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Show 20. Frances Hicks did not come with the room I'd rented. I sat alone in it with the window to the airshaft closed to keep out the smell, breathing Airwick, sealed off from the world. For a while no one else in The Castle spoke to me except Ben, and he mostly to collect the rent. If I turned out the light, all was blackness, the way I felt. I sat in the dark in silence, unless it was after school or a weekend when the kids next door were home. Then through the wall I heard a constant squabbling, crying, screaming, shouting. I pitied myself with all my heart. I looked on the mailbox of the next door apartment and a family named Marx lived there. I found that hard to believe. That would be like living next door to the Zeus family, and I couldn't take it in, not with those squabbling kids. It must be an alias. Then the guy across the hall from me started smiling at me, invited me into his room to have a cup of tea. He said he would have come over to visit me but that he couldn't stand my roor. On the other hand I found it pleasant to go to his room and see the daylight-until one afternoon he put his hand on my knee. Everyone called him Cappy-I don't know why. I said thanks but no thanks, maybe we could just be friends, but he sulked so I went back to my room. I didn't censor him and felt very mature. A little later Norman Lander got friendly too. He told me that Cappy was a very sensitive person, and very selective too. He always took the guy home with him first to meet his mother and get her approval before he had an affair. Norman knew something derogatory about everyone who lived in The |
