decided
to go digging through her closet. Speaking of sleep... Kalina thought,
placing the diary back onto the small table beside her bed, I could use some.
As she moved to turn off the light, however,
a thought came to her. If Sury had written that the door in her owner's closet
hadn't had a doorknob and had opened because she leaned on it... perhaps the
door in her own closet worked the same. Yawning and rolling back out of bed,
she couldn't help but try. She promised herself that she'd go to bed once she
tried. Yeah right, her mind scoffed. If it does move, of course
you're going to want to explore tonight!
Kalina sleepily shuffled over to the closet,
completely forgetting that the doorknob had stuck the last two times she had
tried to open it during the night. This try was no different, and, disappointed,
she promised herself that she'd try first thing in the morning.
Well, "first thing in the morning" turned out
to be noon, which was how late Kalina slept the next day. "Maybe I should have
gone to bed earlier," she mumbled, looking out the window at the bright day.
Surprisingly, Kalina momentarily forgot about the closet and went downstairs
for some breakfast. "Or should it be lunch?" she asked, glancing at the late
hour that a clock on the wall showed.
Once in the kitchen, Kalina walked over to the
pantry and stuck her head inside. Nothing inside the pantry seemed to be quite
what she was in the mood to eat, so she decided to poke through some of the
other cabinets. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a note
on the table, and she went over to read it. The note was from her owner, explaining
that she had quickly run into town to pick some fruits up from the local vendor,
and she'd be back soon. After reading this note, Kalina's memory was suddenly
jogged. Her owner... the door...
If her owner wasn't home, this was a perfect
time to try the door! She rushed up the stairs, eager to test the door, but
her plans were quickly ruined. Her owner's bedroom door was locked. "Locked?!"
she yelled, in disbelief. "Since when does my owner lock doors when she leaves?
Since when does this door even have a lock?" she asked, not remembering
seeing one on the door before. "Gaaaah!" she yelled in frustration, pounding
a single fist against the wooden door. Once she calmed down, she figured that
she could at least try the door in her closet. It was no longer night,
which hopefully meant that her closet door would be unstuck. "And there's no
way that my bedroom door is locked."
It, of course, was not locked, and Kalina strode
quickly across the room, only to find that she was still locked out of her closet.
"How could this be happening?!" she yelled, vowing to try later in the day.
"How could what be happening?" responded her
owner, who had just come home and was coming up the stairs.
"Uh..." said Kalina, trying to think fast, "I
was just mad about... uhh..." Her eyes frantically swept the room. "...My paint
set!" she finally said, naming the first object she laid her eyes on.
"Your paint set?" asked her owner, confused.
"Um, yeah. I'm... out of blue paint."
"Oh, that's all?" Her owner sounded relieved.
"We can go and get some later."
"Sounds good," she replied, her paw still on
the doorknob. Without thinking, she turned it on the knob... and the door was
unlocked.
To be continued...
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