Coughing

The neighbor in the room next to ours just keeps coughing. I haven’t seen him in three days. We often pass in the communal men’s bathroom. The cars and trucks outside have been rumbling by all day, splashing water. I feel so scared. I’m jumpy. I just want to sleep and shut it all out but cannot. I hear the chairs moving, but they’re not. We’re out of coffee. The bathroom (which is above the pipes in the boiler room) is too hot on this warm day to find refuge in. The Asian man next door keeps coughing and coughing. I cannot tell his rumbling from that of the diesel engines that pass sometimes. He is coughing and coughing and coughing. When does he breathe?