[ WP ] Three people are standing in a room . Only one of them has a shadow .

My boss rubs the back of his head, sweeping the horseshoe of hair downwards and for one of two reasons: 
 
 One: He enjoys the contrasting texture of squeaky smooth to soft, like his fingers dragged against a clean sphere of glass into grassy hair that from a birds-eye view looks like the letter ‘ C ’ 
 
 Or Two: He ’ s about to tell me something terrible, 
 
 “ Is your phone off, Mark? ” 
 
 Kevin, his assistant, ten feet away to my right, stares out the window of the 120th floor of New York City ’ s fourth tallest skyscraper and unlocks the window's clasp to let in the breeze. The office faces west and the sun is just low enough to send a panoramic slice of bloody orange between the purpling sky and metallic base. I ’ m holding a thick glossy black pen in my right hand, one end of which is between my pinky and ring-finger and the other end nestles in the crease of my thumb and I stare at the desk and smile noting that if I tuck my thumb into my hand this makes the shadowed number ‘ five ’, 
 
 “ Mark! ” Kevin shouts into the opened glass window, “ You turned your phone off, right? ” 
 
 I look at Kevin then at my boss whose lips are curled in and index fingers touch to form a triangle beneath his nose, 
 
 “ Yes, sorry, what ’ s this about? ” 
 
 Kevin puts his hands on his hips underneath his navy blue sport coat, bunching the back of his coat against his wrists and says something into the six-inch opening of the window and I can ’ t quite make it out. My boss gently nods in agreement with whatever it was so I ask him to politely clarify and Kevin turns his head to the side and yells and the wind seems to ruffle the bunched edges of his coat with each syllable, 
 
 “ You fucked up, Mark! ” 
 
 My pen vibrates and falls onto my boss ’ s table, I reach to grab it and my boss puts his hand over it and looks at me with his eyebrows falling towards the edges of his eyes, 
 
 “ Your meeting with ______ last week was recorded, you told them things that put us, and yourself, in very tough spot, ” 
 
 “ How could you be so fucking stupid?! ” Kevin yells. 
 
 He hands me the pen and I look down at his hand and across the desk to my left I see my hand ’ s shadow and fingers and the pen that seems to be floating in mid air. 
 
 “ They ’ re going to go after your family first, you know that, right? ” he continues. 
 
 I reach toward the pen, watching the shadow on the table, then pull my hand back, reach for it again and feel a warm breath on the right side of my face and right against my ear, 
 
 “ ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE MAN?! YOUR FAMILY, EVERYTHING, GONE! ” 
 
 I flinch my head away and see Kevin staring out of the window in the same position as before. He ’ s not wearing shoes, and I trace my eyes behind his reddish-pink heels and see no shadow. My boss stands up and places both his fists on the table, 
 
 “ Mark! This isn ’ t something we can sweep under the rug, do you understand?! ” 
 
 Kevin grabs a leather cushioned chair and aims the metal chair legs towards the glass window and tosses it, shattering it to pieces, he walks towards me and grabs my arm and pulls me to the opened window, 
 
 “ He doesn ’ t get it, this wont go away unless he goes away, ” 
 
 My boss and Kevin grab both arms and I try to drop my weight to the floor but they pick me up. A woman in a suit walks through the door with a clipboard and behind her looking into the office I see my family, 
 
 “ Wait, wait, wait! That ’ s my family, wait, please, let me say goodbye at least! ” 
 
 The woman grabs my mouth and wedges her fingers between my teeth, 
 
 “ This is what your family wants, Mark. At least make it easier for them! ” She shoves something in into my mouth and plugs my nose and I close my eyes and shake my head and fall backwards into the air, weightless. 
 
 I close my hand around another ’ s, softer, familiar, wrinkled. My eyes open against a fluorescent light and my wife cries. I ’ m on a bed with white sheets, 
 
 “ You ’ re okay. I love you. ” 

