A Man Walks Out

an assignment for class. Feedback please!

Calvin left his off-white, suburban home in the morning feeling quite confident. A man in his early thirties, just starting his adult life, he was on his way to the news office, where he was a copy editor for the local paper. After carefully locking the white door that didn’t quite match the white of his siding, he strode toward his car. The burgundy, beat-up Chevy Nova was a well-loved college graduation gift from his parents, and he still proudly drove it years later. This was partly because he loved the car, and partly because he was nowhere near financially stable enough to buy a new one.
            As he backed out of his driveway, Calvin tuned in to the classic rock station on his radio and bit into the apple he had brought with him as breakfast. Normally, he would have skipped breakfast, but he had been exceptionally hungry this morning. He couldn’t help but admire what a beautiful morning it was. The sky was already blue and the clouds looked thick, like whipped cream. It was the kind of morning he thought was more likely to happen in a movie or book, but not real life. Something about it felt so above average though. Calvin suspected this was because he had a daily routine to follow and it rarely changed. He regarded his current job as the most boring obligation on Earth, but it paid his bills and kept his parents quiet. What he really wanted to do was become a reporter for a much bigger paper, but of course jobs like that don’t just find people right out of college. No, he was officially committed to working his way up to his dream job, even if it meant today was only going be another average day.

It was only when his cell phone rang that he realized today was going to be very different than he expected. He cut the music and flipped open his basic device when he saw her name flashing on the screen. For a moment, his heart skipped. He knew she probably had a negative reason for dialing his number, but it didn’t matter. His insides got a jolt of electricity every time her name came up anywhere.

They had met in college, although she hadn’t been a student. He had been walking to a bar downtown with some friends when he saw her leaning against a brick wall, tears streaming down her face and her mascara running with it. She had been stunning that night, dressed in a black satin dress with no sleeves and her hair curled perfectly to frame her young face. His heart had skipped then in the same fashion it did now, and without hesitation he told his friends he would meet up with them later. She told him about the trouble she was in when he calmed her down, and he knew at that moment he would be at her side for a long time.

That had been four years ago, and although the romantic tension was almost always present when the two of them were alone, neither of them had ever made advances toward the other. There was never a right time, he decided. When they were together, she was always desperate and he was always protecting her. They didn’t have space for romance. Calvin had promised himself a few months back that when the opportunity presented itself, he would grab her hand tightly and they would run for it. They could get in his car, change their names, and never look back. Nothing would make him happier.

The phone conversation was short, but there was urgency in her voice. Quickly as he could manage, he changed directions and headed towards the south side of town as he called his boss to tell him he would be out of the office for another day. What she had gotten herself into this time was a complete mystery.  He turned onto a small side street with worn pavement and more potholes than he could count, and as he was passing liquor store after liquor store, he wondered if he was prepared for what he would find when he arrived at her place. Calvin turned into the parking lot of South Creek Apartments and parked as closely to building D as he could. If things went less than smoothly, he wanted a quick getaway for the two of them. Thankfully, her building was in the back, so they wouldn’t look suspicious from the road. Not that he thought this place could get more suspicious than it already was. He hastily parked in what he thought was a legal parking space, although the lines were in desperate need of repainting, and turned his car off.

As he opened the door to get out of the car, he took one last glance at the glove box. After thinking for a moment, he clicked it open and pulled out a small handgun. Just in case. Hurriedly placing it in the pocket of his khaki pants, he stepped out of the car, closing the door behind him, but left it unlocked in case they needed a quick escape.

Calvin entered the main hallway of apartment building D and headed into the elevator. For as run down as the place was, the elevator still worked fairly well, although the numbers on the buttons were wearing off and the wallpaper was beginning to peel inside. As he quickly approached the fourth floor, he tried to wrap his mind around what he would find when he arrived at her door, but he still didn’t have a single guess as to why she needed his help this time. She was very unpredictable when it came to these things.

When the elevator doors opened on the fourth floor, Calvin strode confidently out of it and across the hall. The number two on her door was beginning to rub off, and there were quite a few scratches near the bottom of the wooden door. He took a deep breath, stepped forward, and knocked firmly on the door.

He didn’t hear much commotion inside, and was neither concerned nor comforted by that fact. It could mean there was no one in the room with her, or it could mean there were already several men in her apartment trying to get what they came for. This thought agitated him a bit as he recalled the last time he had to come save her from them. Carefully, he reached down and touched the gun in his pocket for reassurance that he could handle what might be waiting behind this door.

Finally, he heard some light footsteps and a female voice shouting. With no response from another in the room, he could only hope she was on the phone. He knocked one more time, this one a bit louder than the last, and the voice paused, resumed for a moment, and finally, he heard the click of the “end call” button. A few more footsteps and the doorknob turned. Carefully creaking open the door, two blue eyes peered from the small opening, and finally the rest of the woman appeared. She was a few years younger than him, in her late twenties, and far more beautiful than he ever previously thought a woman could be. Her brown curls cascaded down her back and shoulders perfectly, no matter what time of the day he saw her. 

She opened the door fully when she saw it was Calvin. They exchanged smiles briefly, but there was something knowing in both of their stares. She looked exhausted, like she hadn’t slept in days, though she was stubbornly trying to hide her weariness with a smile that was almost convincing. Typical. Politely, she stepped aside and let Calvin enter the room, closing the door behind them.