After the flood I started sneezing. I didn't want to tear up the carpet, but after replacing furniture, vacuuming, sucking up the water I could, it was really the last thing there was to do. You don't know where to start with a process like that. Or at least I didn't. So I took a knife, X-Acto, picked a spot near the corner by the fireplace, and made a cut. And I pulled. I pulled and ripped and pulled all weekend.
First I saw "Janice." Then "Sarah," "Susan," "Jeremy." Each accompanied by body outlines in yellow and blue, green or pink and smiles and hairstyles. Hands surrounded by the outlinings of other hands like the rings of a tree. Lives and children, a family on the floor. And as the piles of moldy carpet grew outside I found more. Hopscotch, castles, the dogs "Queenie" and "Popper." The makings of some game, a race, a line with a start and finish and not much else between. It seems they had forgotten. It seems someone had wanted to forget.
I wasn't sure what to do. I assumed whatever was there I'd scrape off, replace, cover with more carpet. But it was already done once. Was it done by someone in the family? I didn't see the image of a father. There was a painting of a briefcase but no hand there to clutch it. Could someone have been painted out? Did they never get around to him?
My sneezing stopped when the carpet was gone. So that was something. But beyond that I cannot say. The furniture is still pushed up against the walls and windows. All these things were covered up once, for who knows how long. Who am I to cover them up again?
First I saw "Janice." Then "Sarah," "Susan," "Jeremy." Each accompanied by body outlines in yellow and blue, green or pink and smiles and hairstyles. Hands surrounded by the outlinings of other hands like the rings of a tree. Lives and children, a family on the floor. And as the piles of moldy carpet grew outside I found more. Hopscotch, castles, the dogs "Queenie" and "Popper." The makings of some game, a race, a line with a start and finish and not much else between. It seems they had forgotten. It seems someone had wanted to forget.
I wasn't sure what to do. I assumed whatever was there I'd scrape off, replace, cover with more carpet. But it was already done once. Was it done by someone in the family? I didn't see the image of a father. There was a painting of a briefcase but no hand there to clutch it. Could someone have been painted out? Did they never get around to him?
My sneezing stopped when the carpet was gone. So that was something. But beyond that I cannot say. The furniture is still pushed up against the walls and windows. All these things were covered up once, for who knows how long. Who am I to cover them up again?
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