Wall
My wall came down today. I paced around at work - wanting to phone my friend who was knocking it down, wanting to check if the skip had turned up, if the house was still standing. I felt like my house was in labour - about to give birth to an absence of wall. I managed to hold out from calling him. My mobile rang mid morning. I grasped frantically to silence The Killers playing the riff from "All These Things I've Done" (Mental note - time to change that) - but it was my sons school asking for my postcode.
I managed to get hold of my partner to share my nervousness with her. Then at four it rang again. The display said "home" and I knew it was him. Would it be a boy - how would I feel about a girl? No - it was a lack. A void, an absence, a space. It had been delivered safely. It was an ex-wall. It has ceased to be. What once was wall - was now bricks and rubble. The bricks which joined in a stoic act of co-operative effort for more than a hundred years - with no more noble purpose than seperating my living room from the pointless bit of corridor where bikes sleep - now reside, with no obvious raison d'etre in a skip outside my house (rented from Abacus skips - a firm you can count on.)
My wall came down today.