sprayhawk

People say that when you go out of town you should set lights and radios to turn on and off with timers.  This is to deter burglars.  This is to convince would be intruders that there are people home or that the vacant house is most definitely haunted.

Hamilton was fooled by nothing of the sort.  He found the spare key under the mat.  He felt the cold handle in his hand and twisted, sighing as the door swung open.  He breathed in the scent of a four-person family gone for two weeks.  He closed the door behind him and made himself at home.  After easing onto the brown micro fiber couch, he picked up the latest issue of Good Housekeeping from the coffee table.  With his interest piqued by the Autumn Guide To A Knockout Quiche, Hamilton took the magazine upstairs to the master bathroom for further inspection.

This is when the police arrived.

Hamilton stood up from the toilet and looked at himself in the mirror, watching the fuzzy eyebrows above his eyes remain calm while his insides turned on themselves.  Sometimes when Hamilton was a child he imagined what it would have been like to be the ends of his toes, where it would be possible to hide in the caps of shoes from everything around him.

The police heard the toilet flush.  Hamilton washed his hands while he waited.