I swear I'm not making this up

My mother visited Winnipeg for a few days recently, on her way home from visiting her new granddaughter.

It was nice to see her, and it was nice to be able to show her our life.

One of the things she wanted to do while she was here was take a walk through the Winnipeg Art Gallery. So we went, on Wednesday evening. We got to the WAG at 8:00, and it closed at 9. We decided that it was still worth taking a walk through, even if it was only for an hour. My mom talked the clerk into giving us all student rates, since our visit was going to be so short. So far, so good.

We decided that we would start at the top, and work our way down. So we went to the roof, to look at the sculpture garden. Honestly, it was a little disappointing. We walked around for a bit, but the sculptures were actually few and far between, so we decided to move down to the Gallery level, to look at some paintings.

The door wouldn't open.

This must be a mistake. I thought. We must be pulling instead of pushing, or something. So we pulled, and pushed, and twisted, and banged on the walls. Nothing. The door was securely locked. We were trapped on the roof of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The walls were high, the fall was long, and my mother is not as young as she once was. We couldn't jump off. We found the fire exit, and peered through the door at what we guessed was our best hope: a long dimly lit staircase behind the gallery. At each floor we tried the door, but to no avail. Our situation had not improved in any measurable way. We were now trapped in a stairway instead of on a roof. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, we found a door with a sign which informed us that an alarm would sound if the door were opened, and the fire department would be called. We considered our options. It was 8:30 by this time, and we knew that if the fire department was called, we would see no art. If, on the other hand, we could find a way out without sounding an alarm, at least we would still get half an hour of gallery touring.

I left my wife and mother trapped together in a stairwell and ran back to the roof to give one last ditch effort on every door I could find. I found the door to a restaurant on the top floor of the WAG, and found to my delight that it was unlocked.

As I opened the door I heard a strange beeping sound. And then a loud wailing sound. The door was not locked, but it did have an alarm, and instead of the fire department, the police were now on their way. I hurried down to the front desk, and told the clerk and the security officer:

"We were on the roof in the sculpture garden, and the doors were locked. My wife and mother are now trapped together in a fire escape, and when I opened the only door I found unlocked, an alarm started to go off."

It took a bit of explaining to make it clear that there were two issues that required immediate attention. 1) The alarm, and the police would soon be responding to it, and 2) My wife and mother trapped in fire escape.

The security guard took me back to the roof, disabled the alarm, and followed me back down the fire escape to where Jan and my mom were waiting in silent hope.

We got out, and my mother expressed her disatisfaction to the clerk, who gave us some free family passes!

Anyone want to check out the Marvel Comics exibit with us?