Room 533

Jake and Darlene enter a room with a skeleton that takes back in time to 1939 Los Angeles.

ROOM 533

 

 

“Come on.  There’s nothing to be afraid of.”  Jake waved behind him at Darlene as he ran up the interior stairwell to the fifth floor.

“I don’t know,” said Darlene, lagging behind.  “Someone could be living in there.”

Jake waved the skeleton key over his shoulder.  “We checked all the mailboxes on the first floor and there was none for 533.  If someone was living in it, they would have a mailbox.”

Darlene scrunched up her face in a worried frown.  “What if we walk in on someone?”

Jake reached the landing on the fifth floor, put his hand on the brass railing, and waited for Darlene to catch up.  “We’ll knock first, okay?  We’ll knock several times and if no one opens the door, I’ll use the key.”

Darlene reached Jake huffing and puffing.  “What if someone opens the door?  What are you going to tell them?”

Jake held the skeleton key out to Darlene.  “I’ll just tell them I found this key and I thought it might belong to them.  If it’s not theirs, then we can keep it as a souvenir.  Otherwise, if no one opens the door, we go in and snoop around.”

Darlene’s head wobbled slowly.  “I don’t know.  We could get in trouble.”

“What can anyone do, but tell us to beat it?”  Jake assured her with a confident smile.  He glanced down the hallway and found it clear.  Tiptoeing toward 533, he waved at Darlene to follow.  “Come on,” he whispered.

Darlene turned her eyes up, raised her hands in the air, and then dropped them at her sides to show her annoyance.  “Sneaking up to the door is only going to draw attention if someone sees us.  We need to walk normally.”

“Right.”  Jake dropped his heels to the floor and walked in a lighthearted manner.  Just as they got near to the door of 533 another door nearby opened and a middle-aged woman wearing a business suit came out.  Jake stopped in his tracks, locked his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth on his heels and whistled, his eyes roving the ceiling overhead.  Darlene stopped next to him and examined her fingernails one at a time.

After locking the door to her loft, the Business Woman walked by on her way to the elevator.  “I didn’t know children lived here?” she said, with a not so friendly smile.

Jake held still.  “Oh, we’re staying in our Uncle’s loft for the summer until our parents find a home to buy.”

“That’s nice.”  The Business Woman pushed the down, button for the elevator and then glanced curiously back at them while she waited.  “On this floor?” her smile froze as she spoke and her eyes frowned with confusion.

       Jake pointed up at the ceiling.  “Ninth floor.”  When he saw the elevator door open, he added, “Have a nice day.”

The Business Woman continued to look back at them, her smile still frozen, as she entered the elevator.

“Whew.”  Jake wiped his brow with the back of his hand.  “That was close.”

“That was dumb,” grumbled Darlene.

“What was dumb?”

“Just standing here doing nothing,” explained Darlene.  “If we kept walking, that woman wouldn’t wonder if we were up to something.  Now she might think we’re burglars trying to break into other people’s lofts and steal things.  She’ll probably tell someone about us wandering around the wrong floor and the cops will come looking for us.”

Jake shook his head.  “You worry too much.”

Darlene made a face.  “I got to worry enough for both of us.”

“Fine.  You do that,” Jake responded absent-mindedly, glancing up and down the hallway.  He again waved Darlene to follow as he made his way toward 533.  Reaching the door and scanning the hallway, he pulled the skeleton key from his pocket, and was about to insert it, but Darlene stopped him.

“I thought you were going to knock first,” she reminded him.

“Oh, right.”  Jake stuffed the skeleton key back into his pocket and rapped on the door.  He waited, an ear turned to the door, listening.  After a long moment, he rapped his knuckles again, and waited and listened.  “No one home,” he shrugged, looking over his shoulder at Darlene.  With a final glance up and down the hallway, he took the skeleton key from his pocket, inserted it, turned the key, and heard a dull click.  “I think it worked,” he whispered to Darlene.  Cautiously, he put his hand on the brass doorknob, turning it slowly.  The door moved inward an inch and Jake froze in place.  “It opened,” he gasped in a whisper.

“Go on,” Darlene urged him.  “Let’s go in before someone sees us.”

“Right.”  Jake opened the door just wide enough to peek inside.  Finding no one inside, he pushed the door open and went in.  Darlene remained where she had been standing by until Jake reached back, grabbed her by the arm, and yanked her inside.  He eased the door closed gently until the door mechanism clicked.

“Maybe you should lock it,” suggested Darlene in a whisper.

Jake shook his head.  “We might need it unlocked in order to make a fast escape.”

“Escape?”  Darlene placed her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowed on Jake.  “Now you’re really worrying me.”

“Just a precaution.  Nothing to worry about.”  Jake waved his hand around.  “See, it’s just an empty old office.”  He turned to the desk, ran a finger across it, and then turned this finger with a clump of dust attached to Darlene.  “Looks like no one has been in here for at least a hundred years.  We’ve got this place all to ourselves.”

Darlene looked the room over.  “What do we do while we’re in here?  Pretend we’re maids and clean house?”

His expression turned from confusion into delight and he smiled at Darlene.  “Use your imagination.  Since no one has been in here for a hundred years, maybe we can hang out here and pretend we’re detectives?”

“I don’t know.”  Darlene thought the idea over.  “We need to ask Mom, first.  She might not like the idea of us in a room on a different floor all by ourselves.”

“What’s the difference between staying in this room versus Uncle Simon’s loft?”  Jake argued.  “Mom will be at work all day starting tomorrow and Dad now has a job teaching summer school in Pasadena four days a week.  While they’re gone, we’re not allowed to leave the building and, technically, being in here is not leaving the building, right?” 

Darlene sighed, “I suppose.”  She turned to the desk where a lamp with a green oblong dome sat between the breadbox sized metal box and a foot high, black cylinder shaped object she had seen through the keyhole.  She pulled on the chain of the lamp and the light lit up the dust covered desk.  “Since this place needs some considerable dusting, as Mom likes to say, I’d better bring a duster with me or I’ll start sneezing.  That’s only if we get the okay from Mom and Dad.”

“Let’s at least look around a little before we go and ask them.”

Darlene sighed.  “For a few minutes.  No more.”

Jake pulled on the handle of a six-foot high, six drawer oak cabinet in the corner of the room.  A drawer slid out, revealing hanging cardboard holders stuffed with papers.  Uninterested in investigating its contents, he shoved the drawer closed.

“I wonder what this is.”  Darlene pointed at the tall cylinder with an upside down cone shaped object hanging from a two-pronged arm projecting from its side.  The cone shaped object had a round wire coming out the narrow end that led to the bottom of the cylinder.  The cylinder had a similar wire coming from the bottom snaking down to the floor and disappearing beneath the desk.

Jake walked by it on his way to the other side of the desk.  “Looks like an old fashioned telephone.”  Darlene was about to reach for the telephone when Jake distracted her.  “Look at this.”  He was behind the desk, plopping down in a hardback oak chair.  “This is really old,” he pointed at the front side of the big metal box they had seen through the keyhole.

Darlene went around the desk to have a look.  “What is it?”

“You don’t know?”  Jake teased.

“No,” insisted Darlene, looking the thing over.  The front side of the big metal box had rows of round, buttons with letters and numbers on them, each row terraced one above the other.  Each letter and number sat on a metal arm that curved to the bottom and back of the box.  A long, silvery arm attached to a rubbery horizontal cylinder came out the left side of it at the very top.  “You’re so smart, tell me what this is.”

“It’s ah…  Err…  Um…”  Jake, looking the metal object over, pointed to gold block lettering on the frame at the front.  “It’s an Underwood.”

Darlene rolled her eyes.  “I can see that, but what is it for, this Underwood?”

Jake frowned.  “Some sort of typing machine?”

Darlene’s eyes widen and she smiled.  “Turn it on so we can see if it works.” 

Jack felt around the front, sides and top with his hands.  “I don’t see a start, button.  Do you see a start, button?”  Darlene shook her head.  “It doesn’t look like it’s plugged into anything.  There’s no electrical cord.”

“It could run on batteries,” Darlene suggested after some consideration.

Jake pointed at a long, flat metal bar between the lower row of letters and the bottom frame.  “Maybe if we press down on this bar it automatically comes on.”

“Go ahead,” urged Darlene.

“No, you go ahead,” challenged Jake.

 “All right,” Darlene sighed, not wanting to argue.  She lifted a finger, held it over the long flat bar a moment, and then tapped down hard.  This action caused the long horizontal rubbery cylinder at the top of the metal box to move to the left an eighth of an inch.  “Hum,” she said.  She tapped it repeatedly and, with each tap, the rubber cylinder continued to move until it was far off to the left of the box where it stopped and a metallic bell sounded.

“You broke it,” declared Jake.

“Well…”  Darlene’s eyes lit up with momentary panic.  “Fix it.”

“How?”

Darlene pointed at the long metal arm attached to the left end of the rubber cylinder.  “Try pushing that to see if you can move the thing back.”

Jake pressed the arm slightly and was surprised to see the rubbery cylinder move at his touch.  He pushed the arm again until the cylinder returned to its original position.  “There, I fixed it.  I think.”

“We’ll see.”  Darlene looked at the rows of letters, numbers and symbols in round little, buttons, and pressed down on the letter “r”.  In an instant, a thin metal arm at the center of the box above the rows of letters, slapped hard against a black ribbon, pressing the ribbon against the rubber cylinder, causing the rubber cylinder to move an eighth of an inch to the left again.  In the blink of an eye, the metal arm disappeared back among similar metal arms and the black ribbon move an eighth of an inch over to the right.  This happened so fast that it startled Darlene and Jake and they jumped back in surprise.  Once they recovered, they smiled at each other.

“Cool,” they said in unison.

Looking closely at the curvature of metal arms, they noticed each arm had a tiny letter, number or symbol.

Darlene frowned, unsure.  “It seems to work like the keyboard of a computer, but there’s no screen to see what you typed.”

Jake snapped his fingers.  “I know.  You type on paper.  Blank paper.”  Jake looked down at the drawers of the desk, opened one, and found a blank sheet of paper.  Taking the paper out, he looked the typewriter over, trying to figure out where and how to insert it.  He tilted the typewriter back, searching for a drawer underneath, but found none.  Setting the typewriter back down, he looked the top over.  “Maybe the paper goes where the little arms slapped at the round, rubbery thing.”  He tried inserting the paper between the rubber cylinder and black ribbon, but that didn’t do any good.  He tried the back of the rubber cylinder, but the paper only went in part way.  “The paper seems to fit here, but how do we get it go further down?”

Noticing round knobs at each end of the rubber cylinder, Darlene tried one clockwise and then counter-clockwise.  With the counter-clockwise turn, the rubber cylinder grabbed the paper and pulled it inward. 

“Turn it more,” Jake suggested. 

Darlene turned the knob repeatedly, winding the paper down, around and up the front side of the rubber cylinder until the top portion of the paper was between the rubber cylinder and the black ribbon. 

“Stop there.”

Darlene let go of the knob, looked at Jake, and then pressed down on the letter “t” and again an arm slapped the ribbon and when it fell back, they saw the letter “t” was now imprinted in black ink on the paper.

“Cool,” they voiced their satisfaction with glee.

Jake and Darlene took turns pressing letters and numbers randomly until the paper moved along with the rubber cylinder far to the left and the bell sounded again.  When Jake used the arm of the rubber cylinder to return it to its beginning position, they noticed the paper moved up a row, allowing them to print more letters and numbers in a line below it.

“Now we know how it works.”  Jake was pleased with himself.  “Let’s see if the telephone, if that’s what it is, works.”  As he stood and walked around to the front of the desk, Darlene took his place in the chair in front of the typewriter and randomly punched keys with a finger of each hand.  Jake, leaning against the desk, grabbed the tall black cylinder with the upside down cone hanging down one side and pulled it toward him.  Looking into the cone at the very top of the cylinder that faced him, he noticed a small dome with tiny holes inside.  “I wonder what this is for.”  He tapped the dome with the tip of his finger, but nothing happened.  Lifting the upside down cone that was attached to the tall cylinder by a long round wire, he was startled to hear a tiny voice.

“Number please,” squeaked the voice from the large end of the cone.

Jake slapped the cone back into place, his eyes wide with surprise.  “Did you hear that?”

Darlene’s eyes had also widened.  “Maybe this is some sort of toy with a recording.  Try it again.”

Unsure, Jake lifted the cone and stared into it.

“This is the Operator.  Please give me a number I can connect you to,” the voice said.

“Ah…”  Jake responded into the cone.  “Ah…”

“Sorry, sir, but I can’t hear you,” the squeaky voiced Operator chirped.  “Try speaking more directly into the mouthpiece.”

“Mouthpiece,” Jake repeated.  He shrugged at Darlene and she urged him on with a nod.  “Mouthpiece…?  Mouthpiece…?”  He looked again at the dome at the top of the cylinder and spoke into that.  “Hello…?”

“Much better, sir.  Now, what number, please?”

The Operator remained faint and distant until Jake put the cone to his ear.  “Let’s see… ah, area code 213… ah… 555-6578.”  Jake covered his hand over the mouthpiece.  “That’s our new number, isn’t it?”  Darlene nodded in the affirmative.  Jake spoke again into the mouthpiece.  “Yes, area code 213-555-6578.”

“Sorry, sir,” the Operator smacked as though chewing gum.  “Never heard of such a number.  Try something like Maple 6752.”

“I’ll…  I’ll get back to you.”  Jake hung the earpiece of the telephone back on the holder on the side of the cylinder and pushed the telephone away from him.  “That was weird.”

“What?”  Darlene asked.  “It’s not a toy with a recorded message?”

Jake’s eyes roved about as he thought.  “A real person was on the other end, but I’m not sure where the other end is.”

Darlene looked bewildered.  “What do you mean by that?”

Jake shrugged.  “I don’t know exactly.  The operator said to use a number like Maple 6752 or something.  Maybe I can look one up on my cell phone.”  He dug into his pocket and brought out his cell phone, tried it, but nothing happened.  “Hey, that’s weird.”

“What is it?”  Darlene stood and leaned over the typewriter and watched as Jake pressed the on, button repeatedly.  “Did the battery die?”

“I guess so.  Try yours.”

Darlene reached for the cell phone in her back pocket and found it off and, pressing the on, button repeatedly, accomplished nothing.  “I know I charged my phone overnight.  It couldn’t have died so soon.”

“Maybe we should go back and get them charged,” suggested Jake.  “Mom and Dad will worry if they can’t get a hold of us.”

Stepping back out into the hallway, Jake reinserted the skeleton into the keyhole.  The moment he turned the key and locked the door, both of their cell phone came alive, rang, and buzzed.  At first stunned, they scrambled to answer them.

“Oh, hi, Mom,” Jake spoke into his phone.

“Dad?”  Darlene spoke into hers.  “No, nothing much.  Just hanging out.”

“Of course, we’re still in the building,” Jake explained to his mother.  “On the fifth floor.  Sure, we’re on our way back up now.  Bye.”

“Jake is talking to Mom on his phone.  I think Mom wants us to go up for lunch or something.”  She glanced at Jake and he gave her a nod.  “Gotta go.  Bye, Dad.”  Darlene stared wide-eyed at her cell phone and then at Jake.  Jake was also staring at his phone.

“Let’s try something,” Jake suggested.  He fetched the skeleton key from his pocket, unlocked the door and they entered, leaving the door partly open.  “Try your phone.”

Darlene’s was blank and repeatedly pressing the on, button did nothing again.  “It’s not working.  How about yours?

“Mine’s off, too.  Let’s go back out and lock the door again.”

Once Jake locked the door and removed the key, Darlene’s phone came alive again.  Jake looked at his own and his too now worked.  They looked at each other, their eyes wide with confusion.

Darlene held her phone up to Jake.  “Do you think there’s some electrical force field or something in that room that knocks our phones out?”

“Maybe.”  Jake looked back at the door.  “Just don’t say anything to Mom and Dad, okay?  They won’t let us use this room if they can’t get a hold of us.”

Walking to the elevator next to Jake, Darlene suggested, “Maybe we just need to find the number of the telephone inside and have them call that?”

Jake pushed the up, button for the elevator.  “Good idea.  Until we figure that out, just don’t say anything about our cell phones.”