Bathroom Tile

‘Once upon a time someone tried to imitate marble with porcelain.

Understandable; humans have been artificially recreating nature since the cavemen. It’s our nature to synthesize.’

Arnold stood in the bathroom of his newly rented apartment, pondering its cladding.

A 12x12 tile covered the floor and all four walls. The same pink-veined beige tile, repeated 286 times.

‘But this imitation fails instantly due to the repetition. Nothing could be less realistic.’

He felt he’d been given insight into an anonymous tile designer’s mindset. He didn’t know how to interpret it, but he had a year-long lease to mull it over.

From Guest Contributor Olivia Rerick

Granular

Justin and Franklin had been roommates for six months. They disputed everything on a granular level.

If Justin wanted to use the kitchen, Franklin would argue that in the fundamental sense of the word, kitchen is simply a place to cook. Justin could just as easily cook something in his bedroom, say a package of ramen noodles, so it would be correct to say that his bedroom was also a kitchen. Justin would retort that since his name was on the lease, one could consider that the entire apartment technically belonged to him.

Justin and Franklin hated each other immensely.