Stanley and Hilary walked along the sidewalk in the dusk; the yellow-orange lights shone down against the brown and gray buildings. Stanley noticed the trolley riding by, and Hilary didn’t react to it one bit.

“Hey, did you not want to ride on that?” He asked and pointed.

“Nah, I’d rather exercise and just take the long way to the apartment, and besides, I don’t like narrow spaces,” Hilary mentioned.

Stanley felt humbled by the response. Finally, someone else gets it. He thought with a small smile. “Oh wait, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Stanley Jordan—”

“I know. You already told me. And it was also on your name tag.”

“Oh, I didn’t notice that; I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s alright...”

The two continued to exchange pleasantries when they eventually arrived at The Willow View. The two both stood beside the entrance. They were about to say goodbye when something caught Hilary’s eye.

She looked up at the enormous apartment complex as her eyes widened in fear.

Stanley was about to ask her what was wrong; he glanced up at a man standing on the gray roof. His mouth gaped when the man lifted his arms in the air and turned around. The man fell back with his eyes closed and a big smile on his face before he collided with the hard-concrete ground in a splat. Blood poured from his body as it laid there motionless.

Stanley and Hilary covered their mouths and jumped back in horror. They weren’t even sure what to do with seeing someone commit suicide in front of their very eyes. The two rushed over to find a phone and call the police as fast as possible.

Time had passed by; eventually, the police and an ambulance car drove up near the parking lot. Two police officers with orange hats came out to investigate the scene. One had a notepad and brown eyes, while the other had a measuring tape in his hands with black eyes.

One officer asked Stanley and Hilary some questions, while the other one wrote stuff down on his notepad without saying a word.

“We swear we don’t know why that man leapt off the building.” Hilary acknowledged, getting misty-eyed. “We only showed up right when he was about to—”

“We understand.” The officer responded while nodding his head, “However, this is not the first time someone had committed suicide, and by falling off this complex no less.”

“That’s crazy; we live in this apartment, though!” Stanley exclaimed. “Do you even know why that’s the case?

“No, not really, I’m afraid.” The officer replied, pulling his hat to cover his eyes. “All we know is that it usually occurs around once a month, according to our notes.” He explained, then pointed to the other officer as he showed off the notepad with written words scribbled on.

Stanley shook his head and massaged his temples. “Oh, man. Is there anything we can—?”

“No, we’ll look over and inspect the scene ourselves.” The officer interrupted. “We’ll see what we can do, so don’t worry, and leave this to us, ok?”

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“Ok...”

Stanley and Hilary waited by the side of the apartment as their bodies leaned against the wall, feeling forlorn. Stanley lowered his head as he stared at the ground and said nothing. Hilary curled up in a fetal position, slumping on the floor.

He looked down and knew, with how things went, that the atmosphere was uncomfortable, but he wanted to break the silence by trying to reassure her. But how?

“Um, hey...” Stanley muttered.

“Do you think they’ll solve it?” Hilary spoke up and turned to him.

“Huh? What do you mean?” He asked, caught by surprise.

“The case. We won’t get affected by this in any way, shape, or form, will we?”

Stanley thought about it for a short while. This could be a chance to assure her, but this wasn’t what he had in mind. How could he respond to a situation like this? What would be the right words to say regarding the matter at hand? He went with the first thing that came to mind, hoping to reassure her and himself.

“No, of course not, we’ll be alright.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Hilary sighed in relief.

Stanley sighed too, as he glanced up to look at the sky. “I’m still shocked over what happened...”

“Yeah, I can’t believe it either, but why...?”

“Why what?”

“Why would they want to throw away their lives? We’re given the chance to live out our lives to the fullest; we only live once, after all. We’ll never know why their heart ached. It sucks that no one was able to help the poor soul. I wish we could’ve done something about it, be it listening to their troubles and assuring them or even pointing them to professional help. What do you think?”

Hmm, I wonder what my purpose in life could be.

“Um, you ok? Did you say something?” Hilary asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Stanley replied.

“Ok?”

“Honestly, I’m not so sure myself on what we could’ve done, I mean. I’d love to help, but I wouldn’t know what to say or do.”

Soon, the officers finished their work, and people from the ambulance took the unconscious body toward the truck and drove off. Stanley and Hilary walked over as the officers headed back to their car.

“Thanks for your patience,” One of them told the duo and tipped his hat. “We’ll get this all under control soon enough.”

“Thank you for your help.” Hilary said, “Now we can go back to our apartment in peace.”

After the officers left, Stanley and Hilary stood outside by themselves. The two exchanged glances as they found they had to go their separate ways for now. Hilary informed him that her room was two floors above his.

“See you tomorrow.” She waved, turned around, and headed up the stairs.

Stanley waited a while and watched her leave before going to his room himself.

.-.-.-.

Man, what a day I’ve had. Stanley thought, clasping his face with his hand.

Stanley entered his room, threw his belongings to the side, and he plopped himself down on the bed without taking his shoes off. He turned toward the small black and gray television and reached over from the coffee table to grab the remote control and turn it on.

The TV went into static for a couple of seconds before Stanley marched over to hit the device in frustration until a picture finally came to play. However, much to his annoyance, the wish app from before showed up on the TV set again. He found himself in the middle of a commercial.

“—with my new wish app! Just type—”

Stanley shut the TV off and threw the remote at the wall in frustration.

“Forget it! I’m going to shower and get ready for bed!” Stanley shouted to himself as he stormed over to the bathroom to shower, wash his face, and brush his teeth.

He soon put on some pajamas, crawled into the light blue covers, and planted his head on the pillow.

Hmm, I wonder if I feel like I forgot something important. Oh well. Stanley thought as he stared at the ceiling until his eyes drooped as he slowly descended into slumber.