The Windowless Building

2. BRAD.

This was their place, and it was special. Amy and Brad always like to sneak off and steal away to this spot as the sun would set over the hills beyond. It was their secret place, and although Mauro, Melissa, Connor, and the rest of them often climbed this hill, sometimes for the same purpose, this spot, tucked away behind a row of old-growth oaks, was secluded enough that they always had their privacy. The others knew this and respected it.

Amy's head was in his lap and his arm was around her, cuddling her, caressing her, as they watched the sun dip over the hills and turn the sky a gorgeous shade of pink. The warmth of early evening was around them, and they basked in the warmth of each other's bodies. Below them, the comforting sounds of early evening: A car passing through the canyon road. Voices of kids, the younger ones, playing games in the street. People going about their evening routine on this perfect summer night.

And it seemed like it was always perfect here. That was how they meant it to be, how they made it.

"Want to head back down?" Brad asked. "It's getting dark..."

"Just a while longer." She replied. Her eyes, so radiant. He slowly caressed her long red hair and her neck as she leaned up and kissed him. It would soon be dark, but it was a warm evening. The sounds of crickets, then the frogs in the stream far below carried up to them. Finally, they walked back down the hill towards her waiting house. The lights were on and welcoming. A game of street soccer had wound down as the younger kids had retreated to their own houses, either for a late round of video games or to wind down for bed.

Amy led Brad into the house. They walked into the living room and just stood there and embraced. They kissed, passionately. He felt the tightness in his pants grow unbearable and soon felt Amy's hands unbuckling his belt. He reached around to her buttocks and squeezed.

"Let's go upstairs..." Brad whispered.

"No." She replied. "Right here." She quickly whisked off her jeans and shirt and stood at arm's length in nothing but her bra. Brad ripped off his shirt, exposing his buffed, toned arms and hairless chest. He pulled down his pants. His erect member grew to full mast but as soon as he did, she pulled him towards her, pulling him against the wall, with her back to it. Brad glanced over and saw the front curtains were drawn. She wrapped her legs around his torso and he took her right there, against the wall, in her living room.

Afterwards, both of them agreed that this night, the act of lovemaking was the most powerful and pure they had ever imagined. They both collapsed onto the carpeted floor, panting, caressing, and enjoying the post-coital feelings of bliss and satisfaction.

They were, after all, two young, healthy people full of life and energy, and very much in love.

"What a perfect ending to a perfect day." She said, summing it up perfectly.

Eventually, they went to bed, lying next to each other in her double bed enjoying the stillness of the night. When sleep came, it came suddenly for both of them, deep, and dreamless, and they both woke up refreshed as if they had slept for days on end. It was always that way.

The next morning, the sun rose on a typically beautiful summer day, and breakfast came and went. Amy wasn't a bad cook, Brad thought, sweetly to himself. They always seemed to have plenty of food, and both could eat their fill of waffles and muffins and bacon, and neither of them ever had to worry about gaining weight. After breakfast, Brad kissed her and said he would be off to work.

He had always wanted to be a mechanic since he was a kid. Though only 22, he was already a master mechanic and practically had the run of the garage down on Round Top Valley Road at the edge of the shopping square. He was amazed by how fast he had learned the trade and how quickly Mr. Thulldon, his boss, had promoted him. He had his work lined out for the day- finish up the black '69 Charger (his dream car) and get to work replacing the alternator on the silver Corvette. He was impressed by some of the cars that came into the garage- sports cars, muscle cars, luxury cars all tricked out- and nobody was better at fixing them than Brad was. He delighted in regaling Amy with stories of the cars he worked on, and delighted that she pretended to be interested. That day, Mr. Thulldon had told him he could even knock off early. Amy had wanted to meet him at the shopping square after work, where they were going to grab some ice cream, then meet up with Mauro and Melissa for a double date movie night at the theater.

The shopping square was just across the road from the garage, and was basically a big square with a large parking lot in the center, with the businesses clustered around the square. It was framed on three sides by Round Top Valley Road, state route 221, on the west, Morning Star road on the south and the lower stretch of Madrone Street on the east. The forested hills rose up from the northern edge of the square, peaks covered with lush oaks, madrones and pockets of spruces and redwoods in the low lying hollows. Beyond the hills lay the health science building, in its peculiar rural setting, and the ranch buildings beyond that. The square itself featured the grocery store, a hardware store, a bank, and a few other restaurants and shops, and the little theater over in the northwest corner. They had pretty much every movie there you could want. On special occasions, they would deploy a huge screen out in the parking lot and feature free drive in movies.

After getting off work he skipped across the road and wandered into the ice cream parlor. Amy was already waiting for him.

"Uh hey baby...huh huh..." Brad said jokingly.

"Eewww... I've never kissed a grease monkey!" Amy teased.

"There's always a first time..." and with that Brad reached over and kissed her passionately.

"I washed my hands, don't worry. Let's have some ice cream." he offered.

They each had a large sundae. Sitting in the back, watching the cars file into and out of the lot. Vintage Cadillacs, classic Chevy's, Jaguars, Ferraris- every dream car you could imagine. In fact, sometimes he almost fancied it was all a dream. This life felt so perfect... but he never questioned it. Right now, he just enjoyed the sunshine, the Sundae, and his girl- all sweetness and laughter- and the beauty of a glorious and endless summer day.

Only in his darkest dreams, when he did dream at all, did he remember the screams, the barks of command, the explosions, and the intense searing pain, and that feeling of being flung like a rag doll. But then it was only momentary, like a night terror that is quickly forgotten upon waking. Here, there was nothing but life and joy.

Eventually, Mauro came sauntering in. He was singing that Bon Jovi song again, badly and out of key like always, like he did for a joke- it was some weird schtick he had picked up.

"Whooooaaa we're halfway there..." he sang in a monotone voice. "WHOOOAH LIVING ON A PRAYER!" He added, loud and off key. Then suddenly he abruptly stopped and said "Hey guys...whassup, yo!"

"Hey man... So, you still down for the movie?" Brad replied

"Yeah, we're still up for it. Hey but, I got an idea though. After the movie, let's go to the cave! You guys up for it?"

"What cave?" Brad asked.

"It's off in the woods about a mile down the road. You haven't been there?"

"Uh...no." Brad looked at Amy, who shook her head.

"Yeah there's this cool room in there, and tunnels, it's like an old Disney thing, you'd love it!"

"How come you always know about all the cool spots?" Brad asked. For a guy who had only moved here just a couple months ago, Mauro seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of the area. He and his sister Jane (who appeared to be nearly the same age) had moved into the house in the middle of Avalon Street back in June, but for some odd reason, it was almost as if they had always lived there- they just seemed to fit right in. Mauro and Melissa had hooked up at Darshaun's 4th of July party about a month ago, and had fallen in love almost at first sight. Although Melissa was beautiful, with her long dark hair and dark eyes, she had always seemed lonely, and was always looking for something deeper and more lasting, ever since she had moved here three years ago. She had her share of one night passionate affairs, but nothing serious- until she had met Mauro. With his confidence and wacky sense of humor, he really seemed to be exactly what she was looking for. It was almost too perfect. Brad and Amy had both become fast friends with him, and they had always been fairly close with Melissa.

"So, wait...what time does the movie start? You still want to go to the movie?" Brad asked.

"Yeah, starts at 7. Sure, we can go after the movie. Mind if we grab a quick burrito first..."

"Yeah okay, but it'll be dark by the time we get out of the movie, shouldn't we get flashlights and shit?" Brad asked.

"Yeah, don't worry man, we got extra ones- Melissa brought a couple extra ones and I grabbed a couple from the house. We're good!"

"Caving, huh...that sounds bad ass!" Brad responded, then turned to Amy. "You up for it?" he asked her.

"I guess, I dunno...be kind of cool to know where this place is, you know, for later." Amy replied. Brad hadn't yet thought of that possibility but yes, if it was as cool as Mauro seemed to imply, then it would be another cool secret spot for the two of them to steal away to when they wanted some intimate privacy.

"Well cool then, show us where it is after the movie. Let's go get a burrito first. Amy and I already had our dessert..."

They joined Melissa outside, and the four of them wandered over to Tullez's Taqueria across the square and grabbed a table. They always had the best burritos there, the best Brad had ever tasted. The movie they saw afterwards, some vaguely interesting romantic comedy that Amy had invariably picked out, seemed of secondary interest to the adventure that they had planned for later that night.

3. JASON

A few days later, coming home from a bike ride, I rode up the street and stopped by Lilly's house. She lived just a few houses down from me. Though we had both ran track together we had never been close. To be honest, over the last year I had been crushing hard on her friend Pam, who was a distance runner like both of us. But of course I had never told anyone, either Lilly or Pam especially. I had gone on a long ride through some of the winding roads I liked and was just getting back home, cranking up the hill on my bike, when I passed her house and saw her washing her red Nissan Sentra. I would have probably stumbled and felt like an awkward dork if it had actually been Pam standing there, but I was never shy around people with whom I had no particular romantic interest in, so I stopped to chat. And dang if Lilly didn't look pretty good herself, though, in those shorts.

"Hey...Lilly!"

"Oh hey, Jason!"

"So like, how you been?"

"Well, getting ready to head off to school. You know, working part time at the day care. For money. My dad just gave me his old car. Speaking of which, how's your Subaru? And how are you?" She replied.

"Oh pretty good I mean, I'm been kind of bummed. I mean, about the whole Mauro thing. I mean, I loved that guy, man. We were totally buddies since kids and stuff. We were all at the memorial the other day- this place feels kind of weird without him. We hadn't really been that close lately I mean, mostly when we were little..."

"I was pretty close with Krista, so I knew him pretty well. He was a great guy. His parents had a lot of money. Krista's pretty broken up. And Jane..." Lilly's voice trailed off and she looked away.

I knew Jane, but only barely. I assumed she was still in the hospital.

"Have you ever thought about visiting Jane, in the hospital, I mean? I heard she was pretty... pretty, uh, messed up."

"Yeah. She's paralyzed."

I had heard that, but didn't want to say it, not knowing how she would react. "I could not imagine living like that. I mean, it's like...that sounds too horrible to think about. Do you think she'll ever get any movement back? God, this whole thing really fucking sucks." I said.

She just nodded.

I suddenly had a thought. "Hey, maybe, I mean, we could like, you know...get together with Krista and maybe stop by and visit her. I assume she's still in the hospital. It might cheer her up." I said. "I didn't know her that well, but you did, and of course it would be something we could do to, like, honor Mauro maybe, and for Krista too."

"I dunno... We could do that, I suppose, I mean, would you really want to..."

"Yeah, sure."

"I guess, it would be really hard for me, seeing her like that. And I mean, I don't know how well you know her." She replied.

"Well, I mean, like, we don't have to, and if you aren't comfortable about going but, it's just been weird, man. I was just thinking like, we could give her a card. Maybe all sign it and stop in and give it to her. That would be okay, right? We wouldn't like, have to spend a ton of time and like I said, you knew her more than I did, I could just go along..."

To be honest, now that I thought about it I wasn't sure how comfortable I was with the idea. She did have a point; I didn't know Jane that well. But the more I thought about it, I figured that somehow, in my mind, by doing something like this it was a way I could honor Mauro's memory. I'd already reached out to Paul and his family but for some reason they were distant, uncommunicative, and Paul had almost religiously avoided the rest of us since the accident. He wouldn't even speak to any of us after the memorial service, and yet he had always eagerly tagged along with us older kids before, at times to the point of being an annoyance, to be frank.

I was silent for a while, then finally I said, "You know, if you are free, maybe we could go down there. To the hospital, and visit her. I'll give you money for a card..."

"Well, I don't... I don't know..."

"I mean hey, it's not like I'm asking you on a date or anything. Just, like, friends" suddenly thinking that she was getting self-conscious or thinking I was being forward. To tell you the truth, I was actually thinking more of how I could convince her to hook me up with her friend Pam.

"Well, I guess if you want, we could go on Saturday afternoon- I'm not working that day, we could go do it then."

I made a quick mental calculation and remembered that I wasn't scheduled to work until six that night. Pizza deliveries didn't really pick up on weekends until around seven.

"Sounds good. Well... I guess, see you then..." I said, shyly blushing.

I really liked Lilly. We were never that close, but as I thought about it, she was the kind of girl I could see really being close platonic friends with, and you never know, if for some reason things never worked out with Pam; to be honest, Lilly wasn't that bad looking either.

So, that Saturday afternoon, Lilly and I headed down to the hospital in her Nissan Sentra, the hand me down car she had inherited from her Dad after he had "Traded up" for a Prius.

It was just the two of us. I had tried talking Rick Amherst in to tagging along, but he hadn't wanted to, and I felt weird about asking Paul.

She had picked out a card and I had signed it, some sentiment of "I hope you feel better soon and we are praying for you!! Stay Strong" or something like that. There were really no words I could think of though, that were really appropriate. What had happened to her was just so horrible. I did notice that Pam Wiwczarek had signed the card, right above where she had signed it.

"So, when did you see Pam?"

"I stopped by her work, she works at the rec center."

"Which one? I asked, suddenly curious.

"By Vasher Park, why do you ask?"

"Oh I dunno... Pam's really cool, and all. So you guys are good friends, I guess?"

"Yeah, she's super nice. Do you like her?"

"Well...um... I dunno. Yeah kind of, I guess. She always seemed pretty cool to me..." Suddenly I felt weird about admitting my crush. Partly because, I didn't want to make Lilly feel all awkward, or something. I was kind of hoping she would say something like "Yeah, maybe we could all hang out together or something sometime" but instead, to my disappointment, she let it drop.

We eventually arrived at the hospital. When we got to the reception Lilly asked "We're here to see Jane Sarni. Is, um, that okay? We're friends of hers."

The receptionist looked at us like we were nothing more than a couple local low-lifes, and then, grimacing, said, "Excuse me. Let me check." She clicked away on her keyboard for a few minutes, then the desk phone rang. "Excuse me" she snapped, as she picked it up.

After an interminable phone conversation, while both of us grew increasingly annoyed and impatient, she finally hung up and turned back to her keyboard.

"So, can we see Jane Sarni? We have a card for her..." I said.

"Well, I'm sorry, but our records show that she was discharged two weeks ago."

"You mean, she want home?"

"Well no, she was moved to a new facility." The receptionist replied impatiently, clearly annoyed by the fact that we were still standing there.

"Where? Which facility?"

"That's not your business, sir. Patient confidentiality." She replied.

"Well look, we just want to give her this card. We are her friends, her friends care about her. Can't you understand that?" I said. Fucking bureaucrat clerks, I thought- they were always looking down at me; this was worse than the goddamn DMV, I thought.

"Well, okay. It says here... she was transferred to some place called the ThullTech Institute, for what it's worth. I seem to remember another patient transferred there earlier this summer... I don't think it's located around here though." She said. "I'm not even supposed to tell you that much, but I guess it doesn't matter, that place isn't even listed in this county directory. I've been in local health care for way too long, longer than you kids have been born, and I swear I don't know anything about that ThullTech place. For all I know, it's some fancy high tech hospital up in Portland, or down in Silicon Valley somewhere."

Oddly, the name ThullTech seemed to trigger some odd recollection, but at that time, I couldn't place it. All that mattered was, we had seemingly come here for nothing, and this woman, who clearly HAD worked there way too long, wasn't much help. "Well, I guess, can you send this to her?" Lilly asked.

"Look, I told you, I wouldn't even know where to send it. If you really want to visit her, you'll have to talk to her parents. Maybe they'll deliver your card to her. I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do. Sorry about your friend, too" she said in a way that indicated she was very seldom ever sorry about anything.

"Well, what now?" I said, as we drove home, barely speaking.

"I guess I can drop it off at her mom's. I know where she lives. Thanks for coming with me by the way." Lilly said. She dropped me off at home, just a few houses up from where she lived, and gave me a hug before driving the rest of the way. That made me feel good at least. Lilly may not be Pam Wiwczarek, but she was still one pretty cool chick, I thought. Maybe we could... I would have let my mind wander at the possibility, but I was just emotionally drained right then.

4. BRAD.

"Wait, slow down, right there! Mauro said.

Brad pulled the red Mustang convertible off the road near a turn out Mauro indicated. "It's back here, up this draw." He pointed. The woods were thick and full of underbrush, and they could see a slot canyon heading uphill into the pitch darkness. They grabbed their flashlights and, almost out of habit, locked the car.

"Oh my God, I hope there's not bugs... EEEW!" Melissa shrieked, as a rustling in the distance, most likely a raccoon or deer, scampered off. "Oh my God..."