13 WINDOWS

Chapter 14 Part 2: The FALL

Rupert was lying in his bathtub. The water was lukewarm. He had been lying there for at least an hour with CP24, the 24 hour news channel, blaring on the television in the background. Earlier in the evening Rupert had stopped at the liquor store in the old train station on his walk home. He had just opened a new bag of weed. He was in a dazed stupor, to say the least. The whole day seemed to be foggy.

Still, even in his haze he knew that he should be channeling his emotions into his drawings. He needed to give a voice to his feelings. Turning to alcohol was not going to help. He thought about his mother and the mess she was in presently. He knew that was his future if he didn't change things now.

He had been thinking about Nina quite a lot. He knew she was right about the whole situation. Of course it was inappropriate that he had confessed his love. He now felt embarrassed more than anything else. His mind slowly drifted back to the voice on the news channel...

...live on the scene at Bloor and Sherbourne.

Can you tell us what's going on there, Raj?

"Yes we just arrived on the scene moments ago. It's a tragic scene here. Police have told us that a woman about 45 to 50 years old has fallen to her death from the twelfth floor of this building. She's surrounded by shattered glass. It appears as though she was thrown through a window up there on the twelfth floor. This is according to a witness. There's a broken window up there that we can see. No word on who the woman is or how she came to this unfortunate end.

Rupert slowly pieced together the information. Twelfth floor. Bloor and Sherbourne. He stood up and unplugged his bathwater. He couldn't hear the rest of the story as the water gurgled into the drain. He grabbed a towel, stumbling a bit from the alcohol.

He stepped out into the main room and looked at the TV hanging on the wall. A young male reporter was standing in front of the building across the street from Nina's office, where the coffee shop was. The ambulance workers and police were on the sidewalk in front of that building with yellow tape. Rupert was relieved. It was across the street. Couldn't have been Nina. Odd that he was just in that building, he thought.

He switched off the TV and then went into the bedroom. He lay on the bed hot and sweaty. The ceiling fan blew on his naked body. He fell asleep.

In his dream he saw Nina. She was in the waves in Bathsheba in Barbados. She was waving her arms to Rupert. It seemed like she was trying to warn him about something. He just smiled back at her. He was trying to yell to her that he was sorry and that it was okay - he understood. But she just kept waving her arms with a worried look on her face. A large fishing boat sailed in between them. There was an incessant banging. He kept trying to figure out where it was coming from. An old fisherman was banging an anchor on the side of the boat. The sound kept getting heavier and louder.

There was a banging on the door. Rupert awoke in a sweat.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

A stern voice said. "Please open up! This is the police!"

Alarmed, Rupert looked around frantically for his underwear and some shorts.

"COMING! HOLD ON!"

As he fumbled for his clothes, he also visually tried to locate any leftover weed. He noticed a blinking signal on his computer. He could see he had some e-mails on his computer from Serena!

Rupert opened the door a minute later looking disheveled and sweaty.

Two older white male plain-clothes officers stood before him. One was a bit heftier and had short-cropped blond hair. Cop number two was lankier, balding, and had a moustache. Both were wearing suits and ties.