The contents of the cupboard are as follows:

• KD, thirteen months expired
• sriracha, red crusting around the edges of the cap
• a broken candy-cane
• stale crackers

I grab it all, collapse on the floor beside the table blocking the door, and feast while something awful moves beyond the boarded windows.

Joy Rayner writes at the peak of Lake Erie. In January she will be migrating north to study floral design.