The start of part one of the book the geography of you and me

Chapter 1

says that on the first day of September the world is dark and Lucy is trapped in an
elevator and she couldn't imagine that traffic lights had gone black , their were
people running for the streets of all island , the windows were thrown open, the ice
cream began to melt and all the city had been turned off with a candle and Lucy
in the elevator couldn’t know this but her first thought wasn't by the violent shake.
It was for a small army of porters who always greeted her or helped her bring the
umbrella when it was rainy or helped her unclog the shower drain.

in that moment, Lucy regretted having entered the elevator, but lucy has not
recognized the teenage boy who was in the elevator; This boy had moved in with his
father, but she did not know that he was hiring a new superintendent although Lucy
wanted to present herself there was something infortune with the boy maybe it
was the headphones that he always used but in this moment that Lucy this thinking
if the teenager boy would recognize her but the light over they it had off and finally
he hit the red of emergency and they waited that the speaker the elevator will come
alive

In that moment Lucy lowered her eyes, trying to avoid the little red arrow above the
door also for not imagine the empty below them or the thick cables stretched above
them. She’d been in the elevator before, but never when the lights had gone out
too her legs felt unsteady her stomach wound tight, the air too warm and the space
too small but he is falling against the wall and says his dad is not around this afternoon
and Lucy says her parent are away, too because they are in Brooklyn and Lucy ask
¿do you think we're okay till then?

I think we'll be fine, he said, his voice reassuring then, with a hint of amusement, he
added: unless, you're afraid of the dark

I’m okay, she said, sliding down the wall until she was sitting on the floor, and said

I’ve heard monsters prefer closets to elevator

And he teenage boy said

I'm Owen, by the way. I feel like we should probably introduce ourselves and lucy
said, I live in the 2d and Owen said, I live in the basement, a floor lucy had never
visited

And Lucy said

I thought nobody was allowed up there.

¨so you have friends in high places, huh?

¨low place¨.¨the basement, ¿remember?

Watching him over the past weeks, studying him from afar, she'd imagined he must
be shy and unapproachable. But sitting in the elevator, the two of them grinning ar
each other through the dark, she realized she might have been wrong. To see in that
moment he was funny and a little bit odd although she added, i'd a lot more
impressed if could get us out of here

And she question

¿where do you go?

And Owen answers probably not the same place as you goes to you

And she question

¿what do you mean?

Well, he said, waving a hand around, you live here In this building.

Lucy says

So do you

Owen

I think it would be more accurate to say I live under this building

but I’m betting you go to some fancy private school where everyone wears uniforms
and worries about the difference between an a an a-minus, she swallowed hard,
unsure what to say to this , since it was true later she ask

¿The city or school?

And Lucy says but you don’t seem very happy

And he answer

In true it's just this wasn't really the plan, he said. But my dad got offered this job, and
now here we are. It’s too crowded. You can't ever breathe here and Lucy says

You’re confusing the city with this elevator and Owen then he apologizes and says

I’m being an idiot and Lucy says

It’s okay. We can just chalk it up to claustrophobia. Or lack of oxygen.

Lucy at that moment has memories of the elevator. Like the fights with his brothers,
the times he was in the elevator with his parents, also the readings of his favorite
book. But at that moment her brothers and her parents could not help her because
her parents were in France and her brothers study thousands of miles away, that's
why Lucy feels alone but in the midst of darkness. They heard voices and noises on
the other side of the elevator.

They were fixing the elevator so that they got out of there and after a while they
managed to get out of the elevator Owen and Lucy
 CHAPTER 2

That day, Owen had woken up before dawn in the previous 42 weeks. He listens to
his father who is also awake, but his new bedroom is smaller and Owen talks to his
father and question for the cigarette and the smoke, but his father replies that it was
his mother's cigarette and that the smoke was the best, or the worst way to remember
her because she had a cigarette in the car the day she died. Owen is in his room. They
have been there for almost a month, but the room is still full of boxes and Owen
remembered what his mother would say, but Owen is glad that his mother could not
see the disaster of the house because he liked the cleaning after the last two years
years of travel, a trip where his father and mother traveled to the states of Hawaiian
New Zealand Florida and continued traveling until the money ran out and they were
returned to Pelsilvania, where it was time to grow for the second time

But Owen had hardly traveled his parents did not want to travel anymore and it
seemed a better option to stay in pelsilvania. They did not want to be in other place

Owen that day walked , because it was her last day off she later she returned home
but Owen had nothing else to do then Owen went on to the elevator and watch
Lucy but he was nervous at the moment and Lucy looked at him with joy and says
hello but in that moment the whole city has been left in the dark and Owen worried
about his father because the subway does not work and his father cannot go back
and Lucy because his father and mother are in Europe and she tells Owen to always
is alone. And Owen asks

¿how old are you?

Lucy: seventeen years old

And Owen also has seventeen years old

And in the building you can hear voices and the noise of a door closing and also had
emergency lights and Owen can clearly see the face of lucy freckles, and dark brown
eyes and Lucy says goodbye to Owen

Thanks for making time go faster

Owen saw her leave under some steps and stopped thoughtfully, thinking about her
depressing basement and the chaotic city that made him think again about Lucy and
that on that night everything was possible, he turned around and climbed so hurriedly
that he was left without air, at that moment stopped to rest without noticing that later
was Lucy looking at it and I ask him if he was ok Owen I answer him

That he was fine that he had only changed his mind about the lantern

CHAPTER 3

breathless they arrive and went to the hall that was dark identical to the other corridor
later down, Lucy and Owen came to 24 D where Lucy's apartment is located she took
the keys of the white dress that was wearing and try to open the door when she was
remembered that she had never brought a man to her apartment she went in and
told Owen to pass while she looked for the flashlight in a box that kept all the old
objects she search until she reached the bottom and realized that there was only one
Flashlight she is rushed to turn it on and was glad that it worked light for Owen. And
Owen is found it recharged next to a window facing the street

He told her how strange and calm everything looked without lights, so Lucy
approached the window, standing next to him with her face almost glued to the glass.
At that moment, she remembered how small it made her feel the buildings and that
it was the first time she felt alone and gave thanks for the Owen Company.
Lucy commented to Owen that she only had a flashlight, and he did not say anything
about it. Lucy said it was better that they did not separate. Owen said yes but it was
very hot inside and he asked her if she wanted to give ride before it got dark

And she replies that nothing happens

Besides, it would not hurt us to abstain

After, Lucy try to send a message to her parents but she did not have light so Owen
and Lucy went out to eat ice cream and at that moment she met with the maintenance
employee and he waved them and Owen asked, do you know anything?

And the maintenance responds say the switch arrives Delaware in the south and even
in the north and Owen gives a tap to Lucy – look

And Lucy observes how many people I had on the streets and that the whole crowd
was moving towards the north with determination at a slow pace and the heat people
had was like they were going unbearable marching through the whole city

Come on, Owen

And Lucy continued to the corner when she reached 74th Street where the people
sell all kinds so products, she buy a bottle of water and some batteries for the
flashlight and when Lucy pay the man he gives him a quantity of money

- Discount of the blackout answered the cashier with a smile -

And Owen says also apply discount in an ice cream shop

And the man responds

In the 77 are giving free ice cream after all it are melting and Owen is happy saying,
think I'm liking this city

Lucy says, already told you that it is not so bad to give him an opportunity and

Owen tells, you promise me that it will always be

¿As? ¿Dark?

- That's the question looking up, it's not so dark

Lucy went up her look in the sky was the moon a thin white curve against a dark blue
sky dotted with stars that Lucy could not stop looking at them

And Lucy says

Maintenance man said, the right thing is more beautiful to see it from space

Owen does not respond immediately and when he finally did he

Says Owen

Think it looks better from here

CHAPTER 4
When they returned to the apartment they went up but the heat was unbearable it
seemed like a furnace had no solution for a heat no fans or air conditioning. after of
a while Owen got up to take a bottle of water and he also gave a bottle of water to
Lucy so Owen came into the kitchen moving zigzag by the cupboards and she says

There’s almost nothing inside my mother does not cook we do not really cook any

Owen says you have an incredible kitchen

Lucy asks him, do you cook?

Owen says yes and also clean I am the typical man of rebirth

After. Owen look the fridge and the postcards that is each with a magnet of intense
colors I observe more closely to read the names that had written Florence, cape town,
Prague, Barcelona, Cannes , Saint Petersburg asking Lucy

You been all these sites?

Lucy laughed telling him

Do you think he sent portals to me?

- I do not answer Owen with a red face

she said it that looks like it's from her parents they go to amazing places and only
have the right to a piece of cardboard

Owen question

Where are they now?

In Paris they go constantly answer Lucy

Owen question

And they never take you?

- She did not answer

Good who needs to go to Paris living in New York?

That made her laugh

Lucy says

That she not received any letter of this trip but his words translucent a deposit of
silence

And Owen trying to break the silence saying

What is the worst you can say to someone who is not with you on a beautiful beach?

Lucy said

Wish they were here

Owen says

If they really wanted you to be there they would have invited you, right? Well thought.
It is already having bad milk should put: Greece where nobody misses you

There was silence and as it went on. Owen understood his mistake but she laughed
and said

Sure your parents would really like you to be there

and Owen said sure yes but turned off the flashlight and remembered his mother
from the notes that were left him throughout the house small yellow post-its
reminders that he said should clean the bedroom and do their jobs

And Owen came up with an idea at that moment he take out the keys of basement
and he said it's a good walk and they filled the purse with sandwiches, candles, and a
blanket. And Owen led her to the stairs and the hallway was silent and they started
up the stairs when they finally reached a metal door of the basement Owen gave a
push and when he opened the door there Owen said pointing
The southwest corner and they approached and looked out and Owen approached
her and the wind lifted Lucy’s hair and he got the sweet smell of her hair and leaned
against the wall looking down from a height of 42 floors and

she said she could not believe that she had never climbed up to the roof hours hours
later the day darkened and they dined in the dark, cookies, fruit, and Luci could not
help looking up between bites as if she did not trust that the stars They were going
to follow there after they lay on top of the blanket and Lucy asked Owen if you could
go somewhere where would you go?

Owen says

It’s a familiar question that he always had in mind the first question he used to ask
himself

Lucy smiles and tells her

That's not an answer

And he says

Yes it's true and it was true

Owen thought that his whole life was an army of patience was not that he had
thought about leaving but not just leave but New York had not been the answer he
expected Owen he was looking for something wider and had filled different
applications for different universes located from one end to the other. And he was
looking forward to the day to go and start from scratch he has always wanted to meet
thousands of people and the next year was the opportunity to Owen

And Lucy asked Owen

He answered somewhere and he said that he had not been anywhere just in New
York and Pennsylvania but when he was little and also that he had been in four states
but Owen thought to his mother about the things she would do, like seeing him in
the graduation ceremony and that is not to pack or make the bed and what was uglier
for Owen is that when his father left he would be alone in that miserable basement
apartment and Owen asked luci

Where have you been?

She responded in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts,
Pennsylvania, Florida, and London. Would you like to go to Paris for the architecture
you are in and Owen I ask

Why don't they take you to Paris?

She replies because it was not easy for them to take three children on a trip and asks
Owen

What does your father work on?

She replies that her father works in a British bank but he asked to move to the New
York office but they never got to live there, they always left her and her brothers with
a babysitter and Owen tells Luci that her parents did the same. that they settled in a
place when he was born then Lucy touching the Owen command tells him that he is
sorry for the death of his mother but the warmth of Lucy’s hand caused him to break
something inside and that numbness was what the only one who kept him alive the
only thing that prevented him from undying in front of his father

CHAPTER 5

When Lucy woke up everything is blurry and she raised an arm to protect her face
from the sun, a few seconds passed before she remembered where she was - on the
basement- and it took a few seconds for her to realize that she was alone looking at
her blanket where she Owen he had fallen asleep last night but they had not thought
to sleep up there but as the night progressed their voices had dropped in volume
they had laid down next to each other with their eyes fixed on the stars while you
were talking Owen had fallen asleep first and Lucy did not think it was so close to
Owen and it was not an appointment but an accident and it was romantic, they were
only two people trying to survive that night but neither did she expect Owen to
disappear they had shared a blanket of food and a little light but she couldn't help
feeling hurt by her absence.

she stood up and observed that the city looked totally different and she wondered if
the light had returned to the city but when she opened the door of her apartment
she got the answer because of the heat she received and observed something white
and fine and to catch him was surprised because it was a cigarette and she tried to
remember but I have no choice but to recognize that she did not know Owen and
also all those hours together that they had spent they had lost their charm she went
to throw the cigarette in the trash but she stopped and assumed that her father had
already learned what had happened and Lucy picked up the phone to call her parents
but without light there was no line and the apartment was calm it was something that
lucy liked since her brothers were in many school activities and Lucy had always gone
unchanged but Lucy felt free when I was alone and that day was Lucy's first class day
but the city was dark and paralyzed she had gone to st Andrews since kindergarten
and everything was the same the same girls, uniforms, fights every year seemed a
repetition of it boring show and she watched the closet where she hung her kilt and
a white blouse and ready to put them on, but Lucy prefers to take red shorts and a
T-shirt and then went for a walk but she came to the eighth floor she understood that
he wasn't going out he knew he was going to the basement to visit Owen but he was
sitting Darrell sitting at the reception and tells Lucy that outside he left the oven open
and she from the lobby door I look in the direction of the mailbox room in the hope
that Owen would leave but Lucy was nervous about the idea that she was going to
appear without warning and so before she could do anything she might regret, she
headed for the revolving doors that led to the street. Outside, it was clear that last
last night's celebration had officially ended, and all that was left was the hangover.
The streets, which had seemed like one big party just hours before, were now full of
sweaty and miserable looking people, everyone fanning themselves with day-old
newspapers. And Lucy saw a few kids chasing each other along the sidewalk, but
otherwise, everyone seemed listless and beaten down by the weather all the energy
seemed to have been sapped right out of the city. She pressed her way up the street
heading in no particular direction, with the ice-cream shop from last night was now
closed, along with most of the other stores, which were all shuttered and silent. She
passed by her school and the door announced that classes would begin tomorrow

she'd lived in this city her whole life, had gotten lost countless times at night, survived
two muggings, and once broken her arm while climbing the rocks in central park but
it was finally Owen -who wasn't scary in the leas, who had in fact, been nothing but
nice to her - who had somehow managed to turn her into a coward.

Later Lucy way her back home she closed all the blinds and tried to nap on the couch,
but when she woke, it was once again to a blur of light. any this time, it was coming
from the bulb in the ceiling fixture, which was blaring down on her, harsh and
unnatural and much too bright ¨the light had come¨ the blinking greenlights on the
microwave clock, the red numbers on the answering machine, the churning of the
overhead fan, and beyond the doorway the lamps that had flickered on across the
rest of the apartment. But all of the clocks were wrong and she had no idea what time
it was, y also the air conditioner had powered back up and the stagnant air felt cooler
already. Later Lucy connected her computer and cell phone then she dashed over to
the bathroom to test the water, which trickled out slowly...

But on her way out of the bathroom, she paused in front of the living room windows.

Lucy stood there for a long moment, taking it in, the city once again warm and bright
as it was her memory of it. But when she glanced up, she was surprised to feel an
ache in her chest.
 CHAPTER 6

owen was standing ini the middle of Broadway he did shop but when the lights came
back the plastic bag he was carrying had just split open as he crossed the street, and
the three lukewarm water bottles gone rolling toward the curb and it was the light
came and owen was observed , when the street lamps came to life in that moment
People whooped and clapped as if discovering rain after a long drought after Owen
tucked the water bottles into the crook of his arm, he thought about what Lucy had
said the night before, she said how you can be surrounded by so many people here,
but feel entirely on your owen. And owen wanted to see her even for a minute.

He hadn’t meant to abandon her this morning. But when he’d woken up he was
gripped by a sudden worry about his dad his plan was to run downstairs, check the
apartment leave a note or his dad but when he made ir down to the basement it was
to find his dad slumped in the front hallway of the apartment the dad of owen walked
all the path for arrived to home Once he manages owen to get his father up and into
his bedroom he went to buy water and then promised he´d be back. All day, he
watched over his father. He sat in a chair beside the bed, keeping a damp washcloth
pressed to his forehead later hours arrived sam Coleman cousin second of his father
and the owner of the building and also cousin sam they wanted that their father work
in a building and that manage one of them.”

And Owen ask ¿why?

and he says

because need the work and for now he`s offering us an apartment with the job

when owen and his father movid theyn't have time for day goodbye

capitulo 7
his best friends becoming just two more items on the list of things they left behind.
and owen thinks about them and in that moment arrived sam and says

Any chance your dad`s around?

and owen not didn't know what to answer but sam know where the father of owen
and is upset and says that Tell him the water`s back but not the pressure. And since
he`s already on fairly thin ice,” only the tiniest sliver of space between the two, “he
might want to see about fixing it tonight. Okay?”

and owen was sad because they`d have to leave the building and They`d probably
leave New York.

after two days Lucy got herself out of bed and went to school. She looked for Owen
every morning and every afternoon but never saw him. later hours her parents
had finally gotten through to comunication with her.

his parents was worried for lucy

and his father says that has on a flight to London on Friday,. he know that she has
school that day,

but anyway in the school they cover in the firts week

lucy ask

why?

his mather says

that they want to see her . “ they want to be sure lucy´re all right.”

and his father says

“So we´d like you to meet us there.”

and lucy thought

not urgent enough for her parents to interrupt a trip but yes just alarming enough
for them to buy her a plane ticket.

She thought of her earlier trips over, once when she was five and once when she was
eight.

The first time had been during Christmas; they´d visited her grandmother in the stately
town house where her mother had grown up and St. Paul´s Cathedral, where Lucy
had sung carols, her voice loud and warbling beside her mother´s more melodic once.

she had loved travel to londres more than the postcards-had sparked her obsessions
whit travel When she was little, she’d believed all its cities would look exactly like
new York But London was completely different from what she’d imagined ; it was
regal and charming, stately and enchanting, and she’d fallen under its spell from the
moment she arrived.

So she was exited to be going back now to londres.

And there was nobody she wanted to telled more than owen.

But she still hadn’t could speek with owen

later she was in the airport she was nerves of excitement Her thoughts drifted to
Owen again She sleept the whole way across the Atlantic, and when she woke in the
morning, plane is landing

There was a car waiting for her just outside the arrivals area, and she sat in the
backset and She realized how much she’d forgotten in the last eight years; a nd
only now did she recall the quirky details of the place the colorful doors and the
painted signs on the pubs, the roundabouts and the lampposts, the buildings and
along the streets.
then Lucy arrived at the ritz building where her parents are Then came buttons and
told him the room where Lucy's parents were and when she arrived they were both
standing there as if they’d been waiting to Lucy

later Lucy found herself folded into a hug , tucked between the two of them in away
that felt so safe, so overwhelming, and most of all so surprising that she began to cry
without meaning to.

¨we’re so sorry ¨, mom said, letting go and looking at her with concern.

and said lucy

¨it was dark¨

and her mom laughed. lucy said was actually in the elevator when it happened¨

We heard, her dad said. ¨the boys told us¨

Lucy had called her brothers the very next day, first chalie and then about climbing
out of the elevator

she’d told them about the doormen running around with flashlight sand the mases
of people moving through the streets; she’d told them about the free ice cream and
the stars overhead and the hear. But she hadn’t told them about Owen

her Dad didn’t bother to disguise it when he looked at his watch, and her mom cleared
her throat. ¨listen, darling¨, she said ¨we want to hear a lot more about all this at
dinner tonight, but we figured you’d want to nap, so we thought we’d head out for a
little while ¨.

lucy ask

¨where?

her Dad looked up, his face a picture of confusion and said . ¨what do you mean ¨?

lucy said,, ¨where are you planning to go ?

, her mom said, ¨you know how much I miss it over here¨

Lucy nodded,

¨and you know that we’d always plnned to live abrad again once there

¨well¨, she was saying, her voice a bit too bright, än opportunity has come up a little
early¨

¨they called her mother about an open position in the uk office¨,her dad jumped in,
his eyes shining behind his glasses.

and it won’t be long now until they find out for sure¨

Lucy stared at him. and she said

¨so we’d be moving to London?

Ÿes,¨her dad said, beaming

¨next year?¨

¨I love new York, too.¨

Dad waved this away. ¨we’ve done new York ¨, he said. It’s time for a change, don’t
you think?¨

¨I don’t know¨, lucy said, why don’t we pick this up over dinner later? her Dad
surgasted, clapping standing up ÿou can take a nap while mom gets her hair done,
then you two can meet up and do some shopping or something¨

but lucy was alone again.

She was right, of course, but lucy still wasn’t sure what to say, after sixteen whole
years in new York, it almost didn’t matter what she loved and what she didn’t; the
city was a part of her, and she a part of it. The idea that she could be living in London
in just a few short weeks struck her as wildly unimaginable.
her perents said

¨we’ve done new York ¨, he said. It’s time for a change, don’t you think? ¨

Then Lucy went for a walk but was furious

But now she felt strange, the unusual streer names and the swuat buildings; the
shop were unfamiliar, and the traffic was heading in the wrong direction, and it was
only the first week of September, but everyone was already wearing winter coats.

It wasn’t until she found herself approaching Piccadilly circus the huge electric sing
burning through the mist that she paused, it was the very first thing that reminded
her of new York and she stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, thinking of time

Just as she was about to turn back for the hotel, she looked at the postcards that she
would send to owenand Lucy only smiled . but what she was really imagining was
owen over the postcard, smiling as he read the words

Capitulo 8

On Sunday, owen and his father took the subway down to time square.

Owen was very happy since that day he went to work with his father

He’d wanted to get back to work. It didn’t matter whether it was building houses or
fixing clogged drains; work had always been a tonic, but this week, it had seemed like
just another burden. Owen had no doubt that sam coleman had been in touch, and
he hated to think of that boxy little man yelling at his father warning hin in the same
way he’d warned owen

owen and his father were going to rest but they duveron to enter a gift shop Every
day this week, he’d looked for lucy, every day ment. At first, because he wanted to
apologize for leaving the roof that morning. And then later, simply because he was
anxious to see her again.
then owen had to move to the united states with his father and lucy also had to travel
to live with his parents which lucy and owen were sent postcards frequently and the
experiences were counted the moments each had

after a while they met again and were anxious was hard to tell exactly how they found
but suddenly there they were standing only inches in the middle of the dark in that
moment her eyes flickered with surprise before falling his eyes shut and he closed his
to that past their lips met and their hands found each other's it was once again just
the two of them in the dark and his eyelids which were so bright they might as well
have been Stars

Then leaned forward and kissed the top but it'll be okay you promised will keep
writing and also that he they’ll figure out a way to see each other again

so he can show me the exact center of the city again someday she lifted her head to
look at him the only problem is I think they about 15 yards off he said pointing at the
spot where they said the last time where he'd made for the exact center of the world
is just over there I don't know she said and he could see that she was smiling

They met again but they were in love they wanted to be together and live happily
ever after Owen approached Lucy and kissed the top of his head but they had to
separate again

fin