Monday Story - The Inside World of Locker Number Seven

Good morning.

Today's tale is in response to the exercise set for last Friday's Pudsey Writers group and which I presented there.  I was trying to write a piece from a very tight perspective - from inside a locker - and tell the entire story through it.  I think I was trying to be too clever, because not all of them got it.

The Inside World of Locker Number Seven

Any traveller through the bus station at Leeds can put a few coins in a slot and hire a locker to store their baggage in while exploring the city. 

At just after 8am one Tuesday morning, the drop of coins triggers the activation of Locker No. Seven.  Its door opens with a squeak and the person operating it places a package inside. It does not look heavy, or valuable, wrapped in brown paper and fastened with tape, but it does appear bulky, nearly, but not quite square, and something about the way it settles into place suggests one end to be significantly lighter than the other.

The locker door closes with another squeak, and the interior falls into darkness.

But not silence, although it was impossible, at the moment, to hear what the sound might be.

Outside, the echoing buzz of people passing by, swapping buses on their way to work, pausing to answer their phones.  The rumble of buses pulling in and pulling out, the occasional announcement.

At just after 10am, the worst of the morning rush hour is over.  The voices outside are fewer now, the noises less frenetic.

Inside the locker, the sound continues, still too soft to distinguish, still blending into the outside noise.

11am, and someone just in by National Express puts coins in Locker Number Nine, opening the door and shoving a large rucksack inside. It is almost too large, so the owner pushes and curses and finally gets the door to close, shaking up the adjacent lockers and causing the contents of Locker Number Seven to shift slightly.  When the dust settles, and there is a lull in the passing of people outside, the sound made by the contents of locker number seven, due to the slight alteration of its position in the locker, is from now on occasionally audible.

Tick

Just after noon, and there is a surge in activity outside as the lunchtime foot traffic begins. People head for the café, for the cash machines, for the toilets. Morning shoppers head home,  bus drivers change shifts, and so it is some time before the outside world is quiet enough to hear the inside world of Locker Number Seven; in fact, several hours pass by before the interior of the locker is disturbed by the sound again.

Tick tick tick…

4.15. The bus station is beginning to get busy once more; school children and commuters on their homeward journeys.  The hubbub echoes.  Suddenly, there’s added uproar outside, a different level of sound.  A different feel to the noise. Voices, announcements, an alarm of some kind… a fire alarm?  No, not that; if anything, this warning has more urgency.

The voices crescendo over the implacable tones of the announcements, shouts intervene, perhaps someone screams.  Someone cries.

And then sirens, engines, motors.  Doors slamming as the nearby toilets are checked. Within moments, everything outside is quiet. Silent.  Inside Locker Number Seven…

Tick tick tick.

5.15. The crackle of radios, of voiced commands.  A new sound, a dog whining, barking; a big dog, from the tone and timbre of its bark.  It must have stopped very near to Locker Seven, for even its panting breath is audible.

But it doesn’t last long; soon, the sound of the dog retreats and silence falls again outside the locker.

Inside: Tick tick tick…

5.40. A whining noise outside now, pausing and changing frequently, as if something is repositioning itself. Then a clatter and a clang as something strikes the metal outer of the locker. Strange noises, then, the override on the locks and the door clicks free…

Tick tick…

The whine is louder now as the door opens. A mechanical remote-control arm swings into view. It makes delicate twists and turns, and the whine is revealed to be the noise of hydraulics repositioning the robotic arm.  It places a small object down inside the locker and then retracts, folding itself down and trundling back away from the lockers.

A signal is sent, picked up as a series of beeps by the object deposited by the robot…

Tick tick tick tick

Ticktick

Bang.