#41 Heart Problems

. He told her. She said it only proved how much he loved her. He got worse. That’s when she made her move.

She broke up with him. She said he didn’t need him. He begged her, and told her all the things that were wrong with him; that’s when she went back with him. Romeo learned to get desperate, beg, and plead, so she would go back with him. Every time, he was so relieved when she did, though sometimes it took days, and that was a long time to go without food and sleep. When he threatened to buy a gun, and shoot himself, she sat up, and gave him all the attention he wanted. When he said he was going to slit his wrists, she stayed up with him. Recued him. Everytime he threatened to commit suicide, she went back with him. Then when he started talking about poison, she relented, and said he could move in with her. That way, she could keep an eye on him, so he started the process right away. He sold everything. Leaving Italy was easy but getting Canada to accept him would be easy too. She said she would sponsor him. She wouldn’t have to. He would tell her the truth when he got there. He asked for her address, booked a non-stop flight to Montreal, and she said she would pick him up. She told him she wanted a fresh start, so he deleted everything, like she said. All his dreams were coming true.

She must have got a funny feeling, because the night before his flight, she broke up with him. He was devastated. Even when he threatened to hang himself, she wouldn’t go back with him, and only said he should do it. He couldn’t take it any more. He had nothing. She was everything. He did it. He hung himself. She figured he hung himself, because that was the last thing he said he was going to do before he didn’t come back online anymore. She had hope.

Hildi said that a guy, from the building, Arthur, apartment 113, hung himself last night. Nobody from the community even knew he was depressed. Actually, they didn’t know him very well at all, since he had only moved there last year, and he mostly kept to himself. Even China had brought him a home-cooked treat to try to draw him out a little, but nothing worked. He seemed to just want to stay in most of the time. He kind of looked like her. He kind of looked like one of her brothers. He had nothing except a computer, a bed, a packed suitcase, and a couple of receipts. He had bought a one-way airline ticket to Montreal, lived out of a packed a suitcase, went to Canadian Tire, and bought an electrical cord. He missed the flight and hung himself with the cord. Same night, same circumstances; different location. Could it be that Arthur was Romeo.

He could be; she figured he was, because she never heard from Romeo again. The whole thing made China tired. She slept all the time. She kept the apartment clean, the animals fed, made her phone calls, and she visited with Hildi, but China was always tired. She kept checking to see if Romeo, or Arthur, or whoever it was, had messaged her, but he never did. Maybe she was depressed. It didn’t matter. It turned out how she wanted, and she had time to clean, it’s just that she wouldn’t have screwed around somebody from her building. Even at her age, she was done with men. She couldn’t figure them out.

China stopped cooking. She depended on the soup as her supper. She started eating it as soon as Hildi got there. Hildi chattered on throughout the visit. China had told her earlier on that she broke up with her Italian boyfriend as soon as she knew what she was going to do. It was important nothing could be traced to her. She took to her bed, only getting up to feed the animals, and watch them play. She was fired from her job, they said she was too dragged out looking, and her doctor said she had heart problems, even at her age, so she never got up at all. Hildi fed the animals, cooked for her, and came twice a day now. She fed her