it done broke down - 11. the window

by nick nelson

part eleven of 13

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rick decided to run for it. what did he have to lose? there were two ways he could run for it. he could get up and casually walk out of the room, and out of the building, relying on his natural sangfroid to carry him past the building’s bored and unsuspecting denizens. or - he could try the window. it was, of course, on the fifteenth floor. or so they said. but maybe that was just what they said, and it was really only on the second or third floor. and even if it really was on the fifteenth, rick had seen movies in which, when the hero or heroine jumped out of really high windows, there was always an open truck passing underneath filling with something soft, like feathers or mattresses or strawberries or some other soft objects or substances. do i really want to land in a truck full of strawberries? rick wondered. but first, he might as well check the window to see if he could fit out of it. or if it opened. he got up and went over to the window and put his hand on it to try to open it. at that moment robin hood reentered the room nice view, eh? robin asked rick. yes, very nice. the interview is over, robin announced. oh? why is that? rick answered oh so casually. don’t ask questions, just come with me. all right. rick followed robin back out into the corridor, which was empty. rick wondered if he should have tried to walk out, and not wasted his time wondering about the window. but that was the way it was - you could not expect to make the right choices all the time. why did you have to make choices at all? why did everything have to be so complicated? this looks like your lucky day, robin said, interrupting rick’’s melancholy musings. they continued down the well lit but empty corridor. but robin did not expand on his remark about it being rick’s lucky day. next