Apartment Seven Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: Greg F. Gifune
loving somebody for no reason. Maybe you should just go home to her and try to work it out.”
“Listen, Dino, I appreciate you looking into this for me, I really do.”
“But?”
“But whatever I end up doing I have to do alone. OK?”
He nodded, albeit reluctantly.
“Thanks for everything.” After a final drag, I flicked my cigarette out the window. “I’ll call you when I can.”
“Why don’t you come back home with me for awhile, have some dinner?”
I reached out, put a hand on the back of his neck and gave it a squeeze. “Thanks for looking out for me. I mean it. I’ll see you, all right?” I hopped out of the van then reached into the glove compartment and took the gun. He made no move to stop me, so I stuffed it into my coat pocket. “Go home, man, give LuAnn a kiss and tell her you love her. You don’t need to be out here with me.”
“You watch yourself, all right? Seriously, man, you don’t look good. You don’t look like yourself.”
“Maybe tonight that’s not such a bad thing.”
Dino made a fist, crushed the fortune cookie to bits then let the pieces fall to the floor, leaving only crumbs and a small sliver of paper in his hand. Taking it carefully at each end between his thumbs and index fingers, he held the fortune up to the dashboard light. “‘ Don’t ask, don’t say. Everything lies in silence .’” He looked at me. “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
With a shrug I swung the door closed, crossed the street, and lost myself in the swirl of snowflakes.
-3-
I don’t know how long I walked or in which direction I went. The flurries, though beautiful, had caused me to lose my bearings, but there was more to it than that. Something inexplicable was happening. While I’d lived in Boston for years and knew the city well, these last few weeks I’d felt like a stranger, a lost and weary soul stumbling across an alien landscape without a clue as to where I was or what might be waiting for me around the next corner. And it was getting worse. It felt similar to a dream, like when you’re in a familiar place—your own home, for example—and you know that’s where you are, but it looks nothing like it should, nothing at all like your real house. Everything felt that way, the world around me, everyone in it, even myself. I had no idea how or why such things came to be, only that I felt uncomfortable in my own life and skin. It was as if I’d been transported somehow into someone else’s body and life with neither my knowledge nor consent, and was only just then coming to realize it.
Eventually I came across a bench, dropped down onto it and held my hands out before me so the nearby streetlight could better illuminate them. They were red and aching in the cold. I should’ve worn gloves, I thought, or at least taken along the cup of coffee Dino got me. Mabel came to mind, and I wondered if she’d gotten herself a coat with the money I gave her.
As I stuffed my hands into my coat pockets, sat back and squinted through the swirl of flakes, I noticed headlights moving along the avenue a block over. The street I’d wandered onto was apparently deserted, no traffic, no one on foot, yet I suddenly had the feeling I was being watched. I pawed moisture from my eyes and focused on the dark silhouette of an old church diagonally across the street. Monstrous in size and intricately designed, it sat in shadow, an ominous gothic cathedral blocking out much of the skyline.
My mind was still reeling from the information Dino had shared, but that all faded to black as something moved out into view from behind one of the church pillars. A smudge of red separated from the darkness then fell still.
I slowly sat forward. Someone in a red hooded sweatshirt was standing on the front steps of the church. Someone small. A child. Just standing there. Due to the distance, the flurries and the hood, which was pulled up tight over the child’s head, I couldn’t make out any
“Listen, Dino, I appreciate you looking into this for me, I really do.”
“But?”
“But whatever I end up doing I have to do alone. OK?”
He nodded, albeit reluctantly.
“Thanks for everything.” After a final drag, I flicked my cigarette out the window. “I’ll call you when I can.”
“Why don’t you come back home with me for awhile, have some dinner?”
I reached out, put a hand on the back of his neck and gave it a squeeze. “Thanks for looking out for me. I mean it. I’ll see you, all right?” I hopped out of the van then reached into the glove compartment and took the gun. He made no move to stop me, so I stuffed it into my coat pocket. “Go home, man, give LuAnn a kiss and tell her you love her. You don’t need to be out here with me.”
“You watch yourself, all right? Seriously, man, you don’t look good. You don’t look like yourself.”
“Maybe tonight that’s not such a bad thing.”
Dino made a fist, crushed the fortune cookie to bits then let the pieces fall to the floor, leaving only crumbs and a small sliver of paper in his hand. Taking it carefully at each end between his thumbs and index fingers, he held the fortune up to the dashboard light. “‘ Don’t ask, don’t say. Everything lies in silence .’” He looked at me. “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
With a shrug I swung the door closed, crossed the street, and lost myself in the swirl of snowflakes.
-3-
I don’t know how long I walked or in which direction I went. The flurries, though beautiful, had caused me to lose my bearings, but there was more to it than that. Something inexplicable was happening. While I’d lived in Boston for years and knew the city well, these last few weeks I’d felt like a stranger, a lost and weary soul stumbling across an alien landscape without a clue as to where I was or what might be waiting for me around the next corner. And it was getting worse. It felt similar to a dream, like when you’re in a familiar place—your own home, for example—and you know that’s where you are, but it looks nothing like it should, nothing at all like your real house. Everything felt that way, the world around me, everyone in it, even myself. I had no idea how or why such things came to be, only that I felt uncomfortable in my own life and skin. It was as if I’d been transported somehow into someone else’s body and life with neither my knowledge nor consent, and was only just then coming to realize it.
Eventually I came across a bench, dropped down onto it and held my hands out before me so the nearby streetlight could better illuminate them. They were red and aching in the cold. I should’ve worn gloves, I thought, or at least taken along the cup of coffee Dino got me. Mabel came to mind, and I wondered if she’d gotten herself a coat with the money I gave her.
As I stuffed my hands into my coat pockets, sat back and squinted through the swirl of flakes, I noticed headlights moving along the avenue a block over. The street I’d wandered onto was apparently deserted, no traffic, no one on foot, yet I suddenly had the feeling I was being watched. I pawed moisture from my eyes and focused on the dark silhouette of an old church diagonally across the street. Monstrous in size and intricately designed, it sat in shadow, an ominous gothic cathedral blocking out much of the skyline.
My mind was still reeling from the information Dino had shared, but that all faded to black as something moved out into view from behind one of the church pillars. A smudge of red separated from the darkness then fell still.
I slowly sat forward. Someone in a red hooded sweatshirt was standing on the front steps of the church. Someone small. A child. Just standing there. Due to the distance, the flurries and the hood, which was pulled up tight over the child’s head, I couldn’t make out any