The Disappearing Act

My contribution to Tova's 'awkward' game:

A week before graduating from high school, during a lull from graduation practices, my friends and I decided to spend a weekend out of town. We were headed for different universities and thought spending a last weekend of fun together was a fitting highlight for our memories of high school. We cramped ourselves in our friend's SUV and drove to the ridge of Taal Volcano (smallest volcano in the world, I think). We checked-in, opting for a room with a view, but owing to our meager resources, signed in only 4 people while actually being 5 in the group. We figured we'd just sneak the other person in and no one would notice.

We had it all planned out, should room service or any of the hotel's staff come knocking at our door, one of us (that would be me) would hide himself somewhere out of sight, thus preserving our 'discount'. I checked around the room, looking for the best hiding place. Turns out just outside the glass window was a ledge that was perfect for the purpose. I would just jump out of the window and sit on the ledge until the coast was clear. I purposely left the window open and tried this technique out a couple of times with much success. Pleased, we had all settled in and started with our under-age drinking session.

Eventually, we ran out of beer and had dialed room service for another round of booze. Anticipating my diappearing act, I took a leak just in case my exile on the ledge would take a while longer than expected and came back ready for action. After 5 minutes or so, the expected knock on the door came and I immediately sprang to action. With a chair conveniently set in place as my launching pad, I leapt at full speed for the window expecting to vanish to the other side.

Splat!

As it turned out, the sliding glass window was shut. The window was so clean that I didn't notice the difference until after my face was flattened by the tempered glass. I bounced back onto the floor and while still dazed and wondering what went wrong, my friends were in shock for precisely 5 seconds before bursting in laughter. At that point the knocking came again and I immediately gathered my bearings and slid open the window, disappearing to the ledge.

While I was in the restroom, one of my friends thought it wise to slide the window shut lest the cool air from the a/c escape. Climbing back into the room, all four of them were still rolling on the floor laughing, and while sliding the window back into place, I could make out a portrait of my face on the glass, locked in a grimace of pain.

Through the years, my friends never made me forget this story and has found it a convenient ice-breaker to tell all their other friends. I on the other hand, have learned never to clean my windows too well.