the door that won't latch

2025 · 10

One for the list. The spare room door won't latch. It swings to and leans on the frame but doesn't catch, so every draught pushes it open a few inches with a slow creak that's honestly worse than a slam.

Had a look at it. The little metal plate on the frame has shifted, or the door's dropped on its hinges, or both, and the tongue doesn't meet the hole anymore. One screwdriver, twenty minutes. I have not done it.

It's gone on the mental list next to the wobbly chair. The drawer at least got sorted in the spring, candle wax on the runners, twenty seconds, done.

The door does not wait, that's the thing. Every time the heating comes on it drifts open and I have to get up and shove it back, and it creaks the whole way. M. has taken to closing it with a firm pull, a little ritual, as if that does anything at all. It doesn't. The screwdriver is two feet away in a drawer that works and I have walked past it for three weeks. I'm sick of the noise and I still haven't fixed the stupid thing.