A few days ago something happened in my home that felt representative of 2020.

We had to break into our own apartment, while in our apartment, having locked ourselves out of the apartment a number of years ago.

Let me explain.

Years ago, I don’t know the reasons or the circumstances, one of us placed a hockey stick in a corner, leaning against the wall, and forgot about it.

The hockey stick has never caused any trouble in this spot. Until 2020.

The corner the hockey stick has resided without incident is directly across from an old window door. You know the type: all panelled, you can see through it, you wince when there’s a draft and it slams shut from the wind. The hinges are inside the room, with the hockey stick.

A few days ago, while sitting on the couch scrolling through Twitter, with the door in my sight, something strange happened: I saw something out of the corner of my eye and looked up just in time to watch the hockey stick come to life, with one purpose: chaos.

Now my family has theories on how all this came to pass and who started it (the new cat, who, we must admit, loves trouble) but I was there and witnessed it and I can confirm: the hockey stick, under its own wherewithal, decided to make a run for it

But was only successful in falling in a glorious arc...to stop short, caught upon the window door, with a soft thunk.

So I get up, walk over and realize that the hockey stick has locked us out of the room.

This is when the cat appears at the door, on the side of the stick.

He looks at the hockey stick, then at me, as I’m trying to figure out how to handle this. The door is jammed. I cannot release it from the hinges, since they’re inside. I can’t just leave it for a bit, since the cat is inside. I get my family and we brainstorm.

After a few minutes, we realize there is only one way to deal with this: we must break into the room from another opening. Luckily, there’s a half open window and with help my kid is small enough to scramble in.

So it came to pass that our neighbours on a lovely sunny day got to observe my spouse walk out our front door with a knife, followed by my son, to a window, cut the screen, and shove our twelve year old through it, to my cheers

And my kid got to have the thrill of endorsed and assisted breaking and entering, while also being a hero, and saving the cat.

All because of a hockey stick we didn’t put away properly and forgot about, because it wasn’t causing any trouble at the moment.

A hockey stick that always had the power of locking us out of our own room, power we gave it by not putting it away properly, power we gave it by leaving it there.

The hockey stick didn’t lock us out: we did when we put it there.

And that’s why this tiny bit of excitement felt representative of 2020: the hockey sticks we left in the corners are all falling, one after another.

The question is, will we put them back in the corners to have it all happen again, or will we learn?

If you’re wondering, we put the hockey stick away properly this time.

The end.