◉ 059 | Escape Room

I broke up

a long-term

relationship.

We lived

together

for a few years

so I needed

a new place

to live.

Teta Marija,

a single mother

of three,

had a spare room

downstairs.

Ladučka 35.

3 x 3 metres,

some 9 m²,

including

a bathroom with

a shower,

a sink

and a toilet.

It was small

but small

wasn’t the issue.

The issue was

the bathroom

didn’t have

a door,

just a simple

curtain.

Nor did it have walls

fully up

to the ceiling.

And

no

ventilation.

The room

had a single

large window

right next

to the bathroom.

When you take a shit,

you flush the toilet

immediately,

engage the Hawaiian scent,

open the window

and you are

back to business

in a few minutes.

It was all

well and good

when I was

alone.

But often

I had friends

coming

for a sleepover,

drinking parties

and bean stew

nights.

We were wild

so I didn’t have space

to ask teta Marija

to put two more rows

of bricks,

a proper door

and a fan.

I had massive

loudspeakers too.

It helped

to mask

the aural part.

As a boy scout

I was kind of

ok

with all of that.

There was

something primal

about it.

But many times

I felt

ashamed.

I started

escaping

the room

more and more.

Luckily for me,

my good friends,

a legendary couple,

Gogo and Maja,

lived ten houses

down the street.

They loved me

but I interrupted

the thing

too many times.

We laughed at that

20 years later

but the real question

came up:

was I really

escaping the room?