ELEVATOR STORIES (2)If not for the elevator, we would have been strangers to one another. Now, living in such close quarters, it is impossible not to know the history of everyone here. In fact, there is so much history that it consumes us, since there is little else to occupy our time. We sometimes stare at the back or face of the person in front of us. In this manner, I have memorized the mole on Margaret Lars's neck. I think it is pre-cancerous, although over the years it has failed to grow, which – in a way that I cannot adequately express – I find disappointing. It would have been a rich source of conversation. But, alas, it is not to be.
I also notice Flem Pickering's excessively large jowls. Pickering has up-swept silver hair like a Baptist preacher. When he talks, however, his sque
