“How are we ever going to get their attention?” Sara miserably asked Tyler. “They were so big, and we’re just so small. I think we’ll just die trying!”

“No no no no no, please don’t think like that! We’ll just have to try again. They’re here for the entire weekend. We’ll have a ton of opportunities to be found. But first, we have to get out of our clothes again. Here, take my hand.”

Sara reached out and grabbed her husband’s hand, grateful for his attempts at comforting her. They started struggling against the large bunched up clothes around them. Eventually, they were able to shift the clothes enough that they could start wiggling their way out of the wad. They crawled out, and to their dismay, found they were at the bottom of the clothes hampers in the laundry room. The only light was what creeped in underneath the door, which wasn’t much.

“Well, it looks like we’re going to have to climb out,” Tyler remarked. “On the plus side, I’m now very glad we went with the cheaper fabric hampers instead of the plastic ones! Otherwise, there’s no way we’d be getting out. But look, these have a bunch of holes to grab and put our feet on.”

“But it’s so high!” gasped Sara, looking up. The sides of the clothes hamper had to extend hundreds of feet in the air. There was no way she thought she could scale that.

“We’ve got to, honey. I don’t want to be stuck here when someone decides to put the clothes in the wash.” That thought was plenty enough to convince her to go. The two started climbing the insides of the hamper. With how many holes and handholds were provided by the mesh fabric, scaling it turned out to not be as difficult as at first thought. They noted that it was similar to climbing a chain link fence when they were kids.

It took a while, but eventually they were able to reach the top. Unfortunately, they were unable to get over the top because there was a strip of fabric along the top edge of the hamper, completely hindering their progress. It wrapped all the way around along the top.

“Okay, this is going to be difficult, but I think you’ll have to climb on my shoulders to be able to get over the top.” Tyler said to Sara. 

“But then how will you get over it?” she questioned.

“I’ll think of something, but for now I just want to get you over before I get more tired and can’t lift you and me both.”

She didn’t like it, but agreed because she couldn’t think of any counterargument at the moment. She moved right up next to him, then proceeded to put her feet on Tyler’s shoulders, using the fabric to steady herself. She was barely able to reach the top, but she succeeded in pulling herself up and straddled the edge for a moment, before swinging herself down to the other side.

As she swung around to the other side, she hung, with her hands holding the lip of the hamper. Her legs couldn’t quite reach a foothold beneath the strip of fabric. She started panicking, realizing that she was just hanging, her fingers the only things preventing her from falling hundreds of feet to the ground. She let out a little whimper when she decided she was going to have to drop and hope to catch herself on the mesh. If she didn’t catch herself, she was going to end up a splatter on the ground.

Knowing that the more she thought about it, the more difficult it would get, she dropped. 

After a short fall, she was able to grab a hold of the hamper, her shoulders feeling like they were going to be ripped out of their sockets from the force. But she had caught herself. She looked on the other side of the hamper to her husband, a little higher than she was. He had watched the whole thing without saying a word.

“So now what are you going to do?” she asked. 

“I’m just going to have to jump and try to grab the top. That’s the only way.”

Tyler steeled his resolve. He knew he was in good shape, but this was going to be very difficult. He bent his legs, then jumped, trying to grab the top. His fingers grasped the lip of the hamper. He deftly pulled himself up. He let out a little nervous laugh, then swung his legs down to perform the same maneuver his wife had just completed. He started hanging down the other side, then got ready to let go, mentally preparing himself to catch himself on the mesh of the hamper. 

He let his hands go. After letting go, he reached out to grab the hamper and halt his fall. But his left hand didn’t quite reach the mesh, and he wasn’t able to hold on and stop a free fall with just the one hand, and he slipped away from the side, careening away from safety. 

As he fell, time seemed to slow down. His back was to the ground, and he saw his wife above him. She had her head turned around, watching him fall, her face contorting as she let out a hysteric scream. Tyler couldn’t hear anything besides the rushing of wind in his ears. They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die, but Tyler’s mind simply went blank as he fell.

He continued to fall until Sara could no longer see him with the dim lighting provided. She froze in shock for a moment. Then a sob forced its way through her throat, before she began to cry in full force. With tears blurring her vision, she began to climb down the side of the hamper, wanting to find her husband’s body.