Thank you for all the great reveiws. I love you all.
I met the man one night in early July. I found him standing alone on the roof of my apartment building as I came up for a breath of fresh air. His name was Edwin, and he had a nasty habit of chewing on his lower lip while taking long, slow breaths from his cigarettes. The man was clearly a wreck; his hair was graying around the edges and went unwashed, firm dark lines formed around his eyes and mouth when he spoke, and the area around his eyes was black with lack of sleep. Despite his pitiful appearance, he had several lavish belongings: a fancy gold watch with the numbers boldly lit on the face, a very late model phone that he half-heartedly checked every few minutes (as if he already knew no one had called), and two small silver wedding bands which hung on a chain around his neck. That first night we made nothing but small talk, yet I couldn't help but feel as though it were one of the most meaningful conversations I had ever had. Eventually the night brought about drowsiness and I forced myself to leave the man’s company. That night I slept very soundly, dreamt very little and awakened very late in the morning with an undeniable curiosity for the man. Before my eyes had even opened I knew that that night I would be returning to the rooftops to look for Edwin.
That night I found him much the same place that I had the night before with the same gloomy gaze cast out into the distance. I came back to this same spot every night afterwards, almost religiously. Some nights things from my everyday life prevented me from going to the roof. Some nights I would go to the roof, and he wouldn't be anywhere to be found. But most nights I could find him standing at the edge, staring down into the lanes of traffic beneath us. He would look up at me the moment my foot hit the gravel floor, as if he had known without a doubt that that's where I'd be at that exact moment. We would talk for a few hours a night, and every night I left feeling like a new, better man.
One night, I came to the rooftops with a goal in mind. I approached Edwin in the same casual manner that had always existed between us, and after I good deal of chit chat asked: "Why are you up here, Edwin?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard, and he looked up at me with curiosity in his eyes. “That’s a long story, friend.” His voice was deep and rough, yet all together had something distinctly soft about it.
“Well, I’ve got the time if you’ve got the will.” We had spent the past few weeks making nothing but small talk, and I was eager to learn something, anything, about him. For a summer night, the breeze was surprisingly refreshing. It was that perfect kind of night where every star was shining clearly, even here in the city. “I’m here tonight… Because of something that happened to me twenty five years ago. I was a successful young man on the verge of changing the world, whether you can believe that or not. I was the first to discover the secret to a car that ran completely on renewable energy.”
“Twenty five years ago? I’m sorry, but we don’t even have that kind of technology now. How can you expect me to believe your story?” Irritated, my tone was a little more harsh than I had intended.
“I don’t!”- He scoffed, “But you asked, and I’m going to tell you anyway whether you believe me or not.” He started into his story again, and I listened intently. “The whole thing ran on three forms of generators and had a battery the size of a shoe. Solar panels on the top, a wind turbine where the radiator should be, and a small turbine on each wheel to use the cars own momentum to fuel the battery. It ran like a dream. I could go into a lot more detail, I designed the damn thing anyway, but then we’d be up here all night and I’ve got shit to do.” If not for his stern expression I would have sworn he was telling some sort of bizarre joke that not even he could laugh at.
“So if this car of yours was so perfect, why aren’t there more of them?”
“I’m getting there.” He replied as he flicked the still glowing butt of his cigarette to the ground.
“I had a wife back then, and her and I were going to make it big. We were going to sell the blueprints to the highest bidding company, then move somewhere warm and not have to worry about a damn thing. Well, the highest bidder happened to be a major oil company who just wanted to own the rights to keep the car from production. You see, a car that makes its own energy doesn’t need gasoline, and that’s bad news if that’s your top selling product.” He paused to start rolling more tobacco into the thin paper sheets he kept in his jacket pocket.
“So they bought it to keep you from making more?”
“Not exactly. Linda, my wife, wouldn’t hear of it. She threatened to divorce me if I ever even thought about selling the blueprints to them. She told me it would be like selling my soul. Of course I didn’t like it either, but it at the time no one else seemed interested. Baffling, really. It seems like something the automotive industry would be dying to get first dibs on.” He paused briefly and looked down at the cigarette in his hands, but couldn’t seem to bring himself to light it.
“Well, that’s when Linda got sick. And, you see, money was tight back then. The medical bills were too much for us to afford. There wasn’t anything else I could do, really. So I- I….” Beginning to choke up, he cleared his throat and rested his head on the brick wall behind him. In all the time we had been meeting each other up here, this is the first time I had ever seen him truly upset.
“Twenty five years ago today, I sold my soul to the devil. The corporation offered me tons of money. Money I needed for Linda. Of course, it didn’t matter how much money I threw at the hospital… Linda was too far gone. She died later that week, and I buried her the day after. There wasn’t much for me to stick around for anymore, so I packed what clothes I had and took off in the prototype. I left the keys to our house taped to the door and left the house to whoever happened to find it first. There was no going back for me. That’s what I’ve been doing ever sense; just driving. Trying to just keep running until the money ran out. I’ve still got mountains of their cash left, but lord knows I don’t want it anymore… Never did.”
We were both silent for a long time after that. I watched him as he stood, motionless, staring out into the city. His eyes softened, and for just a moment I thought I saw a tear reflect the moon’s glow. After a long while, the stillness began to eat away at my patience. “Why did you stop?”
“Damn thing finally broke down!” His sudden liveliness caught me off guard. “Rusty heap always had its troubles, always needed work… But this time she’s just dead. She’s dead and that’s just all there is too it.”
“You can’t fix it?”
“I’ve been patching her up for years now, going off of what I remembered from the blueprints. Damn thing’s been about a speed bump away from scrap metal for a while now. I kept her running for long enough, and I think it’s just about time to put her to rest.”
“So what are you going to do? Where will you go?”
He put both hands on his gut and let out a chuckle. “Looks like we’ve come full circle then. That’s why I’m here.”
Confused, I rubbed the back of my neck and said, “I’m not sure I follow. What’s here? Someone in the apartments?”
He shook his head. “The prototype’s not the only thing that’s broke down, kid. I am. There’s only so much running a man can do before he has to sit down and deal with what he’s done.” His gaze, which had been resting on the city, fell down into the noisy traffic bellow. “It’s been great talking to you… but I told you I had shit to do, and I think it’s about time I got it over with.”
Before I could protest, he took a single step and plunged from the building. I stood, frozen, watching in horror and disbelief as the sound of screeching wheels and blaring car horns filled my ears.
I may open this story up again later, but for now I think I'm done.
And anytime!
My bad. And I wanted to find a way to increase the tension, but I also wanted to keep it short. I'll keep tweaking it and I'll see what I can do. Thank you so much for being the first to review my story! 
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