A crack of thunder jolted Serene from her sleep. The basement was dark. Musty. Stale. Mildew- ugh. Something crawled across her arm. She jumped to her feet and knocked her shin on the coffee table.
She heard her phone bounce off the table and onto the cold concrete floor. She leaned down and pressed her fingers on the table. Using it as a guide, and trying to ignore whatever semi-sticky substance was on it, Serene made her way to where she thought the phone landed.
She crawled on her hands and knees, meticulously expanding her search area.
“What was that?” she heard something above her.
Footsteps?
Her hand bumped into something. It felt like her Phone. It had to be. She picked it up and fumbled with it before realizing that she hadn’t charged it since yesterday.
“Way to go Serene.” She chided herself.
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Her eyes had adjusted to the dark, a little, and she tried to orient herself to find the elevator or the stairs. The smell was getting to her. “Something rotten in Denmark”
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She muttered under her breath. Without thinking, every Edgar Allan Poe poem she knew came to mind. Especially the Tell-Tale Heart. She could imagine herself being stuck under the floorboards for all eternity. She thought of the sticky stuff on the coffee table. “Well Gilead, there’s your balm.”
“Get a grip,” she told herself.
She finally made out the shape of stairs and started toward them, she took her steps with caution, not wanting to bump into anything else. Thirteen steps later she came to a door.
“Don’t be locked,” she whispered. “Please don’t be locked.”
She turned the knob and to her relief the door opened. The lighting wasn’t much better but she could see that she wasn’t holding her phone. Instead, it was a rectangular thing with two holes in it. She turned to look down the stairs.
She paused for a moment, not wanting to go back into that dark musty basement. It had been so nice when she first got down there, but now. She took a deep breath and let it out slow. She needed her phone.
She carefully searched around the coffee table for her phone. Her hand touched the couch and she recoiled.
“Not there,” she held back the impulse to puke. “Never there. Never again.” Looking around, her eyes adjusted to the light, and she shook her head. “This is no place for sleeping.”
Her phone vibrated, startling her. She picked up the phone and answered the incoming call. “Of course, I’m here.”
The phone went dead. She stared at the blank screen, trying to will it to come to life. Nothing happened. All she heard was “are you there?”. She didn’t even have a chance to find out who it was.
Phone in one hand and, whatever it is, in the other, Serene made her way back upstairs. She made her way back to the kitchen where the last slivers of sunlight made it through the windows. She looked at the object with the two holes, each with small plastic spikes. After turning it over and over, reading the words P-tra, B-at -he sy-tem, she realized what it was. An old cassette tape.
“I wonder if there’s something to play it with?” She looked around the kitchen but there was nothing there. She headed down the hall, passed the door to the basement with a shiver and a shrug, and made her way upstairs. She could barely see where she was going and it only got darker the higher she went.
At the top of the stairs, she saw a glimmering light coming from her right. Odd, earlier that had been a dead end. She followed the light to a slightly opened door. She pushed on it and discovered a room. It was like stepping through time, again, to some long-lost era. Everything was old, brightly colored, and posters of people with really long, really high hair. They were dressed in ancient fashion, like the 80’s or something.
In one corner she saw a huge box with buttons, slides, slots. It had huge speakers on either side and knobs on the top. She pressed buttons until one of the compartments opened up. It took her a couple of tries, but she figured out how to put the cassette in. A few more button fumbles and she managed to get it to play.
She sat on the floor, leaned against the bed, and listened to the crackly music as it played. It was weird, but she started to feel the music and relax. Her tension and worries fading away.
Micheal D. Woodruff, Author of “Dismantling the Stigmas: 10 Truths about ADHD”.
As a late-diagnosed neurodivergent, Micheal has had to come face to face with the realities, difficulties, and advantages that are related to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He is certified in Unlocking Your Potential with ADHD. He also hosts the podcast “The Eclectic Writer” available on Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music, YouTube music, and many more places.
