The Picture on the Wall Div

We brought a new picture to our home and hung it on the wall. It was a split decision within the family; more than half the members really didn't like it and said it was scary. The others remarked that the young girls talking together represented a new beginning and a coming together for a brighter future.

The longer we looked at it (and it's only been on the wall a short time) the more some of us noticed other things around the house; an unidentifiable whiff of something that seemed to have gone bad, or maybe was rotten all along; the feeling of something scuttling across the floor just touching the corner of our vision; finding scraps of cloth and paper, a chewed slipper and small pellets in the corner of a cluttered back closet. When we shine a beam of light in the night, we're confronted with the specter of small, red, feral eyes staring back hungrily, at us.

What do we do? Surely, we think, there must be a way to evict this pervading menace in our home ... or has the rot gone much deeper? Is that cloying smell the corruption of something decomposing within the very walls of our domicile? Do we learn to live with the odor and discomfort, call an exterminator, burn down the house? That will certainly solve the problem, but then, what will we have left?

It's a huge decision. It won't be easy to make since many in the family refuse to acknowledge that we even have a problem.

They still see the pretty girls, but more and more lately, they no longer smile.