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But tonight, the world had gone quiet. There was nothing but the black canopy of the sky and the wash of stars above, burning so bright that Lucy found she couldn’t look away.
“He was right,” she murmured. “This must be quite a sight from up in space.”
Owen didn’t answer for a moment, and when he finally did, his voice was hushed. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s even better from down here.”
4
By the time they made it back up the twenty-four flights of stairs—red-faced and panting and holding their sides—the apartment was like an oven, and there was nothing to do but collapse onto the cool tiles of the kitchen floor. There was no cure for this kind of heat, no fans and no air-conditioning and no breeze from the window, and even the ceramic tiles grew warm beneath them as they lay there in silence, still breathing hard.
Eventually, Owen sat up and reached for one of the water bottles, handing another over to Lucy, who was sprawled out beside the refrigerator, her white dress pooled all around her. She wiped at her forehead with the back of her hand, then propped herself up on her elbows to take a sip.
“That’s it,” she said when she was done.
Owen lay back again. “What is?”
“I’m never going downstairs again.”
“Until the elevator’s fixed…”
“Maybe not even then,” she said. “That elevator and I go way back, but after tonight, I’m not sure I can ever trust it again.”
“Poor old elevator.”
“Poor old me.”
There was a ceiling fan above them, and Owen stared at the outline of the blades through the dark for so long that he could almost imagine it spi
“There’s pretty much nothing in there. My mom doesn’t cook,” Lucy said, following the beam with her gaze. “None of us really do.”
“That’s too bad,” he said. “You’ve got a great kitchen.”
“Do you?”
“Have a great kitchen?”
“No,” she said, lying back again so that their heads were inches apart, their bodies fa
“Yup,” he said. “And I clean, too. I’m a regular Renaissance man.”
He flicked the light over the dishwasher, then the oven, and finally up to the refrigerator, which was covered with postcards, each one pi
“Wow,” he said. “Have you been to all these places?”
Lucy laughed. “Do you think I’m sending myself postcards?”
“No,” he said, his face burning. “I just figured—”
“They’re from my parents. They go to amazing places, and I get a piece of cardboard,” she explained with a shrug. “They always bring one of my brothers a magnet and the other a snow globe. It’s kind of a tradition. Apparently I asked for a postcard once when I was little, and I guess it sort of stuck.”
He scooted closer to the refrigerator, holding the flashlight in his fist. “So where are they now?”
“Paris,” she said. “They go there all the time.”
“They don’t ever take you?” he asked without turning around, and her voice behind him was quiet when she answered.
“No.”
“Oh,” he said, sitting back on his heels. “Well, who needs Paris when you live in New York, right?”
This made her smile. “I guess so,” she said, then pointed at the fridge. “I haven’t gotten one from this trip yet. That’s actually why I was downstairs before. I was checking the mail.”
There was a note of sadness in the words, and Owen cast around for something to say in response, something to fill the quiet of the kitchen. He glanced again at the mosaic of photographs. “Postcards are overrated anyway.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Yeah, I mean, what’s the worst thing you can say to someone who isn’t on some beautiful beach with you?”
Lucy shrugged.
“ ‘Wish you were here.’ ” He rapped his knuckles against a scene from Greece, which was hanging near the bottom. “I mean, come on. If they really wished you were there, they’d have invited you in the first place, right? It’s kind of mean, if you really think about it. It should say: ‘Greece: Where nobody’s all that upset you’re not here.’ ”
There was a long pause, and as the silence lengthened, he realized his mistake. He’d only been joking, but it had come out sounding harsh and somehow too specific, and he was gripped now with a sudden fear that he’d managed to make things worse.
But to his relief, she began to laugh. “ ‘Rome: Where it’s so beautiful, we’ve pretty much forgotten about you,’ ” she said, sitting up. Her arms were looped around her bare legs, and her mouth was twisted with the humor of it. “ ‘Sydney: Where you’re really missing out.’ ”
“Exactly,” Owen said. “That’s a lot more honest anyway.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said, her face growing serious again.
“But I bet your parents really do wish you were there.”
“Yeah,” she said, but her voice was hollow. “I bet.”
He switched off the flashlight, then pivoted so that his back was against the refrigerator, the postcards fluttering above his head, and he thought of the notes his mother used to leave for him around the house, little yellow Post-its scrawled with blue ink, reminders to clean his room or to heat up the casserole she’d made. Sometimes she left them before ru
“I have an idea,” he said, and Lucy let her head fall to one side so she could look at him, her eyes dark and searching. He reached into his pocket and held out the keys to the roof. “It’ll be a hike,” he told her. “But I think it’ll be worth it.”
They loaded a backpack with water and snacks, candles and a blanket, and then Owen led them back toward the stairwell, flashlight held before him like a sword. The hallway was still quiet, and he wondered what he’d be doing now if his father were home. He would probably just be waiting while he went door-to-door through the building, pretending as best he could at this new role of caretaker, as Owen sat alone in the basement, pretending not to notice that he could hardly even take care of himself these days.
They started up the stairs at a brisk pace, but their footsteps soon slowed, and by the time they passed the thirty-fifth floor, they were walking side by side, hauling themselves up on opposite railings, one sweaty hand at a time. When they finally reached the metal door at the top, Owen gave it a push, but it didn’t budge.
“A lot of the time, they leave it unlocked,” he explained. “Which is why I don’t feel too bad about the key.”
“Aha,” she said. “So you’re not as much of a badass as you would first appear.”
He laughed. “I’m not a badass at all. I’m just a guy with a key.”
When he unlocked the door, they stumbled out onto the darkened roof, their eyes focused on the ground as they picked their way across the tar-covered surface.
“Over there,” Owen said, pointing at the southwest corner, and Lucy walked over to the ledge that ran along the perimeter, where she stood looking out.
“Wow,” she breathed, rising onto her tiptoes. Owen dropped the backpack before joining her, positioning himself a few inches away. The wind lifted her hair from her shoulders, and he caught the scent of something sweet; it smelled like flowers, like springtime, and it made him a little dizzy.