Scenario: You're headed for a public restroom. Not the larger kind, mind you, but the one-person variety. You grab the door handle or the doorknob or whatever, and it's locked. Bad luck, right? For many people, this would indicate that the restroom is occupied.
The next action is either to wait or to search for a different place to take care of that most personal type of business. Unfortunately, I have seen evidence to the contrary. On more than one occasion I've been in there, well beyond the point of no return, hoping against hope that I would have a bit of privacy... only to be disappointed.
Seriously, does it make sense to try the door again five seconds later? I understand that a person may be in a different state of mind and that the circumstances may be pretty grim for the other guy. But still, as far as I know there hasn't been a documented instance of a bathroom door magically unlocking itself after a failed attempt to open it. I'm also pretty sure that if I had left the bathroom in that span of time, he would have seen me.
Some may say that I should hurry up when this happens, but what the hell does that mean? Do you think that I like it in there? Am I going to spend a little extra time in the privy house just because it's so wonderful and pleasant? It's a Men's Room, people, not a five-star hotel. Trust me, I'm already going at the maximum safe speed, and I'm not about to try an unsafe speed for some stranger in a public building.
I don't want to talk to him, either. He understands that someone is in there, or at least he should. I can't think of anything constructive that we can say to each other, and besides... a full report of how much better I feel now isn't going to help a guy who's jumping on one foot and trying to thing about other things.
The first two attempts to open the door come close together. First he tries the door, and then he tries to convince himself that he was wrong. It couldn't possibly have been locked, so he tries again. Sometimes after that, a third attempt will be made, just to be sure that I'm still in there. Or perhaps he's not sure if I was ever in there, since I won't talk to him. Maybe the bathroom isn't really occupied. Maybe the door was locked by some sort of mischievous bathroom bandit who then exited through the window on a zip line. In any event, times like this are the reason why I hate public restrooms.
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