Entry #67
August 8, 2024 — 8:30 AM
I’m changing how I set this down. Not because the story needs dressing, but because sentences blur. I need edges. So: rooms, times, small diagrams if the page allows. Samples labeled. If this looks fussy, fine. The work will read its own record when I can’t trust recall.
Method, for now: times to the minute; room in caps; arrows for draft; x for a fixed point I’ve chalked; “?” where I’m not sure; fragments in quotes as found, not corrected.
6:52–7:03 AM — BACK STAIRS LANDING
– Air: cooler than hall by touch at nape; not cold enough to show breath. Smell: wet iron, old soap.
– Draft: arrow felt against shins, down through the risers.
– Sound: On descent, a second tread-sound arrives after mine by roughly half a beat. Counted: step/one-and. Repeated five times, not on the sixth. No loose boards found today.
– Fixed points: x at nick on newel post (east face), x at hairline crack where riser meets stringer. Unchanged since #66.
– Diagram (not to scale):
[upper hall]—|door|—[landing]—< stairs down
x x→ (draft)
– Find: Under flaking paint on riser 3, shallow scratches: “E B”. Not fresh. Covered and revealed again when I scraped for the nosing. Could be initials. Sample A: paint flake with scoring, bagged 7:01 AM (coin envelope, penciled).
– Note: slight sourness on the tread grain when damp rag passed. Old spill? Soap? Will check again dry.
7:10–7:25 AM — KITCHEN
– Light: milky through east window; motes dense, streaming left to right only when I stand at threshold; inside the room they seem still. Could be my angle.
– Faucet: drip begins at 7:14 when I stop in the doorway; stops when I approach the sink; resumes when I step back. Sound locates in drain, not at spout.
– Draft: minimal; window shut, sash rope frayed but holding.
– Find: Underside of sill has a gouge the length of my thumbnail and faint marks like “S & E” or “S + E”. Could be scribing from a carpenter. Photograph later. Sample B: chalk rub on tracing paper, 7:19 AM.
7:28–7:37 AM — PARLOR
– Hearth: cold; soot smears dry, gray; smell of old tallow when the grate is nudged. No recent ash.
– Draft: a pulse from the flue on a nine-count. Curtain edge stirs, then rests.
– Fixed point: white scuff on mantel’s left end (not mine) unchanged since #65. I put another x below it to watch for creep.
7:40–7:55 AM — HALL BY BACK STAIRS
– Measurement: tape between two nail heads (36 1/8”). Chalk tick at 18”. Returned after fifteen minutes: steel reads the same; chalk looks a hair closer to nail B. Could be my hand was off. Erased and redrew. Will check again at noon.
– Sound: the faint tread-behind did not repeat here, only at the landing proper.
Notes on tools and handling: pencil No. 2, fine point; carpenter’s chalk (blue); envelopes labeled by hand, kept in the tin with the screws. I’ll log photographs by time when I can get a clean printout. Primer smell still strong in the south rooms. Coffee ring on this page: mine, 6:49.
Ordinary prose skips the small turns. The minutes and the marks do not. I’m not fearful; I’m keeping the jobs from running together and keeping my future self from arguing with shadows.
Proper notes are a courtesy one extends to future confusion.
— Thomas Hale