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Trading Places, Changing Spaces<\/strong><\/p>\n \n She decided that everything had to go. Absolutely everything. She wanted no reminder of him, not even a speck of dust made from his dead skin cells.<\/p>\n She began with the furniture: the office chair and desk with the wonky leg, the cheap-looking wardrobe and bedside cabinet with the Japanese-inspired decor. All of it was junk, cluttering up her rooms, the spaces she had allowed him to share. He had been difficult, forever demanding extra space, space she didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n Izzy tried to compromise offering him her precious garden instead; if inspiration was what he needed, being exposed to nature would suit him down to the ground.<\/p>\n Except it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u2018The view is crap,\u2019 he said. \u2018And I\u2019m certain there are people spying on me at the back. I keep seeing their curtains twitch. No, I\u2019d rather have my own private study.\u2019<\/p>\n She had given in and soon the cupboard under the stairs had been converted. At least now she didn\u2019t have to see his miserable face every time she looked out of the kitchen window. He was out of the way…for now.<\/p>\n If anything though, the space beneath the stairs only amplified Danny\u2019s whinging.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s too small. I can practically touch the walls with my elbows. Don\u2019t you know I\u2019m claustrophobic?\u2019<\/p>\n So Izzy began to take her space back.<\/p>\n \u2018You can\u2019t put your canvas in there,\u2019 she said, when she caught him one morning eyeing up the downstairs toilet. \u2018Where on earth will my artificial flowers go?\u2019<\/p>\n At first Danny resented Izzy\u2019s plans. But as the days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, he grew confused.<\/p>\n \u2018My lilo, lawnmower and metal detector have all got to go in there.\u2019 She pointed to the space which had formerly been his study. \u2018There\u2019s no room for your stamp collection. Sorry.\u2019<\/p>\n Izzy even snapped up the attic.<\/p>\n \u2018I need this space to meditate. I can\u2019t be disturbed, you see.\u2019<\/p>\n Except he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Danny proposed that they extend the house.<\/p>\n \u2018What about a conservatory?\u2019 he suggested.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ve always wanted my very own greenhouse,\u2019 she said. \u2018We could grow some tomatoes in there. What do you say?\u2019<\/p>\n Danny hated tomatoes and scrapped the idea.<\/p>\n Soon, every room in the house was fulfilling a function: the living room became a leisure centre, the kitchen a sauna, the bathroom a health spa, the bedrooms an office and sanctuary respectively.<\/p>\n The space beneath the stairs went neglected with Izzy\u2019s junk.<\/p>\n \u2018Can I have my old study back?\u2019 he asked late one evening, his fingers crossed behind his back.<\/p>\n \u2018But what about your claustrophobia? Can claustrophobia be cured?\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Sure it can.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Don\u2019t be silly, love,\u2019 she said. \u2018You said yourself the study was too small.\u2019<\/p>\n Danny resigned himself and headed upstairs where a single mattress lay waiting on the floor.<\/p>\n The final straw for him came when he was turned off his mattress a few days later.<\/p>\n \u2018You\u2019re blocking me from getting past,\u2019 Izzy said. \u2018You can sleep in the shed instead.\u2019<\/p>\n The wallpaper came off surprisingly easy. Strips of mint and gold found their way into bin bags. Izzy preferred the house like this, stripped back. She pictured Danny\u2019s face the day he was taken away. Attempted arson<\/em>, the authorities called it. At least he was in safe hands now. The doctors would know what to prescribe, what treatment he needed.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s hope they do the right thing<\/em>, she thought. And give him a place of his own.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lauren Bell<\/strong> lives in Birmingham, loves rainbows\u00a0and is often drunk on inspiration. Her work has been published\u00a0in print and online\u00a0by\u00a0Firewords Quarterly,\u00a0The Fractured Nuance,\u00a0Spelk <\/em>and Storgy Magazine<\/em> where she is a contributing writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trading Places, Changing Spaces She decided that everything had to go. Absolutely everything. She wanted no reminder of him, not even a speck of dust made from his dead skin cells. She began with the furniture: the office chair and desk with the wonky leg, the cheap-looking wardrobe and bedside cabinet with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10075"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10079,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10075\/revisions\/10079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}