She came into the living room holding something small and black between two fingers, the way you’d hold a bug you weren’t sure was dead yet, and said my name in the particular tone she uses right before something is about to happen to me that I haven’t agreed to. I have learned to recognize … Read more
It got dark earlier tonight than it had any business doing, and she turned on the lamp by the window before she turned off the big light, which is a sequence I have never liked and have never been consulted about. The room went soft and yellow in the middle and black at the edges, … Read more
She moved the coffee table today. Not far — maybe two feet, enough to clear a rectangle of open floor in the living room — but far enough that it now sits half over the vent, which I consider a separate offense entirely and plan to address later. First things first. I needed to understand … Read more
There is a flat plastic container that lives under the bed, in the dead zone past where my paw can reach without real commitment, and until this afternoon I had made my peace with not knowing exactly what was in it. I assumed dust. I assumed the particular nothing that collects in places nobody goes. … Read more
There is a new blanket on the bed and I would like it noted that nobody asked me. The old one is still around — I saw it folded over the arm of the reading chair earlier, demoted, looking thin and a little betrayed if a blanket can look like anything, which I’ve decided it … Read more
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
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
There is a spider in my window today, and I want it on record that I did not invite it. I found it this morning in the usual way I find everything important, which is by nearly walking face-first into it. The windowsill in the back room is mine. It has been mine since before … Read more
