By Tim Cumming
A few days after moving in he stuffed
the money into the roof of the doll's house
and kept practising his new voice.
He was only a few feet short of his own
vanishing point. He moved around late at night.
She heard him. She couldn't pin him down.
He sang about the pain in his heart.
He told her he was playing tennis,
extending his serve in the basement gym
15 storeys below their bedroom.
One night he didn't come back.
Her sister was visiting. She was knee-deep
in homework and adultery and when
she saw the doll's house she thought
of her childhood and burst into tears.
The doll's house was their father's obsession,
modelled on the family home.
They pulled it into the centre of room.
It was heavier and bigger than they remembered,
like their childhood. 'D'you think
it's haunted?' They laughed breathlessly,
as if that's where he'd been hiding all these years.
All the furniture in the rooms had fallen over,
their fingers feeling through tiny windows,
trying to make every little thing right again.
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I had my annual check-up on Tuesday morning, and I am relieved to report that I have a pulse and a normal temperature. I like my doctor a lot, though the practice drives me crazy -- after leaving me two reminder messages that I have an appointment, they called yesterday to warn me that I had to call and confirm, which is a new thing, and when I called this morning, since I got the message yesterday after they were closed, I got kicked off being on hold twice after waiting 20 minutes until I finally lied to the system and claimed I was a pharmacy calling (I was told I could avoid this problem by putting myself on the text messaging system, but when I tried to do that, I was told by the system that my mobile phone number was not a real phone number and I had to enter a real number). It's a wonder my blood pressure was not dangerously high when I saw the doctor!
When I left the doctor to drive home, I got to see a geyser! This was really exciting for a minute before I realized that it meant a water main had broken from the cold, and the sudden influx of WSSC and emergency vehicles made me glad I got out right when I did. The rest of my day was not as exciting (filled the gas tank, did laundry, etc.) but there were manatees rescued in Florida, so that makes me happy. We caught up on Downton Abbey, which was okay except I think the Drews have been SO screwed over and I get mad whenever I think about it. I liked that Agent Carter tried to provide something for every ship fan and that Peggy got to use her brain more than her ass-kicking, but I did not like Forever (Fifty Shades of Grey meets Single White Female, ugh). Here are some of the miniature houses from Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden's Winterfest last month:
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