The man who\u2019s called me out to pick his lock is lying. He doesn\u2019t live there. I know this, because it\u2019s my apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I received the message, my first reaction was shock. Not a stomach-churning kind of shock\u2014like when Sarah decided to up and leave after ten years of marriage and told me with nothing but a text\u2014but more a feeling of surprise. That of everyone in this damn city they could steal from, they\u2019d choose me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I thought about calling the police, but left the number undialed. I guess a part of me was curious. Everything\u2019s already so fucked, I wanted to prod it a bit more just to see what would happen. So now I\u2019m on my way to help a man break into my own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I arrive, he\u2019s sitting on the worn corridor carpet, staring at the ceiling. He\u2019s in his late twenties, wearing tight jeans, a baggy tee featuring a band I\u2019ve never heard of, and an old beanie. He\u2019s a little jittery\u2014understandable, given that he\u2019s about to commit a felony\u2014but all things considered he\u2019s holding it together. It\u2019s a look not so different from that of most of my customers. I used to enjoy watching their concern melt into relief whenever I teased their door open. I\u2019d smile as they stepped over the threshold, arms outstretched as though hugging an old friend. That\u2019s how I used to feel getting home, too. These days, I shuffle Metropolis<\/em>-like through my front door, past wedding photos, past the jacket that Sarah used to say suited me, past the boomerang from our trip to Australia that we swore we\u2019d learn how to throw. Everything\u2019s preserved, like Pompeii after Vesuvius erupted\u2014except in this case it was Sarah blowing up my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man flashes a fake ID bearing my name. \u201cI appreciate you coming out so quickly,\u201d he says with as much confidence as he can muster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stare at him for a moment, pondering my next move. Confronting him\u2019s still an option, of course. There\u2019s no room in those drainpipe jeans of his for a weapon, and I\u2019m sure a combination of old man strength and primal rage would see me through. But the same morbid curiosity that brought me here keeps dragging me along for the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So instead, I sit there, picking the lock with the quiet professionalism I\u2019d give any other customer. After a few minutes, the door springs open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wait in the van as he loads his car with my shit: the widescreen TV Sarah and I used to snuggle up in front of; the record player she bought me for my thirtieth; the food processor that\u2019s been collecting dust for a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the man drives away into the night, I step inside. Everything\u2019s gone: not just the expensive stuff, but the small things too. Liquor, coasters, even the damn boomerang. And for the first time in forever, I can breathe a little more easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Person Who Lives Here Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore The man who\u2019s called me out to pick his lock is lying. He doesn\u2019t live there. I know this, because it\u2019s my apartment. When I received the message, my first reaction was shock. Not a stomach-churning kind of shock\u2014like when Sarah decided to up and leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1546,"featured_media":308970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5557,5561,5965],"tags":[210,547,170,94,556],"class_list":["post-308955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lit-mags","category-the-commuter","category-fiction","tag-crime","tag-home","tag-marriage","tag-relationships","tag-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n