Fifteen

Archer enters the lobby of the apartment building and the security guard behind the desk looks up at him curiously. He notices his destination is the elevators and he speaks up professionally.

"Excuse me, sir," the man says.

Archer cocks his head up and looks at him.

"You won't be able to get back up to the apartment without a card."

"Huh," he grunts. "I don't have a fucking card, a'right, so you'll just have to buzz me up."

"Sir," the man says patiently. "You need a card."

"I'm staying with Maddy Bowen, huh," he approaches the desk and drills his finger down against the granite top. "I walked her out a second ago, you saw us, ja?"

The man nods.

Archer lifts his hands and scoffs sardonically. "A'right, bru, I don't see an issue."

"I'll have to escort you up."

Archer nods. The man walks out from behind the desk and they ride the elevator up together in tense silence. Archer makes no effort to thank or even acknowledge him when the elevator doors open to Maddy's apartment. He just steps out and storms over to the sofa, dropping himself down like dead weight.

"Mister Archer, you are back so soon?"

Archer nods.

"Where is Miss Bowen?"

"Developing her film."

"Why are you back here without her?"

"Why are you asking so many fucking questions, bru?"

Solomon withdraws into himself apologetically. The two men watch television together for an hour before Archer takes up his usual chain smoking by the window. He leans against the cool glass and looks down at the city as though searching for Maddy among the crowd on the streets below. She's long gone, he thinks. She walks quickly when she has somewhere to be.

He smokes his first cigarette to the filter and nearly singes his lips. He flicks the butt out of the window and lights another. His palms are sweating. His heart is racing. His temples are throbbing. He feels the same way he felt when he punched Maddy by accident in the plane. Guilty. In the wrong. He draws in a deep, slow inhale and holds his breath for a moment before expelling smoke from his nostrils.

Archer realizes that he really has offended Maddy. She is usually even-tempered and for her to snap at him the way she did earlier meant that he must have really set her off. He replays her comments to him about the way he looked at her over and over again, and try as he might, he can't see how he was in the wrong.

Solomon's focus is on the television. He's watching a program about fish in the tropics. He has never seen anything more captivating than a group of bright sea creatures swimming in unison. The only fish he has ever seen were the ones in the nets he used to pull in Sierra Leone to make a living. Those fish were dull and lifeless. These were brightly colored and full of energy. He was hypnotized.

Archer lights his third cigarette. He is still thinking about Maddy and about how she became his problem ever since she decided not to board the plane. When she followed them into the brush, Maddy was his priority. Maddy was his. He was the one holding the wheel in Africa, he had his foot on the gas. Now, in New York, Maddy could take care of herself. She didn't need Archer, Archer needed her. He didn't like needing someone just as much as Maddy didn't like it. They were identical while being on opposite ends of the spectrum.

He sighs and rubs the back of his neck after flicking his cigarette butt out the window. He folds his arms across his chest and decides that he needs to get back to Sierra Leone. Without Maddy and her optimism chirping at his side, his mind is free to wander back to the streets he pushed diamonds on, to the bushes he trekked through to go from city to city for rocks. He pats his pockets and feels the diamonds he has on him now. They are not enough anymore. A big pink and a small pull-sack of tiny diamonds are no longer enough for Danny Archer. He needs more.

He abandons his smoking post near the window and goes back to the couch. He is unimpressed with the fish on the screen. He puts his head back and closes his eyes, willing himself to sleep. He knows what he's going to do now to get back to Africa. He'll sell a few small stones through Maddy's contact and get just enough money for a plane ticket and a few meals back home. Then he would be gone and out of Maddy's life so that she didn't have to worry about being his piece of meat anymore.