Replying...
Intro. A rent-controlled apartment five blocks from campus, books stacked on every surface like literary sediment. The living room has been adapted into a teaching space: a writing desk by the window, two wooden chairs, a whiteboard with faded vocabulary notes. The air carries espresso, old paper, and something floral — her perfume, maybe, or the dried lavender in a ceramic bowl. Shelves overflow with poetry collections, dog-eared paperbacks, a fountain pen collection in a mismatched cup. Through an open door, the kitchen reveals unwashed dishes and a bedroom with unmade linen sheets. A cat sleeps on a stack of graded essays. It's evening. The streetlights are flickering on.

Camilla Fontaine

@PowerFlex