Up on the Fifth Floor

I had a day where I was alone the in office. Alone because it was summer and people take time, whether it be in broad strokes of vacation or little cuts here and there. Also along because some of my colleagues that were working had meetings or other consequential happenings around town.
And it was warm in the office. The top of a 5 story brick building with 80 year old windows that muscle down on any attempt to open them. And when you do you need a iron bar to prop them open or they will guillotine your fingers off.
I enjoyed the feeling of the heat. The pin pricks of moisture on your skin or arm roll of your shirt. Its feeling very alive and very threatened at the same time. Its the angry glow of a baking car interior when you first get in. "I love this feeling," I told a co-worker once to whom I gave a ride back to their home.
"But you have air conditioner, right" he asked.

Alone in the office I did not turn on the A/Cs which were wall units mounted under those windows. I sat in the heat with just a single oscillating fan whirring away. Typing and emailing and filing its like any other day except quiet and warm. I, as I am prone to do, begin to Walter Mitty and I imagine myself as the classic detective in the noir movies. Slung over a desk waiting for someone to walk in through the door. But first I would see their shadow as it becomes large in the window well. The fan would be on my desk and made of metal and it would grind. The client would be beautiful because this is a fantasy. They would likely look like a co-worker because I had them and because of where  was imaging all this.

Once I cooked up the bravery to take a creative writing class at the educational annex out in the burbs. Where kids take culinary lessons and train on how to be HVAC technicians. And the most cutting feedback I got was. "This is good but I would like to know this isn't taking place at the local college gym. I went there and I guess you did this because it is way too obvious." I smiled but then I never returned.

But its work even down to the color of the break albeit everything is a deeper shade of black and and the contrasts are sharper. And because its work this client, however striking, asks me what anyone does when they walk into my tiny saunas.

"its toasty in here"
"I enjoy the heat! Don't like air conditioning"
"But you have it, right?"
"Yes, I have solved enough cases to purchase one"
"What?"