i ran into the listing of this bookshelf at almost 8pm that evening. 

 

the minute i saw it i knew i wanted it for my project. i immediately contacted the seller who was based in new jersey asking whether or not they would do curbside delivery. they said they would, but there was already another potential buyer who had reached out to them and said that they would go check out the bookshelf in person the next morning. 

 

‘i will let you know tomorrow at around 12pm.’ 

 

what if i go pick it up tonight? 

 

i asked for their exact location and it turned out to be an hour drive away. i said i would go. maybe i was being crazy. do you see how gigantic this bookshelf is? 

 

‘it would be worth the effort,’ said the seller, ‘my friend said i could have sold it at double the price.’ she wasnt buffing. merely from my limited experiences of sourcing second hand furniture, i agreed. and therefore such haste. 

 

i told her i would get there at around 9:30 pm. 

 

‘i will not be awake at 9:30. but i will leave it out behind the house in front of the garage door. i dont have an extra blanket for wrapping it but maybe you can stop and pick up some cardboard boxes. if you flatten them that will work perfectly.’ 

 

i dont have a blanket either. 

 

i rushed down to the ground floor hoping i could find some disposed cardboard boxes. i was lucky that night. found two dusty cardboard boxes that were big enough yet not too nasty looking. i flattened the boxes, brought my hand truck, packed scissors and wrapping tape with me, and started heading her way. i was nervously shivering since i didnt know if this would work out at all. 

 

the pickup location was in summit, new jersey. 

 

more instructions from her through messenger – 

 

‘i will pull my car to the back of the house so that whoever drives can pull down the driveway. it will be easier to load that way. 

‘my house is the third one on the right. it is white with a red door. youll pull into the driveway thats just past the white picket fence. 

‘the bookshelf will be around back in front of the garage door.

‘when you are at the back of the house the security lights will all turn on so it is not dark back there.’ 

 

this was not the first time i picked something up where its an hour drive away in new jersey. they were all almost identical looking, suburban middle class neighbourhoods that kind of look like yummy marshmallow skewers scattered on the map. the typical american house on a driveway that branches out from the main road, with a garage in the back. dark, and absolutely silent past 8 at night. 

 

i ship clothing pieces to places like this as well. as i booksalso collect specific clothing pieces (as if furnitures and  and trinkets and knick knacks were not enough for me to collect) and sometimes resell them either through instagram or depop. sometimes as i was printing out shipping labels on usps website i would get snoopy and look up the addresses on google maps street view. whenever houses like this showed up on my screen, i always wondered if these households felt comfortable enough that information such as their choices of their dirt trapping entryway door mats were accessible by people worldwide (almost), or say, their choices of curtains for their living rooms. 

 

the third one on the right. it is white with a red door. the third one on the right. it is white with a red door.the third one on the right. it is white with a red door.

 

it was too dark to even tell the colours red and white apart. 

 

so i had to go up to the doors to look at the exact house numbers to make sure if i was in front of the right house – because of my poor eyesight. 

 

found it. 

 

one of the rooms was still lit up. it made me wonder if they had been watching me through their security cameras and got concerned by seeing me running around like a maniac on their driveway. 

 

as i was hitting pitch black walking towards the back of the house, the ‘security lights’ lit up just as she said. 

 

and there stood the holy bookcase. outside of the closed garage. in the cold. 

 

it kind of felt like i was picking up a stray cat that used to have an ‘owner’. the only difference was that, this time, the stray cat did not run from the spotlight, nor from me.