The latch on the door still doesn't catch, I said that already, said it two nights ago. three, maybe. doesnt matter which, when I was writing about the bike and the two of them under the pole light, door frame swelled last monsoon and I never got around to planing it down, that's not news. what is news is the screw. the screw. there is a screw in that frame now that was not there in August, I know every piece of hardware on this house the way I know every car parked on this block, I went around back in July with a flashlight checking every hinge and latch and strike plate because of the thing with the vents, I have photos from July, the frame is BARE in July, four holes and no hardware in the top left corner where the strike plate never lined up right, and now theres a screw sitting in hole number three with rust already bled down the paint like its been there for years. it has not. it has been there since sometime between July and now and I did not put it there and my wife didnt either, she doesnt even know where the toolbox lives anymore, I do all of that now, I mean her toolbox not mine, we still have two, thats a separate issue.

I counted the holes again last night. four. I already knew it was four. I counted anyway. one filled. that is not a coincidence, four becomes one filled is not a thing that happens by accident, somebody came to my own doorframe and used exactly one of the four holes already drilled instead of making a new one, which means somebody looked first, measured first, matched a screw they already had in their pocket to a hole that was already waiting, you do not do that walking past a house at random, you do that when the hole count isnt new information to you. I am not saying who. I have theories and none of them involve a ghost, I want to be extremely clear here because some of you write in with that every time I post a close-up like this one, this is not a haunting, nobody on the other side of this screw is dead, this is a person, or a crew, with a key or a pick and a reason, and the rust tells me it sat there a while before I noticed, galvanized rust doesnt bloom in a week in this climate, call it six weeks minimum, so whoever did this did it and then NOTHING happened for six weeks and then last night I finally looked close enough with the flash to see it.

My father used to say a house tells you everything if you check the same six places every day, he meant termites and foundation cracks when he said it, not this, but Ive been checking my six places since March and this is the first one that ever came back different. Anyway. The meter guy still hasnt shown back up since the thing in June, that thread's still open if anyone wants to go read it, this isnt him though, wrong hardware, wrong hand, he never once touched the door.