◆ The Grounds

There is a place, and around the place there is some land.

It is the good kind of outside. There are trees, and the trees are tall and green and arranged how trees usually are. There is air, and the air is fresh, which is the entire point of going somewhere. The weather does what the weather does, and you watch it from a chair.

There is water nearby. It is wet, and it runs over some rocks and makes a pleasant sound. You can hear it from most of the rooms. We have never measured how deep it gets. It does not seem like the kind of thing you measure.

There are animals out here, too, the ordinary kind. Birds that make noise in the morning, and other birds that make noise at night. You will not see all of them. You will hear some of them, which is enough.