A Snug High Perch

My fingers stretched upward, digging into the crown molding above the dryer until my frame squeezed flat against the narrow gap near the ceiling. It is dark up here... tight. Right against the drywall sat an old cardboard lint roller core and a loose strip of adhesive tape. In one sudden lean, my unblinking eyes stopped an inch from the cardboard ring. I looped my long arm through the hollow tube, rolling it across the painted plaster with a dry, hollow scrape. It rolled... bumped into a tin can... and rested still. From high above the dark laundry room, I watched the floor tiles vanish into shadows, humming with the steady pulse of the wall.