2021 riverrun Final PDF

“You’re the guy who lives in 223 right? Helped you move your boxes in,” she
said.
“Yeah, you did. What was your name again?” he asked, trying to take the
reins of the conversation.
“Hayley,” she said, “Yours?”
“Zach,” he said.
She reached forward putting out a hand. He shook it awkwardly, annoyed
she had beat him to the offer. Then, she grabbed one of the pizzas out of his cart,
slapping it into her own.
“Well if you’re not gonna share I guess I’ll just have to take one for myself,”
she said. “If you want it back, come have coffee with me tomorrow at The Blue Corner.”
Zach was speechless. No one had been so bold around him. It made him angry,
and it made him want to set things straight.
• • •
He couldn’t stop thinking about that encounter even as he washed the skyscraper
windows. Why was she so assuming, so bold, so controlling. He couldn’t
take it. He had to take back the sway he was used to having. He was scrubbing off a
particularly annoying section of bird shit off the office window of a very pretentious
businessman. He kept pointing his meaty finger at it like Zach couldn’t see that it
was right in front of him. Fucking asshole finally left the office to go to a meeting or
something. He kept washing, seeing himself in the reflection. It was like a mysterious
lake he thought he could plunge into. The surface rippled with light and his
shadow gave it shape. He gave the blankness meaning, purpose. It shimmered
around his form as his mind blanked out everything else. The shadow was pulling
him in, calling him until he realized he was leaning too far over the railing.
Then, the headache hit him like a bus. The high-pitched buzz, then the pressure,
and finally he saw himself falling, weightless, and just as the asphalt almost
kissed his face he was jerked back into reality. He backed away from the rail, nauseous,
trying to catch his breath. He hated this, but he was thankful for it. Too much
friction on the crank? He would see the cable snap, and he would release the pressure
before it happened. The feeling after was awful, but he was in control, always.
Except when he wasn’t, but he forgot about those times. They were irrelevant and
not worth thinking about.
He finished the building, went home, changed, and headed to The Blue
35