The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

The Bureau of Dreams to be Continued

Page 102

At the 86th floor, we stepped out. Wind kissed our cheeks. He lifted me to the railing. The city sprawled below like a map of his youth; tenements, ballparks, the diner where he met my mother. He said, “One day, you’ll bring your own boy here.” I nodded, not knowing that memory is a building too, and some floors you never visit again.

Now I am older than he was then. The building still stands. The elevator still climbs. But the man is gone.

And the view from the 86th floor is just wind and silence and the echo of a hand that once held mine.

Way back when I used to feel loved and safe.