Room 4B
The timetable lists a room the floor does not have. The corridor ends in a wall, and the door opened anyway.
- ThemWhere are you? Class started ten minutes ago
- YouI cannot find the room
- The timetable says 4B, the floor only has 4A and 4C
- ThemThird floor, end of the corridor
- YouI am on the third. The corridor ends in a wall
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemThen ask the woman on duty
- YouI did. She said 4B was closed years ago
- ThemWhat woman on duty
- YouThe one in the blue coat, by the stairs
- pause 1.2 s
- ThemNobody here wears a blue coat
- YouFine, very funny
- ThemI am serious. The cleaners come after six
- YouShe showed me the way
- Third door past the fire cabinet
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemThere is no fire cabinet on the third floor
- Get out of that corridor
- YouFound it already. The door is open
- The desks are in a circle, like a meeting
- ThemWalk out of there
- YouAnd the board is covered. One word, over and over
- ThemWhat word
- pause 1.8 s
- YouMy surname
- ThemLeave. Right now
- YouThe door will not open. There is no handle inside
- Liz, get someone
- pause 2.0 s
- ThemI am coming. Which floor, again
- YouThird. End of the corridor
- pause 1.5 s
- ThemI am standing at the end of the corridor
- There is a wall here
How it works
The story rests on a document: the timetable insists on something the building does not have. While the argument is about a room number, the reader misses that both of them are describing the same corridor differently.
Every story here is fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental.