Originally Posted by
labr@
About 15 years ago the rest of my family went out of town for several days and I took the opportunity to repaint the living room. First thing was to move all the furniture into other parts of the house so the job would be quick and easy. To get the sofa bed through a doorway it had go up on end and being somewhat bulky it was a tight fit with the particular wall configuration either side of the doorway.
At one point it seemed a good idea to squeeze past and finish the move from the other side, so being relatively lean in those days I pushed my way in with the intention of sliding the sofa bed a little as I went. As my back came up against the door jamb it became very tight and my torso was pushing on the bottom of the pop out folding bed. Something had to give and the bed mechanism moved up and out just as it would when setting up. This happened at the same time as the whole thing slid into the doorway a little more and I found myself occupying the cavity left by the bed.
There was not enough room to squeeze out either way and I was in a half crouch with nothing to grab for either pushing or pulling. OK I thought just use momentum to move the whole thing a bit further and all will be well. So I repeatedly threw myself against one side with as much velocity as I could muster given the cramped situation, but there was no movement. Figured there must be something stopping it so tried the other direction – nothing. It was locked solid as if someone had nailed it to the floor.
At this point I started to think about what would happen if I couldn’t get out. Family was not due home for several more days. I was due at work the next day but how soon would anyone actually come looking instead of just assuming that I would be in touch eventually? Again could be several days. No mobile phone in the family back then. Warm time of year, no water in reach.
Would the family come home to a dehydrated wreck – or worse?
Not sure how long I was in there but at some stage I think panic set in and I went berserk trying to bash the thing apart. Luckily something eventually gave and I was able to joggle it enough to squeeze out again.
I found out that when the sofa bed had popped up, the rail that you would normally pull it out by had lodged between and partly under the mushroom shaped handles on the linen cupboard. This very effectively locked it in position. Even if I had known what happened I don’t think I could have unhooked it from inside and the only reason I escaped was that one of the handles broke off due to my frantic efforts.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened if our builder had been less dodgy and put those handles on really well.