I blame Chuck

Cloudy, with a high of 5°C. No chance of snow.  

I repeated the weather forecast from this morning as I stared annoyed at the view from my window. Not even a little bit of pavement was visible, as snow covered every inch of the outside. No sign of that 5 degrees weather. White had engulfed the outside, so much so, that I could barely make out where the trees and buildings used to be. Just 2 people were visible; flying in the blizzard. Why they were outside in this weather is beyond me, but they were still better off than me.  

 Stuck at work. All because of a blizzard and a bad weather forecast. 

I sighed deeply and turned to one of the few unlucky colleagues stuck with me. 'Hey Chuck, did David get an answer from the rescue team?'  

'Yes, we'll be stuck here forever. Sorry and prepare to die." Sarcasm. Got to love it. 

"You are hilarious.." I said sarcastically. “If we had electricity, I would be ok because I could just play games on the computer. But like this... I just want to go home...” 

" Maximum 1 hour, they said." He winked at me. “Try to pass the time. Take a walk if you need to. Get some fresh air..” 

“Ha. Ha..”  

Thinking about it more, getting your mind off the snow is probably the best thing you can do when you and a dozen more colleagues have become barricaded because of the extreme weather. For that, Chuck was right. Deciding that a walk around the building might not be a bad idea, I got up and started walking in a random direction.  

I made my way out of the large office space and down long corridors. I was so used to getting from the elevator to my desk and from my desk to the elevator, that I never gave the walls much thought. At this point, yes, the walls were the most interesting thing I could find to look at. They were filled with a variety of portraits and landscape paintings. It was kind of strange for an office building. You would expect the walls to be more plain and dull. I didn’t give it any more thought, though. I just continued to walk and observe.  

 At some point, as I continued to walk, the walls changed shape and style. From the regular rectangular and light grey, the walls became somehow taller and more rounded in shape. The paintings hanging from them became more colourful and larger. I stared from one painting to the other. Was I even at my workplace at this point? Then someone called me from behind. 

“Hey, Adam! Wait up!” Oh no. It was Chuck. 

“Let me guess,” he said smirking. “You thought, ‘Oh, no! It’s Chuck!’ Am I right?” 

I glared at him. 

He ignored me and continued, “Where do you think you are going without me! When I said 'go take a walk,’ I didn’t mean alone. Come on! How can you be the ‘Troubling Duo’ without me!” 

I sighed. I seemed to be doing that a lot today. “The Troubling Duo..who even came up with that?” 

“Who cares, I love it! Let's live up to our name!”  

Every school or office has a mischievous group of friends that tests their superiors' nerves and makes the days more fun for everyone else. In our company, it is Chuck and me. From outrageous announcements to activating the sprinkler system, we have wreaked havoc like no one else in history. We were so well known for it that someone even named us the ‘The Troubling Duo.’

Normally, I would jump at the chance to make the time pass quicker, but my thoughts reverted to the situation.  

...In other words, I was not in the mood, and I missed my bed. 

“Chuck,” I rubbed my eyebrows and then gestured around, “Look around. There is barely anyone here. What good is causing trouble if we don’t get any reaction from it? Besides, we are stuck. We should just wait patiently for the rescue team so they can get us out and we can all get home to our beds!” 

All that air I used ranting. Wasted. Chuck was not listening anymore. I had no idea when he stopped listening, but I am willing to guess it was somewhere after I said ‘Look around’ because he was staring at the wall behind me. I turned around to follow his gaze. Behind me stood a huge, wall-sized portrait of Mr. Etker, our boss and current owner of the company. His pompous big head looking rather shiny in the painting. 

“Hey," said Chuck thoughtfully, “Do you think his pompous big head looks rather shiny in this painting?” 

I paused. “Should I be worried you can read my mind?” 

He chuckled. “No. You should be worried...,” he paused dramatically, “...about this!” He took out a marker pen from his trouser pocket and looked at me. 

“No!” 

“Yes!” 

“Chuck!” 

He inched closer to the expensive painting. He knew he wasn’t going to do it. I knew he wasn’t going to do it. But his hand was still moving in that direction.

“Stop messing around!” I tried to grab the pen from his hand. He dodged it and moved even closer to the painting. “We are not 5, come on!” I tried to stand between his hand and the portrait.  

“You know, I feel like his bare face is missing a moustache!” 

"Chuck!” I jumped to grab his pen. I missed. Instead, he got me on my forehead with the marker. We both paused for a second. Then Chuck roared with laughter. “For your sake, this better not be permanent!” 

He continued to joke around as he inched his pen closer to the painting yet again. “Watch out Mr. Etker!" 

“Chuck! I know you are joking, but at this point, you are really going to get pen on the painting!” As I tried to get the pen from him one last time, I lost my balance and leaned my elbow on the frame of the portrait. In a few seconds, 3 key things happened: Firstly, the painting automatically swung open, revealing an opening in the wall. Second, Chuck and I both fell onto the hard floor beneath us. Third (and most horrific!), as the painting swung open and we fell to the ground, Chuck’s hand slid over the portrait, leaving a streak of permanent marker just below Mr. Etker’s nose. 

“Oh, no!” I looked horrified at the portrait.  

“Oh, no..” he looked at me in full horror. Then, somehow, his attention was diverted to something else behind me. “Wow...” 

My eyes were stuck to the painting. “We are done for!” I started sweating. In a minute I was probably going to hyperventilate. “The painting!” 

“The Room!” He pointed in the direction behind me. I turned my head and gaped.  

Behind me was a scene you would not find at your regular office job. Covered from ceiling to floor, was a large room with what looked like mirrors of every size. They had a reflection inside them, and it was not of the room we occupied. Each mirror gleamed lightly in different colours and revealed a scene from a different unknown place. One mirror gleamed a light purple and reflected a meadow. It was filled with green grass and flowers of all kinds. Another mirror gleamed blue in colour and revealed a city with technology more advanced than I could comprehend. The reflections danced in front of our eyes as we continued to stare at the room. There was nothing more to it, as the room was otherwise plain, but that was enough. 

We stood up slowly. Chuck was the first to speak. “We are definitely not allowed here...”  

“What is happening?” 

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chuck said, "We’ve gone to heaven. Mr. Etker has already killed us for drawing on his face.” 

“Really? Then I think you are in the wrong place. Hell is somewhere else.”  

He punched my arm.  

We continued to stare at the room in front of us. Neither of us knew what to do at this point. I thought about turning back, but my feet were stuck to the floor, and my curious eyes were far too occupied with the gleaming reflections. Chuck was unusually quiet, but he wasn't turning back either. So, I took a step forward.

 What followed was a story no sane person would believe...

And I blame Chuck for it...