seven

Ethan sat on the roof. His feet dangled over the side of the building, bare heels scraping the brick. The people below at the carnival weren't quite ant-sized. Maybe, marble-sized. The rides looked like prehistoric insects, large and colourful. Ethan gripped the ledge with both hands and scooted forward. His teeth pinched the cigarette in his mouth and he grimaced. The smell of funnel cake and port-a-potty drifted by. He could taste it and he was glad he was already holding his breath.

The roof door opened and Day stepped onto the gravel. His boots crunched quietly. Ethan waited for the man to speak, and when he didn't, Ethan did.

"I see you got my note."

"What the hell is this?" Day asked.

"You didn't read the note? How rude."

"Of course I read the note!" Ethan could hear paper crumpling behind him as Day pulled the note from his pocket. "Come to the roof at sundown. There's something you should see," Day recited tersely. "So, what? What should I see, besides you trespassing on my roof? What I should do is call the cops!"

Ethan rose slowly and turned to face the other with his back to the city skyline. "Call them. Tell them you have another jumper." He smiled.

Day's face paled everywhere except for the two splotchy patches on his cheeks.

"Is this the third, fourth?"

"Seventh," Day whispered. He swallowed.

"Seven..." Ethan removed the cigarette from his mouth and tossed it over the side. He whistled and watched it's descent. "That's a pretty big number. One or two, they could have been depressed, touched in the head. Three, four, five, maybe even six, you can dismiss that. That's average for these parts. But seven? Someone's bound to get suspicious, don't you think?"

Day's mouth opened and shut. He looked like one of those goldfish they were giving out as prizes at the carnival. The kind of goldfish that only lives long enough for you to get home and put it in a bowl.

He cleared his throat. "I don't know what you're talking about." His feet shifted in the gravel.

Ethan's smile grew, but he didn't laugh, not yet. Instead, he touched his head and bowed deeply. As he stood, he raised his arms out to the sides and held his hands to the sky. "Goodbye, Mr. Day," he said as he tipped backwards and fell.

Day lunged for him, but it was too late. He fell to his knees and grabbed two fist-fulls of gravel. "Fuck!" he screamed. He waited for a crunch and a splatter. He waited for a scream of horror. And when neither came, he exhaled. The gravel sifted through his fingers. He smoothed his hair back, stood, and walked slowly to the open roof access door.

---

I don't know what made me leave my room, but I found myself exiting the building without remembering having gotten out of bed. I kept my eyes down as I walked. I couldn't look at the carnival; it reminded me of the other day, which reminded me of Alex, which reminded me that I was now officially broke, and that I'm just pathetic all around.

There were feathers on the ground. I stared at them and kicked at them as I walked. Where they had come from didn't bother me.

"What the hell, man?"

I looked up. I'd rounded the corner of the building and was in the back next to the dumpsters and cardboard houses that the homeless had erected. A dirty man stood with his hands to his head and a dog crouched beside him, barking. "What the hell?" he yelled again.

Ethan stood in a pile of mangled cardboard, holding his stomach and laughing. He looked up at the top of the building and held up both middle fingers.

"Laugh all you want, you bloody wanker, that's me house you're standing in!" The homeless man pointed feebly to the boxes under Ethan's feet. The dog growled and whined.

Ethan collected himself and reached in his pocket. "Here," he said separating a few dollars from a cigarette packet and handing them to the man before walking away, still smiling. He hadn't seen me watching.

There was a sniff from beside me and I jumped. My shoulder slammed into the side of a dumpster. A girl was standing next to me. In her hand she held a trumpet. "More fall from the sky every day," she remarked with a shrug.

I rubbed my shoulder. "Yeah... Strange..." I replied as I backed away.

I knew I should have stayed in bed.