boxes of doom (growing up)

Rain poured heavily from the tan roof tiles of Sam’s parent’s house and rippled around her black rubber gumshoes as she stood upon the slanted concrete porch. A large army green messenger bag filled to the brim with Wii and Xbox 360 video games, cords, controllers and other implements rubbed against the nape of her neck as she jostled the matching green school bag full of books over her back with a huff. Her hazel green eyes focused on the clouds created with every strained breath she made in the crisp moist air as she lightly gripped the large black trash bag of clothes to her stomach and waddled over the spongy grass to her green Subaru Forrester parked on the brick circle drive.

She tossed the bags as best she could into the back of the station wagon and slammed the hatch shut. Her dark blue jeans were now soaked to the knees as she sloshed to the driver’s side door, creating ripples in the small lake that had taken over the driveway. Grabbing the door handle she hastily opened the door and jumped onto the black leather seat. She slid her large square hand over the cars matching leather handle and slammed it shut with a thump and a click.

The cars aromatic smell of damp cat and leather filled her head and forced her to open the driver’s side window a crack. She cranked the square metal key between her fingers and the engine roared to a start, then fell to a steady purr as she pulled the right sleeve of her heather grey hooded sweatshirt over her hand and wiped the fogged window clear. Debussy’s ‘Des pas sur la neige,’ surged through the speakers and Killian began to howl. “Hey, okay…I’m sorry, I get it.” She said to the 30 lb. black Main Coon and pressed the black volume knob of the radio to ‘OFF,’ leaving no other sound then his irritated growls and the soft patter of the rain. “Is that better?” She asked placing her finger into the faded purple cat carrier. Killian rubbed his massive face against it, purring and nibbling her fingertip. “Look, I’m sorry bub. I know you hate this…I do too, but they just don’t make cat carriers big enough for you and it’s a small trip anyway, just down the road. Twenty minutes, tops…I promise.” The cat’s large green eyes glared back at her through the carriers black metal bars. “Alright,” she sighed. She threw the wagon into gear and departed down the drive, tires jostling over the red brick. “Lets get going shall we?”

Once engaged, the windshield wipers sliced through the sheets of rain just long enough for Sam to see that traffic was clear and pull slowly out onto Vernon St. SE before the world became a Salvador Dali painting once again. “Isn’t this exciting?!” she proclaimed to the cat, who wouldn’t stop making the most tortured of meowing sounds. “It’s okay to be nervous bubba. I mean, who wouldn’t be. Right? I just got my first big kid job at the TV station, we’re moving out of mom and dads, and in with Eliza. All very exciting… nerve racking things.” She laughed nervously and brought the car to a stop at Frenton Dr., right blinker going. “But hey, we like Eliza…maybe even love…she’s the least crazy of all of my girlfriends after all- and it’s just an apartment… it’s not like we’re buying a house and getting married or worse… raising kids.” “Moooooeoeeeeeerrrrrrw,” Killian groaned. “Husssh. It’s okay.”

Sam turned onto Frenton Dr. and continued to Pierce. The rain increased in intensity and forced her to pull her stocky 5’7” frame close to the steering wheel, and her heart shaped face to the windshield. She laughed to herself as the windshield wipers began keeping time to the chaotic waltz of her thoughts. Worst comes to worse we’ll break up. Yea, it’ll be awkward at first, but it’s a big enough place. We’re both adults. What could go wrong? Besides everything.

The warped shapes and streaking colors of the world beyond her windshield slowly slipped away as she progressed down Frenton and turned onto Pierce. The large, sporadically placed square concrete boxes of their new apartment complex emerged over the horizon like large grey globs of clay in a beginner’s pottery class. Sam pulled the Subaru to a stop in the left turn lane and clenched her fists tightly to the steering wheel. The fast, hypnotic beat of the rain, wipers and turn signal competed with the intense pounding of her heart.

She became overwhelmed by its beat, coursing thickly through her body; it surged into her temples and pulsed in her fingertips as she waited for the traffic to clear. The traffic light at the corner turned red and she laid her foot heavily on the gas pedal, blazing into the entrance of Habitat 67, inches away from a black Suburban with tinted windows that had turned right onto Pierce from Hall. The Suburban’s horn blared and her heart skipped a beat as the Subaru’s glistening green body flew over the first yellow speed bump.

A masterpiece of children’s engineering, the architect Moishe Safie was inspired by Lego® blocks when he designed the randomly stacked cubed concrete apartments of Habitat 67. So this is growing up? Sam pulled into the large square parking lot and turned the Subaru off. “Alright, buddy we’re here. After four years we’re finally moving in together. Are you ready?”

She picked the faded purple cat carrier up, grabbing it from the bottom, as she was sure his size would max out its small plastic fasteners. She braced herself and swung open the door as she jumped out into the sheets of rain, cat and carrier nestled tight beneath her arm. Her hand slipped over the doors handle as she slammed it shut and beelined for the entrance overhang, jumping and dancing her way through the rain and puddles to the great vine covered concrete main entrance of the building. Two story high electronic glass doors slid open as she approached. I think I’m going to be sick. She took a deep breath and entered the foyer. The buildings dependence on solar light left the lobby dim and gloomy on days like today.

The lobby was empty and quiet apart from the teenage clerk asleep at the front desk whose faint snores slowly overlapped the patter of heavy rain on the large glass skylights. Thick concrete walls expanded up twenty feet and the white and peach checkered marble floor squeaked loudly beneath the soles of her galoshes as she scuttled diagonally between the s-shaped couches and large potted palm trees in the center of the room to the glass elevator doors under the landing of the concrete stairs. She pressed the white circular button with the knuckle of her free pointer finger causing an amber light to turn on in the button.

The chugging sound of the elevator making its way down joined the snoring of the clerk and the patter of the rain. Killian groaned and jostled in his cage, gnawing on the black gate that trapped him, making Sam shift her weight to keep her balance. An orange glow of light emerged and expanded as the elevator entered the lobby floor, warming the dim underbelly of the concrete landing and reflecting on the shiny marble floor.

The car came to a stop with a loud ding that cut through the lobby and bounced off its concrete walls, waking the desk clerk with a start. “Sorry!” she whispered across the room. The elevators glass doors whooshed open and holiday music meandered through the air toward her. Ugh. Really? She stepped out of the puddle that had formed around her on the marble floor and into the glass half-circle compartment, pressing the ‘6’ button with her free hand. Four years, four years we’ve been together. With no problems…so what’s my problem?

The elevator was built into the exterior wall of the complex and offered a 180-degree view of the dark, wet world outside. Grasping the brass railing that wrapped around the elevator, she turned and watched her forrest green Subaru shrink into the grey day. Why do I feel sick? She’s great…we’re great…ugh. What are you doing Sam!? Always looking for problems when there aren’t any. You’re going to ruin this great thing. And why? “Because you’re a chump, a coward.” You know why they call it commitment… don’t you? It means you’re committed… ha-ha. “Stop,” Rain droplets slid down the glass panes, making small rivers that dripped off onto the ground floors below. Don’t screw this up.

***

Eliza opened the oven to check the apple pie. Ten more minutes. She looked up at the ticking black Felix® cat on the wall She’ll be here any minute, okay...relax. It’s Sam, we’ve been together for four years – and now we’re moving in together. And now we’re moving in… she scuffled past the boxes and lunged down the hall, hitting her left leg on a chair as she went “Shit!” that’s gonna bruise. She raced into the bathroom and dumped the contents of her knit pink makeup bag onto the counter.

She stared into the mirror and touched up her lipstick, put on more mascara, and pinched her milky cheeks for a bit more rouge. She shoved the makeup back into its bag and slid it off of the counter into the drawer with a thud. She wore her favorite black dress, the scoop necked block dress with the waist tie, which captured the perfect classy-casual look. She grabbed her red alpaca sweater from the bathroom door hook and held it against herself, looking in the mirror. With? She withdrew the sweater or without? Eliza repeated this motion several times before deciding to wear the sweater.

With that she took one last look in the mirror, fixed her hair once more, and wove her way back toward the kitchen where her heels were. She slipped the black two-inch heels on and checked the pie again. Almost. She clunked through the small off-white kitchen to the living room and turned the CD player on. She looked up again at the ticking clock with its wagging tail and began biting her carefully painted nails.

***

The bouncing light stopped and the elevator stopped with it, making Sam’s gut sag for a moment before returning to its rightful place. The glass doors swooshed open behind her and she scuffled and squeaked from the elevator onto the birch floor of the hallway, still balancing the carrier on her hip. Sam stepped to the right of the elevator and removed her galoshes ‘Thwap, thwap,’ she ran her free hand through her shoulder length red hair and continued down the concrete walled hall to the apartment.

There are no other apartments on the floor, only theirs .The bold white 82pt typewriter font numbered 1020 loomed at her from the end of the long dark hall. She shuffled the fifteen feet to the black metal door, one blue Keen shoe in front of the other. With each step her heart doubled in pace, she shifted the carrier to her left hip and reached for the chrome door handle with a trembling hand. You’re being ridiculous.

The door swung open with a click and a warm glow from the apartment filled the dreary corridor where she stood. Boxes filled the foyer and the sweet smells of apples and cinnamon met her nose as Debussy’s ‘Arabesque n.1’ filled her ears. She closed her eyes, smiled, and stepped through the doorway. “Sam is that you?” Eliza called out. Sam closed the door and let Killian out of his cage. He darted past the boxes and disappeared. “Elli? Where are you?” “Over here.” Her voice was soft and soothing to Sam who wove her way through boxes trying to find Eliza. “Here where?” she giggled. She had made it through the foyer into the dining room where she again found herself in the midst of boxes stacked ceiling high. “Here!” Sam whipped around. There stood the 5’8” Eliza, her sapphire eye peering down at Sam through a hole in the boxes.
“Hey Hun!”
“Hi…wow. Umm... Hi! One sec!” seeing a gap at the far corner of the room, Sam motioned back to Eliza, “Meet me in the family room…” Sam scuttled across the dark hardwood floor and squeezed herself between the white plaster wall and tower of boxes into the next room as Eliza clunked her way through the kitchen in her black heels. Leaning against the wall length window she rolled up the sleeves of her red alpaca sweater and began playing with the strap of her loosely clung black dress. Sam walked over and stood beside her.

“Are you as freaked out about this as I am?” Eliza asked, her candy apple lipstick made her already full lips into two large pillows in the middle of her sharp milky face. Sam laughed and nodded, “Definitely.” Eliza smiled and drew Sam to her. Sweet coconut and hairspray wafted from her straight thick black hair and mingled in the air with Sam’s CK cologne. She kissed the corner of her mouth.
“You know what?” Sam asked.
“Huh…”
“I like you.”
Eliza laughed. Placing her hand into Sam’s, “I like you too.” She said, rubbing candy apple lipstick from Sam’s mouth.

And there they stood, giggling. Watching rain droplets slide down the windowpane and make small rivers that branched out into three thick streaming waterfalls that plummeted to the soaked earth below and disrupted the daisies and earthworms that wiggled out of the bubbling soil.