The Next Floor

I wanted her to say, “It’s okay. I’m alright. We can go our separate ways now,” but she couldn’t and she never will. We had passed my floor three lighted numbers ago and now the numbers were piling on digits. 12. 14. 15.

I wasn’t supposed to be there. Instead of scooting myself into a corner of the elevator I should have been shaking someone’s warm hand and sitting down in a leather chair, but I was there and sitting on thin carpet. 19. 20.

I had never seen her fully live face. When I stepped onto the elevator she was talking into a phone and I didn’t bother to notice her. I was thinking about floor nine and leather chairs then she feel down and died or died and fell down. I don’t see stuff like that and neither should anyone else. Kids have seen stuff like that and I never had. 22. 23.

I crawled over to her and turned her head. I saw her face and I fell in love. Not in real love, but the kind of love you have someone you’ll never meet. It was that imaginary love that doesn’t hurt anyone. Her hair was red, but her roots were brown. Her eyes were green and wet. I thought that maybe she knew a blood vessel in her brain was about to explode, like divine intuition. I would cry too. 26. 27. 28.

I touched her gold necklace- fake gold- with charm of a frog on it. It made me think about the time a bird flew into the glass of my bedroom window and fell. Before I could get to it, my dad chopped its head off with a shovel. 26. 27. 28.

29.

The doors opened.

“Oh God! She-she just died! Someone help!”