Baseboard -

In the guest room, the baseboards were taller, an "upgrade" his wife, Martha, had insisted on. They hadn't replaced the old ones; instead, they’d used a "fake tall" trick—nailing a thin piece of trim two inches above the original and painting the wall between them the same white. It looked like a million dollars, even if it was just an illusion.

Arthur had lived in his house for forty years, but he only truly "saw" the baseboards when his knees started to fail him. baseboard

One rainy Tuesday, Arthur found himself eye-level with the molding while searching for a lost hearing aid battery. He noticed a small, jagged scar on the corner near the kitchen. He remembered it immediately: 1989. His son, Leo, had tried to navigate the turn on a skateboard. The resulting "crack" had been half-wood, half-bone, leading to a long night in the emergency room. In the guest room, the baseboards were taller,