Only Thirty Minutes

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.

The day was already a little different than it normally was. It was early September, but still very warm for autumn. I’d been able to sleep in. I was scheduled for delivery driving at Hideaway Pizza at 7:30pm. Usually, I was scheduled for the whole day: 11am to 9pm. Thursday wasn’t a typical work day for me, but one of the drivers had called in sick. It would be a short shift, but I liked the idea of a few extra dollars in my pocket.

I drove downtown for my shift and walked in the back door. Harry and Alice were near the door and greeted me. My manager, Shawn was near the ovens, sprinkling cheese and seasoning over a pie. “You ready for a busy night, Maddy?” he shouted over the sounds of the oven and dishwasher. “We’re already on order 32!”

My eyes widened. “That’s a lot! But you know me; I’m ready for anything.”

Harry was the other delivery driver and he was rushing out the door for order 31.

“Clock in, wash your hands, and I’ll finish up 32 for you. It’s up the hill quite a ways. They’re barely inside of our delivery area.” Shawn walked over to the cut table and started boxing the order. I washed my hands.

The order turned green on the screen and I assigned it to myself. “I’ll see you guys when I get back!” I put the order in a warm delivery bag and headed out to my car. I glanced at the receipt. Madeline. 2350 Osprey Circle.

Shawn was right. The order was far enough away it would take about thirty minutes to get there and back.

I turned the key and my music started. This was the best part of my job. I could listen to anything I wanted while driving. “Supermassive Black Hole” by Muse blasted from the speakers.

I climbed up the hill. It was always hard to stay under the speed limit when I drove up that steep of an incline. Almost felt like you were going to start rolling backwards if you didn’t go above 30 mph. Most houses up in the hills were either mansions, or small cabins from the earlier settlers who wanted to be near the dense forests. I liked driving up there just for the views. At this point, the sun was in that golden stage that happens just before sunset.

“In one thousand feet, turn left onto Osprey Circle and your destination will be on the right,” my GPS quieted my music so I could focus on its instructions.

I turned and looked to my right. I saw one of the oldest buildings in the area. It was surrounded by many trees and I had always wanted to explore it. The cabin was once a home, then was converted into a historical museum. When I was 12, the museum closed and nobody had been in for a long time.

My GPS made a clicking noise and then said, “Your destination is on the right.”

I pulled past the dark cabin and parked near the park strip of the next property. A large, dusty blue house. It almost matched the color of the darkest part of the sky above me. A big “2354” was placed over their white garage. I came to a stop and looked down at the map on my phone. Where was 2350? The little circle that marked my current location showed that I had driven past my requested destination. Confused, I put my map on street view and it showed the old cabin as 2350 Osprey Circle. I craned my neck to look for an address posted somewhere near the cabin, but saw nothing.

“I guess someone does live here,” I thought. “Interesting.” I considered calling the number on the receipt to confirm the address, but when I looked at my phone, it showed that I didn’t have service. This wasn’t uncommon in the hills.

I reversed a little to avoid the extra walking and grabbed my bag of pizza. They had ordered just one medium.

As I walked across the driveway, my feet brushed against the weeds that grew through the cracks in the pavement. Striding closer, I noticed just how big the cabin was. From the street it didn’t seem too large, but it seemed to grow as I approached the door. There were no lights on in any of the windows, but most of them were partially boarded up with a wood that was much lighter in color than the original architecture. Approaching the door, I passed a small window and noticed a small flame in between two slats of wood. It looked like a small candle, but was glowing quite a bit for its size.

I felt a little uneasy at this point, but couldn’t call Madeline or my manager so I decided to go ahead and knock on the old door. A small acorn shape was carved into the dark wood.

I waited about a minute. Minutes seem like a long time with a delivery. I would usually knock again if I was waiting for more than thirty seconds. This time I didn’t. “Well, I guess there’s nobody here.” As soon as I finished the thought, the door creaked open and I heard a familiar female voice say, “Hello?” very loudly from inside.

I responded. “Hi! I’m here with your Hideaway Pizza.”

Nothing.

The wind stopped too.

All of the sudden, I realized I couldn’t hear anything at all. I moved my shoe against the dirt on the pavement and it made a quiet noise. That was all.

“Hello?” I said louder. Nothing.

I remembered my training. They told us to never enter a home while on the clock. What if something was wrong? What if this Madeline was in danger? What if she had passed out and that’s why she wasn’t responding?

I have to admit, it was mostly curiosity that drove me into the doorway. I couldn’t see much so I took another step and noticed the candle to my left. The fire I had seen moments before was now burned out and a wisp of smoke twirled up from the wick. I assumed the door opening had burned it out.

“Hello? Madeline! I have your pizza. Are you here?”

A small click noise startled me. As I turned to see what it was, the golden light from outside disappeared. The door was gone. Completely. Not just closed, but completely gone.

“Hey, what is this? Is this a joke?” I shouted trying to sound as confident as possible.

I looked around. I was in a large entryway that had three doors leading elsewhere. Opening the first door, I saw an old set of stairs. The stairway did not look stable at all. I closed that door and went to the next. Walking through the door, I hurried through a dark hallway and arrived in a kitchen. A refrigerator was on the far wall. It made no noise and when I opened the doors, I found nothing. It was not plugged in. There was a square of floor that was bare and a lighter color than the rest of the hardwood. I suspected a stove had once been there. All the doors and windows in the kitchen were boarded up. I went back to the entryway and opened the last door. It seemed to be a small bedroom. A twin bed frame was in the corner with no mattress. The only window in this room was boarded up too.

I looked at my phone again. Still no service. This was too creepy. I needed a way to get out. I started going through the rooms again, pushing on the boards over the windows and doors. They were solid and nailed into the walls. I tried to get my fingernail underneath a nail, but I couldn’t.

“Maybe I can try calling 911.” I knew it was unlikely. No service. I looked around and thought about the upper floor. “Maybe I’ll have service up there. It’s probably worth the risk.” I ran up the stairs and stopped at the landing. I could see a few doors in the hallway. I dialed 911. Nothing. A second time, I hit call. “The number you have dialed has been changed or disconnected.”

“No it hasn’t!” I said loudly. Frustrated, I looked at the screen again and wondered how I could get ahold of anyone. Suddenly, I was connected to WiFi. Thinking quickly, I went to the Hideaway Pizza app and started the checkout process. I wrote a short note. “Please come help me. I’m stuck in this house.” I hit the ‘complete order’ button and waited for it to load.

“You cannot complete checkout without ordering a pizza.”

And then the WiFi disconnected.

I started to tear up. I walked into another room on the second floor. A clock on the wall said 7:15. Must have stopped. The WiFi reconnected and I placed a medium cheese pizza in my cart. I checked out as quickly as I could, using autofill for my name and phone number. I marked it as a cash order as I didn’t have my debit card with me. It was in the car with the rest of my wallet. In the address field, I typed 2350 Osprey Circle. I did not have time to write a message in the app that time so I knew I’d just have to wait for someone to come deliver the pizza. Even without the door, I figured I would be able to talk to them through the window.

The app made a dinging noise and a new message appeared, “Your pizza is in the oven. Expect the order at about 7:45 pm."

“Weird,” I thought. “It has to be past 7:45 now.” I had clocked into work at 7:30. I looked at the corner of my screen. 7:16. What?!

I turned to the clock on the wall. The minute hand had moved. 7:16.

I started to feel sick. I didn’t understand what was happening. I went to the window. It was still light out there. Golden light streamed through the tree branches just how it had been when I arrived.

My car was gone.

“No! What is happening?” I never really talked to myself out loud before this experience, but it was comforting to hear something amidst the nothing and creaking of the house.

My car had been stolen and I was stuck in this dumb cabin. The creaking noises seemed to be louder upstairs so I went back downstairs. I waited by the door. A small box of matches was sitting next to the candle on the windowsill and I decided to light it. It was comforting in a strange way.

The next thirty minutes seemed to drag on forever. I kept looking at my phone to check the time. 7:30. 7:32. 7:37. At 7:45, I heard a car pull up to the house. They had accidentally missed the house like I had. Understandable. I was so relieved. But as the car reversed just as I had, I noticed something even stranger. The car was the same make and model as mine: a gray Toyota Camry.

A girl stepped out of the car and started to walk towards the cabin.

My stomach dropped. It was me. The delivery driver was me.

She. . . I . . . she knocked on the door . . . or at least where the door had once been. I stood frozen.

I’m not sure how much time went by, but I heard a loud creaking noise to my left. “Hello?” I called.

“Hi! I’m here with your Hideaway Pizza.” The voice was undeniably mine, but it didn’t come from my body. I burned out the candle and ran into the kitchen. A new door had appeared that wasn’t boarded up. I opened it and ran down three stairs into an overgrown backyard. I’m sure some snakes or insects were hiding in the grass that almost reached my knees. I was running too quickly to notice. Going through the side yard, I ducked under scrub oak branches and opened a small gate that led to the front.

My car was there. I scrambled to grab the keys from my pocket and stuck them in the door with some difficulty. I practically jumped into the front seat and started the car with more speed than I’d ever done before.

I turned sharply around the curve of the cul-de-sac and drove down the mountain. I caught myself a few times going much faster than the speed limit. My adrenaline was pumping. I’m sure there was music playing, but I didn’t hear it. When I pulled into Hideaway Pizza’s parking lot it felt like I’d returned from a long road trip. I burst through the back door with wide eyes and everyone looked at me.

“Are you okay, Maddy?” Shawn asked.

I looked at the clock on the wall. 8:02

“How long was I gone?”

“About thirty minutes.”

I couldn’t say much. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then opened them again. The clock now said 8:03. “I wasn’t able to deliver that pizza,” I stuttered. Nobody was home.

“Where is the pizza?” Shawn asked.

I looked at the rest of the kitchen. Harry and Alice were staring at me and probably questioning my sanity. I was questioning my sanity too. I didn’t remember where I had put the pizza. “I don’t know where it is.”

A beep sounded over the speakers. That meant a new order had come in through the app.

Shawn pulled me into his little office corner. “Maddy, are you actually okay?”

“No. I . . . don’t think so.”

He knew something was wrong. He let me leave.

After that, every day was back to the usual delivery cycles. I had to worry about crazy drivers and getting the deliveries to their houses on time, but I never had to deliver to that old cabin again. I never had to worry about running into myself.