By LAWRENCE XU
Staff Writer
Another school year passed, Charlotte is preparing to move to her dream college. It’s been a long way for her, all the preparation and struggles just for this day.
During the process of packing and clearing her room, she came across some random drawings from 5 years old Charlotte. Great memories starting to flow to her mind as that initiated her career in art. She began to contemplate how much she improved all these years. Although the drawing are simple and childish, she is still able to recognize and recall what she was expressing. However there was one she wasn’t able to identify, but to her it’s not important.
Charlotte kissed her the last goodbye before leaving the house. “Beware of the monster in your closet,” Charlotte’s mom warned her.
It’s been a joke around for over forteen years. Her mom used it to scare her so that she won’t run out of the bed too much. It took her three years to realize that it was only her mom’s trick.
“I will! Bye mom, I’ll miss you.” Charlotte replied.
Charlotte loves everything about the college, except her roommate Sophia. A week after Charlotte met Sophia, she received a list of the rules and demands from Sophia. Despite her many attempts to compromise, Sophia would remain stubborn. She even requested a room change but haven’t receive any response yet.
One day Charlotte came back to her dorm earlier than Sophia, but found the room to not be the same way as she left. Her side of the room became all chaotic while Sophia’s was entirely untouched.
“Who’s over there!” Charlotte shouted as she heard noises from the closet. She slowly approached it slowly, knew that it couldn’t be Sophia. Before she can even reach the closet, a small black claw opened the door.
“What are you, what are you doing here! Why are you in my closet! Where did you come from!” Charlotte jumped onto her bed all frightened.
“Hi Charlotte, do you still remember me?” a raspy voice echoed out of the closet. “We use to play together twelve years ago.”
It took Charlotte a few minutes to process through everything. She suddenly thought of that unrecognizable drawing of her when she was 5 years old.
“Is this you!!?!!” Charlotte showed the creature her scribble.
“Oh you still have it! That makes me so happy!”
Charlotte sat in her bed speechless. She wants to cry and leave. All the forgotten memories with the little creature started to emerge out. She remember drawing playing board games or simply chatting with it all the time in kindergarden.
Charlotte heard Sophia and told it to hide but it vanished. She wasn’t able to sleep that night, from all the joy that is coming back.
For the next few days Charlotte would return to the dorm earlier than Sophia in order to talk to the closet monster. She told it all the things she has done in the 12 year gap of lost connection between them. In the end she expressed her frustration with Sophia as her roommate. Without any hesitation, the creature offered to help Charlotte.
Charlotte was told to return late whenever the monster is taking action. She has no idea what the monster is planning to do. She will often come back on such days with Sophia being absolutely frustrated, sometimes to the point of crying. Sophia and Charlotte got into a few fights, and it did not take long for Sophia to finally request a roommate change.
Charlotte was happy that Sophia moved away. She wanted to celebrate with the monster, but it never showed up.