The Password For Life

"We have reset your password. Try again. You cannot proceed until you get it right."

Confused, Lucy tried to sign in to her laptop again. The same message filled the screen. Something felt off - more than it usually did as of late.

She closed her laptop screen and, deciding to push this part of her routine to later, she headed for the door to check the next few tasks off of her daily list. After throwing on her jacket and grabbing her bag and keys, she reached for the door knob, but when she turned it and pulled, it wouldn’t budge. Thinking it must still be locked, she turned the lock and tried again. Nothing changed. No matter what position the lock was in, the door stayed put. This was the door she opened every day, so Lucy was entirely sure that it pulled to open, but nevertheless she tried pushing it to no avail. The door felt stuck shut by something other than the physical.

“We have reset your password. Try again. You cannot proceed until you get it right.”

The same words as before, but this time around they were spoken - by what or who Lucy did not know. She did not have any high-tech alarm or security features in her house - no cameras or locks with audio or video components. Thinking it must have originated from her laptop (as it did before), she flipped the screen back open. Without having to start it back up, she could see that the message remained on the screen.

Now confused, frustrated, and downright scared, Lucy began to feel panicked. She decided to try a window, feeling foolish for even thinking that something might prevent her from ungracefully exiting her own home through a window. However, she soon found out there was no need for her to feel that way; her guess was exactly right.

Her attempt to unlock and slide open the nearest window was halted by some unknown force and, again, she heard the message loud and clear.

“We have reset your password. Try again. You cannot proceed until you get it right.”

This time, she moved closer to her laptop while the voice droned on and it became evident that it was definitely not coming from the speakers. It seemed to be coming from the air around her - somewhere right above her head.

None of this made sense. Nothing made sense. She felt more confused than she ever had and, given how confused she had been feeling in her daily life recently, that meant a lot.

Lucy took six slow, deep breaths - in and out. She knew this works wonders to reset your nervous system and help clear up some of the clutter of your mind.

‘Okay, think,’ Lucy thought to herself. ‘There must be some logical explanation.’

After several moments of ruling out everything that came to mind, she decided it must be some sort of delusion, a disturbingly vivid dream, or some force of nature she had not yet encountered.

Feeling unsure of what to do next, Lucy looked back at her laptop. The message and the box containing the little blinking cursor cleared from the black screen and a new message appeared before her eyes.

“You are stuck. You are forbidden to keep living like this. Change is essential.”

“What? What do you mean? What is this? Who are you? This doesn’t make any sense.” Feeling that there was no use denying that someone or something was clearly watching her and listening to her closely, Lucy spoke directly to them - whoever they were.

The message on the screen changed instantaneously.

“You know better than anyone that this makes perfect sense. We know you’re better than this. You have no option but to figure it out. Your password needed changing. We know this isn’t news to you. Fix it.”

Quickly getting fed up with the cryptic wording and knowing she wasn’t going to get answers to her first set of questions, Lucy impatiently asked, “What password? How am I supposed to fix it without knowing what I need to fix?”

“You know exactly what needs to change. We know you do.”

She could tell they know a lot about her, but she figured that who exactly the ominous they are was likely to remain a mystery. She thought hard. She knew there were countless things she had to change. She just wasn’t sure what their goal was. Passwords unlock things. What did she need to change to unlock things?

“The doors won’t open until you change your password. When you complete this step, everything will be unlocked.”

Lucy understood. With a deep breath, a sly smile, and new intentions, she opened the front door and headed out to embrace her new opportunities. Glancing over her shoulder as she walked through the doorway, she saw the screen flash a final message.

“Password successfully set.”