Entries centered on the humans in Oliver’s life and their baffling behavior.
I would like it noted, somewhere official, that I have never once doubted her hand. Her hand has fed me, held me, scratched the specific place under my chin that I cannot reach myself, and carried me bodily away from danger on at least two occasions I can recall with real clarity. Her hand is, … Read more
She sat down at the kitchen table tonight with a coat across her lap, a small plastic box I have never seen before, and a spool of black thread, and I understood immediately that something was wrong with the coat and she intended to fix it with a weapon. I want to describe the weapon … Read more
She has a way of walking when she’s on the phone that she does not do at any other time, and today it went on long enough that I had the leisure to study it properly. It isn’t walking to get somewhere. There’s no destination in it. She starts in the kitchen, crosses to the … Read more
She opened the window in the back room first, which is not unusual, except that she kept going. The bedroom window. The one over the kitchen sink that sticks and has to be hit with the flat of her hand near the bottom. Even the narrow one in the hallway that I didn’t know opened … Read more
She carried the basket in from the hallway the way she always does, tipped against one hip, and I was on the bed before she’d even set it down. This is not something I plan in advance. There is no moment where I decide to do it. My body simply understands, the second I hear … Read more
She started talking before I’d even settled anywhere, which should have been my first warning. Usually there’s a sequence to the evening — the bag goes down by the door, the shoes come off, something gets put in the refrigerator or taken out of it, and only after all that does she start making sounds … Read more
There is a door in this house that has one job, and its job is to be open enough. Not open all the way — I have never asked for that, I am not unreasonable — just open the width of a paw, the width it has always been open, so that I can come … Read more
She keeps the comb in the drawer by the bathroom sink, the one with the blue handle and the wide-spaced teeth, and when it comes out I know exactly what is about to happen to me, and I allow it, because I have decided over time that this is one of the few procedures in … Read more
She has a book tonight instead of the little light. I noticed the difference right away because a book weighs on her differently than the phone does — heavier in her lap, held with two paws instead of balanced in one, and it makes a specific sound when she opens it that the phone never … Read more
She came in through the front door at the usual hour, with the usual keys, making the usual amount of noise setting down her bag, and I did not go to greet her the way I normally do, because something about the shape of her head was wrong. I want to be precise about this. … Read more
