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ALTERNATE ENDING
Until he got to a door that he couldn’t get open. The minor interruption in his routine had caused his disposition to clear up some. For the first time in however long, he was vaguely aware of himself.
“Hello, Mr. Ira.” He heard someone behind him say. He spun around to see two men in suits sitting on chairs that he would remember to have looked like the chairs in the waiting room, if he remembered the waiting room at that point. Ardal merely laughed. He didn’t know why, but he did. The two men waited for him to finish before addressing him again.
“Mr. Ira,” the second man said, “we’re glad to see you made it here with your physical wellbeing in tact. We’d like to unlock the door and let you out to go enjoy your money.” Ardal started laughing again. The men waited patiently, again, for him to finish. He kept laughing, but suddenly felt very tired. He laughed as he felt his eyelids grow heavy. Everything grew darker and he felt himself slump to the ground. But he kept laughing. Finally, the second man grew impatient.
“Mr. Ira, we can’t let you leave the building now that you have those drugs in your system. We’re going to have to keep you an additional few days while we clean you up.” At that point Ardal completely passed out.
He didn’t wake up until the day he was released. They escorted him out of the building and to his car, which they had been maintaining while he was gone. He waited a while before getting in his car. He lay on the hood, staring up at the sky and breathing the fresh air. He had had neither the view nor the air since he set foot in the building 2 weeks earlier. He would have fallen asleep, but he was eager to get home.
He practically ran up the stairs, not noticing the odd look the landlord gave him, and stood at his door out of breath. He unlocked the door and walked in, only to find that everything was different. He looked around for a second before backing out into the hall. He stood there half-dazed as one of the neighbors was exiting their apartment.
“Oh, hey, Ardal.” She said cheerily. “What’re you doing here?”
“I…thought I lived here.” He stammered out.
“No, your wife said you guys had split. About a week ago. Then a couple days later she said she’d come into a bunch of money and split town. My Ronnie keeps on about her killing you for insurance money, but…” she kept talking, but Ardal couldn’t hear her. He fell back against the wall and slid down to the floor. Now his neighbor was laughing about something, but Ardal only sat numbly staring into the strange apartment that used to be his home.
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