Philip Hassey Nan and the Door 2/8/01

It was a dark and stormy night. Nan trudged through the muck and mire in her "muck boots." Ahead of her was the barn where Kally's horse Princess was staying. Upon entering she walked to Princess' stall to get her halter. Attached to it was a note written by Mrs. Burgess, "Please use the back door of the barn. Since it is windy outside, I don't want the horses to get cold." Nan rolled her eyes at the note. Several of the other horses in the barn sneezed at he, just for fun.
She walked down the isle of about a dozen horses to the barn door. The "back door" was big and looming. But it was on rollers at the top, so it would just take a bit of a push. Nan grabbed the big handle and dragged the door open.
"Thunk," said the door, and it stopped moving.
"Stupid door," thought Nan. She began to shove and drag at the door handle to get it to slide all the way open. Strain. Wheeze. Drag.
"Thunk," repeated the door, and it suddenly popped back into action at a rather high speed. Nan let go and watched it sail to the end of its tracking.
"Thank," said the door for the last time, as its far roller flew off the track, letting the bottom corner hit the ground.
Nan cussed out the door, "Drat you, stupid door," with that she marched into the mucky muddy horse pasture to retrieve Princess.
"Hi, Princess," Nan said, in attempt to relieve the horse of its misery. Princess was not her horse, and she was glad of it. Horses named Princess are always pathetic and shriveled.
She roped up the beast, and dragged her back to her throne room for the night. A crusty little stall at the end of the barn. Nan gave Princess a few oats, and then returned to the door.
Standing back from it, she noted that the situation was not the best she had ever seen. The door was about twelve feet tall, and twelve feet wide. Its one corner was now in the mud, leaving the door at a rather tragic slant. Relieved, she noticed it was not made of big slabs of wood like some doors, just aluminum.
For about forty-five minutes she toiled, using ever possibility imaginable. It was getting late, so she didn't want to bother the Burgesses. She kept on trying. But all of her efforts failed, because the roller on the door flopped over. So if she lifted the door up, the roller would never get caught on the track. If she climbed a ladder to flip up the roller, by the time she got down, the roller had flopped over again. Worthless technology.
At 9:00 she realized that she was going to have to bother the Burgesses. Nan walked towards the foreboding Burgess residence. She had only met Mrs. Burgess once, and then only for about two seconds one morning just as she was bustling out of the barn.
She finally reached the front porch and looked at the door. It was not 12 feet tall, or 12 feet wide, but it looked bigger anyway. Wincing she reached her hand forward and knocked on the door, then Nan stood back to brace herself.
Two or three minutes later, Mrs. Burgess arrived at the door, for the worse. The door swung open, and the light behind her highlighted Mrs. Burgess in an eerie glow. She stood, it seemed, seven feet tall. Her bathroom billowed around her like a large cape. The towel wrapped loosely around her head looked like a gargantuan turban. Nan froze, unable to speak.
So Mrs. Burgess spoke, "Who are you?"
A moment of silence passed, while Nan recovered her wits. Nan finally said, "I'm Nan. I'm taking care of Kalley's horse."
Mrs. Burgess looked at her, waiting for the reason behind dragging her out of comfort to the coldness of the door.
"I ripped the door off the tracks," said Nan, "I need help getting it back on, or the horses might get cold."
A concerned look finally came to Mrs. Burgesses expressionless face, "Oh, the horses!" she cried, "Hank!"
Hank came trotting up to Mrs. Burgess.
"We need to help Nancy here," said Mrs. Burgess, "She knocked the door off of the barn." Hank grabbed a coat for himself, and Mrs. Burgess got a poncho on over here whole outfit. They puttered off into the field towards the barn.
The project didn't take too long once they all got to the barn. With Mrs. Burgess to take a management position, she was able to organize everyone else. Hank was given the task of lifting the door. Nan was giving the task of putting the roller on the track. And Mrs. Burgess gave herself the job of standing there and pointing out the flaws of everyone else involved.
"Good, done," said Mrs. Burgess, when the door was up. She marched back to her house, with Hank trailing behind.
After a moment, Nan sort of yelled, "Sorry," in their direction. They kept marching. Inside the barn Princess was pacing in her stall. Nan had forgotten to give Princess her hay. Nan ran to the bails and tossed a nice big pile of hay into Princess' stall. Princess whinnied and began hungrily devouring the hay.
"Sorry, Princess," said Nan. The horse stopped for a second, sneezed, and kept on hungrily devouring the hay. The horse looked pretty happy anyway. At least someone was.