The light in the sky was slowly fading away, darkening the streets of Glasgow and plunging the entire city into darkness. The last rays of the sun were shimmering on the snow, its sharp white color contrasting with the still colored sky. The man was walking down the alley leading to the building at the end of it, an old tenement house built in the 1800s. Its structure contrasted with the other place from which the man was just coming from; a tall and ugly hangar sheltering numerous bodies of various cars and trucks. He was a mechanic, had been for years now, and often worked all day long in cold and vaste places to be able to dissemble things with ease. He loved his job, and he considered himself very lucky to be able to do something he truly loved, while being able to come home to his family at a decent hour every evening too.
His entire body shivered when he finally stepped inside the building's hall, taking off his coat to shake off the snow covering it, aware that his lover was pretty adamant with their apartment's cleanliness. He still had to take the stairs, but he did not want to add more annoying tasks to the caretaker of the building, knowing that melted snow in the stairs would most likely turn into mud under people's boots.
After tucking his coat under his arm, he headed to the stairs, the old wooden steps creaking under his feet with every step. His apartment was on the third floor, he had moved in a couple of months ago with his lover and their newborn daughter. He was an American, initially, but had fallen in love with a Scottish person, and followed said person to Scotland without second thoughts. He had no one back in Georgia, except for a brother that had been sentenced to life for robbing a grocery store with a heavily loaded gun years ago. He liked it here, the quiet neighborhood, the people, and most of all his partner's family. They had all been very nice to him from the first time he had met them, and he felt like he finally belonged somewhere in a real family. He hadn't really felt at ease anywhere before moving in this building. It was probably because he used to live in a ramshackle old trailer near Atlanta with his brother, and had never really gotten attached to what he considered
as a simple house more than a real home. But not went up the stairs slowly, taking in his surroundings and enjoying the little bits of other people's lives that he could catch from where he stood in the staircase. Sometimes it was someone cleaning the dishes, the plates resonating against the bottom in the sink and the water crashing against the porcelain. Sometimes it was a hushed conversation, or the muffled sound of a television. He loved being able to immerge himself inside people's lives for a short while, even if he mostly let his imagination take over the small sounds and create a whole new story behind these closed doors.
He had met some of his neighbors before. Not all of them, but it was a pretty big building and some came back from work at crazy hours, so he didn't have the chance to properly introduce himself yet. Although, he had sympathized with a couple of them, and it was a pretty huge step for an introvert like him. He had always been a little bit agoraphobic, fleeing from crowds as soon as he saw one and feeling uneasy every time that he had to hold a conversation for more than five minutes. His lover was way more sociable, and didn't hesitate to laugh, talk and joke with complete strangers. The dark haired man admired this ability to be liked by everyone all the time.
As he pasted the door giving to the hallway on the first floor, he smiled, remembering the time when he had met one of his neighbors for the first time. It was on a rainy day, and he had been running from his workplace to the tenement building, ending up completely soaked from head to toes when he arrived in front of the massive construction. He had been about to close the building's heavy door behind him when he had heard a shout, and had turned around to face the person staggering towards him, ineffectively shielding himself from the rain drops with the crook of his arm.
The man was not very tall, his dark hair completely stuck to his round face by the pouring rain. He had introduced himself soon after entering the building, extending his hand for the mechanic to take, and had babbled his name in a short erratic breath. Glenn -that was his name- had then thanked him profusely for holding the door, and the man had found himself replying, falling easily in a comfortable conversation. When he looked back to this moment, the man realized that they did not exchange much that night, just a few formalities, before heading to their , he had seen Glenn again. He had learned more about the man this time, and about his family. He was coming from Korea, but his mother was Scottish and he had been raised in the country. Later, he had gotten married with a girl from the country side, and they had moved in Glasgow together to found a family of their own. They had a baby boy a few months later, who wasn't that much younger than the mechanic's daughter. Once, Glenn and his wife Maggie had offered to keep Judith while the man and his lover went to the movie. Ever since, they had become close friends.
While climbing up to the second floor, the man could not help but smile when he heard the couple's baby shriek through the thin walls, silently wishing his friends good luck with their often moody son.
The second floor was a totally different story. Where Glenn and Maggie's sounds often amused him, the ones coming from the apartment just under his had always made him feel uneasy. When he was younger and when he still lived in his trailer near the woods of Atlanta, he had gotten used to the quiet of the forest. When he thought about the apartment downstairs and its inhabitants, he was often reminded of the forest. It was very rare to hear something come from this place, but when it did, the man often wished that he could barge in and make it silent again.
He had met the lady living there, a pretty young girl who reminded him of a scared little mouse when she was looking at her surroundings. She had never looked at him straight in the eyes, even when they had exchanged a few words, once. Her husband was a tall and ugly man, looking as bad as he seemed to be with her when no one was looking. The mechanic had seen the fainted ecchymoses on the girl's arms once, recognizing the same finger shaped bruises that his father used to leave on his body, and he had talked about it with his partner. His lover was a cop, and they thought that they could help, for a while. But eventually, the police stopped coming when they called, the young lady promising them that everything was fine every single time. So now, he could not do anything but to glower at the man when he walked past him. The mechanic remembered the time when he had almost barged in, ringing at the door in the middle of a fight between the couple.
"Are you alright, ma'm?" he had asked, trying to see past the door that she was shyly holding half closed in front of her entire body, only letting her eye peek through the tight opening."I am fine, Daryl. Thank you. Have a great night, alright?" she had replied with a stutter, forcing a smile on her visibly tensed face.
And just like that, she had closed the door again, leaving the man standing in the middle of the corridor, unable to help her.
Daryl had always hated feeling useless. He had always been a loner, never having to take care of anyone besides himself for most of his childhood. But he had a family now, and he knew it was his duty to provide and care for them. But he felt just as strongly involved with his friends, and although they had never talked more than a few times, he considered this young girl, Carol, as one of them. Yet, he could not do anything but flinch painfully every time he heard the loud thumps inside the apartment below.
Sighing loudly in the empty staircase, the mechanic opened the door leading to the third and last floor, trying to be as silent as possible. He was pretty late, way past ten now, and he knew that his lover was probably sound asleep already. Their fifteen month old baby had been keeping them awake lately, teething and crying all night long for the past couple of weeks. He wanted his lover to be able to sleep as much as possible, and he could not wait to slide under the covers of their warm bed as he opened the door, the wooden floor creaked under his foot as he stepped inside the apartment. The heavy silence immediately relaxed him, and he quickly took off his shoes and most of his wet clothes, heading to the bathroom afterwards. He jumped into the shower after throwing the messy pile of clothes into the laundry basket and closed his eyes with bliss. He really loved snow, he loved watching Judith's face glow with amazement and squint because of the cold, but he hated how it made his entire body freeze and shiver when his clothes stuck to his body. After washing and rinsing his entire body he got out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer briefs as the heating system was turned on. He thought about going to bed right away, the deep ache in his muscles making him wince with discomfort, but he wanted to see his daughter first. He hadn't seen her in the morning because she was still asleep at that time, worn out after crying for hours the night before, and he wanted to check on her before heading to bed too.
Judith's room was not entirely dark, the high ceiling reverberating the soft glistening light of the night-light. As soon as he tiptoed inside of the room, the cat jumped from the rocking-chair in the corner, rubbing her head against his ankle and meowing softly. He petted her between the ears, asking her to stay quiet with a hushed voice, heading to the crib at the other end of the room with catlike stealth.
His daughter was beautiful. Of course, he was her father and could not help but think so but she truly was, with her blonde curls and round face. Her eyes were closed, but she had two beautifully blue pupils like her father, a fact of which Daryl was very proud. Beside her, on the crib, a teddy bear was quietly watching over her, its fake fur wet with the little girl's saliva. She was now used to fall asleep with it, and ever since she had began teething the week before, her teddy bear was her
favorite victim. The man chuckled, remembering his daughter's joyful squeal on the day when he had walked in the apartment with said teddy-bear for the first time, the cuddly toy never leaving her side now.
Smiling tenderly, he kissed her round cheek and left the room, leaving the door slightly opened for the cat to leave if he wished during the night. Finally, he stepped inside his own bedroom. Inside, his lover was sound asleep, he could see the sheets rising in time with the other person's breath and light snores. He crawled into the bed, snuggling against his parter's back and kissing every bit of flesh available.
"Daryl? What time is it?" His lover asked, groggy with mechanic smiled, feeling the body against his arousing from a deep refreshing sleep."It's a little past ten" he replied, relaxing in the embrace when his partner entwined their fingers together. "I've just checked on Judith. Everything is fine. Go back to sleep." "Mmm. I love you, Daryl." "I love you too, honey."
And behind closed doors, the mechanic let himself fall into a blissful sleep in his husband's arms, unaware and undisturbed by the outside world's opinion about what was going on in the third floor's apartment.