The Encore of Us novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: What the Janitor Kept

We went to the loading dock on Tuesday at dusk, because neither of us could think of anywhere else to go.

Anders had spent the morning in a hospital gown, on a treadmill, with wires on his chest.

He had passed the first test.

Now he stood at the bottom of the iron stairs with a stranger's face, and looked up at the stage door.

"Fourteen steps," he said. "I've counted them every night for seven years."

"Anders."

"I thought it was the stairs that did it. I thought it was me." He gripped the rail. "I need to see where she stood."

The dock was empty except for a dumpster and a stack of road cases, and a thin cold light came down between the buildings.

A man was standing beside the dumpster with a cigarette.

He wore gray work coveralls, and he was sixty-five or so, with a yellow mustache and a gray cap pulled low.

He looked at me for a long time.

Then he dropped the cigarette and put it out under his boot.

"I wondered when you'd come back," he said.

Anders turned.

"Do I know you?"

"I clean this building, Mr. Brandvold. Nights. Thirty-one years." He glanced at me. "Friday's my last one."

I had seen him a hundred times pushing a cart down the back corridor.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Encore of Us from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.