Ward #3
“Mother! In these enlightened times, why would you bring up my ‘lifestyle choices’? That’s not very progressive for the governor of Oregon.”
“You know full well that I am not referring to your sexuality. I would be more than happy if you stopped these hedonistic thrills and settled down with a nice woman or man.”
“Ah, you caught me,” I said, wrinkling my nose as the echo of my voice began to sound loud as I climbed. I realized I probably should have thought before climbing an abandoned building. “And here I thought I was being sly.”
“You were not, and you knew that,” she said in annoyance.
“Perhaps you could tell me why I have been blessed with a phone call from you at this late hour,” I said with a roll of my eyes, still flipping the screen of my phone outward occasionally to see any potential hazards. “I do have things to deal with tonight.”
“I’m sure you do,” she said dryly. “Perhaps you might be so gracious as to take time from your busy schedule next weekend. There is a benefit—”
“I’m quite aware.”
“Really? Well, it is nice knowing you keep up with my affairs. I would claim to be touched...but I’m not.”
“A shame, warming your heart is what I live for. Am I to assume you wish me to show up at the event and make nice?”
“Well, if you’ve kept up on the details as much as you’re pretending, then you should know that the benefit involves nothing but couples. So you’ll need a date.”
“Ah, yes, I do so love dragging someone into the eternally exciting world of political benefits.”
“The benefit is for—”
“I know what it’s supposedly for, but this is me you’re talking to. There’s no need to pretend it’s not for your benefit, no matter what organization you’re raising money for.”
Her sigh was aggrieved, but I stood on a landing and waited for her to make whatever point she had called me up to make.
I had yet to see or hear another living thing in the building, but I knew I wasn’t far from the top.
If the stranger hadn’t decided to fling himself into the abyss, I was dangerously close to alerting him to my presence.
Which, in all fairness, was probably not a bad idea.
I wouldn’t hold myself responsible for whatever the stranger did, but I didn’t want to risk spooking him either.
“We will be having a real conversation about the responsibilities you keep putting off. In the meantime, you will find yourself a date. I don’t care what sits in their pants; all that matters is that they look and behave in a presentable fashion.
Neither that nor your presence is negotiable.
You do not want to find out what happens if you don’t take me seriously. ”
“I feel we’ve had this conversation before.”
“Good, then you should know, since you’re so observant and clever, that my tone is not for jokes.”
“I have to ask; do you know any jokes? Or did your sense of humor disappear around the same time your sense of adventure and fun did?”
“You heard me, Warden,” she said in a clipped tone. “I hope for your sake that you listen and show up appropriately.”
I was left with a soft tone in my ear as she ended the call, and I grimaced as I stared at the screen before it cast me into almost complete darkness. Even the unknown hiding in the darkness wasn’t as foreboding as my mother’s last words.
I had heard in her voice something I rarely heard from her when it came to me.
..she was serious. I had always flirted with the line that separated right and wrong, according to her, as well as the acceptable and.
..not. She had put up with a great deal, and I had tested many limits.
It seemed I was right all along, and my time was running out.
Damn. If there was one thing I hated more than anything, it was bending to the will of another, which she knew better than anyone.
And yet, it was the sort of power over me that she rarely exercised, so it was the clearest sign I would get that I needed to think and be smart.
Not that I hadn’t always known this day would come, but is anyone ever truly ready for doomsday, no matter how much they predicted and prepared?
With a grimace, I flicked the phone’s flashlight on and began climbing again.
My footsteps were soft, but without the nagging voice of my mother grating in my ears, they seemed impossibly loud.
It made the shadows cast by my phone all the more ominous, and it was fitting that once I was committed to what I was doing, I realized it wasn’t the wisest idea.
Of course, I could always go back, no harm, no foul, but as my mother would happily say, I was as stubborn as I was wild, so there was no point in trying to back out now.
Reaching the top of the staircase, I flicked the flashlight off and stared at the door, which was propped open with a brick.
That was interesting, and it punched a hole in a few theories.
I pushed through the door onto the roof.
The space was mostly building materials, save for one functioning light on the opposite side.
“That certainly took you long enough,” a voice, gentle and a little teasing, said to my right, making me jump hard enough it was a miracle my bones didn’t burst from my skin.
Whirling around with a noise I was not proud of, I stared up at the man perched on the ledge, hand still wrapped around the pole and staring at me with a slight smile, clearly pleased that he had scared the living daylights out of me.
When I continued to stare, his smile faded, and I blinked when I realized he was actually handsome.
Not in a classic sense, some of his features were a little too big, but the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
“Uh, hi,” I said, realizing I had been silent too long.
“Hello,” he said in that same gentle voice that resonated softly. That alone was worth getting the sense scared out of me, making the trip up to the roof worth it. “You seem to be at a loss for words.”
“How observant,” I said with a chuckle, resisting the urge to adjust my hair or clothes, knowing it was a sign of nervousness that I didn’t want to betray. “I admit it’s a difficult feat, so take a bow, I suppose.”
“No need,” he said, facing me and letting go of the pole. “I’m used to unnerving people.”
“What a strange thing to say,” I said with a laugh.
He cocked his head. “Were you planning on talking me down from the ledge like your friends above were arguing about?”
I peered upward and snorted. “You could hear that?”
“It’s not a particularly windy night, and your friends aren’t quiet.”
“Calling them friends would be stretching the word to the point of absurdity.”
“Your guests?”
“That works.”
“Well, unlike some of your guests, you don’t look troubled by the idea that I seem to be planning my own death.”
“If you were, you’re doing it with the idea of needing a less...direct route to the bottom.”
He blinked. “What?”
Chuckling, I turned and gestured toward the door, specifically at the brick wedged in the gap. “Sorry, but someone who was going to take the express route to the sidewalk wouldn’t care if the roof door latched behind them.”
His eyes followed my hand, and he snorted. “And you called me observant.”
“Mmm, don’t give me too much credit. Kind of hard to miss something I nearly tripped over on the way up.”
“True enough. Credit where it’s due, though, your logic is sound.”
“So, is this your way of saying you have no intention of throwing yourself off the ledge?”
“Are you genuinely concerned or just curious?”
It was a fair question, but it made me laugh. “I believe I can be confident that I’m not about to watch someone die.”
He tilted his head. “You’ve seen someone die before.”
“Not exactly uncommon in this city, now is it?” I asked blithely, looking up at the guests gaping down at us, more interested now I was involved. “And there’s probably no point in shooing them away.”
“The phrase ‘morbid fascination’ exists for a good reason.”
“True...you’re not jumping, right? I like surprises, and when people don’t do what I expect, but I think in this case it’s fair to say that talking to me normally before throwing yourself off the ledge would be mildly upsetting.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want to mildly upset you,” he said with a chuckle, surprising me as he swung himself around the pole and down to the rooftop.
It wasn’t how quickly and unexpectedly, but how smoothly, and he enjoyed how easily it came to him.
He hadn’t needed the pole to get to the roof in one piece; from what I could tell, he had done it for the fun of it.
“There, two feet planted on the ground.”
I let out another surprised laugh. “So I see. Do you always move like you were given ninja training?”
He blinked, glancing briefly over his shoulder before giving me a puzzled look. “Pardon?”
I realized it was probably a weird thing to say and would be even weirder to explain. That wouldn’t stop me, though. “You moved...quickly and easily.”
“When I jumped down?”
“Yes.”
“Interesting. Anything else?”
“Sure, for no reason I can explain, I was struck by the idea that you used the pole to jump down, not because you needed to, or that it made you feel better, but because you wanted to, something about it was fun.”
“That’s...some intuition you have there,” he said with a frown. It wasn’t uncomfortable or confused, it was the frown of someone who had met something strange...but not unpleasant.
“That almost sounds like I was right.”
“Hmm,” he peered at the pole again and snorted softly.
“When I was young, I was obsessed with firefighters. Of the many things I was fond of, it was the thought of going down that big pole they always showed in cartoons. Sometimes I pretended that metal railings or even large broom handles were poles.”
“Is that what you were thinking of when you hopped down?”
“Somewhat. A flash of memory in the back of my head made me briefly happy. I wouldn’t have even remembered it if you hadn’t noticed.”