I would forget where I was or why I was there. Gradually, the din of other people’s conversations or Todd’s heavy footsteps, his ugly, flat gait on the floorboards, would fall away. It is hard to describe because it is close to nothing. As the rooms emptied and the boxes filled, Adam and Todd and the other guys would take the inspected boxes outside to the supply vans.įor some reason, this process took hours.Įvery time we stalked, this feeling would come over me, imperceptible at first.
The boxes were placed out in the hallways for Bob to inspect, taking out or adding items as he saw fit. I worked Entertainment, a broad category that included DVDs, books, magazines, board games, video games, and consoles. Genevieve worked Apparel, rifling through the closets for jackets and coats, but more often for quality linen tunics and silk blouses.
Rachel worked Heath, accumulating prescription meds, bandages, aspirins, and skin care products. Janelle and Ashley worked Craft Services, gathering cooking supplies and shelf-stable products that the moths and pantry rodents hadn’t touched. Each of us was assigned a division of sorts. The father balding and portly, the mother, a bleached blonde, tightly trim with a wan smile, her hands crossed in her lap, displaying a pert French manicure, the manicure of choice among porn actresses and Midwestern housewives. The Gower clan included a mother and father, a son and an older daughter. The walls of the staircase were hung with family photos. We went inside, carrying empty boxes and garbage bags.
We put on our face masks and rubber gloves. Her work has appeared in Granta, Playboy, Vice, Ninth Letter, Chicago Reader, and other publications. Ling Ma is author of the novel Severance (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), which received the Kirkus Prize and the Young Lions Fiction Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2018.
0 kommentar(er)
