Old furniture place

Old furniture place
First appearance	Ten Seconds to Midnight, page 13 December 31, 2012
Related characters	Augustus, Lucy

The Old furniture place is a large abandoned building along Northern Highway, near what Augustus thinks is exit 14. Lucy and Augustus are the only characters ever to set foot in it, and its rooftop is where Lucy attempted to take her own life during her sophomore year.

Description

The building is a big free-standing brick block, several storeys tall, with a broad tan facade banded by long rows of small industrial window panes and a flat roof. Its only name and location come from Augustus, who describes it to a 911 dispatcher as “the old furniture place along Northern Highway,” then adds that he thinks it is near exit 14.

A ground-level door leads inside, where a metal stairwell climbs past the same window grids seen from the street and comes out on the roof through a small boxy access structure. Despite the name, the place is a derelict, empty shell, with no furniture anywhere in sight.

The roof is edged by a wide, flat brick parapet, broad enough to stand or sit on. A run of spiked wrought-iron fencing stands along at least one side of the roof, separate from the ledge itself, with cracked paving between the two.

History

Lucy sits on the snowy rooftop ledge, looking over the city beyond an iron fence.

The rooftop makes its debut in Ten Seconds to Midnight, on the New Year’s Eve after Lucy learns her family plans to send her away. Augustus, wandering the streets alone, spots a silhouette standing on the roof and sprints up the stairwell just in time to pull her back from the ledge. Lucy insists she was never going to jump, and rages at him for deciding what’s best for her. Rather than argue, Augustus leaves the choice with her: “Do what you want. … I’ll wait downstairs until you’re done.” The chapter closes on Lucy sitting on the snowy ledge while he keeps watch against the wall below.

Lucy returns later that winter, on the night of the sophomore-year play, and this time she jumps. Convinced that everything will be better without her, she walks through a blizzard to the building, climbs the dark stairs to the roof, steps onto the ledge, and lets herself fall. She survives the fall, and Augustus finds her in the snow at the building’s base, begging to die. He calls 911 over her screamed protests: “You need to send an ambulance. My friend’s trying to kill herself.” Readers only learn all of this three in-story years later, through a flashback in Love Again.

Days after Lucy is taken away from Roseville in Leaving Home, Augustus comes back by himself. While her friends grieve together elsewhere, he sits on the snowy ledge and watches the sunrise alone.

He is back on the same ledge in Trapped, during junior year. His memories of Alejandro and Melanie play out over the whole chapter while he sits there alone. He then leans on the parapet and tells the absent Lucy, “I’m glad you made it.”

Trivia

Augustus looks up at the building’s windowed facade from the street.

• “Old furniture place” is the only name the building is ever given in dialogue, and it comes from a single line in Augustus’s 911 call. No character ever calls it a warehouse or a factory.
• The location debuted in real time on New Year’s Eve, matching its in-story setting. Veronica’s commentary on the following page greets readers with “Hope you guys had a good new year!!!”
• The Bittersweet Club International side story Another Intervention restages the same snowy rooftop night with the roles reversed: there, it is Augustus who steps off the edge, and Lucy who pulls him back.