Day 9 - Coming Out of the Closet

Several of us tend to eat lunch in our office kitchen at the same time, including Hua-yu.  There's a closet in that kitchen:

The plan for today was for me to get into the kitchen ahead of Hua-yu, hide in the closet and then somehow come out and scare her.  The details were as always a little fuzzy.  This would work great as I had a doctor's appointment earlier in the day and so she thought I was out of the office.

It almost failed.  When I got there the guy from the company who stocks the closet arrived at the same time.  Obviously I couldn't hide in the closet while he was stocking it, so I assumed the gig was up.  However, Hua-yu was running late and wasn't there when the guy finished.  I decided that I would go in and give her up to ten minutes to get there.  Thus I entered the closet.

This closet is not particularly large.  Here's the view of the space between the shelves and door:

I fit in with the door closed, but it was tight.  And I also discovered that a place with no moving air gets hot.  I took my phone with me and was reading on it when I heard Hua-yu come in within a minute or two of my going in.  Then I realized I didn't have a real plan and I had no way to know what was going on outside.  Helper Elf One was out.  Helper Elf Two had left her phone in her office.

My fears included that I would come out while someone was in the kitchen who might not appreciate our jocularity and that I had no way to know if Hua-yu went to get a drink.  I was worried that I might just be stuck there. And it was tight.  Like I couldn't really move my arms

The view with my hand all the way back at my ear (with flash)

Luckily, I heard Helper Elf Four come in and my text to her was successful (I had tried texting Hua-yu as well to throw her off the track, but she didn't get her text either).  She advised me that Hua-yu was in the kitchen with her back to the closet I was in.  I slid out of the closet, sneaked over behind her and grabbed her on both sides of her back.

She screamed.  She jumped.  She spit out food.  It was beautiful! 


Hua-yu was unexpectedly out of her office for a few minutes later in the day, so Helper Elf Number Two did this bonus as well:

It's a toe ring put around the neck of a bulldog that Hua-yu has on her monitor.