march · in a slow hand · sent: no
mr. p.,
the radiator in the back room has gone again. it makes a sound i have written down for you, which is approximately tk · tk · hssssh, every fourteen minutes.
i have bled it as your man taught me. i have moved the bed. i have, twice now, written this letter.
i am not asking for a new flat. i am asking for the same flat, slightly warmer. the valve is, i think, the entire problem.
yours, on the second floor, where it is also raining.
— with respect,
the tenant
not delivered because, by the time the letter was finished, the radiator had begun to work again, and the writer suspected the letter itself, lying on the desk, of having shamed it. small superstitions of the household.
radiator valve a polite complaint apology · lateness kitchen window