The Doble Family recently moved into a large old apartment building called the Discovery Apartments. It rose high into the sky and had eighteen floors. The ground floor was the basement and the eighteenth floor was the penthouse. The thirteenth floor was omitted as it was in many old buildings.
The Doble’s lived on the fifth floor. The apartment to the right was empty. On the left was one of two elevators on the floor.
The Discovery Apartments sat one block from the ocean and one side looked out over an inlet with a marina. The Doble’s didn’t have a boat, but they enjoyed looking at other peoples’.
Royden Doble was the youngest Doble. He had just started at a new school and already got a week off for spring break. He dreaded going back. He hadn’t made any friends yet and still couldn’t remember where some of his classes were. One of his teachers gave him a map when he walked into class late for the third straight day. He promised to study it so it never happened again.
On Monday afternoon Royden sat in the living room of their two bedroom apartment and stared at the television, which wasn’t even on. “I’m bored.” He said. “There’s nothing on.”
“Then do something.” His mother said from a nearby chair. Mrs. Doble worked at a department store at the mall and had the day off.
“There’s nothing to do.” Royden complained.
“Sure there is. Why don’t you go wander around the building? Find all the secret areas. Meet the other residents. It might give you practice for school.”
Royden rested his head on the arm of the chair. “That sounds horrible.”
“We could walk down and see your father.”
Mr. Doble was a cook at a nearby restaurant.
“No thanks.”
“Then how about we go to the mall. I’ve been wanting to look at a few things there.”
Royden jumped up and went to the door. “You know exploring doesn’t sound half bad.”
He went out to the hall. The walls were bumpy and Royden could see the brush strokes. The floor was covered with an old orange carpet that looked to be in the middle of a transition to a nasty brown.
Five doors led to five apartments. Royden hadn’t met anyone else who lived on the fifth floor yet. Sometimes he would hear talking in the halls but he had yet to see the people the voices belonged to.
The elevators were as old as the building and took forever to arrive. When one finally did come there was already someone in it. A middle aged man wearing all black moved to the side to let Royden in.
“Hello.” Royden said, attempting to be friendly.
“Hello.” The man said in return.
Normally Royden would have ended it there, but he was feeling extra courageous that day. “What’s your name?” He asked.
The man looked down at Royden with a frown. “Mr. Tezera.”
“That’s a cool name.”
The elevator doors opened and Mr. Tezera was suddenly out of sight. He must have been in a hurry.
Royden started his wandering in the basement. He found the trash room first. Every floor had a little metal door in the wall where people would drop their trash. It went all the way down to this room. It smelled horrible and he continued on.
Next he found the laundry room. A few comfy looking chairs sat in the corner of the room. One was occupied by an older woman.
“Hello, ma’am.”
“Hello dear.” The old woman said. “And who are you?”
“Royden, I live on the fifth floor.”
She lit up. “Oh, what a lovely name. I’m Ms. Carol.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Carol.” Royden said politely.
“Oh, it’s very, very nice to meet you.”
He had a short conversation with Ms. Carol about the building and spring break. And then it was back to wandering.
So far so good. Royden saw two people and met them both. Being friendly was more fun than he thought it would be.
At the end of the hall with the laundry room was a door with a sign on it. Keep Out Employees Only. Royden wanted very much to know what was in there, but he supposed he would never find out.
Around the corner and down that hall was the T.V. room as he called it. It was a large room with couches and chairs and a big T.V. A door in the T.V. room led to the pool. Royden hadn’t been swimming yet but he wanted to go that week sometime.
That was about it for the basement. On his way back to the elevator Royden saw two old men. One was in a wheelchair and the other pushed. Royden heard about these two from his father. Their names were Mr. Goren and Mr. Farn, though no one heard it from them. They never talked. Mr. Farn sat in the wheelchair and Mr. Goren pushed.
They were waiting for the elevator. Royden came up and waited with them. “Hello.” He said.
Both Mr. Goren and Mr. Farn turned and smiled awkwardly but didn’t say anything.
Royden explored for most of the day. He walked around every floor he could (the penthouse required a key so he skipped it) and met all kinds of people. Some were tall and some were short. Some were old and some were younger. Most seemed rather strange when he met them. There was a couple on one of the higher floors that spoke in a different language. That would have been perfectly normal if it sounded like any language Royden had ever heard. The couple chirped and whooped and made all sorts of strange noises. They seemed to understand each other so it must not have been strange to them.
Down on the third floor Royden came across a man who had to duck to fit in the hallway. He must have been ten feet tall. He probably worked in the circus.
The strangest thing of all was on the eleventh floor. Royden passed a man who was talking to his hand. When he passed, Royden took a quick glance and could have sworn he saw a tiny person in the man’s hand. But that couldn’t be right. It must have been a toy he was talking to.
Finally he made it back to the fifth floor near dinnertime. A man went up to one of the other doors on the floor. Royden wasted no time in going up to him. This was the first time he actually saw someone else who lived on his floor.
The man was bald and had very tanned skin. He looked like he came out of one of those pictures in an Egyptian tomb.
“Hello.” Royden said for what felt like the fiftieth time that day.
“Hello.” The man said.
“I live down the hall, it’s nice to meet you.”
The neighbor nodded slowly and held out the back of his hand. Royden saw someone do that in a movie once and someone kissed it. That’s not what the neighbor wanted, why would he? Royden shook his hand. The neighbor looked at him seriously and disappeared into his apartment. Royden shrugged and kept going.
The apartment smelled great. Mr. Doble was home and had brought back leftovers from the restaurant. The family sat around a little table near the kitch
en area and started eating.
“This didn’t fall on the floor, did it?” Mrs. Doble asked, looking over the food.
“No, that only happened once.” Mr. Doble laughed.
“It’s boring here.” Royden said suddenly. “I wish something exciting would happen.”
“Exciting things happen all the time.” Mr. Doble said.
“I mean I want exciting things to happen here.”
“Exciting things happen all over.” Mr. Doble explained. “Even right here. You just have to find them.”
Royden thought it over. “You mean things might be happening right in this building right now?”
“Of course, a lot of people live here, chances are somebody is doing something exciting.”
Royden liked the sound of that and decided that first thing in the morning he was going to find the excitement. Any one of those people he met while wandering might have been the most exciting person ever.
“You should see the strange things happening outside.” Mr. Doble said. “The police responded to a call about four people who were supposedly in a coma. Only when they got to the house there wasn’t anybody in the whole place.”
“That is strange.” Mrs. Doble said.
Before long it was time for bed. Royden’s room was the smallest, not that either room was very big. He hadn’t decorated much yet. There was a bed for sleeping and a desk for schoolwork and that was all.
His parents turned off his light, said goodnight, and shut the door. Royden sat up in bed for a while wishing something exciting would happen.
What he didn’t know was that things happened all over that building every day, all much more exciting than he could ever imagine.