Curt and I agreed that his uncle’s cabin smelled a bit musty. “My uncle might not have been the most fastidious housekeeper,” Curt said. I proposed that we wash all the sheets and pillowcases and vacuum the rugs and floors. The sheets were too bulky for Curt’s uncle’s miniature washing machine, and there didn’t seem to be any detergent, so I bundled everything up, including Curt’s clothes, and went to town to find a laundromat while Curt did the vacuuming.

I got back about an hour later, leaving the laundry tumbling in the drier. Curt was just finishing up. He’d also opened all the windows to let in fresh air. “I had to put the vacuum together,” he said. “Obviously it’d never been used.”

“A virgin, huh?” I said. I sniffed. “It still smells a little. You vacuumed everywhere and everything?”

“Pretty much,” he said. “The vacuum wouldn’t really go under the bed.”

“Did you push the release button to lower it?”

He hadn’t.

“Still going to be kind of cramped,” he said, as he switched the machine on.