Spooky Writing Contest Winner: “The To-do List” by Judy Workings.

Emily was excited about her first apartment in New York City. She unlocked the deadbolt and pushed opened the heavy metal door to her studio apartment. Wonderful! She thought. So much room all to myself. She glided over the soft wood grained floor to the large, arched picture window over-looking the park. “And a great view to boot,” she marveled under her breath. It was so quiet. This made her a bit uneasy. “Bam-bam-bam!” The sound startled her. Somebody pounded on her metal door.

“Hey lady,” a heavy Brooklyn accented male voice came from the other side of the metal door, “We got your stuff here. You wanna open the door so we can move you in? We have two more jobs today so we can’t waste any time.” yelled the furniture mover. It took the movers only a half hour to drop Emily’s meager belonging into her apartment, then off they went to their next job.

As Emily closed the door behind the movers she noticed a “To Do” list hanging on the wall beside the door. Hmmm, thought Emily, I guess the prior tenants forgot to take this with them. Delighted at her simple treasure she said to herself with a smile, “This will come in handy.” Emily wrote various items on the To-Do list for the next day. She made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner, made up her bed and, exhausted from the day’s events, she fell fast asleep.

The next day as she left for work she ripped off her To-Do list on the way out the door. Then she stopped dead in her tracks in disbelief. Under her To-Do list was another To-Do list. “Buy a bouquet of red roses. Give to a lady in a green plaid coat.” What on earth, thought Emily. Puzzled she said, “ Where did this note come from?” The note was in her own handwriting. Had she been sleep walking again, only this time she wrote a note to herself too?

Emily crossed 5th Avenue. She walked past a flower vendor. A dozen Red Roses for $10 the sign proclaimed. I can afford that, thought Emily. With a bouquet of red roses in hand she headed up the street to her office building. As she turned the corner, she almost tumbled into a woman in a shabby green plaid coat who scuttled across her path to huddle in a doorway. Hmmm, thought Emily, is this the woman I’m suppose to give the bouquet to? Emily checked her watch. She was late for work. She quickly bent down to the homeless woman, “Here Madame, these flowers are for you. Enjoy!”

The elderly woman’s face lit up. “Thank you,” she beamed as she clutched the bouquet lovingly to her chest.

The next day as Emily rushed out of her apartment door. She hesitated. She again noticed something scrawled on the To-Do list. She didn’t remember writing anything on the list. Yet there it was. “Pick up the stray calico kitten. Give it to the teenage boy with a Tigers baseball cap who is seated on the park bench” Hmmm, thought Emily, Yet another strange errand to run. Who wrote on my To-Do list? How does he get into my apartment? I’ll get my front door lock changed tomorrow, she decided.

As she quickly walked down the steps from her apartment there at the bottom on the sidewalk was a calico kitten. “What a sweet little baby!” cooed Emily as she gently picked up the fuzzy kitten. The kitten quickly cuddled into Emily’s neck. “Don’t get too comfy,” Emily gently warned, “you have somebody who needs you.”

Emily hurried into the park to find the recipient of her new To-Do list item. This is kind of fun having random acts of kindness show up on my To-Do list, she thought. Emily headed for work, while she scoured the benches along the way. No teenage boy. Emily was panicked. What on earth was she going to do with this kitten? She couldn’t possibly bring it into work. Then she rounded a corner and there sat a teenage boy hunched over on a park bench with a Tigers baseball cap on his head and a sullen look on his face. “Here’s your kitten!” Emily chirped as she plopped the kitten in his lap.

The boy looked up astonished. “I have been looking for you for two days.” he chided the kitten as he held it close to his face. He looked up at Emily, “Thanks lady! But how did you know this was my kitten? I didn’t post any signs.” Emily just smiled and rushed off to work.

The next day a locksmith changed Emily’s dead bolt lock. The next few months held no new To-Do list items. Well, I guess that is that, thought Emily. Now I can be normal like

everybody else. Of course, she secretly knew that she enjoyed the impromptu, mysterious To-Do errands. She was a little sad that this exciting part of her life was now over.

The next morning as Emily unlocked her door to leave for work she glanced over at the To-Do list. There scrawled on the list was “Take the package from under the floor board in the kitchen area. Give it to the man with a black leather cap on the subway A Line to…..”

Emily checked her watch, she’d have to hurry to catch the subway train. Emily frantically pried at the kitchen floor boards till one released it’s grip to reveal a compartment. There in the compartment was something wrapped in cloth. She gingerly picked up the item, slowly pulled back the cloth to reveal a handgun. “What!?!” she exclaimed caught off guard by the heavy lethal weapon she held in her hand. This was not a bouquet of flowers to brighten an old woman’s day. This was not a fuzzy lost kitten to return to its grateful owner. This was a handgun! And it was loaded! Emily struggled with what to do with the repulsive gun. Should she just put it back under the floorboard and forget about the To-Do list? As she pondered what to do she wandered toward the door. “DO IT NOW!!” screamed the new words on the To-Do list. Startled by the intensity of the words, she shoved the gun into her purse, and ran out the door for the subway.

The A train was just about to close it’s doors when Emily squeezed aboard through the crowd of people. Find a man with a black leather cap, she repeated over and over in her mind as she sliced through the crowd like a knife. She walked through compartment after compartment, but found no man with a black leather cap. Why was she doing this? She had a gun in her purse…her purse! She had never shot a gun in her life, and here she was about to give a gun to some man she didn’t know for some purpose she could guess…to kill another person. This weighed heavy on her mind. Then the subway train stopped with a jerk. Passengers disembarked. She found an empty seat and sat down to wrestle with the idea of whether to complete this task, when a man with a black leather cap entered the car and sat next to her. She nervously trembled. Should she give him the gun and exit before the subway train closed its doors? Or should she just leave. Forget about the errand, it’s crazy.

The man looked at her and with a casual smile he said, “You should just do it now.”

“What?” Emily responded startled as if he could read her mind.

“You obviously are deciding whether to stay or go, so just do it now.” He suggested good naturedly.

Emily stood up. She nervously stumbled into the man with the black leather cap. The cloth wrapped gun fell out of her purse into his lap. Confused as to what to do next, Emily dashed out the door. As the door closed behind her, she prayed that no harm would come of this gesture. On the way home she decided to get rid of the To-Do list immediately.

The next morning she woke up to a beautiful sunny Saturday. Instantly she remembered the past stress of yesterday, the To-Do list, the subway, the secret package, the man in the black leather cap. Emily ran over to the door, grabbed the To-Do list and ripped it to shreds. The To-Do list rested like a little snow pile by the door. “You will NEVER tell me what To-Do ever again,” she snorted angrily. She ate breakfast and turned on the TV to catch the morning news. “Witnesses say that the gunman on the subway’s A train was a…..” Emily quickly clicked off the TV. She didn’t want to hear any more. Emily’s worst fear was realized. She had supplied the weapon to a gunman.

Emily got dressed then headed out the door for the park. Then she stopped short in disbelief and horror. There hanging on the wall next to the door at eye level was the To Do list. With an errand written on it. “I’ll fix that” she said with determination as she ignored the written note on the list. She angrily ripped the list pad off the wall and headed out.

In the alley next to Emily’s apartment was a lit burn barrel. Emily briskly walked to the burn barrel and chucked the To-Do list into it. A flame flashed up high as the list caught fire and quickly burned to soft gray ashes. That takes care of that, Emily thought satisfied to finally have rid herself of the cursed list.

Emily spent that night with a bottle of Chardonnay, something she seldom did, to attempt to wash away her role in the subway A train murders.

Sunday morning Emily groggily awoke to what felt like a pinprick. She slowly sat up on the edge of her bed trying hard to shake the sleep off. Her eyelids struggled to open. Defeated in this task she slumped back into her bed and relinquished her eyelids to the closed position. Wait a minute, she thought. Do I hear somebody in my apartment? Did I leave the TV on all night? She half-heartedly tried to pry her eyes open, but failed. I must be dreaming. Man am I tired, she thought. Then she fell into the deepest sleep she had ever experienced.

A shadowy figure stood over Emily’s prone form. He lifted one of her arms to ensure that the sedative taken hold. He let go of her arm and it limply dropped to the bed like a stone.

The two shadowy figures in Emily’s apartment began to efficiently remove her belongings as they listened to the morning news on the TV. The news anchorman was with the subway train passenger who killed the gunman the day before. “Ron Highly how were you able to act so quickly?” questioned the anchorman. Ron Highly, a tall man wearing a black leather cap, replied ”This lady accidentally dropped a cloth bundle into my lap as she hurried off the subway train. I tried to catch her but the doors closed. I opened the bundle and saw it was a glock. Coincidentally, I teach glock handling seminars.” The man switched off the TV and carried Emily out the door. “Check this out”, the other man said as he walked through the door with the TV, “On her To-Do list it says to Lock the Door. Guess she should have done that.”