I paused as I came to the wide access gate. A forklift was moving a load of beams into the space. I watched as it rolled slowly past the fence. As my eyes followed, something flashed in my peripheral vision; a swath of tweed in shifting green, like leaves in sunlight. My head swivelled to catch a glimpse.

It was him! The man who wasn’t Finn, Arryn, or Estwick, whose name I still couldn’t recall, who was the whole reason I was here in the first place. My stomach flip-flopped and I felt a little dizzy. 

“Good morning!” He  called, smiling, and closed the distance between us, his hand outstretched to grasp mine. His was warm and dry and I instantly felt my stomach settle and my equilibrium stabilise. “And early too, I’m so pleased! We have a very long day ahead of us, I hope you’re well rested?”

“Yes,” I lied. I was never well rested. But despite the wine, and sleeping on the couch the night before, I wasn’t any more worse off than usual.

“Excellent, please follow me, stay close, and watch your step. It’s a bit tricky to get where we need to go.”

He turned away and walked toward the park. The building next to the corner lot was covered in heavy iron scaffolding to protect it during construction. He led me past the site and to the far side of the beams covering the adjacent building. There was a door here allowing access to the site which he opened and waved me through.

“But we aren’t geared for this.” I said pointing to numerous signs.

“It’s okay, we aren’t going onto that construction site, but we have to come through here because they’ve covered up our door. Now.” At this, he walked up to the face of the shielded structure and put his hands together on the corner of the wall. With no more effort than tearing off a band-aid, he pulled back the whole corner of the building. 

At this point, I began to consider maybe I was actually still dreaming, passed out, half drunk on my couch This strange man and his strange manner. Was this even real? I pinched myself and winced. Mr. Not (I had been thinking of him as Mr. “not Finn, nor Arryn, nor Estwick” and Mr. Not was just easier. Why couldn’t I remember his name?) Mr. Not held out his hand again, this time not in greeting, but to guide me through the opening. The passage behind the peeled back section of wall looked like a typical maintenance access tunnel for any other apartment building. I stepped through with him and the wall rumbled slowly shut behind us.