Ara Ara’s Mind

{AN: Written in 2022 when I took my first (and to date my only) creative writing class. The prompt was to write about our jobs and at the time I was working at an escape room. I find the dialogue a little clunky and corny, regardless it is a fun short story! Enjoy!}

“You know this job is cosmically aligned.” Quinn said.

Quinn’s mind drifted to Thursday. She came in ready to clean and sit around for five hours. After a brief debrief of all the bad things everyone had been doing with the boss, he grabbed his coffee mug and shouted back to her “Make me some money!” Quinn knew what that meant for her day. She knew that soon the booking website would refresh and orange would loom over the last game of the day. She knew how to avoid it. Filling the spot on her phone, or deleting the people that were trying to book it, or telling one of her friends to block it. Though Quinn still had a job to do. She still needed to vacuum, to clean the bathroom, and to wipe down the counter. She checked the screen after she reached a different part of the store. Nothing. Quinn feels like she might get out of it. Then the phone rings and the chance of leaving at seven went out of the window. “Hi. Thank you for calling Escape Rooms, how can I help you?” She said, her body sinking into the ground.

 The monitoring room was silent. Robin shifted in her seat. “The 7:30 should be here soon.” She said. No one said anything. All eyes locked on the uninteresting game they didn’t want to watch. Robin sucked the air through her teeth and disappeared to the front of the store. The day goes on, the timers go out. Other employees bring up other things in their personal life. Groups that gave it their all are gotten from their room. No one mentions what Quinn said until the store dies.

“Can you elaborate on what you said?” Robin asks.

“No.” Quinn smiled.

Quinn smirks. Robin raised her brow.

“I’m kidding.” Quinn said. “Once you speak things into existence or recognize when we have no games, we get games. Simple.”

“Hmm,” Robin hummed. “That’s true.”

The website refreshes every ten minutes. The last games of the night being taken like candy. Everyone waited for the orange to take over the eight clock room, but no one said anything.

“Man, we’re going to get the eight o’clock game.” Amber said, spinning around in her chair.

 “Don’t say that!” Quinn said, whipping around to face Amber.

 “Okay. Okay. I’ll take it back.” She said.

“Come on you don’t actually think the universe is at work at this job.” Mary said. “I’m sure it has better things to do.” Her eyes glued to her 6:15.

 “I don’t know. I think its true.” Robin confirms. Eyes glued to her unauthorized phone playing videos.

Quinn whips to look at the computer screen from the camera. She watches the website move back up.

“Watch my room for a second.” Quinn says. To make it seem not weird that she has gotten up from her game, she pretends as if she has to check her phone.

Quinn grabs the mouse and casually scrolls down the page. Seeing an antagonizing orange box, her chest drops. The page refreshes again. Bad sign. She scrolls down and saw green. She fell to the floor.

“GUYS!” She screamed from the floor.

“Why are you on the floor?” Robin shouts.

“We got the eight o’clock.” Quinn said. “Amber this is all your fault.”

“So you had to get on the floor for that?” Robin asks.

Quinn pops up, and stands in the doorway. “Yeah. We’re gonna be here until 9:45.”

“You don’t know that they could be early.” Mary beamed.

The 7:00, 7:15, and 7:30 played and left. Robin and Mary reset their rooms and clocked out. Quinn went to sweep the toilet paper on the floor of the bathrooms. Amber played on her phone. The eight o’clock had yet to show up. They were ready to call it. Being there for a year, Quinn knew that because they were a booking and not a blocking, they had to wait until they showed up. The store became bare. The music of the mall fell flat. The eight o’clock calls, they’re locked out of the mall. Security is called. The eight o’clock gets put into their room in lightning time, being that they were forty-five minutes late. The room tempted Quinn and Amber to reset it tomorrow, but they knew the rules. The first room of the next day always has to be reset the night before.