THE CODE THAT LINKS US ©

Chapter Eleven

MADISON

Four hours later, we are far enough from San Francisco and finally, I feel relief. Outside, everything is dark. I look through the rearview mirror at the girl and smile when I see her placing her palm on the glass of the window. It gets tarnished leaving her handprint and when she moves it away, she sees how it disappears before repeating it, fascinated.

Levy puts on some music and the girl jumps startled when it starts playing trying to figure out where the sound is coming from. "It's called music," Levy says over the song that he plays and she gives him the same serious look, she has given us the entire ride.

"Not all music is as bad as this one," I joke looking at her. Her eyes stick to mine.

The car stops moving which makes me open my eyes. I didn't realize I fell asleep. We are in an underground parking lot, full of cars parked in front of the walls numbering each space. Ours is number twelve.

"Good morning," Levy mocks.

"Where are we?"

"On Mars," he replies sarcastically. I look for the time. 3:47 AM. "Your first time in LA and you missed the amazing entrance." I roll my eyes. "At least someone enjoyed it," he says glaring at the child. She's wide awake looking outside.

"I will take her," says Levy as soon as I am about to take her out of the car and I agree without thinking it twice.

There's an elevator right at the center of the building, made up by glass and two doors of the same material that open gracefully when we arrive. We get in and Levy presses the button with the number three out of six. Almost immediately, the doors close and we begin to ascend.

When we arrive, the floor is quite large, with white walls and a gray carpet that extends itself through all the place. There's really not much out here, just a corridor in front of the elevator and other that continues behind. Besides that, there are just stairs that go up to the next three floors and doors with metal numbers, on each side of the corridor, one in front of the other. We walk to the door, once again with the number twelve and Levy opens the door with a card that he places in front of a sensor located next to the door.

The apartment is really beautiful. The same carpet from outside extends itself all around the floor. At the bottom in front of the door, there's a glass door that leads to a little balcony protected by a grey railing. It has an amazing view of the city, that right now is merely formed by shining lights. The kitchen, on the left side, is small compared to the one back home but beautiful with a counter along with four silver tall chairs. On the other side, there's a living room with a large couch for three persons against the wall right next to the door, a smaller couch in front of the sofa separated by a table and a wooden chair that is out of tune from the rest of the place. In the wall, right next to the balcony, there's a TV with direct sight to the living room, and behind the wood chair, there are two doors.

"Welcome to my paradise," says Levy putting the girl on the floor and showing me the place extending his arms.

"Levy, this is incredible," I say really surprised and he smiles shy.

"Not to brag or anything but all the time spent working at that sad car wash needed to be worth it," he says with a shrug. "Well... and a little help from my parents." I laugh and he winks me an eye before walking to one of the doors. It ends up being a little closet with no more than a surfboard and a pair of umbrellas. "The most valuable thing here," he jokes kissing the surfboard dramatically before closing the door and opening the other one.

My chin drops to the floor when I see that the giant room is exactly of the same size as the rest of the apartment, just that this one has a large panoramic window and a quite big bed against the wall. There are two other doors inside. The first one is just one dresser with a few t-shirts and pants. The other one ends up being the bathroom and is even more incredible that whatever I could ever imagine. The bath and shower are separated. A giant sink is embedded to the wall with an even bigger mirror behind and next to it, the toilet. "Unfortunately, the mirror isn't as expensive as the one you have, so it doesn't talk," he says making fun of my intelligent mirror and I laugh shaking my head. "Where's the little version of you?"

I run out of the room and I find her right at the center of the apartment, in the same place where Levy left her. He arrives shortly after me. "Go and explore over there," he tells her showing her around but she just looks at her hands rubbing them shyly. "Or don't," he says impatient letting himself to fall on the couch.

I bend down to reach her and I take her hands on mine which immediately makes her look at me seriously with her deep blue eyes on me. "Do you know how to talk?" She nods. "What's your name?"

"Alison," she says with a pretty sweet and low voice. Levy joins us sitting down next to me. The girl follows his movements with attention.

"What a cute name, Alison. It's similar to mine," I tell her. "My name is Madison and this is Levy." I nod at him and she just keeps staring at us.

"How old are you?" Levy asks this time.

"Six," she says now looking at my hands holding hers. "Your hands aren't white." The fact that she finally forms a sentence makes me smile and look at Levy who stares at her as amazed as I am.

"No, they aren't. They are just like yours." She nods. "Let's go to bed," I stand up along with Levy.

"I will take the sofa," he says lying down on the large couch.

When we enter the room, the girl looks amazed at the breathtaking city's view. "You can get closer," I tell her and she nods running to the window. Six years in one single place must have been terrible.