Hide and Seek.

My rules are law around here. To question my authority is grounds for vacancy. When that boy turned up lost again, that was enough. He will suffer along with his carelessly absent-minded parents. Cold-blooded? Well maybe you don't know the real story.

— 

“The hell you mean missing!?” Ms.Lady asked impatiently. Tapping her foot rudely, she was growing more and more aggravated by this woman's presence. How dare this pathetic excuse be worthy of her time. “He wasn't in his room... my husband went to work…and my goodness ... he must have left the door unlocked.. I’m so sorry!..I know its late.. I just.. “ she continued crying and weeping. Ms.Lady was disgusted. She rolled her eyes..“Went to work??” The boy's mother wiped her face on her hand tissues and nodded. “Yes, Carl is working double shifts now so I can stay home with Bradley...We are home schooling him. " -- “Well that’s just stupid, don't you think?” Ms.Lady snapped. " Ma'am please, please help me find him..." she begged. Her helpless weeping sent a nerve through Ms.Lady's body. She could feel her eye twitching from this woman's pitiful negligence. How could she be so dumb? She stood in the doorway annoyed as the woman continued sobbing..."I don't want Carl to know I lost Bradley again...please.” tears ran down her rose stained cheeks. The woman's desperate eyes rattled Ms.Lady into a fury. "Goddamnit!” she slammed the door abruptly . The boy's mother could hear Ms.Lady stomping furiously through her apartment, cursing loudly, and knocking things over. When she returned, she was wearing a satin black robe and cheetah print slippers. 

“Go check the lobby!" she commanded.

"He isn't there, I just looked ther --" the wispy woman cried. “I said look there!" With that the boy’s mother took the elevator to the front lobby while Ms.Lady had other plans. How pathetic.. Ms.Lady thought. She knew exactly where to find the boy. As the woman was pleading, she could feel a breeze coming from a cracked window of the hallway. Her hall windows are never open. Somebody had been on her floor and she could feel it. All her tenets knew not to come on her floor. So this boy was not only being reckless, he was asking for some real trouble. As she approached the cracked window, a Summer night wind crept beneath her robe. The squeaking wooden floors were muffled by a voice she knew very well. “Fifty-eight, fifty nine…… sixty ……… sixty-one” — Bradley was outside on the fire escape! Ms.Lady never went on the fire escape, nothing ever good happened there, but that's for another time.

She could feel her body tensing up as she lifted the window and peered outside to see Bradley at the top of the ladder. There was no other way to get him, but to climb. “Goddamn you boy!" she said. Bradley continued counting. "Sixity-two, sixty-three....sixty-four..." He was so engulfed in his cadence that the danger of this situation had no effect on him. "I said get inside!" Ms.Lady yelled.

"Damn you looking good Ms.Lady!" She rolled her eyes and just as expected, Henry, the neighborhood creep, was there winking at her from below. "Get!" Ms.Lady hissed. "Oh! She hot tonight fellas!" Henry said trying to sneak a peak up her robe. Every part of her was full of terror. Climbing up the ladder she could hear Bradley's voice getting louder. Why was she doing all this? Why didn't she just fall the boy's mother for this? Couldn't she have just called 911?

Bradley stopped counting when he felt Ms.Lady sharply tug on his navy blue overalls. "Let's go now!" Ms. Lady ordered in rage. "I'm up here Lady..." he stuck out his tongue. But this was as far she she could go. "Now gotta start over! -- I gotta start over!" he giggled.

Ms.Lady could feel her legs beginning to tremble. One-hundred feet in the air gripping for her life, she demanded Bradley to get inside. "I said get down from there boy!" She yelled. She couldn't go any further. She held the ladder tightly as she looked up to see Bradley giggling as he started his counting again. "One...two.....three..four...five...." --- She followed his hand as he seemingly touched the luminous stars along the night sky. Ms.Lady paused and said "... You'll never count them all." she laughed. Bradley stopped his counting and looked anxiously into Ms.Lady's smirking dark eyes.

She then proceeded to slowly climb back down the fire escape. "Nobody will ever count them all!"she laughed louder. Carefully stepping, she said it again, and again. Louder each time. She looked to see Henry blowing her kisses from the ground. She could feel throw up forming in her mouth. When she reached the window she paused and allowed a second to witness the endless wonders of the night. She thought she buried those memories forever but tonight was different. The last time she saw a night this bright, well ...thats for another time.

She tilted inside the window and peeped back up the fire escape to find Bradley climbing down towards her. She sighed deeply and walked to her apartment. Just as she opened the door she felt two sweaty little hands wrapped around her legs. Ms.Lady looked down to see the boy looking up at her. "One. Only one..moon." he said. Ms.Lady felt a smile approaching before Bradley ran up the hallway and playfully leap-frogged down the stairs. She chuckled softly. Its funny because she really couldn't remember the last time she chuckled.

Ms.Lady never told the boy's mother where she found Bradley -- but she did double up on her security cameras. From that night, Ms.Lady would never be the same. Her memory was coming back.