Small Apartment

I lost my girlfriend in the apartment. It’s not a big apartment by any means. But, I lost her.

“Meesha?”

There was no echo. Like I’ve said, it’s not a big apartment.

“Mooshy? Meesha…?”

My girlfriend has lost things here before. Jeans, sweatshirts. Never herself, though. It’d be funny if I wasn’t so nervous.

“Mama!”

That’s what I call her sometimes.

I walked from one room to the next. “Meesha!”

In the bedroom, I heard her.

“You have to see this!” came her voice. Sounded distant.

“Where are you?” I called back.

Her words reverberated from the closet. “Down here!”

Down here? I was hesitant. A little spooked, to be honest. Down here? I stepped over to the closet.

My girlfriend’s clothes were shoved aside. In the closet floor was an opening. A hole. An entryway. It was dark down there. “Meesha?”

Her head popped up from the opening. A huge smile pasted to her face.

I stared at her. “What is this?” I asked, gesturing to the hole in the floor.

She thought. “I don’t really know. But, I do know this is where the ants have been coming from.”

“When did you find it?” I was sweating. Feeling more anxious.

“Like an hour ago,” my girlfriend replied. “I saw some new ants near the bed, and I followed their trail.” She smiled, even wider.

“What are you smiling for? This is … not normal …”

Her grin grew. “You’ll never believe what’s down here,” she said.

“I don’t think I care to know.”

“Come closer.” My girlfriend held her finger to her lips. “Just be quiet. And listen.”

I crouched by the opening. Turned my ear. Cool air emanated from the blackness. The smell of water-rides.

“Do you hear it?” She held my hand.

Music. And words.

It’s a small world after all. It’s a small world after all.