The blur of chocolate and vanilla fur rolling round and round as the rats play put a smile on my face, though I’m still in a foul mood. Still entertaining fantasies of making the streets of Auburn a little bit safer one pervert at a time, too. A perfect stranger donned a black robe 13 years ago and decided I was something I’m not. Cleared in the end or not, maybe I oughta live up to some of these false labels people like to stick on me. For now, does the spider I killed in the bathroom count?

Tom still wants to keep looking but I still don’t see why we should bother. It isn’t meant to be. I get that. I accept that. I don’t like it and I don’t get it but it is what it is. Everything’s either too expensive, too far, or we get outbid.

After a month or so I’d love to ask whoever got the place if the mutt next door barked that often, curious to see if it really would’ve been the problem I feared it would be, or if it was just an occasional thing.

So much for laughing at the idea of giving Jesse “bad news” soon. Yeah, you little pest. You ain’t getting your bad news anytime soon. Lucky you.