A/N-This chapter is based off of 'Julia Gets her Head Stuck in a Fence', Julia and the girl's are at the Govenor's mansion, decorating it for a honorary part they are giving and Suzanne, Mary Jo and Charlene goad Julia into sticking her head in the staircase...needless to say she can't get it out and my mansion's manager, Amy Betz, has a fit over it but orders them not to saw it to get her out. They eventually do...and the governo falls through. So this is my take off story of the manager.
The museum of Atlanta's history needed a manager and Amy Betz was perfect for the job,she had been the manager of the governor's mansion for ten years, she had a spotless record, professionally sound and very reliable.
She was walking around looking at every artifact in the museum, making herself known to every piece when she sees a room called-'Valuable antiques of Atlanta' and she goes in the room with her head held in a air of superiority but she falls to realize the door closing behind her. She didn't realize that the heavy antique door that was specifically made in the great civil war for a POW camp and the heavy door was the only thing to survive the burning of the prison, was made far ahead of it's time, in that it was made with a self latching lock.
Mrs. Betz went around carefully inspecting everything in the room, blissfully unaware that she was locked off from the rest of the world. After she carefully looks over everything that is supposed to be in her care , she turns to leave and she goes to the door and tries to push it open but realizes she can't. She looks around the room for a window and there is none. She screams out a curse word then proceeds to beat on the door with no answer.
At last about a hour later, she is tired of constantly knocking on the door and red circles start to appear on her hand so she sighs and sits down but at that very instant, she hears knocking back on the door and a man hollers,
"Mrs. Betz! Mrs. Betz! How are you!"
She jumps up with renewed enthusiasm and she asks,
"Mister Brown! I have been trying for a hour!"
She then hears him say,
"Well, we have been looking for you every place else then we just now really noticed that the door was closed and...didn't you notice the sign telling you that you cannot lock this door? uh, oh"
She then asks,
"What?" "Uh, Willie just picked the sign up off the floor, it must have fell down" "Oh great, don't you have a key mister Brown?"
He laughs then says,
"That's why we put the sign up, when we got the door, the previous owners made sure to tell us that you could never lock the door, the key was lost a long time ago. And the reason the door is so strong, it was made for a prison."
She looks around in frustration then says,
"Well, it certainly feels like a prison"
She doesn't tell them but she begins to feel a slight urging to go to the bathroom and she begins a little jig then she asks.
"Why can't you take the door hinges out?" "Mrs. Betz, I don't know if you noticed or not but one reason why this door can't be closed is that it is a prison door and was made without hinges, that is why it is extremely rare and powerful but don't worry, we will get you out"
She grinds her teeth and she looks around and her eyes fixate on a old pail beside a stuffed dummy of a confederate soldier then she quickly dismisses the idea then looks back at the door but she keeps it in mind.
Another hour later, she is really doing a dance now and she beats on the door in a frantic rhythm and she hollers,
"Mister Brown, what is going on? Has there been any thoughts about getting me out?"
Outside, Mister Brown, a round man with white hair looks at a man sitting at a desk and they are playing a small game of gin rummy and he says,
"Ha!"
Amy then says,
"Ha? did you get a idea?"
He looks up and he says,
"Oh, yes, yes, I just got one, not sure how it will work but I will try"
He signals for the guy to get rid of the cards and he says,
"I have a idea but it's going to be tricky and long, I have to go to my office to get some phone numbers but don't worry I will be back"
He signals for the boy to come on and they go to his office to do whatever. Amy looks around in the locked room she is in and her eyes keep going back to the pail, she tries to put aside her bathroom prediction but she can't so she finally gives up, sighs and goes and gets the pail and runs behind a wall.
The next morning, Amy wakes up and the first thing she does is look at her watch and it says, 6:00, she sighs and looks around, she gets up and goes to the door and pounds on it and nobody answers. She turns around and looks at the pail and goes to get it and goes behind the wall again. A few minutes later, she comes back out, goes over to the door, pounds again and still no answer...she looks around and her eyes fall on a antique ax that she sees in the horse drawn fire engine section, goes and grabs it and proceeds to chop at the door and it takes a while but she chops thorough, the door falls down and the moment it hits the floor, Mister Brown comes in, his eyes bug out and he looks at her and she just puts down the ax and silently goes to the bathroom.
Mister Brown carefully walks over the broken door and goes into the room and sees everything looking pretty much normal but then he sees something leaking out of the pail in the confederate section. He goes over and bends down and smells it then hollers,
"Mrs. Betz!"
In the bathroom, the toilet flushes and she goes to the bathroom mirror and looks in it and a old memory comes to her, she remembers a Julia Sugarbaker with her head stuck in the the banister of the staircase and how she, Amy, through a fit for Julia to get out by any other means than destroying the staircase and she, herself just destroyed a antique prison door.
She says to herself,
"I have become Julia Sugarbaker"
She then hears Mister Brown yelling,
"Mrs. Betz!"
Amy was promptly fired from the museum she was blessed that the governor's mansion hired her back. She destroyed a antique prison door, nearly destroyed a ax and fooled with a pail.
Sand n' Sable