Hey Readers! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out other posts here to read previous chapters of The House On Astor Street. Enjoy!
2011
Chapter Nine
“Excuse me… sorry… excuse me.” Jason pushed his way through the commuters crowded around the doors. The chimes above the exit began to sound as he squeezed past two guys on their phones. “Geez!” Jason huffed as he caught his balance on the platform. It was a humid day and he immediately began sweating as the high pitch sound of electricity propelling the L train forward filled the station. Jason adjusted his bag on his shoulder and walked down the stairs onto Wells Street and turned to head north. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked the time, 9:02. He groaned, and began to run, turning left on Madison towards his building.
As he got to one of the intersections, the red hand was flashing on the crossing signal. He knew he wouldn’t make it, but the thought of showing up to work later than he already was seemed more dangerous at this point. Besides, this was a huge city and no jaywalking was more a suggestion than a law. He slowed his pace as he crossed the street in front of the Civic Opera building, just as the signal changed. Still a few steps in the street, a taxi honked their horn scaring Jason half to death. Sweaty and nearly to his office, he collected himself and moved towards the Madison Street bridge.
“Hey! Hey you!” Jason looked over his shoulder searching the sidewalk behind him for the source of the yelling. The sidewalk was crowded, but he could see a hand waving. He turned back and kept walking towards his office.
“You! In the green!” Jason looked back again at the waving hand then, reflexively, looked down at his outfit to remind himself what he was wearing today. Green. Bewildered, he stopped and started back through the crowd of annoyed pedestrians, looking around and wondering if he was the only one responding to the phantom voice.
Eventually, Jason saw that it was the homeless woman he has seen for the past number of weeks and months. Adorned in her usual tapestry of brightly colored, mismatched blankets, she stood next to her tattered bag and cardboard sign, which was leaning against the wall of the opera house. “I think you dropped this…” she was holding out Jason’s phone. Jason’s hand jumped to his pocket and, sure enough, his phone wasn’t there. Strange, he thought to himself, he never felt it fall out.
“Oh, umm, thank you. Really appreciate it.” He forced an uncomfortable smile to the grinning women, “I’m sorry, I don’t have any cash…”
“No, no, don’t worry about it!” The lines on her face were deep and dark. Her cheery smile revealed yellowed teeth and her hair still had knots despite looking like it was recently brushed. “I’m always looking out for you.”
Jason flinched and asked inquisitively, “Uh, looking out for me?”
“Oh, for all of you people. You know, you all are always running around. Got somewhere to be. Always late. Don’t even notice when you drop stuff.” She pointed to his cell phone in his hand.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Another uncomfortable laugh. “Well, I gotta run. I’m already late to work…”
“Always late!” The homeless woman laughed as Jason turned and walked briskly towards his building.
Jason hurried into the lobby of the Ogilvie Transportation Center and past the throngs of commuters heading out the doors to their own respective offices. He ignored his phone as it vibrated every few seconds. Based on the frequency of the vibrations, he surmised it must be a group chat. The air conditioning was at full blast and helped to cool him down after his impromptu run from the L to his building. When he got to the elevator, Jason finally had a chance to check his phone. He laughed and shook his head when he saw 32 unread texts.
“Tickets booked!” Read a text from Becca.
Tracy texted, “Same! And just put my time-off request in… so excited!”
After a slew of emojis, Becca texted, “Ahem! Zach… tickets?”
“Yesssss – I’ll book them today! What were the dates again? May…??”
Eye-roll emoji, “For the trillianth time, July 14 – 18,” Jason could practically hear the motherly annoyance in Tracy’s voice via the text. “Also, don’t make fun of me, but I can’t wait to see the bean.”
“I’m not judging at all, Trace, lol. I also really want to do the architecture river cruise thing!” Becca responded.
The three of them continued naming sites and restaurants they wanted to see and eat at. The elevator dinged and Jason shuffled off into the hall, moving quickly, but trying not to break into a full run for his office door. He pulled the door open, looked over at the receptionist as he turned down the hall and smiled, “Morning, Candace.” Walking to his desk, Jason texted the group back, “At work – yes to everything – can’t wait!”
Just as he clicked send, he heard “You’re late, Jason” coming from his boss’s office.
“Shane, good morning. Yeah, I’m really sorry. The L was running late and I practically lost my phone running over here. It definitely won’t happen again.”
“I get it, the CTA is always unpredictable. My suggestion, catch the earlier train. Don’t want to have to go rat you out to your father.” Shane laughed a little too much for Jason’s comfort.
Jason responded with a small, fake laugh, “Yeah, I don’t want to get grounded or something…” With that, he turned and walked down the hall to his desk.
Chapter Ten
Jason lived alone near Lincoln Park on the north side of the city. His apartment was a two-bedroom unit part of an historic brick walk-up a couple blocks off the main street. There were two units downstairs and two units upstairs. The upstairs units had a large shared balcony that overlooked a small backyard area that all tenants had access to. From what Jason remembered, the man downstairs was older, though he had only seen him once or twice when he first moved in last summer, and the other unit belonged to the building’s owner who he was told lived permanently in Florida, but wanted to keep a place in the city “in case he ever visited.” His balcony-sharing neighbor, Ryan, lived with his partner Mike. Jason and Ryan had become good friends over the past year or so that he’d lived there, and Ryan was constantly trying to set him up with one of his infinite number of girlfriends.
On his walk from the train station to his apartment, Jason stopped off to grab a frozen pizza to throw in the oven. He was worn out from the long day at work and the humidity wasn’t really easing up yet, even as the sun began to go down. He got home and started warming the oven, then walked into his room to put on some shorts and change out of his sweaty shirt. When he opened his closet door, Jason heard a loud “meowwww” and jumped. He looked on the floor in the corner of the closet and saw a black cat laying there, its bright yellow eyes looking up at him. Jason laughed, threw on his shirt then walked next door.
Jason knocked on his neighbor’s door. Ryan and Mike were quick to answer, so when a few seconds passed with no answer, he figured they must be out somewhere. He headed back to his place and picked up his phone to text Ryan, “Hey hey – I think one of your cats got in again.”
“Escape artist! Which one is it?”
“I don’t know… I always forget which one is which.”
“Hmm… fat or skinny?”
Jason walked over to his closet again and looked inside, “Definitely the fat one.”
“Yeah, that’s Patriot. Ugh, sorry! Heading home now – I’ll come grab the beast when we get there.”
Jason walked back into the kitchen, threw the pizza in the oven, then wandered towards the back balcony. He glanced over at the window he left open to let in some air during the day while he was at work and noticed the screen appeared to be a little loose. He grabbed the corners and began to test the screen locks when he realized one entire corner of the screen was separated from the window frame. “Aha!” He thought aloud, “Found the secret entrance.”
Sitting on the back balcony, pizza in hand, Jason heard Ryan knocking at the door. “Coming!” Jason opened the door and Ryan walked in.
“Ok, where is he?”
Laughing, Jason pointed towards the bedroom, “Floor of the closet.”
Rolling his eyes, Ryan walked into Jason’s room and opened the closet doors, “Seriously, I am so sorry about this. At least this lazy blob doesn’t do anything but eat and sleep.”
“Honestly, it’s no big deal. I actually think I noticed my screen was loose on the window and that’s probably how he got in.”
Ryan picked Patriot up and walked towards the front door, “Regardless, Patriot clearly has no manners, just barging in here…”
“Don’t be dramatic, it’s no problem.” Jason laughed while he took a bite of his pizza.
“Me? Dramatic?” Ryan exhaled a deep breath, “Anyway, you know what’s coming up, right?”
“Uhhh, Cinco de Mayo?”
“Well, duh. But no, not that…”
Jason raised his eyebrows and shook his head, then took another bite of pizza.
“Your birthday!” Ryan screamed.
Mike yelled from the neighboring apartment, “Ryan, leave the poor guy alone! I’m starting the movie with or without you in one minute.”
“I’m coming!” Ryan yelled at the closed door. He turned back to Jason, eyes rolling again. “Anyway, let’s chat tomorrow about your birthday. It’s the big two-five, right?”
“It sure is.” Jason was trying to meet Ryan’s level of excitement but was failing miserably.
Another shout from behind the closed door rang out again, “Ryan! Seriously!”
Without responding to Mike this time, Ryan simply smiled at Jason and said, “Alright, we’ll talk tomorrow. Get some sleep tonight, you look awful.”
“Gee, thanks. Mike is one lucky man.” Laughing, Jason closed the door and settled on the couch with another piece of pizza.
Chapter Eleven
Jason was running late to his usual Friday night Happy Hour. Work was feeling longer than normal that week, with mundane projects stacking up and the feeling of Shane’s increasing unjustified scrutiny beginning to get unbearable. He had finally relented and let Ryan take full control of his “25th Birthday Extravaganza,” which sounded like little more than a night of restaurant and bar hopping. Easily the most interesting thing to come of his week was that the homeless lady by the bridge had begun waving to him every morning on his way into work, something Jason found himself looking forward to before getting his day started at the office.
“Hey guys! Sorry I’m late.” Jason hung his work bag on the back of one of the barstool chairs and picked up a menu.
“You’re only ‘late’ if you miss happy hour,” Harrison said as he took a huge gulp of his beer. Jason had met Harrison when he first moved back to Chicago after college. He had been on a jog one morning in Lincoln Park when he stopped to take a quick break near the basketball courts. Harrison and few of his friends were shooting hoops and wanted to play a little pickup game, but had an odd number of players. Noticing Jason stretching nearby, Harrison asked him to join in, and just like that, they became friends. Ends up, Harrison worked just a few blocks from Jason’s building so, Fridays became reserved for happy hours after work and Saturday mornings became reserved for basketball games in the park. “I got a text from your neighbor – Ryan, was it? Sounds like he’s putting together a rager for your birthday.”
“I mean, I don’t think it’s so much a ‘rager’ as it is a bar crawl, but yeah, I think it will be fun.” Trying to distance himself from the topic of his birthday, Jason asked, “Where’s Brandon at?”
“He said something earlier about a project he had to finish up before heading out for the weekend. Sucks, he’s going to miss happy hour.” Harrison took another huge gulp, “So, what are we doing tonight?”
“I may head home after this, actually. It’s been a really long week.”
“Oh, come on! You always do this.” Another gulp of beer, “Ok, I’ll make you a deal, I will buy you two drinks at each…”
“Howdy gents!” Brandon walked in, saving Jason from whatever antics Harrison was trying to get him into.
Jason leapt at the opportunity, “Brandon, hey man, good to see you! I was just telling Harrison I can’t make it out tonight… you know, work being crazy and all…”
Brandon had been Harrison’s friend since middle school when his family moved across the street. School carpools turned into sports practice carpools which turned into first jobs at the mall carpools. Other than the few years when Brandon went off to school in Washington, they’ve been completely inseparable. Anyone who knew the two of them knew that Brandon was the brains and Harrison was more the brute strength kind of guy, but they complemented each other well. Harrison taught Brandon to loosen up and have fun, and Brandon taught Harrison to focus long enough to be a functioning young adult. Jason always felt like he had more in common with Brandon, for the simple fact that he was never as much a jock as Harrison was. In the end, the three of them made a good team.
Brandon gave Jason a conspicuously disapproving look, “Yeah… right… I understand the crazy work thing.” He laughed, then let out a big sigh while rolling his eyes, “Alright Harry, where are we going tonight?”
A few hours later, Jason was back home, sitting on his balcony struggling to get through the first few chapters of an exceptionally dull book. The night was warm and the breeze was light, the perfect combination. Most of the humidity had died down, making the night bearable, relaxing even. He loved the sounds of the city reverberating all around him. Car horns and revving engines, the muted hums of people talking and laughing, the occasional siren. He loved the energy the city emitted, the life that emanated from the streets. Jason was giving up on his book for the night when he heard the screen door from Ryan’s apartment open, “Wow, it’s so nice out tonight!”
“Hey, Ryan. Yeah, seriously, I wish it could be like this every night.” Jason felt a streak of soft fur rub against his leg and saw one of Ryan’s cats wandering around the balcony, sniffing at random spots around the wood beams. A minute later, the other cat quietly moved out to the balcony through the open screen. Ryan’s two cats were both black with little white diamonds of fur on their chests and bright yellow eyes. Besides that, the cats had nothing in common. Patriot, the one hiding in his closet the other night, was at least two times the size of Pepper, in both girth and weight, and Patriot had long fur, whereas Pepper had short. They were both surprisingly social and loved to cuddle up to strangers and their “dads” alike. Another minute later, Mike walked out with a bowl of popcorn and sat next to Ryan.
“You guys talking about the birthday extravaganza he’s putting together for you?” Mike asked Jason, tossing some popcorn into his mouth.
Ryan looked over at Mike and grunted, “We were just getting there,” looking back at Jason, “so, here is what I was thinking.” Ryan picked up Pepper, the skinny cat, and started petting him despite the cat struggling to break free, “I was originally thinking of doing a restauranty, bar hoppy sort of night, but instead, thought we should just do food and drinks here, then whoever wants can do bars after. It’s just easier with a big group than to try to get reservations, you know?” Ryan looked pleased with himself and the plan he had developed.
“Big group? Where are you finding these friends?” Jason laughed and went on, “No no, honestly, I think that sounds great and I appreciate you both for throwing something together.”
“Both? This was all Ryan. You know how he loves being an unofficial event planner.” Mike threw some more popcorn in his mouth while Ryan scoffed and silently mimicked the words “event planner.”
Pepper had given up trying to escape and was now falling asleep in Ryan’s arms, “So, I wanted to ask. I’ve invited a bunch of people already, but may need to grab a few more phone numbers, since I didn’t have everyone’s.”
“Ok, yeah that’s fine…” Jason looked at Ryan inquisitively, an uncomfortable smile on his face. “How many people are we talking here?”
Mike laughed, “Yeah, Ry, how many people are you planning on?”
Ryan looked at Mike with raised eyebrows that silenced him, although he kept laughing to himself. Turning back to Jason, “Anyway… I’ve only invited some of your friends that I’ve seen come around here or that I’ve met when we all go out. But I wanted to ask if there’s anyone else I should invite? Like, friends from college?”
“I went to school in California…”
Ryan signed, “Maybe some work friends?”
“Ok, yeah, I can think of a couple from work.”
Ryan paused and took a deep breath, “I was also thinking… maybe your dad?”
Jason looked at Ryan, then straight ahead, silently out towards the dim backyard.
“I mean, twenty-five is a big birthday…”
“He won’t come,” Jason cut him off.
“… Well, an invite couldn’t hurt…”
“Ryan, he’s not going to come.”
Ryan was quiet. He knew it was dangerous territory to bring up Jason’s dad, but figured it was worth giving him the opportunity to invite him so he wouldn’t regret not doing so. “Look, Jason, I only thought…”
“Don’t apologize, it’s fine.” Jason stammered slightly, “You’ve put a lot of time into this and I really do appreciate it.” Jason smiled then pet Patriot, who was winding through his legs, curling his tail around Jason’s calves as he walked lazily in a figure eight. “Yeah, go ahead and invite him.”
Ryan sat up straight and looked over at Mike smiling smugly like he was victorious in some nonexistent battle. Mike shrugged and continued eating his popcorn. “Ok! Yes, ok! I’ll grab details from you later.” Ryan was elated, “Ok, so, enough about that.” He looked back at Mike again, giddy and proud of himself. He turned back at Jason and asked, “I meant to ask, have you been watching that new show with what’s her face?”
Jason laughed, “Not so sure I know what show you’re talking about…”
The three of them, and the two cats, spent the next couple hours enjoying the warm Chicago night out on the balcony, talking about a whole bunch of nothing. None of them would ever have guessed how Jason’s life would change over the next few months.
