Not on the List

I went to the office and asked Mrs. Doyle who had locker 114 before me. She typed for a while. Then she said locker 114 did not exist, and she said it in a voice that had practiced saying it. The lockers in that row went 110, 112, 116. I told her I used 114 every single day. I told her it was on my own registration sheet. She smiled the smile adults use when they have decided you are upset about something else, and she said the row had been renumbered last year, and there must be a mistake. I let her think I believed her. Then I went back at lunch with my phone and I photographed the number plate on my locker, 114, and I photographed the lockers on either side, 112 and 116, and I sat on the gym floor and looked at the gap in the numbers that the school said was not there.