Parents Declutter Me Right Out of Existence
She buried her face in the filthy toy and inhaled deeply, as though it were the very air keeping her alive.
…
From that day on, everything changed.
The house that had once been so clean and empty slowly turned into a junkyard.
They started bringing home everything they could find—abandoned plastic bottles, worn-out clothes that others had thrown away, stones from the roadside, and withered branches.
"Eddie might like this box," Mom said, placing a greasy cardboard box in the middle of the room.
"These newspapers can go under the table," Dad said, stacking them in the corner.
The junk just kept piling up. It buried the corner where I used to sleep, flooded the living room, and choked the hall