I live in the walls, Dana Vespoli. Not as a ghost. Not as a rat. As a memory you buried wrong. Remember the summer you were twelve, and you told your sister she could have the last piece of peach cobbler? You lied. You ate it at midnight, standing over the sink, and you never told her. That’s me. That’s all the little truths you fed to the dark.
Dana’s throat tightened. She did remember. The cobbler had been perfect—brown sugar and cinnamon, still warm from the oven. Her sister, Elena, had cried the next morning when she found the empty dish. Dana had shrugged and said, “Mom must have thrown it out.” dana vespoli dear
Dear Dana Vespoli,
A floorboard creaked in the hallway. Dana didn’t move. She thought of the stray cat— Dear, she called him —who had stopped showing up three days ago. She thought of the way the fog had been pressing against her windows earlier than usual, thick as cotton. I live in the walls, Dana Vespoli
