Member-only story
My Building
Pair with Our House by Madness
A lot of people live inside of me. I am like an apartment building. There is a lady on the second floor to the left. She seems serious, almost stern. It is clear she does not tolerate fools. She is always at odds with the young man in the flat above her. He likes to have his friends over and play music until late. He also likes the lady down below, but for obvious reasons, she does not like him. Across the landing on the third floor lives a couple with a little girl. Her dad wants her to go out and try new things, even if she fails or doesn’t like them, but her mom usually says no to that because it would be way too dangerous or her clothes would get dirty, and she just washed it. Underneath the little family is an empty apartment. An old woman and her daughter used to live there after the women got sick. Her daughter would take care of her. But it did not help, the woman died, and the daughter disappeared, too. On the first floor lives a lion on one side. Lions are smart and can take care of themselves, so the local zoo thought they would put it up there. He is friendly and likes to sunbathe on the small patch of grass in front of his windows next to the front door of the building. On the other side is a math professor. She might be single because of her field, but that is just because people don’t understand how beautiful correspondences can be.
Regitze Ladekarl has re-emerged as a raconteur after a long, successful career elsewhere. She crafts universal tales from everyday lives with an honest, sharp and witty pen. Besides working on a forthcoming novel, she flexes her voice with personal essays, flash fiction, and method writing here on Medium.
