Cynara (Unit 12)
There was a cockroach in the bathroom.
Cynara screamed. Her husband didn’t come running.
“Babe?” Cynara had spent a lifetime mastering the art of raising one’s voice while also infusing it with the threat of tears.
“What?” Cynara’s husband didn’t run, but he knew better than not to move. So he muttered and cursed and groaned his way out of the couch that sagged and took at least three swings and a little momentum to rise from.
“Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!” Cynara pointed a half-manicured nail down at the cockroach that had dared creep onto her lavender toilet rug.
Her husband turned his back to grab something, anything to hit the beast with. By the time he turned back, Cynara had already begun slapping at his arm and informing him (with little creativity and much volume) that he was much too slow and the creature had slithered into a crack already and she hated this decrepit apartment and the rug was ruined forever and she never should have married him anyway.
Kendra (Unit 6)
There was a cockroach in the bathroom.
It perched near the bathroom scale, antennae raised, testing the fetid air. Eggs. Kendra’s ultramarathon training diet cycled through scrambled eggs for breakfast, omelet for lunch, and quiche for dinner, with protein shakes strategically sprinkled in between.
She’d read that insects could be a source of protein in a pinch. Could insects be consumed by vegetarians? Moot point. It would likely take a whole apartment complex full of roaches to reach her daily protein quota.
Kendra stomped near the roach. Not on it. She didn’t believe in killing things. Her high-shock-absorbent trainer didn’t make much of an impact, just enough to encourage the roach to scurry down the drain.
Lauren (Unit 8)
There was a cockroach on Lauren’s toilet lid.
Lauren pulled on her satin robe and cinched it tight before slipping into the flickering light of the hallway to knock on Unit 7’s door.
“The volume is at 50%!” Jon, the loudest tenant in the building, didn’t even open the door.
Lauren knocked again.
“It’s not too loud,” Jon called out. “Go away!”
Lauren almost tried Kendra in Unit 6, but at this hour, the only person audibly awake was Unit 7. Everyone always knew when Unit 7 was awake.
So Lauren knocked a third time.
“It’s not about the noise!” she yell-whispered before he could cut her off. “I just—I need something.”
Jon opened the door a crack, only one eye and a lock of thinning hair showing.
“May I please use your bathroom? There’s a cockroach in mine.”
Samantha (Super’s Unit)
There was a cockroach in the bathroom again.
Samantha picked it up and threw it in the tank for her lizard.
Harriet (Unit 5)
Harriet heard about the cockroach in Unit 8’s bathroom because the vents were set up so even the smallest of sounds in the hallway echoed into her room as if someone had installed a sound system to ensure nobody had any quiet (or peace) in Unit 5.
So she knew there was at least one cockroach in Unit 8’s bathroom, which meant there were cockroaches in the building, which meant there might be a cockroach in Unit 5, Harriet’s unit, and if there wasn’t a cockroach in Unit 5, that just meant there wasn’t a cockroach in Unit 5 yet.
Harriet opened the emergency drawer of her nightstand and pulled out the flashlights. She aimed the largest towards the bathroom and the others towards every shaded area in the room. Then she spent the night on guard, practicing her deep inhales.
