— ph · bell

19:02 · over the front door, where the wire was cut

a single ring

one, clean. the kind of sound an arrival makes when it is polite. it did not repeat. the cord has been bound to its hook for years and the wire was taken out before that.

you did not go to the door. by the time you considered it, the time for going had passed. whoever it was will have understood. whoever it was knew the bell would still ring.

chime · knock · visitor · the window · the garden

— the hook had not moved. the cord was on the inside.

atlas · return