The plan was only one rock a day, but Denny's got such an addictive personality. Now he has to cart home a half-dozen rocks every day just to maintain his habit. Every day the dishwasher is running and the kitchen counters are stpread with my mom's good bath towels covered with rocks so they can air-dry. Round gray rocks. Square black rocks. Broken brown and streaked yellow rocks. Travertine limestone. Every new batch that Denny brings home, he loads in the dishwasher and throws the clean, dry rocks from the day before into the basement.
At first you can't see the basement floor because of all the rocks. Then the rocks are piling up around the bottom step. Then the basement's filled to halfway through the stairs. Now you open the basement door and the rocks piled inside spill out into the kitchen. Anymore, there is no basement.
"Dude, this place is filling up", I say. "It feels like we're living in the bottom half of an hourglass"
Like somehow we're running out of time.
Being buried alive.
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk