Someone posted a house clearance ad, three hours out, and I went. Not for anything in it, just the light in the one photo. That heavy amber you get when a place has been closed up for years and all the varnish has gone orange. I wanted to stand in it.

Got there and it was a rental flip, all grey laminate, that "bright airy" white everyone paints everything now. No amber. The woman running it looked at me like I was wasting her Saturday and honestly I was.

But she had a box of the previous owner's papers in the hall, unopened, and she let me take it for nothing because she didn't want to pay to dump it. Bank statements from 1994. A dry cleaning ticket. A photo of a dog with no head visible, just the body and a hand on its back.

Torn the dog photo already. Half of it is on the board now, glued down flat with the head end missing, and it's the best thing I've made in six weeks. I keep thinking I should have asked her name. Not the seller's. The dog's.