Chapter 2

6 Maple Court. This building was like an outcast among the houses around it. It sat fenced in on all sides, like a wild animal kept in a cage, or a freak everyone wanted to shut away.

With only two stairwells and twelve apartments, the place felt like its own world, cut off from all the others. There was something in the building’s energy that made prospective buyers suddenly refuse to purchase an apartment there, without knowing why. But Omar liked it here right away. Sins are like crimes. A man with a guilty conscience always wants to hide somewhere so that fate won’t find him. The house warmly welcomed the burly immigrant into its depths.

The janitor didn’t stop at his little stunt with the smeared door handle. Evil left unpunished always grows. Omar went on displaying enviable diligence, scrubbing the asphalt in front of the entrance and watching the second-floor windows for the familiar female figure with the big breasts. As long as she didn’t appear, the old man stayed quiet and no ideas crept into his rotten head. His next flare-up came when he saw that Annette (oh, Annette, Omar is not worthy even to look at you!) had once again sat down to meditate by one of the windows — but this time behind the curtain.

Omar flew into a rage. He had waited for her so long and she ... hid her body behind the curtains. He felt like snapping his broom in two from frustration. He hadn’t even noticed how Annette had become the only joy in his dull, lonely life. He watched her silhouette while she meditated and wondered whom he could complain to about his cruel fate. Even though the beauty was hidden by the curtains, the janitor stood there staring at her for the entire half hour of meditation, until Daria lay down in the same place, on the wide windowsill by the window.