cleaning as the freebase's meditation
for a while she liked to get really high and clean. Joelle did. Scrub sinks until they were mint-white. Dust the ceilings without using any kind of ladder. Vacuum like a fiend and put in a fresh vacuum-bag after each room. Imitate the wife and mother they both declined to shoot. Use Incandenza’s toothbrush on tiles’ grout.
Context
The domestic face of the high: freebase channeled into a fury of cleaning, sinks scrubbed mint-white and ceilings dusted and grout worked with a dead man's toothbrush. The using organizes itself into a parody of homemaking — imitating the wife and mother neither Orin nor Jim would let her be — the compulsion borrowing the shape of order and care while it hollows her out.