Somebody had left their blinds open in the building next door, and as we passed by I could see directly into their apartment. There was a small fish tank sitting on a water-stained black Ikea table directly in front of the window. The dark greenish-gray algae running up the side of the tank was so thick that I couldn’t tell if there was anything left alive on the other side.
For just a second, I thought I saw a flash of something slither behind the wall of brackish green, but then it was gone.
If there was something in there, swimming around in the briny darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of another world through the sludge, I definitely understood how it felt.
* * *
—
Baron’s curtains were closed but his window was open.
He smoked a lot of weed, so he always kept this window cracked a few inches.
I knocked on the glass and called his name. No answer.
“He must be out,” I said.
“Let’s take a look,” Chloe said, and she lifted the window another couple of inches and pushed the curtains aside.
Baron was there, sitting at his desk in the middle of his living room in front of his computer. He was wearing a set of huge white vintage-style headphones and just staring at the screen.
We knocked and yelled a few more times, but he didn’t budge.
Chloe lifted the old wooden window up as high as it could go, which was just enough room for the two of us to fit through.
“I’m climbing in,” she said.
“I don’t know…”
“What? He’s not jerking off or anything,” she said as she jumped up and pushed her head and shoulders through the small opening.
“Okay, but—”
“He’d totally climb into your house,” Chloe said, then she slid headfirst through the window and into Baron’s apartment.
She was right; Baron would totally climb into my house. I took a look around. Our B&E appeared to be going unnoticed.
“Fuck,” I said, to nobody in particular, and followed Chloe inside.
* * *
—
Chloe gently removed Baron’s headphones and waved in his face.
“Hey,” Baron said, blinking. “What’s up?”
He didn’t appear angry that we’d just broken into his place. He was completely out of it. For a moment, I wasn’t even sure if he recognized me.
Then, “K-mart, what’s happening?” he said, his eyes working to focus.
It was as if he’d been looking at me through some kind of thick fog from someplace far away, kind of like whatever had been swimming around behind the algae in that tank.
There was a small black wooden box on Baron’s lap, which I assumed had to be filled with weed. He picked up the box and set it gently down on the floor next to his desk as he shook his head and tried to focus his eyes.
“What’s going on?” he said, still dazed.
It took about a minute or so for us to notice the smell. I thought maybe there was a dead badger rotting in his sink or something, but it quickly became clear it was Baron himself. He smelled terrible—and it wasn’t just that he hadn’t showered in days, which he clearly hadn’t. It looked like he’d peed himself—and possibly more than once.
“Not much,” I said. “What’s up with you?”
“I think maybe I lost track of time a little,” he said, slowly coming out of whatever weird state he was in.
“Do you think maybe you lost track of a bit more than that?” Chloe said as she looked around the room.
Baron’s place was a complete disaster.
There were dishes piled everywhere. Stacks of documents covered his desk and side tables. Dozens of ripped bits of paper and Post-it notes littered with messily scribbled words and symbols had been pinned to a huge corkboard. Aside from the names of a few famous Rabbits players like Hazel, Murmur, and The Dark Thane, there was nothing in any of the photographs and images accompanying the notes that made any sense. It looked like a murder wall from the lead detective’s office in a serial killer movie, minus the cinematic red threads that were always connecting things.
Nothing appeared to be connected here.
“When’s the last time you showered?” Chloe asked.
“Fuck, is that me?” Baron said. His nose scrunched up suddenly, as he finally noticed the smell.
“What are you doing?” I asked, leaning into the screen.
“I don’t remember,” he said, still clearly dazed. “Watching a movie, I think?”
Chloe led Baron into his bathroom, turned on his shower, and shut the door behind him.