Written by Aidan Fry
Edited by Janet Song
t 6:30 AM, Grace and David finished their cereal and wriggled their tennis shoes on. Mom trudged into the dining room in a nightgown and slippers. “Backpacks ready,” she mumbled. “Already did,” Grace replied. Her cereal had gone soggy, so she went into the kitchen with her laces undone and gave the bowl’s contents an unceremonious dump in the sink. Mom would clean it up for her, she thought. “Brush your teeth,” Mom said as Grace rushed back to her room. Grace didn’t want to, but she figured it would be best to avoid getting four cavities in a row. Besides, it wasn’t like she and her brother had to worry about being late for school. Today was a special day for them. David, already done with brushing his teeth, went outside to call the apartment elevator even while Grace was still in the bathroom. “Hurry up, Grace!” David yelled after rushing back inside. “Coming,” Grace replied. She gave a quick goodbye to Mom and snagged her backpack from off the floor, not bothering to close the door behind her as she left. Outside in the foyer, she saw David staring up at the left elevator’s floor indicator as it slowly crept up. It was still at 22. “Got everything?” Grace asked. “Yep,” David replied. “Where are we going first?” “Shh. Mom can still hear us.” Grace gestured to the
Designed by Alexander Pham
open apartment door. “Oh. Right,” David whispered. “So where are we going first?” “The malls aren’t open yet,” Grace whispered as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. “So we’ll go to 7-11 first to kill some time–” She shut up immediately upon noticing that the elevator wasn’t empty. Inside on the far right corner was a mother cradling an infant in her arms. The two siblings entered without a word. Grace checked to see that the ground floor button had already been pushed before squeezing up against the left wall. The doors slid shut. As all four walls of the elevator were mirrors, it was hard to find somewhere to look that didn’t meet the mother’s eyes. Grace cycled between looking up at the ceiling, staring at the floor indicator, and glancing at David. One of the disadvantages of living on the 33rd floor was that each elevator trip felt like when Grace had her first x-ray: trapped inside a box making strange clicks and hums, her silhouette transformed into unnerving patterns of light on the mirrored walls. Even worse if there was a stranger inside with her. Grace couldn’t help but fidget. When she looked down at David for the hundredth time, she noticed him looking at his fingernails, so she grabbed his hand before he could start biting them. “他是你弟弟吗?” the mother asked. Grace didn’t look up. She assumed that the mother
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