So I grabbed a flashlight, dust mask, and one of the two suction cup thingies that I'd liberated from a downtown window crew many years ago. Asylunt - my roommate - grabbed a digital camera to document the occasion - Max Action Explores his Own House kind of thing.
By the time he got back there, I'd already smacked the suction cup onto the board and wrenched it free from its frame.
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Shining my flashlight in, the first thing I saw was a bunch of insulation. And a whole lot of cobwebs. |
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Further examination revealed two dead mice, dessicating away on the plastic sheeting that had been laid down over the raw earth floor. An old coffee can, rusted down to a fragment. A similarly- corroded strainer.
To the far right of the space, two withered men's shoes, and one dry-rotting woman's shoe. A stamped metal ID tag of some kind. |
Everything was taken out into the light, examined, and carefully set aside. |
Having removed everything that I could see, I pulled the dust mask on and crawled into the hole.
My goal was to see what the walls were like behind the collapsed cardboard boxes that lined the walls of the crawlspace.
But I never did find out. |
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As I crawled beneath the stairs, I felt something hard in the soft dirt beneath the plastic - a kinda domed bulge, sticking up slightly above ground level. Maybe it was finally time to find a human skull?
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So I wormed one arm under the plastic, and probed the object. Whatever it was, it was embedded in the dirt, and it wasn't a skull.
I pulled it out and then twisted onto my back to examine the find with the flashlight.
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It was a buried teapot I'd discovered - ancient-looking, aluminum, covered in white corrosion, missing its handle, powdered grime pouring from the spout. |
Just an old teapot - just another piece of junk that someone long ago had abandoned in the crawlspace.
But looking at it, my mind ... it boggled.
But for that to make any sense at all, you'll need some background.
Hold on, this is going to get weird.
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Background 1: California >
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