SEPTEMBER 30TH, THE DAY I RECEIVED the news of my adoptive brother’s death, I also received a brand-new couch from IKEA. To clarify, I was the only one who happened to be physically present the day my roommate Julie’s brand-new couch arrived at our shared studio apartment in Manhattan. That day my phone did not stop ringing because my roommate Julie listed my phone number as the main contact for the furniture-delivery company instead of her own. The delivery driver called multiple times because he could not find the apartment building. There was a mix-up on the invoice or the address of the apartment had been smudged into a black thumbprint, also, at the time, a large green trash receptacle the size of a dump truck was placed in front of the building, which blocked the view of the numbers above the front door.

Patty Yumi Cottrell: Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, Sheffield: And Other Stories 2017, S. 1.