gonna dress you up in my love, in my love
Everything in the kitchen is hidden. The old cutlery is beside the extra packets of macaroni and cheese, which are inside some Tupperware used mainly for popcorn. Sometimes, one box of cereal is completely removed from the cereal cupboard and found next to the scented candles and matches instead. The most convenient things are usually in the most inconvenient places. The saran wrap and aluminum foil, for example, are in the cupboard above the microwave, which is above the stove, in the least accessible part of the kitchen, save for the cupboard above the refrigerator. Even in the refrigerator, the cherries are in the small compartment for deli cheese and meat. This is my father’s idea of organization, something he fills his time with while my mother answers phones and takes orders and photocopies things as an accounts-receivable clerk at a bakery head office. And while his misguided notions of cleaning up only make things harder to find, I am still impressed by his attempts. Before he closed his pawn shop-like store for good, he never did anything around the house except barbeque, throw away other people’s things that he found on the coffee table, mow the lawn, and water the two palm trees we have in the house. Now, in addition to all that, he wipes the table and marble counter, washes the dishes in the sink, and hides things he finds in the kitchen.