Shrinking House
Sara Hewitt
“Come in, please. The windows are open.”
“Thank you.”
“Did the landlord send you?”
“Yes, ma’am. Could you tell me more about your issue here?”
“The house is shrinking.”
“Shrinking?”
“Can’t you see it?” She gestured, pointing to the obvious. “Look here, right in the entryway, where the hand sanitizer is stacked on the table. The foyer is shrinking. And look in the kitchen, behind all that extra flour and sugar. The cupboards, I know it, are shrinking. And
here! Here in the bathroom, where the toilet paper is stacked along the walls, you can see the bathroom is more narrow than before. No space to breathe, no space to get clean. The closet, too. Just push aside the boxes of gloves and soap and you can see. It’s just so much smaller now!
“The walls shake every morning with the steps of the kids next door that aren’t walking to school. They vibrate until they start to close in. My husband starts his work calls and the walls move faster. Yes, every morning, right around breakfast time, the house shrinks.
“I’ve tried to find the wrinkles in the walls, to see what is causing the damage, but I can’t quite make sense of it. Can you tell? Is it pressure pushing from the outside? Or pulling from within? … Can you fix it?”
He adjusted his mask and slowly shook his head.
She knew it. She would disappear here, swallowed up by her shrinking house.
“Thank you.”
“Did the landlord send you?”
“Yes, ma’am. Could you tell me more about your issue here?”
“The house is shrinking.”
“Shrinking?”
“Can’t you see it?” She gestured, pointing to the obvious. “Look here, right in the entryway, where the hand sanitizer is stacked on the table. The foyer is shrinking. And look in the kitchen, behind all that extra flour and sugar. The cupboards, I know it, are shrinking. And
here! Here in the bathroom, where the toilet paper is stacked along the walls, you can see the bathroom is more narrow than before. No space to breathe, no space to get clean. The closet, too. Just push aside the boxes of gloves and soap and you can see. It’s just so much smaller now!
“The walls shake every morning with the steps of the kids next door that aren’t walking to school. They vibrate until they start to close in. My husband starts his work calls and the walls move faster. Yes, every morning, right around breakfast time, the house shrinks.
“I’ve tried to find the wrinkles in the walls, to see what is causing the damage, but I can’t quite make sense of it. Can you tell? Is it pressure pushing from the outside? Or pulling from within? … Can you fix it?”
He adjusted his mask and slowly shook his head.
She knew it. She would disappear here, swallowed up by her shrinking house.