clearly not up to code

6/11/2006
i went looking for two stuffed elephants annie and i had when we were little--mine was pink, hers was blue. i couldn't find them and realized i'd probably left them in the shoreland when i moved out. so i went back to the shoreland.
i let myself in and came up to 612 to find a bookshelf stocked with stuff i'd forgotten. the elephants were there; so were two plastic sarcophagi full of clothes and holiday decorations, a lot of workbooks (including a born-again-christian version of "Where's Waldo?" called "Find Jesus"--the catch was that everything, incl. Christ, was purple), and an enormous beanbag kyogre. i noticed that all the furniture in the (nonexistent) white-carpeted parlor was covered in clear plastic to protect it from dust over the summer.
suddenly the door opened and grandmommy entered in a wheelchair. she had wheeled herself in; poppa was parking the car and some other people from my mom's family were following soon. i was incredibly impressed, proud of her, and hopeful for an improvement in her health. everyone was thinking about going to cedar point. i was totally excited.
but a second later everyone i knew was gone and a boy (about ten) was standing by the bookshelf. he looked offended that i was there and a little scared, and ran up to the loft bedroom (above the dining room) get his Dad.
his dad came down and explained to me that they were renting the apartment from the University for the summer because the man and his wife had just been through a very sad divorce and he didn't have a new place to live yet. he was mildly annoyed about my intrusion but said it was okay for me to get my stuff.
i hauled out the first sarcophagus and put it in the hall. when i stepped back through the doorway i noticed a roach. disgusting, but i didn't think much of it. the man and boy had disappeared. i didn't know where they went.
then when i stepped back into the apartment i noticed the squashed shell of a tiny pink crab in the doorway. then another giant roach crawled off the wall onto my arm.
pretty soon i couldn't move without squashing a giant cockroach, miniature crab, headless living lobster tail, or lurid coral trilobite that should have been extinct for millennia. they were even scuttling all over the otherwise spotless parlor.
i was beyond repulsed. i couldn't believe i had signed up to live in the building for another year. but, i rationalized, i'd never seen these before--maybe they all only came for the summer?
i resolved to get the last few items out of the room and then make a run for it.