It hummed along in the corner, an indiscrete presence. It was old and rickety and possessed of a bad temperament. When it worked, which ironically tended to be on cooler days, it serenaded it’s fellow occupants with a symphony of squeaks and squeals at intervals contrived to deny sleep. No one thought to replace it because it was just one more actor in a miserable tropical drama.
The air wasn’t moving today and the heat and humidity had turned the little apartment into a sauna. Two of his roommates were gone which left him and Sarah suffering alone. They were both soaked in sweat and were making a show of studying but it was too hot to think.
Sarah was laying on the couch trying to read and he was pretending that he wasn’t looking at her. She pretended that she didn’t know he was looking at her, and was amusing herself by tormenting him. The fan, in a rare show of magnanimity, had decided it would work today and she let her long brown hair flutter in the breeze.
He cursed at the heat.
“What?” She turned over and looked at him across the room.
Those damned eyes. She had huge almond shaped eyes and if you looked into them it was like having a spell cast. And of course, she knew it. “It’s just the heat. I can’t concentrate”. He left out that she was a major distraction as well “Fuck it, let’s go grab a beer. I’m done.”
She got up and walked over to him “let’s stay here” and she put her arms around his neck and sat on his lap. She kissed him and said “it’s cooler in my room”. It was complete bullshit of course, there wasn’t a cool place in the apartment. She got up, taking him by the hand and suddenly he forgot about the heat.
The fan, no longer of any use in the now deserted living room, went into a funk and gave one last screech before retiring for good. No one cared.
© Glenn R Keller 2021, All Rights Reserved
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