Teaser Wednesday

A (sort of long) snippet for Tina because she asked. Twice. :D I apologize in advance for any wonkiness in tenses--I'm still getting a handle on first past POV (which is apparently less straightforward than I'd thought) vs. the first present POV I was used to writing in. For example, in the first sentence, can it even be "this" hallway? That sounds present-ish. Oy. So confusing.

There were two doors in this hallway: one on our right and one at the very end, both closed. After glancing over her shoulder to make sure I'd caught up, she opened the door at the end. The smell of old sweat and unwashed clothes assaulted me as I followed her into what appeared to be her bedroom.

At least, I thought there was a bed in there somewhere. Stalagmites of dirty laundry were scattered across the floor amidst papers, books and an assortment of dirty dishes. How long had she been without a maid? And how did she have any clean clothes left? She pointed out the closet and bathroom, but I stayed by the door. If this was what the room where she slept looked like, I did not want to see the room where the toilet was.

I followed her back through the hall and into the other room, trying to calculate how many hours it would take me to wash all those clothes. I was already into the thousands when my brain stuttered to a stop and my mouth fell open.

I'd never seen so many books in my entire life.

Shelves of them covered the walls from floor to ceiling. They spilled from the desk and erupted from the carpet in small, haphazard stacks. And each one was filled with words that did their job, no more, no less, harnessed by their authors and fastened to the page, with no chance to arc away on a sinister agenda of their own.