Remember that"

Chapter 1

Idle

CHAPTER 1

Adriana Melody Rhaines

I pushed the sliding sash of the ebony double hung window upward with my right hand and placed my other hand underneath in an attempt to hold onto anything strong before I lost my footing on the pipe to haste. The lower sash required much effort to move and it settled for a curt whine to my demand. The fixed sash above seemed to stay oblivious to the force my right hand exerted on the lower sash, taking sides with the friction. Flowing onto the back of my hand was the pale blue of the curtain. I pushed it out of the way and placed my hands on the rails, my hands felt moist and my mind suddenly unsure.

It was late and the sun was bidding farewell to the city as the glass of skyscrapers put it into hiding before it drowned into the horizon. Only a few minute before it would be out of sight with only the cantaloupe radiance to allude its departure. The snow laden lane overshadowed by the tree whose branch was near the pipe I was standing on, was wounded with tracks by the mechanism of tyres. The snow sleeping on the road whispering the cruelty of the wheels to eyes around.

My eyes lowered and fell on the Keung Residence on the other side of the lane. A memory flashed in front on my eyes. It was last January the 30th, nearly a year ago, Hahn and Liling were in the lawn hanging lanterns for Chinese New Year. Liling below the ladder handing her husband the lanterns the shade of tangerine. The driveway dotted with candles lit and unlit. I remember gazing at the Chinese script on them wondering what it meant. I knew Hahn was on break from the trauma unit in Roosevelt Hospital for the next day.

I remember feeling the presence of someone behind me, and yes somewhere behind the car I recognised Michael watching the same thing from the distance with a blank expression. I had stared at him but not even once did his sight falter. His brown eyes that had turned distant to both him and everyone else. His pupils were dilated to the darkness and gave nothing. Look closer into that covered well, it will open...it won't. I couldn't see anything, his eyes didn't open to me... and while I walked away from the well knowing it would never open for me to see beneath... he looked at me as my face turned away. I looked ahead. He had seen me. And it shot right into me, it was greed, a craving so strong he felt the need to hide it away from himself and this mundane world. It was pain of knowing nothing of the sight we had seen would ever be his. But that cringe of hope that spoke something else inside him, and he did the liberty of killing it by looking straight ahead, it was nothing but a blank page to him now. An empty hollow page. Eventually that would be crushed and thrown away. I continued looking ahead not turning back again as he had seen me see him. I heard the car door open and bang again.

He had crushed the page.

The memory ended and I could get the feel of the same feeling I had felt then. 11months, 21 hours, 46 minutes and 6 seconds ago.

I tightened the grip around the lower sash turning my head towards it, the corners of my eyes leaving the residence only entertaining the thought of their filled mailbox for a split of a second. A slight movement to my left.

My eyes saw a plump ruby crowned kinglet perched on the sugar maple tree I was near to, probably planted by a sentimental in the 70s. The branches of which laced around the old apartment, giving it the touch of eerie with every inch it grew.

The bird gazed at me uncertainly. Almost sceptical. A feeling of insecurity crept over me. I had always assumed I had hid it well from everyone and now this creature knew a part of it. How long had he been watching me? He must have never seen me before. What did he think of what he saw? He had seen me in a way no one had seen before. I looked at him wanting to venture into his mind and read his thoughts. He watched me intently, taking in everything I gave him.