Expiration Date 2076

Chapter VII

      The moon made a crescent, a boat tipping over in the rolling waves. The fisherman inside cast out a titanic net, in one last hope of catching the sky. Every star was one of the net's knots. But it was hopeless, because slowly, night by night, the boat would fill with light till it looked like a big white bowl. Everyone would forget there was ever a fisherman who paddled out there and tried to catch the sky. People would forget there was a net and a boat. All anyone would every see the the rest of history would be a moon and a sky full of stars.

     FreyFrey sat by a thin window on the second story of the the building, counting the stars, waiting. The staircase went from the first story to the second to the third, and at each turn that ending by a wall had a little thin window was stuck into place with putty. On the first floor, Jack was boiling water in red pot for tea. The steam and whistle spiraled up the staircase to the girl. She stood and went downstairs. The tea was now steeping, one tall tin mug and a short blue cup. Jack was now buttering bread and putting it in a frying pan with bacon.

     The kitchen small, seeing as the building was built to work in, not live in. The staircase began right at the front door. The plastered side of the staircase made one of the walls to the kitchen.  In the kitchen, there was a sink with a facet that only poured cold that came from the well outside.  This was by the wall opposite from the staircase wall. This shared the wall with a counter and a cupboard. The top cupboard shelf normally held three cups, two plates, four bowls, and one pot. The middle shelf housed tea bags, bread, crackers, and a jar of jam. The bottom shelf  had a box of silverware, with salt, pepper, and sugar shakers. Stowed away in a corner by the wall that connected the stairs wall and the cupboard wall, was a stout refrigerator. The top part was a freezer for meat, and the bottom was the fridge part for butter, milk, and eggs. There was a stove with two burners and an oven. This was by the wall parallel to the one with the fridge. The floor had stained  tiles. The ceiling had a yellow light. And this was the kitchen. 

     Jack and FreyFrey carried their tea and bacon-toast to the third floor. This was the best place in the whole building. The entire floor was one room, and every wall had windows. A mulberry couch was against one wall, a wooden bench wrapped in thread-bare velvet. There were a hundred minuscule lights on the ceiling, but there was no electricity above the second floor, so it was the sky without the ancient net. Jack turned on six lanterns spread across the room, while FreyFrey seated herself. She shivered. There was no heating up there either. 

     Two windows had window seats with storage compartment underneath. Jack flipped up one of the seats and pulled out a huge, handmade, light grey sweater, and a blanket. He gave these to FreFrey. She thanked him and pulled on the sweater. They ate their supper in near-silence. Jack told her that all of the third floor was hers, and to turn off the lanterns when she went to sleep. Then he bid her good night, and left. In the lantern light, she could see a coffee table a little ways from the couch. The lights that covered the ceiling were wrapped around pipes. Metal junk was in a corner of the room. She wandered over to the window seats and opened them. She pushed her sweater sleeves off her hands and looked through the neat stack off of blankets. At the bottom were candles and a box of matches. In the second window seat there were more blankets and another sweater like the one she wore, except it was black. At the bottom was a hammer and a box of matches.

     That night, as she slept curled up in her blanket on the floor, FreyFrey dreamed that Mr. Reeler and she spent a long day building, then had supper on the couch in her room.