The horrible intercom mistake

New York has lots of things I’m not accustomed to yet. One of these things is the whole ‘apartment building intercom buzz-in’ thing. When you go to visit your friend, you approach the front entrance, push past the people smoking by the door, and find your friend’s apartment number on buzz ‘em list. Once you locate the correct number/name, you hit the button, announce your presence, and then get buzzed in past one or two doors of security. It’s simple, really, but as we all know from out life experiences, simple is often the best catalyst for disaster.

I was going to visit my friend who lives between a dumpling shop and Dunkin Donuts just down the street. There is a single door up to his apartment with a simple metal box containing all the apartment numbers and buzz buttons. One this particular day I went up to the door and hit the appropriate button.

Buzzzzz
Intercom voice: Yeah?
Me: Let me in!!!!
Intercom voice: Who is it?
Me (annoyed at the delay): It’s a murder come to kill you!
Intercom: What?
Me (weary of an exchange I believed to be my friend teasing me): Open the door! I have bloodlust! Roar!
Intercom: Michael? Michael, geeze. Sigh.
Door opening buzzzzzzzz

I entered the building and went up to the third floor where my friend lives. But something wasn’t right…the stairway was different…the doors weren’t in the same place as I remembered. Realization began to dawn on me…I was in a different building…which means that wasn’t my friend on the intercom…which means I had just threatened a total stranger that I was a dangerous killer…oh dear.

I gracefully dashed back down the stairs and out the door. I then saw that I had gone into the doorway just before the dumpling shop, not the one after it. Oops. Lesson learned.