by Joe DeRouen
The mummy stopped. “How could you tell?” He was clearly disappointed.
“Who else would be trying to grab me?”
Robbie had the sense to look guilty. He lived in my building and was always waylaying me, trying to kiss me. He was a year older than me, and rumor had it he was already quite experienced. The rumor, I was sure, was spread by him.
The day before, as I ran down the stairs into the first-floor landing, Robbie came out of nowhere, grabbed me, and kissed me. It was a wet, mushy kiss, and when he tried to stick his tongue into my mouth, I tasted the tuna fish he had recently. It was my first kiss, and it was a tuna fish kiss. I was sorely disappointed.
“Hey,” he whispered to me, “meet me by the back of the stairs, and we can make out. I’ll teach you how to kiss like a movie star.” Making out meant kissing and petting.
“Sure. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Go wait for me.” I smiled sweetly.
“Really?”
“Of course, not, you idiot! Do you think I like tuna fish kisses?”
“You’re being mean, Sonia. And you told Cookie. The whole world will know by now.” Robbie looked hurt.
“Well, it’s your fault. You shouldn’t be jumping out of dark corners and kissing girls without their permission.” At that exact moment, I looked up, and there it was, outlined against the lighter sky. The figure stood at the edge of the parapet, cape blowing in the cold breeze. He seemed to be gazing down on us. “Robbie, look!” I pointed up at the roof of 601.
Robbie looked up. “That is strange. What’s he doing up there? The roof is off limits. It has been since the accident.”
“He went up the firescape. I saw him earlier. He must be up there for the view.”
“It’s not a little kid, but he’s in costume. Vampire, I think. Funny, that’s what Gus was wearing when he took the dive.”
“You knew him?”
“Yeah, he was always after my sister. I saw him, you know. I heard the sirens, and I went out on the firescape. We’re not so high, and I could look down on the body. It was sprawled all twisted and bent at weird angles, like broken pieces of twigs. The blood was a large puddle under his head, but it looked black in the night, not red. His cape, torn off him in the fall, was lying a few feet away.” Robbie shuddered as if he were very cold.
“I’ve never seen a dead person.” I could imagine Robbie’s feelings.
“It was my first and only. I still have trouble falling asleep. The image plays on my mind at night.”
“I hope that guy is careful. He sure is leaning close to the edge.” Being afraid of heights, I could not understand taking such chances. “Come on, the houses across the street should be easy.” They were all two-family homes.
Our side of Marcy had the tall tenements. The other side was all two stories, and there was a bodega on the last one. The owner lived on the second floor and ran his business on the first. His son was a dreamboat, but he only looked at the beautiful, popular girls. That left me out.
The bodega was bathed in bright light. In front, the usual suspects milled around with deep-yellow Millers and lighted Marlboros in hand, content in their usual pastime: skirt watching. Middle-aged and old men passing time together, waiting to go to the factories in the morning.
It was nine o’clock, time to gather my brothers and get home. The next day was Tuesday and a school day, and Pop did not play games with school days. They were sacred. Jimmy was nearby, but Freddie was nowhere to be seen. I could not go home without Freddie.
“Robbie, can you find Freddie for me? I know he went to the projects, and Dad would kill me if he knew I went there.”
“I’ll go, but only if you meet me tonight on the firescape at midnight, after everyone is asleep.”
I weighed my options. “All right, but no kissing.”
Robbie smiled like he just hit a number and ran off, makeshift bandages flopping in the wind. Jimmy and I waited by our stoop, while Mom kept watch from above. Twenty minutes later, Robbie came back hauling a reluctant Freddie by the arm.
Freddie was without his Frankenstein mask, and his pea coat was wet and covered in what I guessed was raw egg. His face was red, and his hair was also covered in raw egg. The smell was disgusting. “What happened to you?”
“The project kids egged us and tried to take our candy. They didn’t get mine, but I got theirs!”
“You went into their turf? You deserve to get egged, you moron.”
“Yeah, but I got more candy and money, and I kicked ass.”
“Don’t talk like street trash,” I berated him. “We are not like them. Is Mom trash? Look at Dad. He’s never been on welfare. He’s up every morning at four to drive a laundry truck because our people are not trash. Mom’s people came from Spain. She hears you talk like that, she’ll take a belt to you.”
“You better not tell her then.” He ran upstairs without a single guilty glance behind him. He wasn’t worried. He could break every rule, and the belt would never come down for him because he was the baby. He didn’t know better. If he did wrong, it was our fault. We failed to guide and protect him. It was so not fair.
“I dragged him away from a rumble,” Robbie complained. “He and his friends were fighting at least half a dozen black kids. He’ll need to watch out in school. They’ll be out for him.”
“I know. No matter what we say, how we try to teach him, he does what he wants, and it’s never good. He skips school all the time and goes to the park with his friends. He makes Mom cry.” I looked up, and there she was, watching. Pop went to bed early, needing to be up at four.
“Remember, midnight, firescape.” Robbie winked at me and took off. He did not have a curfew. His father left them some time back, and his mother was entertaining her latest boyfriend. Back upstairs, I locked the front door with the security bar, and I went to join my mother at the window.
“Your little brother came home covered in egg. Where were you when that happened?”
“Momma, I tried to hold on to him. He pulled away and ran down the stairs. By the time I got down, he was nowhere in sight. I had to send Robbie to find him.”
“I know. He is getting worse every day, and I don’t know what to do. It’s so different here. The other kids are so different.” She sighed and looked sad. I needed to change subjects, or she’d start crying.
“Momma, who was the man who went up the firescape earlier?”
“What man? No one went up the firescape. I’ve been here since you left. Never left this window, and no one has passed by me.”
“I saw him. I was right in the middle of the next block, past Vernon Street. I looked up, and you were at the window, and he was climbing to the roof.”
“How can that be? He did not pass me, and the window above us belongs to Mrs. Mariani. At her age, she goes to bed with the birds, and no one lives with her. You must have made a mistake. You were probably looking at the next building over.”
I held my tongue. The next building was four stories, not six like ours. It was no use arguing or putting worries in her head. She was superstitious enough as it was.
“Tomorrow is a school day, and you need to be up by seven. Go get ready for bed. I’ll close the windows. It’s going to get pretty cool tonight.”
Chapter Three
I turned the latch cautiously, and with infinite patience, pulled the bottom sash careful not to make any noise. I wedged the piece of wood along its side to keep it from sliding back down and waking someone. Mastering my fear, I climbed out the window into the metal cage to sit on the first step of the firescape ladder. Robbie was already there. His window was on the third floor, and he had no fear of heights. The view was so much better five stories up.
We were suspended above the world, our metal balcony a virtual birdcage hanging from an invisible cord in the sky. The autumn breeze blew cold and sparkling, bringing with it the promise of winter. Once in a while, the scent of sea water reached us. Below, washes of streetlight fell in round puddles dotting the lands
cape with circles of light surrounded by shadows.
Silence, there never was any. New York City never whispered, not even at night. The bodega across the street was closed, but my uncle’s was still open, and the usual suspects had moved over to it.
“He called to me,” were Robbie’s first words.
“Who called to you?”
“The guy up there.”
The little hairs on my arms stood as if someone walked over my grave. “Robbie, my mother never saw anyone pass her. She never saw him at all. But I saw him. He was within an arm’s reach of her.”
“He’s still up there,” he replied.
“How do you know?”
“Because I stood across the street not ten minutes ago, and he looked straight at me and signaled me to come over. He called to me with his hand, as if he knew me.” Robbie’s head tilted up to the roof, and his eyes fixed on a point above. “His face was bare and pale.”
“Why would he do that?” I felt real fear in that instant. Fear for Robbie. “And what is he doing on the roof all this time? We went out about 6:30, and I saw him maybe fifteen minutes later. He’s been up there for hours.”
“I don’t know. I’m tempted to go just to see who it is.”
“No! Don’t you dare. You don’t want to get in trouble with the super. He’s a mean bully. You’d have to come back down the ladder. Besides, you don’t know what he wants. He might want to do you harm. Rumors have always said your friend was pushed.”
“No one can say anything about Gus. No one saw anything. No witnesses came forward. He was probably high. I bet that’s what he went up there to do. To get high. When you are drugged up, you think you can fly. I bet you Gus tried to fly.”
“Robbie, don’t go up there. Please. He’s probably gone now.”
“We can check. Come on, let’s go down and check from across the street.”
“No, I can’t. I’m afraid of heights. My limit is sitting here.”
“I’ll go then. Don’t leave. I’ll go back up the stairs to my house. Watch for someone coming down the ladder.”
“Ok. I can do that.”
Robbie made his way down the firescape, and when he reached the bottom box, he hung on to the last rung and jumped, landing on his feet like a cat. A few men loitering by Uncle Leo’s bodega saw him, but there was nothing unusual about kids going up and down the firescapes, and most sneaked out at night using them.
Robbie waited for a late-night yellow cab to pass, and then he crossed the street and stood to watch the roof line above me. He went tense at once, his eyes focused with unnerving concentration.
Following his gaze, I stood clutching the metal tightly and looked up, fighting the instant wave of vertigo that hit me. There, on the corner parapet, a dark figure stood. I could make out the flapping cape. Slowly, it leaned over and swiveled his head to look at me.
I could make out that he was bare faced and pale, but I could not make out his features. For a moment, he watched me, but only for a moment. His attention turned back to Robbie. I saw clearly as he lifted a pale hand and beckoned to Robbie. It was a clear signal of the hand, the way a friend might call you over at a playground to show you something mysterious or interesting.
My eyes flew to Robbie. He stood tense, as if a string pulled him to that beckoning hand, eyes feverish and intent on the figure on the roof. One thing I knew without doubt; Robbie wanted to answer the summons. He ached to go!
***
“No one came down the fire escape?”
“No, no one,” I whispered. “You were right. He’s up there. I saw him call to you. Face pale and hand the same. He is not interested in me, but he wants you.” I shivered uncontrollably. Robbie reached over and placed his arm around me to keep me warm.
“Did you see his face? Can you describe him?”
“No. I could see the paleness, the dark, longish hair. I can guess at dark eyes, but I could not tell anything else. Why is he up there? Alone? All these hours?”
“He’s waiting for me. He’s waiting to show me something. Maybe it has to do with Gus. Maybe there is evidence or something he wants to show me.”
“No, no, absolutely no! You can’t go up there. For any reason, Robbie. I think we should call the police.”
“And tell them what?”
“That someone has been on the roof for hours, probably waiting for everyone to go to bed so he can break into an apartment.”
“You think that’s it? Can it be that simple? Why does he call to me, then?”
“I don’t know. He probably thinks you’d join him. You do have a reputation for trouble.”
“I do not! I have a reputation for the ladies. I am experienced. Wanna practice?” He reached playfully with one hand for my chin. I smacked his hand away.
“You try to put that tongue in my mouth again, I’ll bite it off.”
“You are no fun, girl. Cookie wouldn’t say no.”
“Cookie is a slut. I am not.”
“You know,” he turned serious again, “we don’t have to tell the cops. We can tell the super. He’s down at your uncle’s bodega.” No one really knew the super’s name. He was just the “super.” It was used like a first name, title, everything.
“Why didn’t I think of that? You’re right. Go tell him. Tell him that someone has been on the roof for hours. He’ll get the key, and you can go check it out with him.”
“I’m on it. Don’t move from here, in case he comes down.”
“I won’t, believe me. I am as curious as you are.”
Chapter Four
It took a while before I saw Robbie come out of my uncle’s basement bodega. There were three men with him, one of them the miserable super. It probably took a lot of convincing and wheedling to get the mean jerk out of the bodega where friends, beer, and a domino table kept the block’s losers entertained late on any given night. Uncle Leo ran numbers from the place, and that’s where he made the real money.
I watched as the small group made their way up the stoop, and then I kept my eyes on the roof line. There were only two ways up and down that roof. You could use the inside stairs and if you had the key, open the heavy, commercial-grade lock to let yourself into it.
The other way was the firescape, and going up was a lot easier than coming down. It would be tricky finding that first rung with your back to the outside and the wind blowing at you. Before the boy died, there was no lock on the door. Anyone could go up and come down safely.
I kept my eyes on the parapet, expecting to see the mystery man start on his way down, but the minutes passed and nothing moved up there. After a long while, my heart thundered when a figure leaned over, and then there were several of them. Someone trained a flashlight down on me, and I knew it was the super. They must have gotten him. I breathed a sigh of relief.
***
I shook uncontrollably. The night had turned cold, but my shaking had nothing to do with that. Something sharp and icy had taken hold of my heart. I could not go back to bed, and I could not stay out here.
“But he didn’t come down. I swear it by all that is dear to me. I am neither stupid nor blind, and I have no reason to lie. Robbie, no one came down. You all missed him! He hid somewhere.”
“There is nowhere to hide, I tell you. The roof is empty, not even a beer bottle up there. Not a brick. No hidden openings anywhere. After the accident, the landlord had the super clean it up and lock it. The drop at the back is instant death. The buildings are connected, and all the doors are padlocked from the inside. The firescapes are all to the front.
“The place was empty when we opened the door. We could see clearly in every direction. Now the super thinks we’re playing games with him, and he’s talking to our parents tomorrow. I don’t care. My mother won’t give a shit, but you’ll be in trouble.”
“I don’t care about being in trouble. I want an answer.” Tears were filling my eyes, and my throat was tight. “Who is he? What did he want? Where did he go? Are we going crazy?”
“No, of course not. People don’t go crazy together. We both saw him for hours. There has to be an answer.”
“The answer may not be what we want to hear.” It was Halloween night, and on such nights, things happened. Superstition was a deep part of my culture, and when we could not see a logical answer to a problem, the illogical had great appeal. “Why did he call to you? Does he know you? He looked at me, but he didn’t call to me. Only to you.”
“It’s a guy. Guys are more likely to be up on roofs drinking, smoking, talking about guy stuff. A girl would not be as likely to make the climb. It’s that simple.” Robbie pulled out a pack Kools from his back pocket. I wasn’t surprised. Most of the kids began smoking early, even the girls. He lit a cigarette and sat there trying to blow smoke rings while mulling over the problem.
“My mother says this building is packed full of ghosts,” he finally said. “She says half the people living here are espiritistas, and the other half are espiritos.” He chuckled. Translated, it meant that half the residents believed in spirits and the other half were the spirits. It was a joke, and one that made my skin crawl.
I often had a nightmare where I felt something hovering over me, keeping me paralyzed as I struggled to move. When I told my mother, she said that evil spirits probably haunted the building. She gave me a Bible to keep under my pillow, and she made me memorize Psalm 91. It would protect me from evil, she said.
“It’s late. I get up early tomorrow, and so do you. We better go in. The roof is empty so there’s no reason to stay up. Go home, Robbie, and get your sleep, or you’ll not wake up in time for school.”
“I’m thinking about quitting, anyway. I’m not smart like you, Sonia.” He flicked the stub over the railing.
“And do what? Hang out with those losers by the bodega, listening to their stale jokes and bumming cigarettes? Waiting out your time to go to work at your mom’s factory? The sky is the limit here, and you want to waste your chances because you’re too lazy to do school work?”