EMPTY

 

Leon Zeldis

 

 

            The first missing item Albert noticed was a small vase that had stood on the bookcase in the living room. Actually, he didn't fel its absence at once, but only when he was looking for a specific book on the top shelf, and then he realized something was not as usual. It was a plain green glass vase, probably left by his parents. Albert did not remember having bought it. No great loss, but it was puzzling, how it had vanished.

            The disappearances continued, a book, a pan in the kitchen, a soap dish, every day something else.

            After a week of this, Albert became vaguely annoyed. He asked Freddy, his chess companion, what to do.

            "You have a cleaning woman?" asked Freddy.

            "No. Not for a long time. Too expensive, you know."

            "Well, if nobody comes in a normal way, somebody must have made a copy of the key and he or she comes in while you are out."

            Albert took this conclusion passively. In his apartment, he had nothing really worth stealing. Everything of some value he had already sold, piece by piece, to supplement his social security. If somebody had a key, he could come in at any time, but since the intruder came while he was out, there was no danger. Unless, of course, if he came at night… This idea he didn't like.

            "What can I do?" he asked.

            Freddy thought for a moment. "Well, first of all, change the lock. Have only one key and give me the backup to keep."

            That sounded reasonable, so Albert dutifully went and had the lock changed. He kept one key and the next day gave the other one to Freddy.   

            Two books went missing the next day, and a side table the day after.

            Freddy said, "This is serious. Whoever is doing this has the ability to open the door without a key and without leaving a trace. You should call the police."

            "Oh no!" whimpered Albert. "They will come and make a mess. I've seen it in the movies, how they operate."

            He decided to wait and see if the phenomenon would stop after a while. Evidently, if somebody was taking things, he might get bored, or realize there was nothing worth taking, really.

            However, as the days passed, and then weeks, things continued to disappear. It started to involve large items, like chairs, the kitchen table, a lamp.

            Albert finally decided he had to go to the police, but not today. He had an appointment with the dentist, and adding a visit to the police would be just too much aggravation.

            He was a quiet man. His parents had died leaving him a small sum of money apart from the apartment. He used to take only the interest, but as prices went up faster than his pension, he was forced to withdraw some small sum of the capital every month. Not enough to make him worry. He still had enough for ten or fifteen more years of doing the same. He didn't expect to live that long.

            His interests were simple, the daily newspaper, a weekly news magazine, the TV, an occasional movie. He had no girl friend. In fact, his only friend was Freddy. Although he was not gay, he had always found it perplexing how to connect with a female; he either feared that she was brighter and was secretly mocking him, or she was too full of energy, wanted to go out, to travel, or she appeared to be dull.

            Travel was not to his taste. He had never traveled abroad, and his neighborhood was sufficiently foreign to satisfy any sudden longing for adventure he might experience, though he never did.

            As days went by, his resolve to go to the police faded even while his apartment became bare. Strangely enough, he didn't actually miss the books, or the television set that vanished one Saturday after he had gone to bed.

            Freddy got tired of insisting he should go to the police. He went himself, but the officer in charge just nodded a few times as he wrote down his complaint. Since he was not the victim, he had no standing in the matter. The policeman promised to visit Albert, which he never did.

            His kitchen was now totally bare, and Albert simply ordered food from a nearby Chinese that made deliveries. He would have liked to have a cup of tea once in a while, but there was no kettle, and no point in buying one just to see it disappear.

            He sat on the last armchair in the empty room, and reflected on the vacuity of life. He had experienced difficulty in finishing the crossword in the paper. Some words had just vanished from his memory.

            The next day, after checking again at the coffee shop and verifying that Freddy didn't come, for the third day running, he went to the bank to withdraw some money. From a distance he saw a crowd gathered around the door. When he came to the group of people, he found out that the bank had collapsed; a sign on the door informed the public the address of the lawyers that were taking care of the bankruptcy. No chance now of getting any money from his account.

            He walked back to his flat. The armchair had gone. He looked into the bedroom and, as he suspected, the bed was also gone.

            Albert sat carefully on the floor; he could not remember how the apartment had looked when it was full of objects. His memory was not as it had been. He laid back, stretched his legs, crossed his arms on his chest and closed his eyes.

            He had achieved peace.