💯 STORY CHALLENGE

The Art of a Housing Crisis

№ 54 of 💯 — Wrong turns, pretty houses

She closes the book she’s been reading, some YA saga about the dead who won’t stay dead, and places it on the nightstand. Fluff-punching the pillow into pre-slumber submission, she lets her head fall into it. She and her pillow sigh in unison. I can feel the warmth from both of them.

“Just choose one,” she whispers.

I’m thumbing through several weeks’ worth of sketches. So many fragments of twice as many misconceptions, each less muse-worthy than the next. The bigger her belly grows, the closer the deadline looms. The closer the deadline, the emptier the canvases in my studio become.

“Remember the first time you brought me here?” she asks.

“I think you found this house.” I toss the sketchbook on the floor.

“No baby. Here. To your hometown. You wanted to show me the nice part of town, some suburb you swore you’d never be able to afford.”

She pushes the pillow aside and lays her head on my chest.

“We got completely lost, but we had the best drive. Listening to crappy radio stations, singing along to crappier songs. You said, ‘we keep making wrong turns, but look at all the pretty houses.’”

I really don’t remember but murmur, “Oh yeah.”

“How about you paint me a wrong turn tomorrow?”

< Granadina | Housing Crisis |55 >

Bob Merckel is a writer, language teacher, and corporate refugee who spends most of his time between Barcelona and Provincetown. He usually plays well with others. You can follow him on Twitter @bobzyeruncle.

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