Author: Ramesh Ratana
The first thing I noticed about my new locker—number 247—was that it squeaked like a dying mouse. The second thing was that it refused to stay shut. I’d slam it, it would rattle, and then *click!* it popped open again, as if it were laughing at me.
“Dude, you need to hit it harder,” my friend Liam said, leaning against the lockers like some kind of expert.
“I already hit it harder. I’m afraid I’m gonna break it!” I said. “Then tape it.”
So I taped it. Three strips of duct tape later, it stayed shut. I left for class feeling victorious… until lunch. When I came back, the locker was wide open and the tape was hanging off like spaghetti.
Inside, my math homework was gone.
At first, I thought maybe Liam was pranking me. But he swore he hadn’t touched it. Then, on Tuesday, my mechanical pencil disappeared. Wednesday morning, I found a *note* inside:
“Stop slamming me.”
I looked around. No one was nearby. I felt a chill. Was someone sneaking around writing notes?
At the end of the day, I wrote back: “Who are you?”
The next morning: “Your locker. Duh.”
Okay, weird. But also… funny. Maybe someone thought they were being clever. I wrote again: “Fine. I’ll stop slamming you if you stop eating my homework.”
Thursday, everything stayed where I left it. My math homework was safe. My lunch wasn’t squished. My books were exactly how I’d left them.
But Friday, something stranger happened.
When I went to open the locker, it *opened by itself*. I swear the handle twisted slightly before I even touched it. I froze.
Then another note fluttered out. “Thanks, kid. You’re learning.”
That afternoon, Liam and I tried to figure it out. “Maybe there’s a magnet thing or someone behind the lockers,” he said.
We checked. There was no one. No wires, no holes, nothing but dust bunnies and a stray pencil.
The next week, I treated my locker like it was alive. I said “good morning,” closed it gently, and didn’t cram it full of stuff. In return, it stopped misbehaving.
Except sometimes, when the hallway’s empty and quiet, I swear I hear a soft *creak* and a whisper that sounds almost like: “You’re welcome.”
