Behind the Wooden Screen (English)

1 ~ Rainy Day

A raindrop, followed by a second, then a third one.

And it started to rain heavily, and I can't help swearing.

The moment in which I hate myself the most is when it starts to rain unexpectedly and I didn't take an umbrella, as now. I tie my hair in a ponytail and shelter myself under the alcove of a florist in order to look at my map without risking getting it wet. Stockholm Street is not really far from here, but with that weather, I will make it there all soaked. So I'm waiting for the rain to stop, watching the raindrops fall with noise.

5pm. The power of the downpour didn't decrease and I can't wait here any longer; my appointment is in  five minutes. I pack the map in my handbag, tighten my shirt's collar and leave my shelter running, squeaking when heavy raindrops smash onto my face. In ten minutes, the weather had literally changed. There were a great sun, and then, the rain took everyone by surprise, including the cafés whose terraces were put away quickly. What an unstable weather.

A few moments later, I finally arrive in front of the student residence. I stop, out of breath, along the door of one of the apartments where  a woman is waiting. She is between two-ages and dressed in a suit as grey as the sky above our heads.

"Miss Fauste?" ask me the woman, detailing me from top to bottom while I wipe my face dripped of rain with the back of my sleeve.

"Yes it's me" I say catching my breath. "Sorry for the condition of how I look."

"Bad weather, don't you think?" I nod before tightening the officer real estate's hand. "You arrive right in time for the visit, please follow me."

She enters in the bulding and I hasten to follow her, shivering under my soaked shirt that seems to be sticked to my skin. The ground floor is clean and when we get in the elevator, I am pleasantly surprised by the smell of new that comes from it.

"The residence and its two buldings have been renovated this year" tells me the woman with a proud smile. "It is a huge benefit."

I answer to her by noding and follow her now in the wide corridor of the third floor where the ground is covered with a dark blue carpet. It feels like we are in a hotel and I even surprise myself tiptoe to avoid staining the carpet with my flooded Creepers. Seriously, something that clean and neat is rare for a student residence.

The appartment I visit today is at the end of the corridor, which means at the end of the bulding. So I will only have a single neighbor. This is perfect.

Once inside, I turn my head in all directions, already projecting me in the rooms and I don't notice immediately the outside. I stop short and I get closer to the bay window. In front of me is a large balcony, on which a table and some chairs would easily take place, with a black metal fail-safe and a kind of varnished wooden screen at my right side. I raise an eyebrown. This screen isn't there to protect me from the wind, but to mark the delimitation with what appears to be another balcony, a bit more advanced than mine. How it's possible? I am at the end of the building, my balcony is supposed to be the last one.

"Excuse-me," I say to the real estate agent. "How is that possible that there is a balcony next to mine? I'm at the end of the building 1."

"Oh it's the building 2. In fact, the two ends are bonded to each other."

"So this balcony..."

"Is part of the B2"

I let out a sight. I was looking forward to the fact that I only would have one lateral neighbor, finaly I had two which one of them is not even in my building. That means that if I had to go knock on his door one day, I would be forced to go outside.