The Fridge

Jack is walking on air when he gets home, early that morning. Oh Boy! Best picture! Best actor! Best screenplay! The sun is almost rising, he can see a smidgeon of light through the kitchen window when he walks in the door. It has been a long, but glorious night with interviews, sound bites and numerous post parties.

Home for Jack is a one-bedroom condo. That night, Jack doesn't go straight to his bedroom. He sets his awards on the cheap coffee table from a big store chain. And flops on his futon. Staring at his trophies he realizes, that many actors and many directors will never get these awards. Slightly deflated, Jack wants to share his 15 minutes of fame with his mother, but it too early. So, he sits there, until he hears an unusual sound from the kitchen; one he’s never heard before. On the other hand, he hasn’t been home that much lately. Now he wants to see where the weird humming sound is coming from. As he opens the door, he realizes he should have ended the day on a high note.

There is a black hole swirling in mid-air in the middle of the fridge. Jack goes into a trance, He feels as if he’s hypnotized until a hand comes out of the black swirling hole. Jack steps back falls on his butt, and faints. The door closes by it own like any self-respecting fridge.

When Jack regains his senses, the sun has come up and the humming has stopped. When Jack open his eyes, he sees a grape under the fridge; he doesn't remember dropping one. He nod in satisfaction.

He sits up on the kitchen floor, runs his hand over his head. He’s lucky. The bump isn’t too bad. After all, he’d been no more than a rag doll when he fell.

The fridge is old and was here long before Jack moved in. Isn’t it normal for old fridges to make odd noises?

He’s tempted to open the door, but he’s too afraid he’ll see the swirling black hole and faint again.

Two days have passed since he’s seen the grape, and he’s hungry. He’s so hungry he could eat that grape, if it mean he doesn’t have to open the fridge.

But slowly, he puts his hand on the fridge handle, and with the most enormous sigh of his life, he pulls it carefully.

Inside, it look just like a regular fridge. There is no sign of the black hole swirling in mid-air. Jack grabs a piece of cheese and a beer and shuts the door before the black hole reappears. Sitting on the kitchen floor, facing and keeping a wary eye, he eats the cheese without tasting it, he drinks his beer without enjoying it.

He’s staring at the refrigerator as if it were a vicious animal that you don’t want to take your eyes off. Jack knows, or better yet, he senses, that if he leaves the kitchen, the humming sound will come back, and he will miss the black swirling hole. Jack sits there for hours without moving.

It’s at that precise moment his mind starts drifting away. His mind went on thinking about Twinkies. Jack never had a Twinkie, and now he only thinks about having one, having this supposedly tasty golden bar with stuffed with white cream.

He does not see the sun go down, but the humming sound takes his mind off the Twinkies. Jack lunges toward the fridge. He’s been waiting for this moment. He opens the door slowly and just enough. There!

There it is, it’s beautiful, it’s black and it’s like a silk woman's night gown. He feels he can almost touch it. He wants to feel the soft sensation of silk on the tip of his fingers. Jack gathers all of his courage and opens the door wider to touch it.

The hand reappeared, but this time Jack doesn’t faint and keep looking at it as the hand takes all the beers one by one. He’s in too munch of a trance to move or grab a beer before the're all gone. Just after the last beer, the swirling black hole vanished. Jack close the door and reopens it quickly, but the black hole is gone and so is the humming sound.

The following day, Jack opens the door and sees a note “more beer, please.” Written on a piece of paper. Jack goes to the store and is back in no time.

He doesn’t want to tell anyone about his fridge. They would think he’d gone around the bend. Now that he won these awards, he’s legit. Yes, his friends know he doesn’t do drugs, okay the odd beer, but nothing more. But the tabloids would have a hay day with him, if this got out. No sane soul would believe this, he keeps it to himself.

Just before the sun sets, Jack sits patiently in the kitchen, waiting for the black hole. With beer and chips, as if he watches a television show, he’s now enjoying his fridge time. He starts playing with is fridge. he puts an unfinished Rubik’s cube to see if it will come back done or if it’s even coming back. The humming sound is back. Jack squeezes the handle with his right hand to open the door. Jack doesn’t know what it is or why it is in his fridge, but this black hole is there for a reason. Jack is a curious animal. He wants to have answers. Answers will never come, if he just sit there and do nothing.

Jack grabs the handle, but as he opens the door, the sound gets into his head like a vibrating head massage. The cube and all the beers are gone. When looking directly at it, Jack is always in a transcendental state; this time, his hand moves slowly towards the black swirling hole. Just as he’s about to touch it, the hole disappears.

The fridge has him wholly drawn into it; it’s all he can think about; he sleeps during the day and lives at night. Jack doesn’t eat anymore; he fed the black hole with all the food in his fridge—fruits, leftover pasta, cheese. The refrigerator is empty, and the black swirling hole is always there in mid-air. The hand is now searching for something, but there’s nothing to grab. The next day, there’s a note: more beer. Jack fills the fridge only with beer.

Jack feels stronger now, he doesn’t know why, but he has to put his hand in the hole. The vibrating humming sound is getting in his head, and he knows it’s time. It’s his time to see what is on the other side. As he stretches his arm forward to put his hand in the black swirling hole, the hand appears from the other side and grabs him.

Jack almost instantly push away, he does not fall this time. He stand firm on his two feet. It felt weird, as if he was holding the hand of someone he once knew.

Jack doesn’t look in the fridge for another two days. He finally surrenders to the force of the black hole swirling in his fridge.

The humming sound is back; Jack gets up slowly; he knows its purpose and knows nothing will stop him now from doing what he wanted to do since day one. He grabs the door handle with a shaking hand. He pulls gently on the handle. The suction sound of the door makes him smile as the light comes on to reveal the black hole in the middle of the empty fridge. He takes a heart-felt breath as if it’s his last, and puts his hand in the black hole.

Jack is sucked into the hole in a second, and he vanishes as the door closes behind him. It’s all black around him. He falls and falls and falls until he sees a light far away, but the light is coming his way fast. he has never experienced this speed, not even in a plane. Jack finally understands he’s the one traveling at the speed of light. His ears hurt as he has never felt before. He was about to faint, but he finds his inner strength, and screams his lungs out.

Then, a little kitchen with no doors or windows has a table and an old fridge. The fridge door opens, and Jack’s thrown out. He does a flip and lands on his feet, just in front of a blond woman. Face to face with this lady. She’s wears red lipstick, and a white dress. She presents herself as Marilyn. It’s Marilyn Monroe, the one and only. Now, Jack looks around and sees Elvis Presley, Micheal Jackson, Bruce Lee, Mickey Mantel, Jim Morrison, Charlie Parker and Amy Winehouse. Jack doesn’t believe it, he’s with all the icons of his youth. He now can tell Elvis how much he loves him.

Jack once told his father, on his last day on Earth, to go have a beer with Mickey Mantel. His father smiled and closed his eyes, and he was gone, just like that. Mickey was, according to Jack’s father, the best baseball player ever. Jack was curious to know if his father had the chance to drink a beer with his baseball icon. But now he has the opportunity to do it. So, he walk back to the fridge to see if there was any beers, he could share with his father’s best player.

As Jack approaches the fridge, he can hear a humming sound. The refrigerator is making the same sound as his. He’s suddenly not sure if he should open the door. He already done all that in his apartment. He takes a big breath and opens the door, in one motion without hesitation.

What he sees is special; it’s not the black swirling hole, but it looks like a portal. Jack looks inside or what seems to be the inside of a fridge. There are beers in there; Jack waits a few seconds before he grabs one beer and then a second one for himself. Then Elvis and the gang want a beer, so he opens the fridge again. Grabs a few more beers, the fridge is now beerless. Jack asks for paper and a pen. Marilyn is delighted, gives him what he asks for. Jack writes on the paper “more beer, please” and puts the paper inside the fridge.

Jack opens the fridge door, and there is more beer and an unfinished Rubik’s cube. When Jack sees the Rubik’s cube in the fridge, he knows what had happened. He understands what he has to do now. Finish this Rubik’s cube.