i want a small tv to play my edits of films. 

i said to him. 

you know the ones we grew up with? the smaller ones. not vcr. those that play dvds or cds. 

 

lets try to find it on craigslist. he said. 

 

i havent used craiglist for a while. two years ago i was looking for pieces of furnitures on there. but now i have gradually shifted to facebook marketplace. i found my wooden dining table on craigslist, as well as my couch. craigslist – emails and phone numbers that only showed green text bubbles instead of blue, well, usually. 

 

when i was moving out from my last apartment two years ago, i sold most of my furnitures on craigslist. i had a roommate in my previous apartment. we were close. i took my medical leave when i was living there. and we were there throughout the lockdown. mostly playing games on playstation which made me happy. stick of truth, shadow of colossus, monster hunter, life is strange series, detroit (become human), sims. 

 

moving out of that space, i listed my old sofa for free. a family came to pick it up. it was the mother and her son who first arrived. the son seemed to be in either middle school or high school, timid but very polite. he followed his mom who was inspecting the condition of the couch. later the uncles came up to help and an entire family with most likely two generations are gathering in the living room. they told me they lived in jamaica in queens, and the mom said she hated coming into the city by car because of the traffic. so the uncles were the ones who pulled up with a car later downstairs. the uncles carried the sofa down. soon after, i got out of my apartment to get something to drink. it was a sunny day in late april. i ran into them as i was exiting the building. they were trying to figure out how to fit that sofa into the car trunk. it was not a truck. barely even a van. but the family were gathering around the car attentively. only the boy noticed me and we waved at each other. 

 

five minutes later i already got back from the drink spot. they were still there. there seemed to be some progress! again, only the boy saw me because he was less attentive to the matter. we waved again. and that was the last time i saw him. 

 

another duo of father and daughter also came to pick up an arch cb2 lamp. the father examined the lamp very carefully through his glasses. the daughter was around the same age as me and very talkative. the lamp was easy to move. they left soon after. 

 

a guy from williamsburg who was carrying a linen tote bag came to pick up four ‘artek alvar aalto stools’ from ikea. 

 

before i got into furniture search on craigslist it was only my ex who was the one that would spend time on craigslist looking for compartments –  for building his bike with an engine, and compartments for the speaker that he was building, and an ac. he also found himself a decent wooden working table with plenty of drawers. i went with him that time to pick up the table in bushwick. i remember it was pouring that night. our clothings got all wet because we had to wait for the seller outside for at least ten minutes. 

 

and there he was, finally. he led us up to the second floor through an old and narrow wooden staircase, to which the end of it seemed like an artist’s studio. 

 

this is not my place, he said, im just helping with selling these stuff so whatever you guys see that you like just ask me for the price! i spotted a wooden bench. the previous owner displayed some vases on top. 40 bucks! he said. he was a rather jolly man with his mid-length wavy blonde hair that also got a bit soaked from the rain. 35? i was being stingy. he said yes. 

 

this bench is still at mine. 

before my breakup, my ex helped me cut off a slice of wood from the bottom of one of the foot stands with a saw, because the solid wood had warped over time so it kept on wobbling. 

 

since then, i sold both my skateboards on craigslist. and gave away pet supplements. i made separations with many belongings that would live on without me. 

 

. . . .i found the tv i wanted! the seller from craigslist wasnt big on texting. he would only talk over the phone. so we called to set up a pickup time. he had a brooklyn accent. and the tv was in coney island. 

 

Q from kings highway to neck road. the tv was 13” by 13”, he held it with one arm like carrying a puppy. 

 

“this is my parents’ old tv. i moved it out of their home from park slope. and its been sitting in my closet. its working fine. are you like a vintage item collector or something? this type of tv is popular these days you know. im selling it to you at a good price.” 

 

after he went back into his building, we put down the tv on the curbside of the street as we were waiting for a car. for a second the tv did look like a puppy sitting there. very patiently.