The marigolds of Dia de los Muertos

     Noah and Megan had managed to make it to the rooftop garden. Each didn't see the other because Megan was in the small greenhouse looking at the bright flowers that swooped down from the hanging baskets or clustered together on various shelves as if trying to stay warm.
     Noah arrived and knelt next to the pool. He stuck his hand in tentatively, checking to see just how warm the water was. It felt soft and wonderful. The mist reaching up to surround his face.  He thought about getting in but realized that he would have to get out and back into the chilly December air. Then he heard someone singing..."Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is sooo delightful, so let it snow, let it snow...."He looked up to see Jack appear from behind a large pot.
     "Ah, Noah," he said with such a familiar tone that Noah wasn't sure if he was alive or otherwise. "Glad you could come. Please, next time do bring that bathing suit and a towel. It's quite delightful," Jack said and followed it with another smile.
     Noah stood-up letting the water dribble back into the pool. He paused, tilted his head, and realized it was the man who helped Mr. Jenkins get the fountain working again. "Are you the handyman?"
     "Yes." Jack said. "I am.  I am Jack Stars."
     Again, Noah questioned himself about whether or not Jack was real.
     "Sorry about your brother, but the dead don't really leave us do they?"
     Before Noah could answer, Megan appeared in the doorway of the greenhouse. She stopped when she saw the pair. Both seemed young and a bit awkward. She looked from one to the another.
     Jack spoke first, "Oh, how nice, Megan, this is Noah. Noah, Megan."
     Each stood looking at each other. Jack looking from one to the other, smiling.
     "Hello."
     "Hello."
     "Great," said Jack. "Shall I get you two some hot chocolate? You two have much in common. The door between life and death is such an illusion, don't you think?" He turned, started singing the song again while walking toward his small apartment.
     They looked at one another. Noah said, with a hint of urgency, "I see dead people."
     "I bring things back to life," she responded.
     The marigolds, glistening from the mist, clustered around the pair.

Orion

     Isosceles trapezoids pleased Jack.  The rectangular shape of the pool made more geometric figures along the roof top.
     Jack had been busy cleaning, fixing broken chairs, painting, and building decking and finally adding plants. As he stood looking at the angular pots mixed with the round ones, he thought back on his first connection with the residents here.
    He appeared on the doorstep of apartment 306. He tried to straightened his hair, but his work clothes made him look a bit bedraggled. But when she opened the door, his smile made him seem familiar to Rose.
    She opened the door, slightly tilted her head to the right, and paused for just a second before asking "Yes?"
     "Hello, I am Jack, Jack Stars and I live on the roof and I am refurbishing it, and I need your help."
     She paused once again thinking he had something else to say. But, in fact, she was glad in wasn't the police. "Yes?" She said again. "What kind of help?"
     "I have several planting containers and I'm looking for special kinds of plants to fill them with."
     "Special kinds?"
     "Yes."
Again she paused. "What kind?"
     "Ones that make people," he hesitated, trying to find the right word, "compelled."
     "Compelled to do what?"
      With a perplexed look on his face, he said, "Would you mind visiting the rooftop. Perhaps you will know what I mean."
       All along the sides of the pool Jack placed several mason jars with candles in them.  The sun was setting and their lights flickered and reflected in the water.  Rose could see the slight mist rising from the pool. Music was playing from somewhere.
     "Wow," she said and looked at this strange, thin young man standing next to her. "I think I can figure out something."
     Jack hummed along as he continued to sweep, glancing at the plants Rose had suggested, and the sunset.  He stopped and knelt down to feel the water.  He cupped it in his hands, stood-up and let it trickle down. Singing along to the music, "...But I don't know what time it is, it's in a jar," he looked around at the candles. "Which of these lights will light the way to justice for Mr. Evans?"

Blog #1 - Deus ex Machina

His day started at midnight.  He stood on the roof amid the days which stretch out in both directions. Time was one continuous string. No beginning, no end, only now. He stretched his arms as far as they would go in each direction as if trying to be a part of it.

He began humming an old Patsy Cline tune, searching the sky for the Pleiades amid the patchy, ghostly clouds.   3,000 stars like 3,000 wishes he, with outstretched arms, was willing to bestow on this apartment building and its people.

"92 simple elements make up most of the known universe, " he said. "But everything seems so complicated here. Where do I begin? With whom? What does saving look like?"

He dropped his arms, looked around and saw that he had a place to stay for a while.  "This roof will do," He said. Years had past and this place seemed forsaken. The death of Mr. Evans changed all that.

He arrived on this roof amid the stars of the Pleiades as they rose into the clearing night sky. The rain cleared the air.  The brightest of them appeared. Jack lifted one arm to the sky, closed one eye, and pointed into the center of the cluster.

"There you go, Mr. Evans," he whispered.

The waxing gibbous moon appeared to his left, rising up against the building to light the roof.  He wedged open the door to the small apartment now flooded with moonlight and disappeared into its depths.