The park didn't have many trees, but this one was as tall as Washington Heights. Fil had taken some old floorboards from the abandoned house and hoisted them three-fourths of the way up the tree with some rope that he had borrowed from the conveinience store. Borrowed, because one day he planned to give everything back. In fact, the first thing he saw everyday when he scaled the tree to his platform was a list- a list of everything he had ever taken. Along with the list, he had heeps of blankets piled in a corner, resembling a dog's bed. Various other oddments were strewn about the planks, but nothing of any signifigance besides a crumpled newspaper article, that lay within the recesses of his blankets.
Fil sat up from the wooden platform of his tree. He didn't think it was very comfortable-the planks, but this was the safest place in the whole town-cheapest too. The whole town seemed frozen in time. He recalled the police station as being quite terrible. If he thought about it, the whole rest of the city had some sort of problem as well. Something. Addictions, crime, paranoia. Something was wrong with Fil too. He was poor. He was homeless. There was nothing he could do about it. He was ten. This didn't bother him much except that he got hungry. He was hungry now. With a ressigned sigh, he pulled on his wool hat; partway over his glasses, slid his cigarettes into his back pocket, and shimmied down the tree.
He had a regular place that he borrowed from. The Old Woman Pearl's place. She always kept the place stocked with food for her no-good grandson, and she was always gone on some errand. He quickly reached her door. After making sure the lights were off, he tried the handle. His instints told him something was fishy. Pearl always locked her door. He peered through the darkness to see the shady figure of a man eating a cookie. He slowly backed out of the door, and holding his breath, began heading for the stairs, but he saw Old Woman Pearl coming out of the stairway, so he quickly backed into an obscure cranny of the hallway. Pearl shrieked. Fil ran, bumping into the grandson on his flight down.
Finally back in his tree, Fil let out a deep breath. Something was going on here, and he didn't like it.
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Shattered perceptions
4:00AM
"SHIT!!!!"
As if jerked from a trance, Robert is jolted out of sleep. A moment later the sound of glass shattering reaches his ears. Followed by the sound of loud music being turned louder.
Getting up, Robert slowly looks around trying to remember where he is. As the pale moon lights the room, his memories of who and where he is sink back in. Remembering the sound that awoke him, he crosses the room to the the window. Opening the window, Rober cautiously pokes his head out.
Looking down he notices a broken wine glass, an expensive one. Realizing that glasses don't throw themselves out of windows anymore, Robert looks to the left hoping to catch the thrower. What he sees is a lot more than he bargained...
A woman is leaning out of her window- naked.
Her hair whips around her face as she exhales another cloud of smoke. With the moon reflecting off of her pale skin, she looks almost angelic. The drink that she takes from the wine bottle (Also expensive, Robert noticed), reveals a carnal hunger in her. A hunger for something better wine and cigarettes...
As suddenly as she appears, she is gone again. Realizing that there is no chance of him getting back to sleep, Robert takes out a single cigarette from his pack. Lighting it slowly, he turns his attentions down to the lower ends of Washington Heights.
One advantage of living on the 12th floor is that everything that happens around you can be seen.
Below, Robert observes a few people walking around. But something doesn't appear right...
There appeared to be three people walking. But the man in the middle's head is lolling forward...He's passed out. The two guys on either side don't appear to be taking this into consideration cause they're draggin him along. Behind them, a third guy is talking to the butcher, Oscar. Oscar is a big guy. His massive "physique" fills the frame of the door. But...
It's not the fact that the man Oscar is talking to is the heart of this town- Domonic Roberto Machelli that bothered Robert. It's not even the fact that the two are laughing as they pass a cig back and forth. It's the fact that there is a man being dragged away, bloodied, into a car, while these two chew the fat at 4:00 in the morning.
Not that Robert and his noisy neighbor (who has a shirt on now...when did she get back?) are supposed to be awake. Well Robert's condition allows for it but as for Chloe...
How did he know her name was Chloe? Did he hear it earlier that day? No...Only thing that he heard earlier were the screams of someone in the penthouse followed by the sound of feet running down the stairs.
Was her name really Chloe? Robert sighed... Looking down he noticed his cigarette had reached the filter. Pulling out a second, he reflected over everything that happened that day; more specifically in the last 10 minutes. Pulling a chair up to the window, he let the gentle breeze caress his face as he rested his head against the window.
This town had too much to offer and Robert knew that this was just the beginning of the ride; whether he would survive to the very end is what bothered him to most.
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