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“Dad! The printer is messed up again!”
The machinery of the printer whirred and screeched as it printed strange characters in some sort of incomprehensible binary language.
“Dad, seriously, we need to get a new printer, this is the third time this week that this has happened.”
My father responded, “Yeah, that is kind of strange. I’ll tell you what. Let me take a look at it and see if I can figure things out. Here’s a couple bucks. Go out and get us some ice cream.”
I walked outside and the brightness of the sun temporarily blinded my vision. The heat radiated off the pavement effectively cancelling out the air conditioning that followed me out of the front door.
I grabbed my backpack off of the bench and got on my bike. I rode the two blocks to the city center and went into the ice cream shop.
That was the great thing about living on the island. Everything you could ever need was a short distance from home.
I paid for the ice cream and placed the brown paper bag into my backpack got on my bike and rode back home.
As I entered the door, I yelled, “Dad, I’m back!”
My mother came around the corner and said, “Your father had to go to work. He told me to tell you to put his ice cream in the freezer.”
Dad always left for work at the strangest times, but I guess that what happens when you are on call.
******
I returned home from school, ate a snack, and went back into the computer room.
I went over to the book shelf and began to search for The Great Gatsby. I had to do some shitty assignment about the character conflict between old money and new money. I would not have cared if it actually had any bearing on my life at all.
I found the book and pulled it from the shelf. About halfway out it got jammed. I pulled with a little more force and I heard a click.
The bookshelf slowly rotated toward me as I moved out of the way to avoid catching The Republic between my eyes.
What I saw astonished me.
I had been living in this house for over 17 years of my life and never once had I seen it.
There appeared to be a heavy metal door with a combination lock on it. I ran my hands over the door and…
A voice boomed behind me, “What do you think you are doing?!”
I turned around to see my father red faced.
“I had a project on The Great Gatsby and when I went to grab it… this happened.”
“Son, you are never to touch that door again. Now, if you need a copy of The Great Gatsby we will go to the bookstore and buy one. I don’t even know why you would want to read it anyways, I ******** hated that book when I was a kid.”
We left the room and never spoke about it again.
*******
Just because we never spoke about it, did not mean that my curiosity hadn’t been sparked.
I went to the computer room every day after school and attempted to figure out the combination. I listed all of the possibilities in a notebook and crossed them off one by one.
I had been at it for 18 months, but I had to know what was behind the door.
I needed to know the secret that my father had kept from me for 18 years of my life.
Right 35 – Left 23 – Right 15… Nothing
Right 35 – Left 23 – Right 16… Nothing
Right 35 – Left 23 – Right 17… Click.
I quietly reached for the handle so I would not wake up the entire house and gently pulled it backward.
I made my way through the door and lights automatically lit up the room.
The room was made out of stainless steel and had a shower hanging from the ceiling.
There was a closet on the left that had a key lock on it.
Right in front of me, however, stood another door, with a combination lock on it.
s**t.
*******
I continued to work in the middle of the night for another 6 months on the combination lock to the second door.
Right 14 – Left 32 – Right 6… Nothing
Right 14 – Left 32 – Right 7… Nothing
Right 14 – Left 32 – Right 8… Click.
I reached down with excitement and turned the handle. I slowly pulled it back.
As the door cracked open, a voice blared over the intercom, “SECURITY BREACH, SECURITY BREACH, SECURITY BREACH. SHUTTING DOWN IN 5, 4, 3, 2”
“SHUT THE ******** DOOR SON!”
“1, 0. GRAVITY PULL REMOVED.”
All of a sudden I went flying backwards towards the ground and everything went flying across the room.
The printer whirred to life and began printing indecipherable messages at a frenetic pace.
“DAD! WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!”
As my father wiped the blood from his nose, he said, “Son through that door is Earth. Our ancestors got involved in biological and chemical warfare and before it spread too far we built the island underground. We were the last civilization. I used to go through that door to see if things had gotten to the point where we could return home. But you… you didn’t shut the first door behind you. The change in gravity was supposed to shut the door automatically but you swung it open too far and it didn’t work.”
As the blood began to run from his eyes and blood poured from his mouth, my father said, “Son, I want you to know that I still love you because in approximately 10 seconds we will all die for what our ancestors did 23 years ago.”
I spit out the blood that had filled my mouth, muttered “I love you too, Dad,” and shut my eyes.