The Matter of the Weeping Walls

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STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK DEPOSITION OF ARTHUR PENHALIGON Date: November 14, 1924 Location: Offices of Gable & Finch, LLP Case No. 442-B: Penhaligon v. Sterling Tenements (The witness is sworn in. Present: Mr. Sterling, counsel for the defendant; Mr. Penhaligon, plaintiff.) Q: Mr. Penhaligon, please describe the onset of the seepage in the rented premises. A: It began as a dampness in the northeast corner of the bedroom. I assumed a burst pipe or a leak in the masonry. I notified the super immediately. Q: And when did you realize the moisture was not aqueous in the traditional sense? A: Within three days. The wallpaper began to peel in long, grey ribbons, revealing salt crystals underneath. Not sea salt, but something heavier. It had a scent. Wet wool, old hospitals, and something like cold copper. Q: You claim the residue affected your personal property. Please be specific. A: My writing desk is ruined. The mahogany swelled, then rotted from the inside out. It was not water damage; the wood had absorbed the concentrated melancholia of the previous tenant. The grain of the wood actually shifted. It warped into shapes that looked like... well, like faces in mid-collapse. Q: The previous occupant, a Miss Elspeth Thorne, is deceased. Is that correct? A: Yes. Q: And the insects you mentioned in your initial claim? The so called sorrow-mites? A: They arrived a week after the salt appeared. Small, translucent things. They do not eat fabric or wood. They cluster where the weeping is thickest, vibrating in sync with the residue. I woke up on the twentieth of October to find them covering my ankles. They were humming. Q: Humming, Mr. Penhaligon? In what capacity? A: A low, vibrating frequency. It does not enter the ears so much as the chest. It makes it impossible to think of anything except my own failures. I could not leave the room for two days because the mites had established a colony in the doorway. They were feeding on the grief in the walls, and by extension, they were amplifying it. Q: Did you attempt to scrub the walls or apply a chemical drying agent? A: I tried. I used lye and vinegar. But the more I scrubbed, the more the walls bled. The salt just crystallized faster. The landlord claims it is a tenant-induced residue, that I brought the mood into the house, but I did not. The grief was already there, baked into the plaster. It is a structural nuisance. Q: For the record, are you claiming the emotional seepage has caused you permanent psychological harm, or is this strictly a matter of property damage? A: I just want my deposit back. And I want the mites removed from my clothes. (End of excerpt)