Death by Dryer

I almost died.

I was about 10 years old, playing hide-n-seek down the street from my house with neighborhood kids.  There was a broken dryer on the side of the driveway of the house we were playing around.

As everyone ran to hide, I was smart and saw the dryer.  I opened the door, climbed in, and hid.

No one will find me here.

And no one did!  I almost died because of it. 

After 30 minutes or so goes by, I heard no sounds nor my friends.  No one was looking for me (or couldn't find me) and I guess they all moved on to play something else.  Not sure.

I then tried to get out of the dryer.  Door didn't open.

Door couldn't open from the inside!

I was cramped in this round barrel inside this now-stuffy, tight space, breathing hard because my anxiety and heart was racing.  I was locked in!

I started to bang on the door. 

I heard no one!

I then banged on the metal sides from inside the dryer.  I was frantic!

I couldn't hear anyone around on the outside and I was locked in a space that seemed to get smaller, as my legs started to hurt from the weird position I put my small child-body in to hide in the perfect spot.

As I banged and cried out some more, what seemed like 10 minutes or more (to a child that's about 3 hours), all of a sudden I heard a few bangs and then the door flew open!  I crawled out like lightning!  I then saw a really small child, maybe 4 years old, and she was standing there with her blankee, eyes real big, looking at this person crawl out of the broken dryer SAVED!  She had hit the latch on the door to make it open and she saved my life!

I don't know if this child would even remember or think of this life-saving act later in her life, but I have thought of it (for some reason) numerous times in mine.

I realize now I wouldn't have died in that dryer - I now know they have vents, lol.  But it was really  cramped in there and I was SUPER scared.

But, I was saved!