Monday, March 25, 2013

neighbors

by cathy aragon

illustrated by danny delacroix




cody and dylan were neighbors.

cody lived in apartment 3-d and dylan lived next door in apartment 3- f.

they never spoke to each other.

they were opposites.

cody was a bad person.

and dylan was a good person.

when they happened to encounter each other in the elevator or on the stairs, they never acknowledged each other's presence.

cody usually took the elevator.

dylan more often took the stairs.

nobody liked cody.

everybody liked dylan.

things went on in this way until one rainy day dylan was standing outside the apartment building waiting for a ride.

cody came out of the building on the way to the subway.

cody paused, looking up at the sky as if judging whether to make use of an umbrella.

just at that moment a car came around the corner at an excessive speed and skidded up on to the sidewalk, instantly killing both cody and dylan.

many months - almost a year - later, the driver of the car, who had no prior criminal record, received a sentence of two years, with credit for time served.

by then the funerals and ceremonies for both cody and dylan had long passed.

cody was neither regretted nor remembered by any of the inhabitants of the building.

a memorial service was held in the building for dylan. dylan's passionate commitment to human rights, particularly to marriage equality, and opposition to racism, sexism, homophobia and wall street, were fondly remembered and warmly celebrated.

cody had never been known to acknowledge any of the issues of the day, other than with a snicker or a raised eyebrow.

hundreds of friends and family members attended dylan's funeral. many wept openly.

after an extensive search for relatives by the landlord and the local police, cody's body was returned to southern missouri.

a year after the accident, a homeless person standing outside the apartment building noticed a medium sized animal, probably a cat or a dog, beside the steps and attempted to pick it up.

but the animal squirmed out of the homeless person's grasp and escaped down the dark alley beside the building.

it started to rain. raindrops slid down the windows of apartments 3-d and 3-f.

the end



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