Mickey's Mad House

[ o7 ] Down the stairs and back again

Mickey’s Mad House

[ o7 ] down the stairs and back again

Malcolm stopped in front of a building when we crested the top of the hill near my car. When he stopped, I looked up to see where we had arrived at. The first thing I noticed was the fact that there were barely any window’s on the face of the building that was surrounded by copies. And it seemed, from the few windows that there were, that the complex was a five stories tall. I turned to Malcolm to see that he was watching me during that time while I took in the place. I didn’t know what he was thinking. But I knew that even if I dissected that expression, I would never understand my brother. “You live here…?” I waved at the building and he nodded in answer. “Right next to where I had been…?” once more, he gave a quick nod. “This whole time…?” I must have sounded completely shocked but the truth was, I was completely shocked that my brother was living by the place I had kept my car at. Out of all of the parking spaces in this country, I had to choose one that was near my brother. I couldn’t tell if it was luck… or destiny that brought me to this place for the night with this person.

     If it was destiny… that meant that some sick twisted person was out there writing my life down, verbatim, twisting it and exposing me.

     I mean, Mal knew Jake and Jake knew Larz, my co-worker. Next, would Stella be dating one of Mal’s roommates or friends? I shook my head, yeah right like that would happen. Stella is only either flustered or oblivious when it comes to guys.

     Malcolm walked forwards and unlocked the door that lead to the main entryway. So, it had a nicely laid out security. Holding it for me, I walked past my brother and looked around at the quaint entry floor. The entry was lined with mailboxes for each floor and after that lead to two identical hallways that lead to apartment room doors in opposite directions. I realized that the complex rooms were quite small on this floor, they seemed like they couldn’t hold more then two rooms. I, myself, wondered if Malcolm lived alone. When I turned to ask him if he had any roommates, though, my brother was already going up the stairs without me.

     “The complex doesn’t have an elevator,” my brother began in a tour-like manor. I looked up at him as my brother looked over his shoulder at me. “That’s why we have to take the stairs…” I raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment. I could tell by the layout that there had no elevators. It was an obvious observation. “And I’m on the top floor, number five.” He pointed to the ceiling. See, I was right about the floors to this building. I grinned at the fact that I was right.

     When I paused on the second floor landing, I adjusted the two bags that were tying me down. I had only made it to the second floor, and I was already breathing hard. Okay, I rethought; maybe I wasn’t going to make it to Malcolm’s room without crawling and dragging myself up. If this was how winded I was with three more flights… I shook my head (which caused me to become momentarily dizzy—bad idea). When I come to that… I’ll start to crawl.

     And my guess came true; when I stopped at the halfway mark of the second flight of stairs floor, I could feel my breaths coming out even tighter in those last ten steps. I still had two and a half more flights to go and I looked at the stairwell that was in front of me. Mal was there at the third floor landing and turned to look at me over his shoulder. I sucked in some air. If I kept on thinking that I was in fact not winded, then it would come true. When I regained my breathing enough to talk, I told Mal in answer to the look he was giving me; “oh, I’m fine.”

     I think I saw amusement flash across his face but it disappeared just as quickly when he turned and continued up the stairs. I didn’t think this was possible, I thought as I held onto the railing with a white knuckled grip, beginning once more. I could walk half a mile to school without becoming winded what-so-ever but when the task becomes inclined, even slightly… I couldn’t even make it up to the third floor without huffing through my mouth and dragging myself. When I hit the fourth floor landing, Mal was leaning against the railing looking cool, calm, collencted and unaffected by the workout that we were doing.