Mrs. Abelman was eighty-two years old and very independent; she did her own housework and she did it on a particular schedule. Saturday night was for laundry. The laundry room was down the hall from her two-bedroom apartment in the Oceanside condominium and no one ever used it on weekends so she had it all to herself. She would put the carefully sorted clothes into the washing machine, go back to her apartment for a half hour of television (usually a re-run of Friends) and return just as the spin cycle ended. This particular Saturday night she was surprised because someone was already using the dryer but, she decided, they should be finished by the time the washing machine cycle ended. The laundry room was quiet and dark when she returned. She took her clothes out of the washing machine and opened the dryer but instead of a nice empty…
