The revelation of what ‘unit sixteen’ entailed came sooner than Josh anticipated. Margot had made good time getting up to catch the pizza delivery person and then back down. They had barely made two trips in the same time. And as soon as Margot was involved in moving the boxes, things went much more quickly than anticipated. It seemed to be a core part of her identity—being quick and efficient—and if Josh couldn’t see her with his own eyes he might have thought she was some kind of robot. She was carrying stacks of heavy boxes, keeping perfect posture and balance, and moving around like she weighed nothing. It was incredible, and Josh couldn’t help but admire her.
With everyone loading the elevator, it took a total of two minutes to empty the truck. And that was when Josh stepped into the packed elevator car with everyone else and witnessed the second biggest surprise he would bear witness to that day. The elevator didn’t have any stops before the thirty-fourth floor, and every floor after that was marked as a single unit. Unit sixteen was the top floor. The penthouse. Probably the most expensive apartment in the building and having a potential cost well over a million dollars. It made Josh wonder.
“We’re moving you into the penthouse?”
Sara blushed. “It’s not a huge deal. We know people and mom makes good money.”
“I saved the life of the building owner.” Margot grinned.
“But…” Josh was flabbergasted.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around what he was being told. It didn’t make any sense and so he began to doubt the truth of it. Even as the elevator doors opened on the fiftieth floor, and he saw the entrance to the apartment, he didn’t believe where he was. If they could afford this apartment, even at a discounted price, why had they moved everything themselves? Why had Margot brought such a cramped truck? And why had they chosen such an auspicious apartment? It didn’t seem to match with Sara or Connor’s personality. They didn’t seem rich, or even well off. That had been what caught him off guard the most.
“Don’t think about it too hard.” Connor dropped his fist down gently on Josh’s shoulder in a casual gesture as they all stepped out of the elevator. “The world doesn’t make sense.”
As much as Josh wanted to linger on the questions in his head, Connor was right. In a way. It wouldn’t make sense no matter how much he thought about it, and as strange as it felt it was happening. Burning all his attention on it wasn’t going to make it make sense and there was no real point to making sense of it. He was hardly involved at all.
Somewhere between realizing something was off and accepting that there was nothing he could do about it, Josh had picked up the first box he had seen and begun to follow Sara’s lead out of the elevator. He had resolved to stay level headed, no matter how absurd the apartment itself was going to look. And to a normal person, or what the majority of us would call a normal person, what lay in wait behind the sturdy black stained oak door just down the hall was absurd. When Josh walked in behind Sara, that was his first thought. But he was ready for it and didn’t make a big deal out of the hardwood flooring and marble counter tops, or the shear square footage of the apartment, or the extremely sturdy and expensive looking furniture that was already in place, or the large screen TV ready and waiting on its wall mount, or any of it. He took a breath and made clear eye contact with Sara as she put down her own box.
“Do you know where you want things yet or are we just going to make a big pile?”
“We had a system…” Sara began but she was interrupted by Connor.
“Anything with white tape goes in the kitchen, red tape goes to the living room, blue goes in one bedroom, green goes another, brown goes in the bathroom… everything with clear tape goes right here.” Connor pointed down where he and Sara had just placed their boxes.
“We ran out of color tape.” Sara smiled brightly at the failure to prepare.
Margot shrugged and put down the three boxes she’d been carrying before pulling one aside to put on the kitchen counter. The kitchen, which was back and to the left of where they came in and could be seen from the main living space with only a large split bar top island separating the space from a small open study space and living room, was massive. And sitting on the island right next to where Margot put the box, was a different colored box… several of them, filled with pizza.
The sight of food made Josh’s stomach rumble, and the smell that gradually made its way over to him wasn’t helping either, but he knew there was still an elevator full things that needed to be brought in first and they had all agreed on it. But if he moved slowly enough, Margot would probably take care of most of it and he wouldn’t need to exert as much effort. But what Sara said stuck in his mind. Margot would notice if he started slacking off, and she would think less of him. And for some reason, that bothered him. It bothered him enough that he tried to keep pace with the woman as she went back and forth in and out of the apartment. He couldn’t carry as many boxes, though he tried initially. But it seemed that the more he tried to keep pace the more Margot started to carry. And then they were done, and Josh felt like he was going to be sick.
“Did you say something to him about Margot?” Connor whispered to Sara as they settled on bar stools at the kitchen island. “Josh just pushed himself way too hard.”
Josh could hear the whispering—not well, but he could hear it—but didn’t feel like he knew anyone in the room well enough to defend himself in any meaningful way.
Margot, however, seemed to have a very different opinion of Josh. “You kept up pretty good. You are a student right? That’s how Sara met you? Are you a planning on going into physical therapy or some sort of athletic field?”
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Josh was almost shocked at her final question, enough to laugh at least. “Oh, hell no. No offense if you’re into that. But I am out of shape. I’m pre-law.”
“Oh? How’d you cross paths with Sara then? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“We have an astronomy lecture together, we ran in to each other after the second class this week and I asked him if he wanted to help. And he said yes.” Sara chimed in. Her voice made it clear that that sort of interaction she had performed when she first interacted with Josh was a relatively common practice for her. And the casual nod from Connor and Margot only helped to confirm that.
“Astronomy? That’s an odd choice for pre-law, even as an elective.”
“It is an elective. My roommate convinced me and I don’t mind it.” Josh sighed. “He audits the class every semester to get easy dates from freshman girls, but I just enjoy learning things outside of my normal course work.”
“I guess we’re lucky Sara ran into you, and not your roommate then.” Margot frowned, but it wasn’t a disappointed expression. Almost impressed actually. But she seemed concerned. “Actually, you’ve reminded me of something. Would you help me find something in one of the boxes in your room, Sara?”
Sara brightened up immediately at the request and was already out of her seat when she said, “Yes, of course!”
Margot was quick to chase her daughter down as they walked the length of the apartment and into the more closed off half where the bedrooms were.Once they were out of sight that left Josh and Connor alone at the kitchen island with four boxes of pizza which Connor had no apparent interest in.
“Not a big pizza fan?”
“It smells great… but I can’t eat it.” Connor sighed. It felt like an answer he had to give often.
“Can’t eat cheese?”
“Nope. Or wheat.” Connor took in a long dragging breath. “Or soy, or corn, or artificial dyes… honestly I could list a lot of things I can’t eat. It’s almost easier to list what I can, but Margot knows…”
Connor stood up, as if reminded that he had forgotten it was an option, and made his way over to the refrigerator. After a moment he made his way over to the microwave with brown paper bag, which he pulled out three Tupperware from. One with chicken, one with rice, and one with carrots. It looked like an incredibly bland meal, but he seemed content.
“Don’t get the wrong idea…” Connor began talking with his back turned as he watched the food in the microwave. “Margot’s my best friend’s mom, and a lot of guys assume that, because we have such a close relationship, there’s more going on. But she’s just like a second mom to me.”
“It hadn’t even crossed my mind.” It really hadn’t. Josh had been preoccupied by everything else. “But I understand that. I know I said that my roommate hunts for dates and stuff, but I don’t get that attitude about relationships. I just want to get my degree. I don’t need to see relationship things like that everywhere I look.”
“Huh.” Connor sounded curious but refused to ask a question to satisfy his curiosity. Instead he retrieved his food from the microwave a second before it beeped to let him know it was done and began to eat.
“Do you know if there’s toilet paper in the bathroom over here?” Josh was pointing to the bathroom to the left of the island, close to the the front door of the apartment. He knew there were two, but everyone had brought the bathroom boxes to the other bathroom that was by the bedrooms.
“I don’t think so. There’s nothing to dry your hands on either. I think Sara already used the other one though, so she probably unpacked some things.”
“Right.” Josh pushed himself away from the island and stood up. “I’ll just excuse myself then.”
Connor gave him a nod, as if he was approving his need to use the facilities worthy. It was still awkward, using someone else’ bathroom before they even had. But Josh hadn’t realized how bad things had gotten over the course of the move. He hadn’t been drinking enough water, but as soon as he’d sat down and gotten some pizza he’d started to chug fluids as fast as he could and it was having an adverse reaction. And as he made his way to the other bathroom he grew close enough to Sara’s bedroom, which was directly across the hall from the bathroom, to hear her and her mother talking.
Josh couldn’t fully understand what they were talking about, but the door was cracked open just a bit and he could make out most of their conversation.
“...I think… I guess I forgot how mature you are now, and what kind of people you’re around.” Margot said.
“You don’t mean Josh, do you?”
“No. He seemed like a nice guy… little awkward… and you’re sure he can’t…?”
“No he can’t see it. At least I don’t think so.”
The second Josh heard his name, he stopped in the hallway. He looked back to check to see if Connor was watching him. But Connor had sat back down at the island and was facing away from the side of the apartment where Josh was; and on top of that, the door that separated the bedrooms from the main room of the apartment was partially closed. There was no way either Sara or Margot could see him either, though there was a possibility they had heard him walk close. If they had they didn’t stop talking.
“Right. I’m sorry, Sara. I should have listened to you sooner.”
“No, don’t apologize. You just… have a hard time seeing that I’m a full grown woman now.”
“I honestly wish I couldn’t see it, but now that I have I can’t see my little girl as clearly.”
“I’ll still be here, I’ll just also be someone else too.”
Josh was beginning to feel uncomfortable listening in, it sounded like a personal conversation. But there was something about the secrecy that had been used to move them into a private space that made him linger. There was a deeper conversation at the heart of what they were saying, and it felt like something that would explain why the three people Josh had spent most of his day with were so strange.
“I know… Are you sure you’re ready though? Really sure?”
“You ask me like you don’t know that I’ve wanted to be like you my whole life. Of course I’m ready to get my marks. I’ve been ready since before Connor was.”
“Alright. Hold out your arm.”
“Really? Just like that?”
“It’s not a cult ritual, sweatpea. It’s an ongoing right of passage.”
“Do you think I should call Connor in here?”
“Why does it sound like you’re having second thoughts about this?”
“I’m not… I’m not. It’s just kind of a big deal and I’ve been wanting to talk to you about this for months and you’re suddenly just ready to do this all of the sudden. I’m ready. But maybe I just wasn’t prepared…”
“Give me your arm before I think twice about this.”
“Right. Right. Fine.”
Within moments of Sara saying that, something else happened that would change Josh’s life forever. It was wholly unfortunate that one of the biggest parts of his memory of that moment was that his bladder was incredibly full. Because what he saw from his eavesdropping spot in the hallway was something unearthly and incredibly… indescribable. In his own words, it was like someone had turned on a hundred florescent light bulbs in the room. And that light was enough to draw his gaze closer to the fine gap in the door. And in that gap, Josh saw something truly bizarre.