Band 5 of 5
Please Take the Day
The ceiling. Something enormous and unaccounted for, given as a reason to miss a stand-up. Nobody argues with these. They just tell you to go back to bed.
206 verses across 25 chapters
A reading
- 1 I've been humming something I've never heard
- 2 My plant has turned to face the wrong way
- 3 I've got a bruise in a shape I'd like to think about
- 4 Something outside has been standing still for an hour
- 5 I've come home to furniture in different places
- 6 A relative has told me something about myself I didn't know
- 7 I've found a shopping list in my pocket in my handwriting for things I don't eat
- 8 I've had a knock at the door with nobody there twice this week
- 9 The heating came on and the heating has been off at the wall since March
- 10 There's a light on in my house and I'm not in my house
- 11 My name is written on the inside of a drawer in this rented apartment
- 12 Every clock in this house lost the same four minutes
- 13 I've been finding sand in a house nowhere near the sea
- 14 The number of steps to the mailbox has changed
- 15 The mirror in the hall is at a different angle
- 16 Somebody has laughed in this building and it's empty
- 17 The stairs sounded different this morning
- 18 I've been counting something without deciding to
Where the rest of them are
- The Uncanny43
- The Ceiling37
- The Mid-Century Register37
- The Unwell25
- Sounds You Cannot Locate9
- The Office7
- Lapses of Mind6
- The Dwelling5
- The Street5
- Machines and Their Schedules4
- Cars, and How They Decline4
- Hours That Go Missing3
- Animals Have Plans2
- The Body Malfunctioning2
- The Journey In2
- The Yard2
- Devices2
- Escaping a Room2
- Relatives2
- Coursework2
- The Treachery of Objects1
- Officialdom1
- Small Financial Emergencies1
- Communication Sideways1
- Things Meant to Be Relaxing1
Every excuse here is stamped. ExcuseBot uses the same five bands, and its Weirder button walks you up them one step at a time until you find the edge of what you can say out loud.