Sawyer sat on the couch with his head in his hands in fustration. He only looked up when he heard the sound of the toilet flushing.
Elisa came casually out the bathroom with nothing in her hand
“You flushed the phones ?” Sawyer asked.
“Well, yeah” she responded matter-of-factly,”I mean,That’s what you do with pot right ?”
He gave her a small smile.
“So,whats the plan ?,” Elisa asked.”I know nearly everyone in this building. One of my neighbors is going to tell those guys I live here. How do we get out of here and more importantly where do we go?”
“I don’t know,” Sawyer answered.
He got off the couch, walked to the large window and looked down at what was going on outside.
Seeing
him standing there with the sun casting a shadow against the wood floor
reminded me of the pictures I had seen in picture books of artists’
lofts in New York City. The United Light loved
to teach about the use of light in everything. Light to them—to us is signifies as a guidance as a way to-
“I have an idea,” I said. I had said it before I had even had time to think about
Elisa turned and eyed Sawyer as if I needed his permission to give my idea.
“Do you have an idea or a plan ? “ Sawyer asked, “Because we need a plan to get out of here .” He asked in a tone I couldn’t place, something between amusement and fear.
“Well,” I started and walked over to the large window where he was standing and looked up ,”These apartments are built like the 19th century tenements on the Upper East Side New York City.”
“Yeah,” Elisa said, “It’s because they need to cram a lot of college students in here for cheap.”
“Well, Lillian Wald was a nurse who worked in the tenements,” I continued “She employed nurses who would visit nearly ever tenement and-“
“Julianna, please get to the point.” Sawyer interrupted
“Sorry.
The point is instead of going up and down the steps they walked across
the roofs,” I explained. I could still see looks of misunderstanding in
Sawyer and Elisa’s face. “ We can walk over
the roof to the next few buildings and then walk out the back way,” I clarified
“That could work,” Elisa agreed. Sawyer nodded his head in agreement
“You okay to walk ?” Sawyer asked me.
I nodded my head
“Alright let’s take tha stairs to the roof,” Sawyer said and headed for the door.
“You guys go ahead,I want to grab my purse,” Elisa said.
Sawyer and I headed up 5 flights of stairs and through the door that led to the roof.
The
sun was starting to temper down a little as the afternoon set it. We
walked across the flat cement rooftop that was littered with the
occasional empty beer bottles and blankets to the
ledge of the roof.
They
was about a foot of space between the two buildings. It was a bit more
than I anticipated but as I looked below I could see Caine talking to
one of the apartments tenants. It was enough
to wipe whatever fear of heights I had.
“Let’s go!” Elisa said from behind us as she emerged from the stairwell.
“Ladies first,” Sawyer said.
Elisa took of the sunset colored tote bag she was carrying and threw it across the foot long gap. It landed with a hard thud.
“What do you have in there,bricks ?” Sawyer joked.
She smiled and then took a running start and jumped across, like she was hopping into a pool. She landed on all fours and stood up giving us a thumbs up sign. It looked simple enough.
“Do you want me to go first ?”Sawyer asked me.
I
shook my head and as gracefully as I could I leaped across the gap like
a ballerina. It lasted only a second—a feeling of freedom-- and soon I
was on the other side. I landed hunched over on
my hands with my knees bent. Sawyer took a long jump like a track runner across the edge.
We went across two more building before heading down a set of stairs in a different building
“I can call a cab.” Elisa said taking out her phone,”Where are we going ?”
“The airport.” Sawyer said.
“Airport ?” She repeated
“It’s the best place to get lost.”
** *
“This
all just seems crazy, I mean you will have to face him eventually. You
can’t run forever,” Elisa pondered as she took a small sip of her
iced half-caf vanilla latte , “I mean does reasoning
work with this guy ?”
“I have no clue,” said Sawyer, who was playing with the stirrer he had been using to mix the raw sugar into his coffee.
He
hadn’t really made eye contact with either of us since we had taken the
taxi to the airport. We were all kind of tired so we found a spot in
the airport’s Starbucks a few feet away from
terminal 4. There was a constant influx of people going in and out so, there was a low chance we would be spotted.
“Chai Tea Latte!” The coffee guy or barista as I learned called out.
“I’ll get it,” Sawyer said and walked over to the counter to pick up my drink.
“This is weird,huh ?,” Elisa said to me, “Us liking the same guy an all ?”
“I like Sawyer but,not like you like him,” I clarified for her. “Everyone always told us that would come later”.
“Were you even allowed to like boys, where you came from?”
I sighed and though about it. Had I liked boys ?
“There really weren’t any boys to like,” I admitted” I knew about how my parents met and fell in love so, I kind of hoped it would happen to me.”
“Do you think Sawyer is cute ?,” she asked.
I heard footsteps behind me as Sawyer set down a whitecup in front of me and took his seat back next to Elisa.
“Thank you.” I said
He nodded in my direction
Elisa smiled innocently at him and turned her attention back to her drink all while eyeing me.
“What were you guys talking about?” Saywer asked.
“Nothing,” Elisa lied, “Anyway ,like I was saying I think you should just call this Caine guy and tell him I didn’t mean to shoot him and just keep up with your original lie.”
“It could be that easy, but I don’t know.” Saywer said.
We went back into silence. I opened my cup and smelled the peppery-cinnamon taste of the chai. When I took a drink it relaxed me and for the first time I felt comfortable.
A/N: I had a hard time coming up with an image to put at the top so, I thought I would share with you all that the story about the nurses and the tenements was true and here is a picture of it.
