A Shock

by Keith Ridgway

  David looked at her.

  — Well, she said. That’s harsh isn’t it? It is. But they’ve obsessed about it quite a bit more than is healthy I think.

  He brushes the smallest crumbs away.

  — That’s a shame, he says.

  He talks on the phone, telling someone that he has dead men in his flat and that’s why it’s cheap. He is laughing. He is laughing about that idea. He says their names, and he asks the person he is talking to whether they have heard those names, and then he asks about something else.

  In the shower he carefully examines the tiles at head height. He washes his hair. The bathroom is private.

  He puts books on the shelves in the living room, and spends a long time rearranging them. He tries to make the desk sit flush to the windowsill but it is slightly too big, and there is a gap of a few centimetres. He peels an orange and leaves the segments on the counter top and puts one in his mouth whenever he passes by while he unpacks the boxes in the hallway and in the bedroom and puts things where he wants them to be.

  Finally the only unpacked boxes left are in the bedroom. The blind is down in the living room. It is very hot. All the blinds are down. He sends some messages on his phone. He laughs at a reply he gets, and spends a few minutes texting back and forth with someone. Then he goes to the bedroom and takes off his clothes and lies on the bed and masturbates, looking all the time at the phone in his hand. Then he has another shower and puts on clean clothes.

  He reads. He just sits in the living room reading a book.

  Downstairs in the garden the cat is chasing flies, a butterfly. She looks at the flat where Nadia and Laura live.

  Someone comes to the flat. A man about the same age as David. They kiss and hug like friends, and David shows him around and they talk about the flat and about Karl and Peppi and about Alison. David tells him all about it, and about Laura and Nadia downstairs.

  — They sound a little intense, says his friend.

  — They are a little intense.

  — Maybe they killed them. Buried them in the garden.

  They both laugh at this idea as if it is funny.

  Later David changes again and they leave.

  He doesn’t come back until almost five the next morning. He is alone. His eyes are red. Yellow. He takes off his clothes and sleeps on top of the bed, sweating a little. He twitches in his sleep. In his sleep he covers himself with the duvet. He sleeps until early afternoon. When he wakes he spends a long time on his phone.

  His kitchen is empty. He drinks two glasses of water. With the second glass he swallows a large blue grey pill that he takes from a foil in a box in a cupboard. Then he sniffs at his body and puts on his shorts and T-shirt from the day before, and a pair of sandals, and leaves. He closes the door of the flat. Then there is a pause before he turns the key in the second lock. All the windows are closed. The flat is warm, the air still, and nothing seems to move.

  David watches some shows on his laptop. Reads. He has bought food and put it in the fridge. Vegetables — broccoli, green beans, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, an avocado, an aubergine, some chillis. Also cheese, a bottle of white wine. Two tubs of yoghurt. A small lemon cake. Orange juice. He has bought rice and pasta. Tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, olive oil, spices, eggs, a bag of bagels, and a bar of chocolate which he has left on a shelf in one of the cupboards. It has begun to soften but he hasn’t noticed. He has eaten a meal of mushrooms and onions and broccoli and rice. He has a glass of wine now.

  He makes a phone call to his mother. He tells her about the flat. About how nice it is. He describes the rooms. He says that the flat has five rooms, and names them. Hallway. Bedroom. Bathroom. Living room. Kitchen. This is not true. He describes the garden. He tells her about his downstairs neighbours. He talks about how hot it is in London. He asks her questions about a sister, and about an aunt. They talk for almost twenty minutes and he ends the call by telling his mother that he loves her. He finishes his wine and gets himself a glass of water and puts another show on his laptop and holds his phone in his hand, and his attention moves between the show and his phone, and every few minutes he takes a sip of the water. The blinds are open now in the living room and the sun is going down. He yawns. He puts the phone aside and turns off the show and watches some pornography on his laptop for a couple of minutes before standing up to close the blinds. He looks out over the garden, and over the walls to the grid of gardens beyond. The dark is coming up out of the ground. The sky is a deep blue. He snaps the blinds shut and watches the pornography and masturbates. When he ejaculates he pinches some of his semen in his fingers and puts it in his mouth, his eyes still on the screen. After a while he goes for a shower. He puts on fresh boxer shorts and goes to bed. He reads his book for a short while and then turns off his bedside lamp.

  The flat is very quiet. He turns over and settles and his breathing slows and he falls asleep. His phone is charging by his bed. In the living room his laptop is charging. The chocolate in the cupboard has partially melted. A mouse behind the plaster in the wall pauses and scratches for a while, then moves to a tiny hole that leads to the flat downstairs where Nadia and Laura live with their nameless cat who is a good mouser.

  The flat has five room names. But only four rooms. It is a strange mistake to make.

  An alarm. A melody which begins softly and becomes louder. David groans and then opens his eyes, and he looks startled. He stares at the window, and then at the door. He sits up, picks up his phone, and the alarm stops. He curses. Lies down again. After five minutes the same alarm starts again. David sits upright, turns it off. Looks at the door. He throws back the duvet and gets up. He goes to the bathroom.

  In the kitchen there are unwashed dishes. His laptop is fully charged. The chocolate is hard again but misshapen. There is the loud sound of the shower from the bathroom, and in the kitchen the hum of the fridge and in the distance, drilling starts.

  David comes out of the bathroom in a towel. He puts his boxer shorts in a laundry basket in the bedroom. He stands in front of the mirror in the wardrobe door and takes the towel off and looks at himself as he dries his hair and his back and his legs. He dresses in boxer shorts, a blue shirt, grey trousers, socks, black shoes. He goes back to the bathroom. He curses, then he comes back to the bedroom and combs his hair in front of the mirror there. He goes back to the bathroom. He comes back again with a bottle of hair gel. He squeezes a small drop in the palm of his left hand and throws the bottle on the bed and with the fingers of his right hand he pinches the hair gel from his palm and puts it into his hair, looking at himself carefully in the mirror. In the little hallway there is nothing. In the living room and kitchen there is just the morning air and the sound of drilling which starts and stops, starts and stops. David walks through the flat to the fridge. His shoes are loud on the linoleum. He pours himself an orange juice. He swallows another blue grey pill. He looks around.

  — Oranges, he says.

  He cuts a bagel in two and holds the halves and looks around.

  — Oh for fuck’s sake. Toaster.

  He smiles. He opens the grill and looks in. He sighs. He puts the halves of the bagel on a plate. He looks in the fridge. He sighs again. He puts the plate with the bagel on it in the fridge and closes it. He looks at his phone. He walks across the room and unplugs the laptop and puts it in a bag that has been sitting on the chair in front of the desk. He puts some papers that have been sitting on the desk in there as well. The desk is slightly too big to sit flush against the windowsill. He stares into the bag for a moment. Then he pulls the blind up. He takes the bag and leaves the room. He immediately comes back, sighing again, and lowers the blind, muttering unintelligibly. He goes out to the little hallway. He rummages in his bag, pulls out some headphones and puts them around his neck and plugs them into his phone. Then he opens the door of the flat and goes out and closes the door behind him. There is a small pause and th
en he locks the second lock.

  He is at home and cooking when there is a knock at the door. He pulls on a T-shirt. It is Nadia. He asks her in and apologises for the state of the flat but the flat is tidier than it has been since he arrived. All the boxes are gone. Everything is put away. A new vase sits on the small table that was in the hall but which is now beside the bookshelves. The vase is empty. Nadia tells David that he should pick some flowers from the garden. She tells him the flat is tidier than she’s ever seen it before. Only his desk is untidy, but she doesn’t say this.

  — I just wanted to invite you to dinner really. Oh, not tonight, Friday night? If you fancy it.

  David doesn’t say anything. He is frowning, looking at the vase.

  — Not to worry if you can’t. A couple of other friends are coming over.

  — That would be great. I’m just hesitating because I have half an arrangement for Friday night. But it’s not, you know

  — Oh that’s cool.

  — It’s not confirmed. Half date sort of thing. Mightn’t happen.

  — Oh well you can’t miss that. First date?

  David glances at the window.

  — Yes. Well. Yes.

  — Ok, well maybe another time.

  — I mean, I’m not sure it’ll happen. Can I confirm one way or the other with you tomorrow?

  — Sure. You want my number?

  They stand at the kitchen counter and Nadia tells David her number and he puts it into his phone while she looks at his books.

  — What are you making? she asks him.

  — Uh. Some pasta. Just with broccoli. Beans. Pesto.

  — Are you vegetarian?

  — Yes. Sorry.

  — No, no, so am I. Laura will eat seafood sometimes but that’s it. So it’ll be something veggie on Friday. Burritos or something.

  — That’d be great. I’ve texted you, so you have mine.

  — Oh, it’s downstairs. Anyway, I’ll leave you to it.

  In the hallway she apologises to David for the previous time, when he was in their flat. He smiles and tells her that there is nothing to apologise for, and says that Alison told him what had happened. She says that it’s still a bit weird, especially for Laura, the idea that their friends have vanished. He says he understands. She says goodbye and he closes the door. David turns and looks annoyed. He pulls off his T-shirt and throws it towards the bedroom door as he walks back into the kitchen.

  How many rooms are in the flat? There are five. There is the hallway. The bedroom. The bathroom. The living room. The kitchen. That is five. But the living room and the kitchen are combined. They are one room. So there are four rooms in the flat.

  No. There are five.

  The fifth room is hidden.

  It is dark. There is music playing softly somewhere. The door to the living room and kitchen is closed. The small light over the sink in the bathroom is on, and the door is open. The light in the hallway is on.

  There is suddenly the loud noise of the buzzer. There is a laugh from the bedroom, and David appears. He picks up the intercom and says hello. There is a muffled voice and David says ‘first floor’ in response and then opens the door of the flat and waits. He puts his hand on his hair. Looks down, flicks something from his chest. A man appears.

  — David?

  — Yeah. Come in, come in.

  — Hi. I’m Ravi.

  — Nice to meet you. You found it ok.

  — Sure, easy.

  They are smiling at each other. David closes the door and they kiss. The man is wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. David is wearing a white T-shirt and navy shorts. They go to the bedroom, which is neat and tidy. David’s laptop is on the bedside table. Ravi tells David that he has a nice flat. David thanks him. They undress while talking about sexual things. When they are naked Ravi kneels in front of David and takes his cock into his mouth. He caresses David’s chest and stomach and back. David puts his hand on Ravi’s head and moans quietly. There is music playing on the laptop but it is a small, restricted sound, tinny and flat. Ravi sucks David’s cock for a while, and then David pulls Ravi to his feet and they kiss deeply and he runs his hands over Ravi’s body. They get onto the bed and kiss more before David kneels on the bed and lowers his head to Ravi’s cock and puts it in his mouth. In the hallway there is a fly. In the living room there are two. In the bedroom there is a large moth behind the blind, which is closed. The moth is trying to get out but can’t. Ravi and David have sex for about half an hour. Eventually David comes inside Ravi, and Ravi comes at the same time, on his own stomach. David pinches some of Ravi’s semen in his fingers and puts it in his mouth and groans and Ravi laughs. They shower separately. David lies on the bed naked and looks at things on his laptop while Ravi showers. When Ravi comes back in he starts getting dressed. David offers Ravi a glass of wine but he declines. David puts on his shorts, and they kiss in the hallway again and Ravi thanks David and leaves. They don’t say anything about meeting again. After Ravi is gone David sits in the living room and calls someone and tells them about Ravi. He says that Ravi is sexy, but not very friendly. He tells his friend that he is still horny and he laughs.

  A friend of David’s arrives. It is evening. He looks the same age as David. He has darker skin and a shaved head. He has tattoos. David has no tattoos. He is a little taller than David. He is wearing jeans and a black vest, sandals. He has sunglasses but he has taken them off and they sit on top of his bag which is on the kitchen counter. David points things out to him.

  — Storage is great. There’s loads of cupboards. I’m not even using half of them.

  — It’s lovely. Much nicer than the last place.

  — Isn’t it?

  — New toaster.

  — Haven’t even used it. Threw out mouldy bagels this morning. Been getting a smoothie on the walk to work.

  — Health.

  — Health.

  — Chocolate though.

  His friend is holding the bar of chocolate that was in the cupboard.

  — I forgot about that.

  — It’s gone weird. It’s melted and

  — Been there since I moved in.

  — gone all flat and hardened again.

  — Bin it.

  The friend looks around. The bin is under the counter. He throws the chocolate in.

  — What were the names of the guys?

  — What guys?

  — The ones who lived here.

  — Karl and Eppi. Or Peppi. Peppi I think.

  — It’s a bit weird.

  — Nah not really. They did a runner. I mean I suppose doing a runner is a bit weird. But it’s not weird like the Marie Celeste sort of weird.

  — The what?

  David laughs.

  — It was a ship. Found floating somewhere with no one on it. Cups of tea on the table still warm. Food on the plates. No one aboard.

  — When was this?

  — Oh eighteen something. I can’t remember.

  His friend is smiling.

  — It’s a novel?

  — No, no. It happened. You’ve never heard of the Marie Celeste?

  They cook a meal together. David does most of the cooking but his friend chops mushrooms and garlic and opens wine. David doesn’t eat very much. They talk a lot about sex but they are not sexual with each other. David tells his friend about Ravi. David says that he’s been on the apps more than usual but that he’s been too busy to hook up. He says that anyway he prefers to go to other guys’ places. David tells him that Ravi has been the only guy he’s had over since he moved in.

  This is not true.

  David is standing on a chair. It is his desk chair from the living room. It is placed in front of the mirror in the bedroom. He is barefoot, wearing only shorts. He is putting a coat into the top part of the wardrobe. Th
e coat is folded. He rises on his toes and stretches to put it in towards the back of wardrobe. Then he steps off the chair and takes a small pile of jumpers from the bed and steps up onto the chair again and puts the jumpers in as well. He steps down and goes out of the room. By the bedside on the window side of the bed is the small table that used to be in the hallway and which David then moved to the living room, the table which had a vase on it when Nadia called. David has moved it to the bedroom and it sits in the corner by the window, and on it now sits a large silver electric fan which isn’t on. In the hallway there are four empty boxes. A rat runs through the garden, at the foot of the wall. The cat leaps away from its path and turns and waits, and tentatively goes back to find it but it’s gone now, through a tangle of shrubs in the corner and a gap between bricks into the next garden and over towards a house with a boarded-up basement. In the kitchen there is the new toaster. The vase now sits on one of the bookshelves in the living room.

  David comes back into the bedroom with a bag. It bulges with what looks like scarves, hats perhaps. Through the plastic of the bag it is possible to see the outline of a hand. It is a glove. He stands on the chair and puts the bag into the top of the wardrobe. He farts, and laughs. Then he steps down and half runs out of the room.

  The fan came in a box and the toaster came in a box, and each of these boxes had come in other bigger boxes. David looks at all these boxes in the hallway and sighs. He folds his arms and walks slowly into the living room and over to his desk. He takes a sip from a mug that sits there and he looks out the window and sees the cat sitting off to the left staring into the bushes. It is early morning. He leans over his desk and looks at something on his laptop. He hums. He coughs a couple of times. The desk does not sit flush with the windowsill. He stands up straight and looks outside again, at the cat who is still in the same place, at the gardens with their matted green and yellow trees and hedges, bushes, plants, and he looks at the windows of the houses on all sides. He finishes whatever he is drinking. Coffee probably. Yes, there is a small cafetière on the kitchen counter. David hums and sways a little. He swings his hips, sings a line of a song. Then he turns and walks to the kitchen and puts the cafetière and the mug in the sink.