9.16.2025

Last day in this kind house with kind people and friendly animals and sussurations of noise machines natural and artificial and I have been well fed and socialized and because I don't deserve those things I am once again heading to someone else's house where I will stumble around like a sleepwalker for a few days or weeks until I remember what day it is and water the bamboo. Staying in a teenager's bedroom. For a few weeks I could imagine that I, too, took first prize in an equestrian competition or two. Or that I worked as a helpful sales representative at a hip athletic wear retailer in a strip mall in a suburb where the cineplex has a remarkable number of Bollywood films on its roster. Or that I had enough clothes to fill several suitcases and some drawers and a wardrobe, not that I'm complaining. The dog kept scratching the door in the mornings and even if she was happy to see me she was unhappy that I was not the room's previous occupant.