four

She leaned against the doorway, watching him through the small eyepiece, the lens slowly adjusting, focusing. Everything looked different through a lens. It’s all about perspective, she thought. Perspective and perception and what kind of glass you were staring through.
He was leaning against the window, looking out towards the sky. The sun was bright and orange this morning; it shone hard through the bars and cast his shadow on the wall behind him. He was bathed in the orange tinge, his grey pajama-like clothing (she thought) contrasting softly against the pale white shadowed wall.
The shutter slipped closed with a snap, and back open again.
He turned. "What was that?"
"Camera." She hefted it up, displaying it.
"What’d you do?"
"Take a picture."
The film advanced. He turned back to the sky. Rhys looked tired; sleep eventually had come, but had been rudely broken by the rising day. Maura looked tired too, but she always had difficulty sleeping. She had things on her mind.
"What are you doing here?"
"I don’t know. I don’t have anywhere else to be."
"You did earlier."
"I don’t have work on weekends."
"What day is it?"
"Sunday."
Moments passed. Maura tried to think of meaningful words, and then empty words, to fill the space, but nothing came through. She stepped into the room and leaned against the corner, staring at her feet. She wiggled her toes in her shoes.
"You look tired."
She looked up. "Yeah. I didn’t sleep so great."
"Why not?"
"I had stuff on my mind. What about you? You look tired yourself." The greatest way to continue a conversation, she mused, was to reciprocate equally, if not moreso, meaningless banter at the expense of sounding like a parrot.
"I couldn’t sleep. Things happened outside."
"What kind of things?"
"Things. There were noises. Someone’s gone."
"That’s too bad."
"Yeah."
Infinite pauses.
"That’s too bad."
"There’s nothing here for you. Why don’t you go?"
"Go where?"
"Anywhere."
"Why don’t you go?" Repeating the questions was easy; no thought processes required. Just mirroring the conversation, like talking to a wall that echoes things.
"I have nowhere to go."
A bright idea struck her mind, bricks flying through windows in a handbag.
"Let’s run away."
"Why?" Confusion.
"You know how when you’re a little kid, you always want to run away because someone does this or someone won’t let you do that?"
"No."
"Well that’s what people usually go through when they’re kids. Let’s do that now."
"But we have nothing to run away from."
"We have this." She pointed to the room. "You have this. I have my own."
"But where are we going?"
She shrugged. "Anywhere but here."
Moments of pausing.
"Where are we running away from?"
"Here. The world. Where we’re stuck all the time."
He touched the bars of the window. A cloud passed overhead, blocking out the sun.
"How will we make it?"
"We’ll find ways." She tugged at his arm. "Come on, let’s go."
He followed her out the door and down the steps, away from the abandoned condemned building.
The clouds grew ominous and dark, rain on the horizon. She looked up at the sky and wondered if it would rain; he didn't really care. They stood there for some time, looking up and down the alley, trying to figure out what the next step was. She pulled a coin out of her pocket and poised to flip it.
"A coin?"
She grinned. "You don't know how many life-altering decisions I've made with the flip of a coin."
"Do they always work?"
She shrugged. "Does it matter? Heads we go..."
"...left."
"Left." She flipped the coin into the air and let it drop into the dust. They both leaned over it.
"Tails."
"Right it is." She picked up the coin and brushed it off, dropping it into her pocket.
They turned right and stepped out of the alley into the street. Lunch hour traffic flowed by at a steady pace, and hordes of people mimed the cars in the road. People stared at the strange figure in the grey pajamas, strolling down the street with an out-of-place teenager, and Maura noticed the stares. Rhys paid no attention, instead looking around at the giant urban jungle growing around him.
"You need clothes."
"I'm wearing clothes."
"I mean people clothes."
"Oh."
"Follow me. You can wear some of my brother's old clothes."
She whirled around and led him back towards her apartment.
"What's wrong with my clothes again?"
"They're out of place. No one walks around in pajamas."
"But they're comfortable."
"Between being comfortable and blending in, I think blending is the better choice."
She led him up the stairs and into her apartment. She pointed at the couch.
"Sit."
He sat. She smacked the digital clock, knocking it back and down behind the TV. She walked into the closet and began rummaging around through the boxes and cartons.
"You live here?" He looked aroud at the nice room and the small kitchen beyond the doorway.
"Yeah." She called out from behind the closet door, still digging. "It's actually my brother's place, but he's gone missing. They're drawing money from an inexistant bank account right now. Once they find out, they'll probably take this place back real quick." She emerged with some shirts and jeans, thrusting them towards Rhys. "Bathroom. That way." She pointed, and he went in, closing the door.
While he changed, she went into her room and began collecting her pictures and various clothing, throwing them into her handbag. They had to travel light; she left everything that wasn't significant to her in any way at all, the exception being the shoebox: she tied it with rubber band and stuffed the whole thing into her bag. If they needed money, she could always try to sell photographs to people.
He emerged from the bathroom victorious, dressed. His hair was combed and his face was washed; he looked decent and could easily pass as an unsuspecting drooling member of society. She came out of her room at about the same time and examined him, nodding.
"You look good."
"Thanks."
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah."
She craned her neck and glanced towards the kitchen. "Want something to eat or drink before we go?"
He yawned and stretched. "I'm good."
"Okay. Let's go."