“Well, it looks like blood to me,” the cleaner proclaimed.

“Look-her blood’s all over your clothes!” “It’s not blood. “I didn’t see anything.” But the cleaner wouldn’t back down. “Hey!” she heard the cleaner calling after her, and, when she turned around, he yelled, “Lady, where d’you think you’re going? You’re a witness.” “A witness to what?” Romi asked. She touched her cheeks to make sure she wasn’t crying, took a deep breath, and walked into the building. It was Daniel, but she didn’t want to tell him anything over the phone. The distant sirens mingled with the vibration of Romi’s cell. They were just talking about it on the news.” “Everyone’s committing suicide these days.

“It’s because of COVID,” the cleaner said. Someone said that the woman’s name was Rinat or Ronit, and someone else said that she’d seen her crying in the elevator a few days earlier. Within seconds, a crowd had gathered, and the sweaty guy who cleaned the lobby was calling an ambulance. She heard running, panting, and voices shouting. Romi dropped the tray, spilling coffee all over herself, and her eyes locked in on the stains on her sweatpants so she wouldn’t have to see anything else. Romi was just coming back from the coffee shop, carrying two lattes, when the neighbor hit the sidewalk. Three days after they moved into their new apartment, the woman who lived above them, on the eighth floor, jumped out of her window. You can read the entire series, and our Flash Fiction stories from previous years, here.

This is the ninth story in this summer’s online Flash Fiction series.

לא באנו להנות by Etgar Keret