Punch List

Uneasy.
They were moving to different states.
Uprooting things.
No job, no plan.
Your job is your livelihood. That’s how you live.
The house was cold. I remember it being very, very cold.
Like you could see your breath cold.
It struck me as odd.
Maybe he kept it cold so the smells didn’t permeate the house.
He assured me he did maintain the rugs.
I was in all the livable rooms of the house.
The rugs were clean and it’s cold in there.
There were dogs and a rabbit.
I was never in the attic.
There were stains on the ceiling of the master bedroom.
There were comments about the noises and the smells.
There was a screen missing.
My kids were like, this house is strange.
I heard scratching.
It was loudest at the upstairs window.
We heard some things, like light, light noises, but I didn’t put a name to it until the scratching episode became loud.
There was a string and I pulled it, but no light came on.
It’s the kind of smell that goes from your nose to your stomach. Did you ever smell something like that?
I was in nose reach of this smell.
We cut down the tree.
It was a hot summer.
We stayed in that vacated state a long time.