Shirley's Imprisonment

Shirley’s Imprisonment is a prolonged ordeal of confinement and dwindling hope that turns into a desperate attempt to escape and be heard. As hunger and thirst weaken her body, Shirley confronts the apparent certainty of death, tests the structure trapping her, and ultimately tries to use sunlight and fire as a means of calling for help. Outside, Pirjo hears faint scratching but assumes that Shirley will soon be dead.

Confinement and the Loss of Hope

On Friday, May 16, 2014, Shirley accidentally flushed valuable water down the toilet. The mistake stripped away what she felt had sustained her through earlier disappointments: hope of recognition from her parents, losing weight, finding a partner or a close friend, and having meaningful work. She saw these hopes as a succession of replacements rather than a path toward fulfillment. Now, with only a small amount of water left in the toilet and no reliable means of escape, she believed she was going to die.

The confinement had lasted barely a week, but Shirley did not take comfort from accounts of how long people might survive without food or with little water. Her mouth was extremely dry, and the smell of her body and feces made the conditions plain. At the same time, she found herself becoming more mentally alert. Her body was weak and tired, but she felt able to think rationally and without sentimentality. Rather than continue to fight simply for survival, she resolved to avoid dying quietly and to make sure Pirjo was blamed.

Failed Escape and a New Plan

Shirley spent many hours trying to pull a board free so she could make a hole through to the outer cladding. When she finally opened a gap wide enough to see behind it, she found an aluminum sheet. She did not know its purpose, beyond the possibility that it was connected to the thermal properties Pirjo had discussed, but she recognized that her inadequate tools could not break through it. The discovery closed off the escape route she had been pursuing.

After a brief loss of courage, Shirley moved on to another plan. She found her reading glasses in her toiletry bag. They were an unflattering pair bought at a Tiger discount store in the Southside Shopping Centre in Wandsworth, originally purchased in the hope that she could apply makeup more effectively. In captivity, the glasses acquired a different use: Shirley focused the sun’s rays through them onto a piece of paper from a blue notebook. The paper gradually darkened, suggesting an attempt to make fire from the sunlight.

Attempts to Be Heard and Pirjo’s Expectations

After making a hole in the skylight, Shirley screamed as loudly as she could, hoping someone would hear her. She continued for ten minutes, but the house was so well insulated that her cries reached no one. The failed call for help sharpened the isolation of her situation: even a physical opening did not guarantee that the outside world could hear her.

Four days after Pirjo had turned off the water to the house where Shirley was locked up, Pirjo went down to inspect the place and heard faint scratching on the walls. She considered the sounds entirely unalarming. She expected them to stop within a few days and planned to assume Shirley was dead a week later. In the meantime, Pirjo intended to keep to herself and let time pass. The contrast between Shirley’s resourceful efforts and Pirjo’s calm expectation of her death makes the confinement a contest over whether Shirley can turn the smallest available means—water, a board, a skylight, sunlight—into a chance to survive.