Shit.
The lock up is filled from floor to ceiling with huge bookshelves. The bookshelves are arranged like a labyrinth so when Thom turns around the first corner, he fears he will never find the way out. He begins to wonder if he should have told Aunty Val where he was going. The fluorescent lights in the ceiling are partly blocked by the shelves and the light is scattered awkwardly, as though the light is coming through unevenly spaced floorboards and he is trapped beneath.
The thought of floorboards reminds Thom of the numbers on the door. 11. They are like two exclamation marks with a dash on the top left. When he arrived at the door, he pressed his two fingers against them but felt nothing. Why did he feel drawn to these numbers, these simple shapes?
The woman on the desk told him the lock up had only been acquired three months before. Yet, there is a smell of rotting food, especially the strong stench of banana. Thom wonders if he will stumble upon a disgruntled monkey who has been unable to find the way out, who will promptly kill him. Although would it be the worst thing?
Along with the banana, there is a dusty air that can be seen swirling around him whenever he passes a slot of light. The light also reveals some of the contents of the bookshelves that, apart from the expected books, are clearly full of numerous unrelated items. To name a few of them, there are empty cardboard boxes, cracked ornaments, ripped pieces of paper and notebooks, old car parts, rotting food, pots of ink, perfume bottles and these are just the things Thom can make out initially.
Thom thinks about the moustached man’s words: “I hope he finds his gift as thoughtful as I hoped it would be”. If Daniel’s thoughtfulness created this dark labyrinth which smells foul and looks like a rubbish tip – why? What did he want Thom to get from this? Or is it possible that somebody else had come in here and sabotaged the contents?
Thom reasons that it’s not impossible that somebody broke in here and sabotaged it, but it is unlikely. Although if the note is a clue that Daniel had been in some kind of trouble, it is a justified suspicion. Overall however, Thom thinks perhaps he is reading too much into the note, the key, everything. The only thing he needs to do is find something in this lock up that makes sense, between everything that doesn’t.
He decides to start at the end, that way he is working his way towards the exit and not working his way inside, deeper into the labyrinth. He has no concept of how big the lock up is because he cannot see the walls. Every space is occupied with a shelf, a path is marked out with other shelves jutting out in various places. He is suspicious that the shelves are leading him somewhere he shouldn’t be going.
Each bookshelf has ten large shelves. They are made from quality wood and each detail like this makes Thom feel increasingly uneasy. Why did Daniel pay so much to have all these shelves put in? Was it just for his benefit? Thom lets the question float around in his brain but drowns it with his present task. He kneels on the floor, his jeans instantly browned with dirt, and rifles around on the first shelf.
His hands come back blackened, full of scratches from unexpected items hiding underneath others and smelling of filth. He came in a well-dressed and clean man and he will leave smelling and looking as dirty as a man who has been homeless for several months. He imagines the look on his boss’ face if he’d gone to work in this state, and it brings a smile to his face. Although, his smile quickly sours into a frown. Can he ever really go back there?
There is nothing of interest on the first shelf, or not that he can tell. He moves onto the second and the next and the next, plucking out the objects that he thinks mean something, whilst in his head the mantra repeats: you could be wrong you could be wrong you could be wrong you could be wrong you could be