tri
ed to sleep in.
I gazed around. This room had an oval area rug
under and around the bed. It was a light shade of ruby,
but splotched and stained, with a few rips along the
edges. I saw that a dish had been put there for Miss
Puss to lick out the remains of something,
Clothing was strewn about everywhere, as if
someone had gone mad and torn everything out of the
closets and drawers and flung them in the air. Just as
in the living room. I saw dishes and glasses with
caked, old food. They were on the vanity table, the
vanity table chair and the bedside tables. The windows in this room had shades, but one was inoperative and hung on a slant. On the dresser to my left. I saw a picture I recognized. It was similar to a picture I had seen in one of Grandmother Emma's old albums, a picture of her and Great- aunt Frances when they were both young women. Great-aunt Frances was
by far the prettier one back then. I thought.
I turned to a door across the hall and found the
bathroom. When I looked at it. I hoped there was
another. It was barely bigger than the powder room on
the first floor of Grandmother Emma's mansion. The
right sink faucet had a slow but continuous drip that
had long ago discolored the basin with streaks of rust.
Over the counter beside it were an open tube of
toothpaste with toothpaste dripped around it, a
toothbrush, a hairbrush fill of hair, pieces of soap and
an open bottle of antacid. There were articles of
clothing, panties, slips and socks scattered on the floor
and over the sides of the tub. A blouse hung from the
shower curtain and looked like it had been soaked in
water and soap and then just left there dripping. Whoever had done it hadn't noticed it would
drip on the floor and not into the tub.
The cabinet over the sink was open. Inside, the