Rollercoaster

Chapter 3

Sunlight streamed in through the sliding glass door of Christian's house. Cristina sat up on the couch and rubbed her eyes. It took her a moment to place herself and to remember why she had awakened in a stranger's house. The wall clock read 10:05. It was quite late for Cristina who was accustomed to waking up early. In her defense, the previous night had been a long one. Even after discovering that she would have to stay at Christian's house, Cristina was not able to fall asleep until after 4:00 AM. Her biggest hurdle to getting some sleep was Christian himself, who after having had way too much to drink was still buzzing around the house like the Energizer Bunny hooked to a car battery.

She looked around, and to her surprise, saw no sign of Christian. He must have finally gone to bed. She opened the door of the refrigerator and found very little beyond a raw steak and a jar of kimchi. She peeked in the freezer and found it full of chocolate ice cream.

"Oh, well, I guess steak for breakfast it is," she declared. She set about preparing the steak and she put a couple of cups of rice into the rice cooker. A half an hour later, she had quite a nice little meal prepared. She divided the steak into two portions and scooped out a bowl of rice for each of them. She put some kimchi out into a dish.

It was 10:45 and there was still no sign of Christian. She didn't know whether to wake him to eat or whether to let him rest. She decided to knock on his door to see if she got a response. She knocked several times but heard nothing. Cristina shrugged her tan shoulders.

"I guess he'll eat when he gets up," she said to Lori who had decided to join Cristina in the kitchen. She found Lori's food and scooped a cup of it into her feed bowl. She also refilled her water.

Cristina ate her breakfast silently at the small table, slipping Lori little bites of steak along the way. It wasn't long before Lori began to pace by the glass door.

"I bet you need out," Cristina said, wary of letting Christian's dog out without his knowledge, but he has still not awakened. She found Lori's leash and took her out on the unfinished deck. In the light of day, she saw that the mess Christian had made of it was far worse than she had imagined. There were gaps between some of the boards and there was a serious leveling problem. The ground under the deck must be uneven, she thought.

"Who tries to do something like this without a professional?" she asked Lori who just stared up at Cristina adoringly. "Well, at least, there is one reasonable person living in this house," she said to Lori. "That's you. I'm counting you as a person," she clarified.

After tying Lori's leash to a sturdy wooden post, Cristina set about undoing the mess of a deck Christian had erected. Once she had removed the ill-fitting boards, she could see that the ground beneath the deck had never been leveled, as she suspected.

When she decided to take a water break and to let Lori back inside, Cristina realized with a sinking feeling in her gut that the glass door had gone shut, locking her out of the house.

"For the love of Pete!" Cristina semi-cursed as she tried to jiggle the door open, but it was no use. She and Lori were locked out. She looked through the glass door and saw her phone lying on the coffee table.

"Of all the worst moments to not be surgically attached to my phone!" she groused. "Oh well, Lori, there's no option but to bang on the door," she reasoned with the dog.

At first her knocking was just a normal tap, but as the time wore on with no response, she began to hit the glass door with more force. Nothing.

She took a little walk around the house, finding the window that had to be the one in Christian's bedroom. She found a small stone and threw it at the window. It hit with a sharp click against the glass. Nothing.