Page 13 - It Ends with Us

He no ds. “Lucky bastard works from ho me. Does n’t ev en ha ve to

cha ng e out of hi s pajamas and makes sev en fig ures a yea r.”
Lu cky bas tard, inde ed.
“Wha t kind of res idenc y? Are you a doctor?”
He no ds. “Neuro surgeo n. Les s tha n a yea r lef t of my res idenc y and
then it’s offic ial.”
Stylish, wel l spoken, an d smart. And smokes pot. If thi s were an SAT

ques tion, I would ask whi ch one didn’t bel ong . “Sho uld doctors be
smoking weed ?”
He smirks. “Probably no t. But if we didn’t ind ulge on occasion,
there would be a lot more of us taking the lea p over thes e led ges , I
can promise you tha t.” He’s facing for ward again with hi s chi n res ting
on hi s arms. His ey es are closed no w, like he’s enj oying the wind
agains t hi s face. He does n’t look as int imidating like thi s.

“You want to kno w somet hi ng tha t onl y the locals kno w?”
“Of course, ” he says, bring ing hi s attent ion back to me.
I point to the ea st. “See tha t building ? The one with the green
roof?”
He no ds.
“There’ s a building behi nd it on Mel cher. There’ s a ho use on top

of the building . Like a leg it ho use, built right on the rooftop. You
can’t see it from the street , and the building is so tall tha t no t many
peo ple ev en kno w about it.”
He looks impres sed . “Rea lly?”
I no d. “I saw it when I was sea rchi ng Google Earth, so I looked it
up. Apparent ly a permi t was grant ed for the cons truction in 1982.
How cool would tha t be? To live in a ho use on top of a building ?”

“You’d get the who le roof to yoursel f,” he says.
I hadn’t tho ught of tha t. If I owned it I could plant gardens up
there. I’d ha ve an outlet .
“Who lives there?” he asks.
“No one rea lly kno ws. It’s one of the grea t mysteri es of Boston. ”
He laughs and then looks at me inq uisitivel y. “Wha t’s ano ther grea t

myster y of Boston?”
“Your na me. ” As soon as I say it, I slap my ha nd agains t my
forehea d. It sound ed so much like a chees y pickup line; the onl y
thi ng I can do is laugh at myself.