Pieces of the bookshelf are spread across the floor. I look at them in confusion.
"You don't know what you are doing."
My father-in-law sits in my recliner, judging my every move.
The directions were written in Chinese and I had to figure them out to prove him wrong.
He critiques every move I make. Only breaks are in between swigs of his beer.
Piece by piece progress is made. Faster if directions were in English.
"I can't believe you actually got it", he says.
He has no idea that this is where the urn holding his ashes will sit.
›The brief
Constraint
Written in past tense throughout, except the final sentence, which is in present tense.
Turn target
The last line, by switching tense, reframes the bookshelf as something other than a bookshelf.