Something under the floor made a sound this morning that I have never heard before, and I want it on record that I did not simply ignore it. There was a clunk, low and mechanical, somewhere beneath the hallway, followed by a rushing hiss that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, and I did … Read more
There is a sound a certain bag makes. I have known it for a long time. It is not the sound of the food bag, which is a heavier crinkle, more of a slump, because the food bag is mostly full and doesn’t move much when it’s touched. It is not the sound of the … Read more
She did not go to the desk today. I want that noted, because the desk is where the working happens, and the working happening somewhere else is the sort of thing a cat is entitled to have opinions about. Instead she came into the front room with a mug of tea and a stack of … Read more
I was asleep on the arm of the couch, which is a narrow perch that requires a certain amount of commitment to stay on, and I want it noted that under normal circumstances I manage it without incident. The sun had moved onto the cushion in that lazy afternoon way it does, warm through the … Read more
There is a moment every night that I have never once managed to skip ahead of, no matter how I position myself beforehand. It happens after she puts the book down. The book goes on the little table on her side, spine cracked open to whatever page she stopped on, always face-down, which I’ve come … Read more
There is a towel. I want that established before anything else, because the towel is the whole reason today went the way it went. It is a plain towel, faded at one corner, the color of weak tea, and it lives folded on a shelf in the bathroom doing nothing for weeks at a time. … Read more
A large flat box arrived on the porch this afternoon, thin as a cracker and much too big for its own good, and I want it noted for the record that I was consulted about none of it. Not the ordering, not the delivery, not the decision to drag it through the hallway leaving a … Read more
Something happened to the kitchen today and nobody asked my opinion of it first, which I want on record before I explain the rest. It started with a smell. Not a bad smell exactly — I want to be fair about this — but an aggressive one, the kind that doesn’t stay politely in one … Read more
I want it on the record that I have made that jump before. Many times. It is not a difficult jump. The bookshelf is not especially tall, and I am not especially small, and the two facts have always balanced each other out in my favor. I have landed on top of that bookshelf with … Read more
It arrived without any of the courtesies I consider standard for a new presence entering my sightline. No gradual approach along the fence, no polite pause at a distance to be assessed. One moment the gutter above the back room window was empty, the way it has always been empty, and the next there was … Read more
