until i was almost five i lived in apartments not far from where i live now. these were not the kind stacked one on another, they were laid out side by side. next to me was a separation to go behind them where it looks like they might be two stories, but it’s just the foundation. mine were gray. my cousin’s, who lived six away on the other side of the separation, were a different gray. all of the different sections were different grays. some had decks with stairs, some had decks without, we had no stairs. my cousins had no deck. instead the had a patio on the side with a path to the back. we spent most of our days playing back there. even though we weren’t supposed to. one day kevin, the older boy who lived between us, drew a box with a diagonal line from each corner to the bottom, so it cut the box into two triangles and one of those \_/ kinds of shapes. he then drew two eyes in side the middle shape and told us it was a ghost and it would get us if we went back there. it scared me for weeks. until someone washed it off. probably our old, mean, german land lord named george. i think he ate kids. he didn’t want us climbing trees. or doing anything fun. so he had to eat kids.

adam.

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