Last week, as I was idling around Boots looking for some presents
for my mum for Christmas, I got a phonecall from my office-mate,
asking me to do her a favour. She was calling me from Poland. It turned out
that all of her housemates had left for the winter and the last one to leave
the house had taken the back door key with them, but without securing the house
first. She asked me if I would go to her house and lock the back door.
Naturally, I assented, and gave her my address for her housemate to send me the
key. I then went back to shopping for the foundation cream (for face) which my
sister had suggested that I buy my mum. After telling the shop assistant what I
was looking for, she showed me a dazzling array of options, and rather
optimistically, it seemed to me, expected me to know which one my mum would
prefer colour-wise. I took a wild stab in the dark and when it came to giving
her the present it turned out to be a lucky guess.
The next day the key arrived in the post. I walked to my office-mate's
house, let myself in through the back gate, and then in through the back door,
as she suggested, and then locked and unlocked the door just to make sure that
I was in the right house. Then I looked around me. I was unprepared for the
mess I was surrounded by in the kitchen. There were piles of empty pizza
boxes on the table, and a load of oven chips uneaten on hob. I was surprised
because I had been told that the house was empty. I felt like one of the
three bears having come in to find goldilocks having left the house in a state.
Curious as to whether the other communal areas were such a mess I ventured
further in the house, and found myself walking up the stairs. As I reached the
top of the staircase I was stunned to find a door open in front of me and
someone I knew (rather vaguely) come out. I had been told before by my office-mate that he had been staying in the house and sleeping on the sofa, but had
naturally assumed that he
had left for Christmas. Not so. He looked surprised. I explained quickly, that my office-mate had asked me to come and lock the back door, as though I was giving
an alibi for a crime I was in the act of committing. "I thought the house
was empty". "Yeah", he told me, "I didn't want to leave
with the house unsecured". I gave him the keys. "You'd better leave
them somewhere obvious for her when she comes back", I told him. And
with that, I left, feeling awkwardly as though I had been caught appearing to
burgle the house.
