Wednesday, May 9, 2012

sketchy


About a month after I moved in to my apartment last year, I noticed this doodle drawn in my hallway about six inches to the left of my door.

My first instinct, naturally, was to worry that someone had "marked" my apartment as part of some nefarious scheme. I imagined some dude in a beanie crouching in the stairwell of my apartment building communicating with his partner (stationed in the van, obviously) via walkie talkie: "The target has been located, and the symbol has been drawn." 

Since I haven't been robbed or otherwise targeted in the intervening months, though, I guess I was wrong. (Unless it's some sort of simmering, long-term plot, of course!! Never say never!)

So I've come up with a few other theories:

-- Some really disgruntled delivery man was waiting for me at the door (while I was dashing around my apartment searching for jeans and a baseball cap in order to make myself "presentable") and he reached a breaking point. "Who does this guy think he is making me wait like this!?! I'm gonna draw some weird, vaguely cult-y-looking design next to his door! Curses onto him!"

-- Perhaps it had been there long before I moved into the apartment and I just didn't notice for the first few weeks. If so, might the drawing be a tag sketched by the previous tenant wanting to leave a lasting mark?? An "I may be moving on, but a part of me will always remain here in the form of this bizarre icon" effort?

-- Maybe - and, improbably, this theory is really starting to grow on me - I drew it in some sort of mind-addled stupor! Strangely I can actually see myself returning home drunk late one night and thinking it'd be funny to draw something next to my door (seems about right that my version of a "welcome home" doormat would be an alienating scribble). Also it just kind of looks like something I'd draw. "It's a stick man throwing a javelin. His name is Roger."

2 comments:

AJ Hughes said...

it's a hobo marking. Means either this apartment is good to hit up for food (probably sushi) or that you have a dog that is unfriendly to strangers.

Bella said...

It could be a stick man named Roger throwing a javelin but it could also be code for "You're next." ha! I have a sense for the macabre. Forgive me! :)