In ten years they’ll lift up the floorboards and here is what they’ll find
Hey, I’m no architect but I say gut the fish like a house and put in a new kitchen or at least fix up that old fridge. Consider these newfound good-for-the-planet-plastic-free stainless steel appliances. What if they had that anti-fingerprint, no-mess technology? How many of them would you buy in a day? We could earn enough money in one class-action lawsuit to redo the whole damn place. What do you think?
(I think someday I would like to have a big dog and a house with a fence. Call me a dreamer– or, call me your name on a Tuesday evening, call me at blue-hour on the dial-phone when you look at your wall-clock and think of me. Here is our dreamhouse. A mailbox that we made out of popsicle sticks and nail glue. In the foyer, an old framed photo of us with a deer head in my grandfather’s basement. A queen sized bed just big enough for our two large cats. We have a backyard. That’s the dream. We’re open for business and making mudcakes with our knees. Get dirty with me. I’m only about as deep into the soil as my toes will let me dig; inches from sidewalk.)
[Hey. Let’s play mermaids! We can practice holding our breath under water and come up all oil-slick. I’ll wash our hair with the dish soap from the commercials and when it gets in our eyes we’ll cry thick blue tears. That’s my superpower, I’ll say after. That’s how I’m going to save the world. You laugh. Haha! Easy money, this business. We pay for everything in handfuls of shells. We’ll practice on the sand, two beached whales that tourists seek to photograph, so beautiful in our post-holiday bloating.]
Look, I’m not saying I’m the kind of guy to pull over for a hollyhock, I won’t rubberneck for roadkill. That’s just not my style.
But I’ll go real slow, I’ll roll the windows all the way down, and I’ll ask the hills if they’ll
remember our names.
Ashton Freeman is a New York based writer and educator. They received their BA from Sarah Lawrence College where they were the managing editor of Love & Squalor. In 2025 they were nominated for the 2025 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. They have received support from Tin House and their work has appeared or is forthcoming in Passages North, manywor(l)ds, Foglifter, Milk Press, Screen Door Review, and Redamancy Magazine. To find their work– search under rocks, in your sock drawer, the late afternoon and at ashton-freeman.com.