...

I think there's a small rodent caught in my wall. I heard clawing and thuds periodically throughout the afternoon, and then I heard some breathless moans, if that's the right word, because I can't think of the word to describe the guttural emanations I heard, starting loud and gradually dying out as if the thing were losing a fight.

The apartment either below me or directly across the hall from me always wafts smells and sounds of good food and merriment in my direction. Today, coming in after a fruitless attempt to get a retail job and print out piano lesson fliers at the zombie-infested library, I detected barbecue chicken.