He remembered the woman at the checkout. She hadn't looked at the sign; she’d looked at his eyes, which were red-rimmed and tired.

He hadn’t meant to go to the big-box store on the edge of town. He’d preferred the idea of hand-painting plywood, something with soul. But time was a vanishing currency, and the in aisle 14 had rows of them—stark, fluorescent, and hollow. They were sold in "Pro Packs," as if getting rid of a lifetime of possessions required a professional degree in erasure.

The corrugated plastic was the color of a bruised lemon, a jagged rectangle that smelled of industrial adhesive and rain-slicked asphalt. Arthur held it by the metal H-stake, the wire cold against his palms.