After breaking into my own locker a feeling of sadness but relief came over me

I’m not sure what I expected when they told us that the office would be closing. Perhaps that it was only going to be temporary. That maybe in a few weeks time we would all go back and start complaining that we missed working from home. When I left my office that afternoon I took my work laptop but nothing else. At that time I thought things would be ‘back to normal’ soon enough.

I decided it would be best to go early in the morning into the office to collect what remained in my locker. Travelling to the office was a bit busier than I anticipated, with more people on public transport than I would have thought. Considering we were supposed to be in a pandemic. As it turned out it was a quick journey.

Once I was in the office, I took a little time to soak in the atmosphere of the place I had grown to know quite well. I was alone and the office felt large, cold and unwelcoming. The product of the pandemic, it was an empty space. They had attempted at some Christmas decorations for the staff in the office. Although it was not nearly as bright, bold and cheerful as I remember the Christmas before it.

Once I had located the set of lockers where I thought mine was, I had a bit of trouble remembering the number. For half an hour I tried to get into three, one of which I knew was mine. Hoping that muscle memory would come back to me, as I couldn’t remember the combination. I was becoming destressed and agitated, readying myself to leave. One of the lockers finally clicked and and a wave of relief came over me. I would make a terrible James Bond. Who would have most likely shot at the lockers until they had opened.

Inside there was nothing particularly special. I found two different types of tea and one in a fancy tea caddy. You might be wondering - Elena did you really go back to your office just to retrieve some tea? The answer would be yes. I had also wondered if my missing book, that I had been longing to read was in there. It was not.

In the end, I am glad I went back in. Although it was quite sad to me to see the office completely empty and lifeless. I wanted to be there one last time to give it one last goodbye. Although, I am sad to leave behind the friends that I made at work. I hope that we will keep in contact, despite distance and time zones.

Credit to the photograph on this page goes to Waldemar Brandt via Unsplash

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