The House We Thought We Possessed

The metal inside the old peanut butter and mayonnaise jars weighed heavily in my arms as I carried them up from my dad’s basement workshop. Some of the hardware in the jar was shiny and straight, catching the light sharply, others were rounded and softer in color, dull browns, and greenish golds that absorbed the light. The nails, screws, bolts, washers, and other pieces had been pulled from constructed items and cleaned up at the…