The Main Character
Chapter 5

The walls of Finch’s apartment were filled with frames of pressed flowers and pinned insects while the skeletons of small animals decorated multiple surfaces. It was very open, with a sunken living room, wooden floors, and large uncovered windows. It was truly beautiful. Light. Airy. Fresh.

Because of his job, Finch was one of the few people allowed to leave the metropolis. In fact, he had unrestricted outside travel privileges for his work that he frequently took advantage of. He brought this all up when MC explained the background of a few of the skeletons. It was ‘unusually botanical’ for an apartment in this sector. MC would have guessed he would have been a better fit for Sector 3, the ‘scientifically minded sector.’ However, it seemed she was wrong. He was in Sector 6, like Karen. They were typically the people who had quotes stenciled on their wall, framed poems, or large calendars filled with reminders. It was especially trendy to have a chalkboard wall or a large collage made from pictures stolen from the pages of vapid magazines. Finch’s apartment was nothing like that. It was cozier. It was an open plan apartment and the windows faced ‘the outside’ rather than at other buildings inside the metropolis like most places. Because of the densely-packed buildings inside the metropolis, most apartments got views of other apartments. Only the lucky few people who lived alone the outer boarder were able to see over the wall and into nature. Them, and the people in the exceptionally tall buildings in Sector 1. That’s where the rich and powerful people lived. That is where Quinn’s family lived. But Finch’s was truly a one of kind place and exactly the place MC wanted to be.

MC and Finch stayed up for hours talking, laughing, dancing, and eating berries Finch had picked fresh on his excursion out of the metropolis earlier that day. They told stories about old jobs, funny faux-pas, and past lovers as they listened to old jazz. They attempted a waltz to folky break up songs. And they kissed while their old high school favorites played in the background. Finch was a surprisingly gentle kisser, but MC had learned her lesson from her night with Quinn. She did not want things to go too fast too soon. Even if she was enjoying herself. And even if she had spent so long there that it was the next day. She left Finch’s before things went any further, but on her walk back to her apartment building in Sector 7 she could not help but wonder what would have happened if she had stayed. As the sun started peeking over the horizon, she thought back to how great he smelled, it stuck in her brain. It was something she felt like she had smelled before. It did not make sense right away but the first thing that popped into her head was Jack’s sweat. That was what he smelled like the day she had found him. It was different to how he normally smelled when they were together. The thought brought back images of him cooking breakfast in her kitchen while she snuck up behind him to hold him tight to her. She had done it so many times she could almost feel his warm skin on the side of her face as if she were nuzzling his shoulder right then. Kissing his jackelope tattoo. But that made no sense. At Finch’s apartment, when she had asked him about his distinct smell, questioning his choice of cologne, he confessed that it was new to him too. He had been retrieving samples from what looked like a new species of flower when he first smelt it. He explained that he had thought the smell enchanting as well and purposely had left his work shirt on for the party because he liked the smell so much he wanted to show it off. But why would Jack have smelt like an unknown species of flower? He had never left the metropolis in his life. She made a mental note to write it down in her journal once she got back to her place.

Back at her apartment, MC got out her journal about off-beat brain connection, sometimes she called them coincidences of the universe. They were her favorite thing to write about in her journal. She loved those perfectly matched up life coincidences that happen every so often and make you think the whole universe is really connected. It made her feel special. Like she was someone the universe had their eye on or that her sister was looking out for her. She hoped everyone else got as much joy out of them as she did. She opened her journal to write it down. The last entry caught her eye; that Quinn had been at Simon’s that night, and now that Finch had been there as well. It was a strange coincidence that she had not actually remembered to ask either about. Examples of other ones she had were: ‘bumping into a stray dog that then followed me across the entire metropolis only to run into the owner by chance on the street’, ‘eating shrimp right before a horrible date with that guy who was extremely allergic to shellfish so he didn’t try to kiss me’, and ‘running into an ex who owed her money at a bar on the same day the bartender decided to collect on her tab.’

Those were just a few, but the journal was almost full. She had been writing in it more these past few days than she had in a while. MC had always felt that sometimes things fit together too nicely. At least in her life. It was as if she lived her life as a sitcom character. Every mistake or reckless action had a lesson to learn at the end and no one was ever seriously injured or killed. Although it made MC happy to know it was a thing, the newer entries made her slightly uncomfortable. A nagging feeling in her stomach made her shift in her chair. She could not say why she felt the way she did, but she knew was important.

Once she finished with her journal, she took out her sketch pad and began to draw. It was Saturday after all. It was a tradition, every Saturday since she was in art school her now dead friends and her would get together for dinner and sketch. They called it “Satur-doodle-day.” Even though now, with Rémy gone, she was the only one around to do it, she proceeded to draw. After a few minutes, although she was essentially done with her sketch, she continued to trace over the lines as if she were in a trance. It was a picture of a lean squid with an eyepatch holding a cocktail in one arm and waving with another. She missed her old friends and felt defeated by the prospect of making new ones. “What’s the point anyway?” She thought to herself. “They’ll probably just kill themselves too. It’s like everyone I get too close to has to die. Kills themselves. All of them? It’s impossible. I mean, I know the suicide rates are a lot higher than they were before the GWO virus, but so what? Is there something I’m missing? Is there something they all knew that I still can’t figure out?”

These thoughts and worse crashed around MC’s brain while she lay in bed. It seemed like hours until she finally got to sleep. She dreamed of Rémy and Jack and her sister and Finch and Quinn and Karine, the friend that started Satur-doodle-day. But mostly she dreamed of the past.

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