Page 5 of The Christmas Letters
“She’s trapped inside the stall? She can’t just crawl under the door?”
“Not these doors,” Vera says. She glances over my shoulder, a frown creasing her brow.
I turn and follow her gaze to AJ, the firefighter a few paces behind us, who is holding an ax. I look back to Vera, eyebrows raised.
“The stall doors are two hundred years old. Repurposed from the original building. I’d hate to see them destroyed.”
“Ah. Understood. We’ll do our best.”
Vera nods one more time, then steps out of the way, making room for me and one of the firefighters to step into the small bathroom. Everyone else stays in the hallway, but the door is propped open so they can at least see in.
I stop outside the stall door and knock. “Hello? I’m Drew, a paramedic with Charleston Station Two. How are you holding up?”
A woman sniffles. “Oh, thank goodness. Please get me out of here.”
“We’re working on figuring that part out. Just hang with me, okay?” I step to the side while AJ inspects the hinges on the door and fiddles with the locking mechanism.
“We tried everything,” Vera says from the hallway. “The hinges are iron and as old as the hills. And it looks like the lock broke off on the inside. I can’t make sense of it.”
“I’m willing to back all the way up if you want to just break the door down,” the woman says from inside the stall, trepidation filling her voice.
Vera shakes her head. “Surely it won’t come to that.”
AJ crouches down in front of the lock. “We can’t just pick the lock?”
“We tried,” Vera says. “There’s nothing left to pick.”
“I’ve got the doorknob in here with me,” the woman says from inside the stall. “And it looks like the lock is still attached. I can see where the pieces broke.”
AJ stands back up and shifts his attention to the bolts. “I think I know what to do,” he finally says. “If we can get a saw with a diamond blade, we can cut through the iron without harming the door. We’ll lose the original bolts, but that’s probably our only option. Otherwise, she might be in there forever.”
“Oh, geez,” the woman says. “Please don’t say that.”
I shoot AJ an annoyed look. The woman’s voice sounds shaky, and Vera already said she wasn’t doing that well. The last thing I need is AJ freaking her out by using words likeforever.
“It’s going to be a minute before we can do anything,” Ben says from the hallway. He sticks his head in the door, making eye contact with me. “King Street is flooding. We aren’t going anywhere unless we’re swimming.”
I stifle a groan while the woman inside the stall whimpers.
“I hate small spaces,” she says softly, repeating the words over and over again. “I hate small spaces. I hate small spaces. I hate small spaces.”
I look up toward the ceiling, momentarily wondering if I could climb up and fit through the space above the stall door. There might be enough room, but I don’t have the first clue what condition this woman is in. Maneuvering her over the top of the door would likely be too dangerous, and if she hates small spaces, adding myself to an already tiny bathroom stall will only make the space feel smaller.
I motion toward the door, asking AJ and everyone else to back up and give me some space. “Find us a saw to cut through the bolts,” I say quietly. “In the meantime, I’ll try to keep her calm.”
Flooding in downtown Charleston isn’t rare, though it’s unusual for November. Usually, it’s the fast-moving summer storms that dump enough rain to overwhelm the storm drains and fill the streets with water. Either way, the flooding never lasts long. It’ll recede within the hour, so it shouldn’t hinder our rescue for too long.
Hopefully.
Where does AJ think he’s going to find a diamond saw anyway?
AJ nods, disappearing out the door. He looks like he has a plan, so all I can do is trust him and focus on the job I assigned myself.
I lean a shoulder against the stall door. “You okay in there?”
A deep breath. A sniffle. “Seriously? Would you be okay in here? It’s taking every ounce of my focus not to completely freak out.”
“What’s your name?” I ask. Maybe if I can help her focus on something else, she might relax a little.
