Homesick for Another World

Jeb has lived in the same house for many years: he brags that seven presidents have come and gone since he’s been there. Jeb has been watching his new neighbor, an unnamed woman in her thirties, closely in the two months since she moved in. He observes that her boyfriend, a loud man who drives a motorcycle, has moved out, and that the woman is undertaking renovation projects on her own. Their first conversation is awkward, despite Jeb’s attempts to seem casual and folksy, and the neighbor seems uninterested in him. Jeb has a skin condition called vitiligo, which causes patches of his skin to be lighter in color than the surrounding skin. As he stares at her breasts and legs, he wonders what she thinks about his vitiligo. He tells her that, in some cultures, people with vitiligo are considered gods.

Jeb begins to listen to his neighbor through his basement window. He spends all day in the basement listening to her and imagining what her life is like. One day his nephew comes to visit, and Jeb encourages him to ask the neighbor out. The neighbor agrees, but when Jeb teases her about it later, she claims to be uninterested and invites Jeb to join them.