these different from those motionless displays is that Lacey
knows her friends are playing in the boxes at night when
they should be sound asleep.
Lacey takes the shoe box and places it in the safe corner of
her closet, the lower right, in the old cat bed. She decides to
move Jamal from his original place. He remains in the safe
part of the closet until another friend comes with special
needs. Jamal has always gotten his designated place back in
the cat bed, but Lacey’s not so sure he’ll get it back this time.
Lacey never notices the smell emitting from her closet,
but her neighbors sure do. As if on cue, there is a knock at
her door. She predicts it is Mr. Lawrence Medley, her land-
lord. He has been visiting her often the past few weeks. He
always says, “I just happened to be on this floor.” Lacey
quickly piles the other shoe boxes in the closet and races to
the door. She squints through the peep hole and smiles at
her correct assumption. They greet each other politely.
“Look, Lacey, I have to do something about the smell.
The neighbors won’t stop complaining. I don’t have the time
to worry about it.”
“Mr. Medley, I’m sorry, but I don’t smell anything, and
I don’t know what the neighbors are talking about. You can
have a look around if you want. I don’t know what you could
find, though.”
Lacey leads Mr. Medley into her home. It is not hard
for him to get a good look around because of its size. The
kitchen corner is neat and shiny as always. All the food is put
away. The bathroom is clean. The refrigerator contains noth-
ing that has gone bad. Lacey’s bed and the floor surrounding
it are tidy save for a few cardboard boxes filled with neatly
folded clothing. When he walks around her bed, he stops be-
fore her closet.
“Lacey, it smells pretty rotten over here. Mind if I look
in your closet?”
“No, not at all,” Lacey replies, smiling and sheepishly
tugging at the tip of her ponytail. She goes into the bath-
room and starts the water in the shower, fiddling with the
faucet for the perfect temperature. Steam starts to rise from
the doorway. Once Mr. Medley opens the closet the smell
grows much worse, wrapping him in the odor of wet dog
food and vomit. Contrary to the horrific smell, all Mr. Medley
sees is a few rows of stacked shoe boxes. Unless Lacey has
some sort of awful foot fungus, he doesn’t understand why
her shoes would be smelling up her room so profoundly. Mr.
Medley takes one of the boxes off the shelf and peeks inside,
10
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