We’ve been in this hotel for the past three weeks. It’s a fairly large building, and has its own generators, which we haven’t really used that often, spending most days sleeping in the dark and writing by hand-crank flashlights. The upside is that it’s almost an adventure to be here, and Polaris and I often spend the day looking through the abandoned rooms that the ghosts left- beautiful clothes, remains of illicit drugs, and even a suitcase full of guns (which we saved for more than posterity). There are over two hundred rooms in this ritzy place, and we’ve only been through twenty-five thoroughly, sometimes sleeping in a different suite every few nights while lugging our belongings, and I think it will be a very long time before we run out of food.

I should talk about the ghosts though- you know, fill you in.

March 15, 2010: Polaris, a long distance friend of mine for well over four years, took a road trip to visit me here in New York. We had a great time hugging and smiling and crying, and she laughed that I was significantly shorter than her, and I chuckled at her fondness for funny accessories. We stayed in this Sheraton for a night, enjoying each other’s company and exchanging metaphorical war stories. I told her she was pretty, brown hair, soft face, and hazel eyes, and she thanked me and said the same, even though I don’t have a high opinion of how I look, let alone of anything else about me.

She slept earlier than I did, but I stayed up due to a headache I couldn’t stop, and looked out the window, which took up an entire wall, when I saw a flash that almost blinded me; soundless thunder and a quake that made me lose my balance. Polaris woke up, groggy and tired, and I heard the sound of cars crashing outside, as well as lights blinking off in half of the buildings around us.

“What the hell was that?” she said out loud, hopping out of bed and becoming absolutely motionless at lights fading from windows, until we were overwhelmed by night.

“Oh my God,” she whispered, more than what I could have possibly said, my voice knocked out of me.

I don’t know how long we stared, the silence laid thick. Slowly, she walked towards me and did similar, hands pressed against the window, nose against glass.