Chapter 30: Next to You
Downtown Turtle Bay Reef
Shell Street
Turtle Bay Reef Apartments
Apartment 3-B
October 5, 20—
1:07 P.M.
My ankle was never going to heal, I had finally realized when I returned to my apartment. Lightning-like pain skied up my left leg and flared. The ankle itself swelled to twice its size, which prompted me to rest on the sofa with a nightcap in hand. The apartment felt extremely hot. Frankly, the temperature outside became too low to turn the air conditioner on, so I had to grin and bear the maddening heat. I opened all the living room windows, became exhausted, and eventually sat on the battered sofa.
The city’s sounds rose from the street and meandered inside my place: two men talking on Shell Street, cabs passing, a light wind echoing through the buildin
