This Place Only

Chapter Six - Xeronix

Chapter Six

Xeronix

Lauren did not work at the hospital (this hospital), so I assumed there was little chance she'd be living in what ought to have been our apartment. Still, I had to check and see. This was not my world. I knew that. I was still me, but not me. The only constant seemed to be David.

I directed the driver to let me off right in front of Mama Ippolitos. Immediately, I knew that finding Lauren (even an alternate Lauren as I myself seemed to have been substituted) was remote. In this reality, Mama Ippolitos was Tin Tin Chinese Delivery and a sign next to the stairway leading to the apartment upstairs read Perfect Replacement Temp Service.

I felt as if I was the one doing Temp Service and wondered idly if perhaps this time I was allergic to shrimp fried rice.

As the cab pulled back into the flow of traffic, I felt the tide upon me. Pushing me. The studio in which I worked with David was down Main Street and to the left onto Millpond Parkway, just past the Old Monroe Theater. So many things had changed around me, but I somehow knew that the studio existed in this "when". The name had changed when I was married to the woman named Stephanie, but it was still there, albeit in altered form. If I didn't concentrate on who I was, the illusion began to grow stronger. The smells. The atmosphere. I tried to hang onto this as I closed the distance between me and the place I knew I needed to be.

Lauren is waiting for me. She's out there. Or out here. Somewhere.

When I approached the building, which seemed significantly closer to the Monroe Theater than I remembered, I grew cold. The dark stone façade of the structure seemed to suck all warmth from around it. The windows facing out toward Crane Park reflected nothing. Pits of darkness. The building was a creature of silence and emptiness, but my soul knew this to be incorrect. Something within it moved. And waited. The sign above the entryway read:

XERONIX

I took the front steps slowly, my eyes trying to pierce the double front door windows. I could still discern only darkness inside (it could be empty, right?), but was highly uneasy about it.

When I reached the doors, they were unlocked. What choice did I have? I let myself in.

Did he know I was coming, or had I still the smallest bit of surprise on my side?

The lobby was empty, devoid of any furnishing or equipment. I walked down the hallway into deepening shades of darkness. David's office was at the far end of the hall-or, it should have been, if things hadn't changed so much.

I walked slowly, feeling each footfall, breathing an odd, burnt-electrical odor that went against my memories of working here.

And then a thought. A wild, much too hopeful thought. What if David wasn't here?

But the front door was unlocked.

I know... but just what if? I'd be able to spend the entire night searching his office and its files. There might be an answer somewhere. A clue. Something that might explain all of this!

"Please come in, Will," a voice called from the room at the end of the hall.

David's voice.

Great.

Strangely, just knowing he was here caused my shoulders to relax and my tightly balled fists to drop open.

David's office was pretty much the same with dark colors and brooding artwork. Even the plant on his desk was there-the one he said needed no soil, water or sunlight. David was sitting behind the large desk and actually looked happy to see me. Excited.