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Speaker 1: Hullo. I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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Let's get into it. A slick of condensation ran down

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the glass doors, catching the blue buzz from the sign above,

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sittelene athletic letters blinking one letter for ever on the

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verge of dying. The lights in the lobby bled out

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into the street, pale and clammy, cutting riced hand heel

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shapes in the dock. It was late, later than I

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wanted to be AnyWho but my own bed out here

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on a Tuesday night for a story no one else wanted.

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Mila was already pacing inside jim bag, thumping off a

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thigh with each lap, past the juice ridge. She saw

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me through the glass and beckoned fast relief, breaking her

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word lopsided face inside. The silence was wrong. The usual

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synthpop led up from sealing mounted speakers, but softer, as

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though under water. The welcome desk was empty. Even the

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complimentary tal stan looked abandoned. Some one had knocked to

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stack on to the floor and not bothered to pick

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it up. He got here quick, Mila said, Foys pitched

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high and twisted the cord of her headphones around her finger.

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Kid's handwriting inked on her jim bags tag mil a vee.

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She led me deeper, squash court, echoes bouncing and a

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vented ceilings. The stink of sanitizer and lemon wiped normally

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bracing hung heavy. Here is anyone else here? I asked,

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clutching my recorder in my pocket but not turning it on.

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I'd learned people climbed up around electronics, and Mila already

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looked ready to sprint for the emergency acrep. Officially, No, Raj,

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let me in. He's cool, she said, nodding toward the

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glass and staff office shadows moved behind a crack blind.

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Let's go to the women's locker room. It's safer there,

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or I feel safe. For God, this sounds crazy. We

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push past rows of treatmills, red zeeros flickering on their displays.

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In the locker hole, only a maintenance cart and a

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yellow wet floor warning sign kept as company. She stopped

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at a navy locker, two hundred thirty six gold numbers

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scared by keys and stickers. Mila glanced both ways and

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then pulled folded white envelope from between two protein shake

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of bottles in the middle shelf. She handed it over.

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I found this last week Jamie's handwriting. I would swear

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she always wrote hurries like that. See scald on cheap

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copy paper. Chris put creased. You almost understand, don't you?

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That was it? No signature, But with the Jays and

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M's culling up like she've written Jamie and erased it.

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Did you talk about what understand? I mott. My own

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voice sounded too loud in the closed air. I didn't.

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I mean, I talked to Jamie, but I didn't. But

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it's like I keep having these conversations with her, but

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only the same snivets. Like she'll ask, how was your weekend?

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And before I answer, she's moved to a different topic,

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then circles back eyes later, but says exactly the same.

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The other trainers don't notice, or they act like it's fine.

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Then last Thursday, Jamie's just gone, no warning, no goodbye,

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Rag said she quit, but everyone started making stuff up.

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She got a job at the Rick Center, or went

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back to school, or got married. No one can agree.

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She flopped onto the bench, gripping her knees. I know

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it's stupid. I know I sound paranoid, but you get

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it right, when thing's just repeat. Lifting the note I

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tried to sound usual and in the days before she

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disappeared to anything else, creepiness, arguments, threats. I wished, it's

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not like a crime show, it's just normal. Button murreed,

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pic a treadmill you always use, And suddenly someone else

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is there forgetting why you came back, half for getting water.

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The ceiling lights flickered. I saw my own backy face

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in the mirror, hair tied up from habit, underdressed, and

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already sweating through my jacket. Somewhere across the building, a

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weight dropped and me the jerk opright. I brought you

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because nobody else would write it up, She whispered, for

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a suddenly metallic. I don't want to be here alone

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any more. I took the envelope in my notebook and stood.

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We both paused, half expecting someone to enter, fill the space,

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break the spell. But it was just two of us,

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the anonymous echo of far away music and Jamie everywhere

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except in person. Outside traffic murmured on the avenue, but

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inside time skipped, paused, and now let mel A Lee.

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I started writing about strange local mysteries for two reasons

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boredom and a tendency to ask the wrong questions in

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the wrong places. I lived alone above a thrift store

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in a studio more narrow than wide. My laptop was

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ten years old and made a noise like a dying

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bed whenever I exported audio, but it kept the rent

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barely covered. Local podcasts and blogs paid an exposure, or,

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if you were lucky, a twenty two dollars paper transferre

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claimed as a gift. Most nights I swore I was done. Now,

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this isn't what I came to the city to do.

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No nobody listens except Mila and the guy who emails

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corrections about crosswork signals. But each time something would cross

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my inbox, I swung back to it. I have been

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legend about the subway catcombs, a woman who found her

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own obituary in the morning paper. Now, Mila. I used

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to love city jims, the microcosm, all those bodies and

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goals and routines sticking along in parallel. I'd start slow,

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sit on and operate back by the window ear Frounsen

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with nothing playing, just to absorb the rhythm. After the

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first week, everyone smiled at you, even if you still

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couldn't get your niece to stop popping. I signed up

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because Jamie had to face that made everyone less self conscious.

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The care in a frizzy bun muscle tank with paint stains.

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Grin like. She knew how every day would turn out,

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but didn't feel the need to spoil it. She ran

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a Monday morning boot camp. First sweaty racked a crew Miela,

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the couple who pre coordinated their sock stripes. Mister Alvarro,

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retired cop slow breastrock in the pool, never missed birthday,

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and Sam at the front desk. Yoga mats and towels

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are mold in sequence. The same player is slooping every

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twelve days, and the whole way outside smelling always of

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dryer sheets and someone's cuffed ropes. My usual routine dashing

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at six thirty five, swipe my bat at yellow membership

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card with high to Jamie and Miller claimed the ellipical

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beneath the crack window let out tension in forty minute chunks.

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Watched the couple giggle when one missed a step. Jamie

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would circulate with her easy voice, going too hard to

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day save some for next week. He gave high fives

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to anyone who wanted her eyes never missed you in

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the mirror. It was easy, always predictable. Some regulars never

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said a word, but jobbed in time with the treadmill row,

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stepping off together for water, or checking the wall clock

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at seven fifty sharp. The only off moments, if I

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really thought back, were people freezing halfway through usat blank stare,

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like their mind rebooted, then picking up right where they

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left off. It felt like city fatigu cocafeine hangover. Once

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in a while some one would say, didn't I just

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do the circuit and laugh, shaking it off. Among regulars

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there was a kind of unspoken trust. Share tips about

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knee braces, seeker coats in the stretching airb lu mats, free,

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the mutual sound proof cocoon of headphones, Sam at the desk,

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crack jokes about prouteine powder flavor so bad that to

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dare not a snack, and Jamie at a ritual of

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calling out last call for the showers, always at the

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same time, every day. Now with Jamie Gaun, the bright

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surface of the jim felt like a mask watching me

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a fidget with a loose red on her leggings, replaying

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her story, I noticed myself slipping into her worry, feeling

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that loose, snacking scents, like thread pulled in the wrong direction.

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It was after ten p m. By the time I

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left me in the locker room. Her face folded up small,

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asking me again, promise you won't just tell me its stress,

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And I gave her the only promise I could. I'd

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ride it up, but I'd also look, really look. Maybe,

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I told myself there was nothing to find. But back home,

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sprawled on my stiff mattress, in the blue glow of

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my screen, I circle the words and the note again.

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You almost understand almost what was missing. Wednesday, I went

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back to Cideine in the afternoon, pretending it was a

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normal reporting visit. The difference at two thirty instead of

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six thirty was dark daytime meant more alike, the place sharp,

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cornered and clinical instead of soft and secretive. Still, I

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drifted pass clusters at the hydration station, same brands of

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water bottles lined up in a row, three with identical

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stick is reading stronger every diy in different handwriting on

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the mats. Three pairs of nearly identical jim shoes rested

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beneath three different women. At the free weights trainer gave

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the same motivational speech to two different clients, word for work,

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pausing in the same spot to swig orin sports drink.

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Pulling out the note again, I scanned the lines. You

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almost understand, don't you, The loop jay, the grave tick

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on the why Jamie's style unmistakable? Maybe coincidence if you

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wanted to believe it. Near the squat rack, the young

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couple Roll and Cat laughed at a whisper joke, both

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glancing at their watches. Two minutes later I heard Cat

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laugh exactly the same louder at the very same joke,

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eyes wide and searching the bit about don't drop it

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on your foot, your insurance will cover that either. Two fast,

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two rehearsed a back track to the stretching zone. Pulled

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up my old notes from the previous week. A message

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from mister Alverro. Did you ever have that thing where

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you're in the suner and someone keeps asking the same

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question over and over? Weird? I'd brushed off. Then now

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I copied it to the top of my file. Mielah

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was right about one thing. Repetition was everywhere. If you

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really observed in not just the thump of feet, but phrases, movements,

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routines run on a loop. I caught a whiff of

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cleaning spray and peeked into the woman's locker. On Mela's phone,

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a jym app showed her checked and for Tuesday, but

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not Monday, even though she insisted she'd come both days.

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I keep thinking I did a class twice, like am

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living the same hour again. I try to remember who

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taught stretching on Friday. Cant there are days missing from

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my phone, my reminders, my playlist history all blank. I

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looked at her, and for a moment she did seem amored,

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like a swimmer lost halfway to the wall. I split

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my next few days between odd IROs at the gym

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morning as the sun cut across Foggate Street, mid day

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and late night, always just enough people to ward off

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our pried creepiness, but the same handful coming and going

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again and again, meal, rolling cat mister Alvera. Sometimes they'd

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changed shoes for headbunds. Sometimes it was only their expression

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that shifted. I started to note more change and clothes

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in the same people, and began mocking times in my notebook.

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Blue Tank at eight forty five, Gray Et eleven twenty two,

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then back and blue. By closing, I tried to strike

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up casual conversations with stuff Sam, the front desk guy,

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fiddled with something on his computer and only half listened Jamie.

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She's fine, She's just on vacation. She'll be back soon.

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He checked the calendar, tapping his fingers, but a muscle

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in his jaw was taut. When I pressed him about

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changing schedules, he blinked, what, nothing's changed. New trainers sometimes,

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but people always come back. He looked at my notepad, fidgeted.

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I got it at checked the towel shipment. I caught

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another trainer in the hallway and asked gently, did Jamie

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really get a job at the Rick Center or was

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it family stuff? The trainers smiled barely flicker. Oh, she

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switched to another branch. It happens she wanted something different.

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The store was never lined up. Each staff person had

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an answer, but none of them matched. Worse yet, some

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stared at me for two long before answering, as if

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measuring which script to pick midweek. I punched my own

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number into the chick and kiosk, purely by hat the

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scanner to flash my name, and then for a split second,

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I watched at list two attendancies, one at a forty

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nine p m. Tuesday impossible, I was eating rain in

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a home and another at six thirty seven a m.

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Normal beoufkemp time. The first vounished. A moment later the

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slot replaced by a normal welcome. I stared quickly glanced

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at the desk, but no one was watching. Mielah meanwhile,

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was circling the drain. She showed me screenshots of missing

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classes from her calendar, then reappearing. Text forords with Jamie

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were gone entirely. Some reminders on her fitness at pop

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up ire was late, sometimes earlier in triplicate. More worrying,

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she typed out the list of trainer names and locker combinations,

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only to watch half the names gray out as if raised.

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I watched her scroll through, frustration etched on her knuckles,

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her voice dropping to a wild whisper. Am I losing it?

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As this a breakdown, because I swear I know what

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happened yesterday, except I can't prove it. It came to

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a head on Thursday morning, just before sunrise, A woman

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in a blue zip up stormed up to the front desk,

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vibrating with fury. Someone is using my locker. I put

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my stuff there every day, but now the combination doesn't work,

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and someone's jacket is hanging there. Who is my number?

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Sam blinked at her head bobbing as though under order checking.

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Are you sure it's the right number, He tapped slowly

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on a cracked iPad. No record for that locker. Sorry,

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00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,320
that's not possible. I put my things there every day,

234
00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:17,480
my old texts, even say locker two hundred two now gone.

235
00:11:17,919 --> 00:11:20,879
Her anger tipped close to terrors, I lingered as she

236
00:11:20,879 --> 00:11:24,120
stormed out, leaving behind the thick, sticky air of confusion humilation.

237
00:11:24,759 --> 00:11:27,000
The stat's face is tightened again, A visible winds as

238
00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,840
the woman's footsteps faded. That moment, I decided, if there

239
00:11:30,879 --> 00:11:33,200
was evidence, it would be in the security tapes of

240
00:11:33,279 --> 00:11:37,200
the Jim's gursly digital record. I called an old acquaintance, Jewels,

241
00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:39,519
who used her install security systems and liked to puzzle

242
00:11:39,519 --> 00:11:43,000
almost as much as a paycheck. After some dealer level wrangling,

243
00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:44,919
she agreed to meet me at noon, just as the

244
00:11:44,919 --> 00:11:48,440
sunlight knifeton. We huddled in the utility closet. The surveillance

245
00:11:48,519 --> 00:11:50,399
gave a humming with the love firm of hard drives.

246
00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:54,159
Just fifteen minutes, Jewels grumbled, holding up a USB bridge.

247
00:11:54,679 --> 00:11:57,720
You owe me seriously. We scanned for footage by time

248
00:11:57,759 --> 00:12:01,399
step threeks, then in microsteps, I flagged the moments with

249
00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,480
the repeated arrivals and to patches, fast forwarding as regular

250
00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:07,159
as clocked in and out. Juels cursed softly, a look

251
00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:11,200
see here, She paused the feed, Ohl entered, pressed his

252
00:12:11,279 --> 00:12:13,240
ID to the scanner, and walked to the locker room.

253
00:12:13,759 --> 00:12:16,639
Twelve minutes later, there he was again, same close, same gait,

254
00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:19,799
same scan But where was the twelve minutes in between?

255
00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:23,360
It wasn't visible. The feed looped over itself. We scrabbed

256
00:12:23,399 --> 00:12:27,039
forward in another clip, cat walked, passed, vanished behind the

257
00:12:27,039 --> 00:12:29,879
hallway to the pool, then, forty seconds later, rented the

258
00:12:29,879 --> 00:12:32,840
gym in new clothes, her face slacken, glassy eyed the

259
00:12:32,879 --> 00:12:35,320
system date on the frame, jetted and rolled backward, then

260
00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:38,759
surged forward again another tape. Something fuzzed than half sick

261
00:12:38,799 --> 00:12:41,080
about the play back. Faces flickered or blurred, like a

262
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:45,039
bad transition effect, sometimes seeming to morph midstry for an instant.

263
00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:48,639
Jamie's outline flickered into another person's body just a few frames,

264
00:12:48,679 --> 00:12:53,240
then snapped back. Is a corrupted video, I whispered. Juel

265
00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:56,480
shook her head slightly spooked. Could be or it's someone

266
00:12:56,519 --> 00:12:59,039
screwing with the system intentionally. This isn't normal And for

267
00:12:59,080 --> 00:13:01,720
the loggin's that. She rotated the screen to show the

268
00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:05,279
staff data system half these check ins are missing. Duplicate

269
00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:07,919
it or love? Impossible time, same name, same face, two

270
00:13:07,919 --> 00:13:11,240
places at once. I snapped stills and shot shakerphone video

271
00:13:11,279 --> 00:13:14,679
heart fast. Mielah, when I texted her about it, said

272
00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,759
a three word answer, you see it. Back in the lobby,

273
00:13:17,799 --> 00:13:20,639
tension ramped up like a tightening wire. The staff syed

274
00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:23,159
that blinking, slightly desperate look when I ask questions, now,

275
00:13:23,759 --> 00:13:27,440
didn't we just talk about this rajmater pushing paperwork across

276
00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:31,440
the desk, hand writing looping uncertainly? You ok, eh, I asked,

277
00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:35,279
Loo fine tired? Every one's tired, Jamie, I don't remember

278
00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:37,960
when she left, he said, Then suddenly, wait, didn't you

279
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,279
ask me that? Yesterday? At midnight on Friday, I returned

280
00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:44,159
to the Jim for a final stakecout. Mielah insisted on

281
00:13:44,240 --> 00:13:47,399
coming along vibrating with exhaustion, but too anxious to sleep,

282
00:13:48,039 --> 00:13:51,320
her jim pasture in her hand, palm as mule videoed ape.

283
00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:55,120
Anything weird, she whispered, Just in case I forget. We

284
00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:57,519
hovered in the corner behind the smothy bar, lights down

285
00:13:57,559 --> 00:13:59,720
to half the jim empty except for single regular man

286
00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,159
in a pro icy tech shirt doing slow, graceless lunges

287
00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,200
by the stretching zone. At twelve forty one, he stopped,

288
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,200
checked his watch. I could see the exact golden band

289
00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:09,679
reflecting in the glass, then moved towards the staff hallway

290
00:14:09,679 --> 00:14:12,559
by the office. I snapped three pictures as he turned

291
00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:15,519
a corner and vanished into the unlit back corridor. Three

292
00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:19,639
minutes later, miel elbowed me hard look from the far

293
00:14:19,759 --> 00:14:22,559
end of the locker row. The same man emerged or

294
00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:25,480
his exact wind, same hair, same shirt, but now wearing

295
00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:29,039
different shoes, jim bag strapped over his shoulder. He avoided

296
00:14:29,039 --> 00:14:31,960
our eyes entirely and proceeded directly to the exit, moving

297
00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:35,120
silently except for the squeak of his souls. His face

298
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:38,480
reflected in the window, blank, unreadable and somehow multiple. For

299
00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:40,759
just half a second I thought I saw Jamie's eyes,

300
00:14:40,759 --> 00:14:43,279
peering from beneath his eyebrows, and then it was gone.

301
00:14:43,799 --> 00:14:46,960
Miller nearly choked. I he that was him, right, but

302
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,960
also not him. We stood motionless as he left through

303
00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:53,720
the glass doors. The ac hummed. The city outside was

304
00:14:53,759 --> 00:14:56,600
black and bustling and otterly indifferent. I wrote in my

305
00:14:56,639 --> 00:15:00,519
note book, handshaking, end of day, impossible faces, duplicate bodice, time, stumps,

306
00:15:00,559 --> 00:15:05,919
broken stuff, repeating lines, Mela's notes, Jamie's looping signature, everywhere

307
00:15:05,919 --> 00:15:09,279
and nowhere. None of it felt like enough. But nothing

308
00:15:09,279 --> 00:15:12,559
about this was nearly or almost any more. The world

309
00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,080
was tilting, and I was sliding, with only Meala's pale,

310
00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:17,600
urgent worry to anchor me in the Genesum shifting mirror.

311
00:15:18,279 --> 00:15:20,799
But nothing about this was nearly or almost any more.

312
00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:23,600
The world was tilting, and I was sliding with only

313
00:15:23,639 --> 00:15:25,480
a Meala's pale, urgent worry to anchor me in the

314
00:15:25,519 --> 00:15:28,799
Gennesium shifting mirror. That night, I dreamed of voices with

315
00:15:28,879 --> 00:15:32,279
Jamie's laughter spliced into stranger's mouths. I heard the phrase

316
00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:36,960
you almost understand, but the tone was different each time, flat, pleading, triumphant, mechanical.

317
00:15:37,519 --> 00:15:39,480
I work at dawn with my phones do not disturb,

318
00:15:39,559 --> 00:15:41,759
darringly lifted, as though some one had toggled it off

319
00:15:41,759 --> 00:15:43,960
to leave a sliver of static in my sleep. I

320
00:15:44,039 --> 00:15:47,440
thumbed through notifications. Two new identical marketing emails from sidel

321
00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:50,039
And arrived at two thirteene, and both the med Both

322
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,559
vanished when tapped the centerfield read no, replied siddil and

323
00:15:53,639 --> 00:15:56,919
athletic calm, but one subject line flickered momentarily you almost

324
00:15:56,960 --> 00:16:00,279
hear welcome back, before reverting to a generic offer about

325
00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:03,919
a referral code. I texted Mila, habit now, first thing,

326
00:16:04,559 --> 00:16:08,840
She replied instantly. I didn't sleep. I'm going in a seven.

327
00:16:08,879 --> 00:16:11,720
Want to come then a minute later? Sorry, meant to

328
00:16:11,759 --> 00:16:15,360
say eight. Eight is better. I sat staring at the

329
00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,159
message thumb, hovering like a coin teetering on an edge.

330
00:16:18,679 --> 00:16:20,679
I didn't know which I was real for either of us,

331
00:16:20,840 --> 00:16:23,399
but I said yes. I dressed from the pile by

332
00:16:23,399 --> 00:16:25,480
my bed, joanned a granola bar in my mouth, and

333
00:16:25,559 --> 00:16:28,240
moved through the city on auto pilot. The morning was

334
00:16:28,279 --> 00:16:31,200
dulled by a low fog sound carrying oddly everything tinted

335
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:34,159
with the residue of old neon and exhaust at Citylene.

336
00:16:34,200 --> 00:16:36,879
The street felt wrong, more cause than usual, for just

337
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:39,360
after sun up a line of them with windows steamed

338
00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:41,480
and idling as if waiting for some permission to park.

339
00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:44,720
I patted over the sidewalks patchy, I smudged my reflection

340
00:16:44,799 --> 00:16:47,519
in the window and paused inside. The atrium was fully lit,

341
00:16:47,639 --> 00:16:50,399
music bouncing at the high volume. The front desk was

342
00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,159
man again, sam face shining with a tight force smile.

343
00:16:53,879 --> 00:16:57,879
I waved my cart. He barely glanced up, muttered, welcomed back,

344
00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:00,600
and pressed the keel. A scanner with a strange sequence pause,

345
00:17:00,679 --> 00:17:03,639
palm hovering. The display flashed twice my full name than

346
00:17:03,759 --> 00:17:05,880
just my so name, then reverted, ready for the next scan.

347
00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:08,480
Though there was nobody behind me. Mela waited by the

348
00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,240
stretching mats, her energy locked in frantic gesture, God, look

349
00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:15,720
at this seas clutching upon she showed me or Jim

350
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:17,880
app her own face as the thumbnail picture, then below

351
00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,200
two check ins for that morning, six fifty eight a m.

352
00:17:20,279 --> 00:17:22,400
And seven three a AM. I only just got here.

353
00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,200
Unless I'm a ghost, I tried to make light. If

354
00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,880
you're a ghost, you're the only one with corporal sponsorship.

355
00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:32,480
A heart she breathed, Just keep watching. Watch them across

356
00:17:32,559 --> 00:17:34,720
the floor A tracker roll and cat, dressed for once

357
00:17:34,759 --> 00:17:36,799
in mismatch gear, him in a bright orange hoodie, her

358
00:17:36,799 --> 00:17:40,359
in a plain black tea. Both moved with restless, jerky energy,

359
00:17:40,519 --> 00:17:43,519
repeatedly glancing at the clock, sometimes at each other, mostly

360
00:17:43,519 --> 00:17:46,640
anywhere else. As Mela and I circled through the weight racks,

361
00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:49,599
I kept count There was mister Alvara, of course, but

362
00:17:49,640 --> 00:17:52,039
I saw him twice within five minutes, once at the

363
00:17:52,039 --> 00:17:55,359
pool entrance, caressing his swim cap, then almost immediately emerging

364
00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:58,279
from the opposite hallway, till fresh around his neck. A

365
00:17:58,319 --> 00:18:02,960
trick of architecture, I shadowed the sideline's check mirrors, no trick.

366
00:18:03,680 --> 00:18:05,920
A class of three women stretched in puffec symmetry on

367
00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,039
the yoga mats, bent forward, stood and out of sing

368
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:11,160
for a second, each one off behalf a beat, then

369
00:18:11,200 --> 00:18:15,240
suddenly realigned their water bottles, same brand, same sticker, different

370
00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:18,559
colored caps were lined evenly a foot apart by the lockers.

371
00:18:18,559 --> 00:18:20,839
A man in a sleeveless tea was rooting through his bag.

372
00:18:21,559 --> 00:18:25,440
Miler nudged me, he's new, right, but I was sure

373
00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:27,599
I'd seen him the week before in a gray shirt,

374
00:18:27,599 --> 00:18:31,759
different shoes, unless my memory was lying. I caught myself

375
00:18:31,799 --> 00:18:34,200
wandering to Jamie's old spot near the front and invisible

376
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,359
expectations she'd emerged with her whistle and clipboard. The air

377
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:40,240
here was colder, the smell of eucalyptus from the spray

378
00:18:40,279 --> 00:18:42,759
bottle was too clean, like something scrubbed. And were written.

379
00:18:43,279 --> 00:18:46,000
Meil caught my stare, I feel like I'm looping. I

380
00:18:46,039 --> 00:18:48,039
said I'd come at seven, then texted eight. But I

381
00:18:48,079 --> 00:18:50,640
swear I was here already, just now with you, but before.

382
00:18:51,279 --> 00:18:53,599
Maybe we're both tired, I said, but neither of us

383
00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,279
believed it. Music clip for a second, then rebooted mid chorus,

384
00:18:57,319 --> 00:18:59,440
some pop hit, then an older song from Jamie's become

385
00:18:59,519 --> 00:19:01,960
playlist up with an audible scape, as though the speakers started.

386
00:19:02,519 --> 00:19:04,759
Sam at the front desk stared of making the coffee run.

387
00:19:05,240 --> 00:19:07,559
I heard him Joe cloudly, if I ever quit, you'll

388
00:19:07,559 --> 00:19:09,599
have to beg me back. No more caffeine lines for you.

389
00:19:10,279 --> 00:19:13,000
His voice was too flat. Two women at the counter

390
00:19:13,079 --> 00:19:17,160
tittered in unison too perfectly. Meelah shivered, I don't want

391
00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:18,839
to go to work. I don't want to leave. What

392
00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:21,319
if when I leave uns here again. I checked my

393
00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:25,160
own jim map. It had logged me out. I tried

394
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:27,880
to reset my password. I received the reset link, clicked,

395
00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,920
and the screen went white. When it returned, my profole

396
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,480
had changed. The display photo was a decade old, my

397
00:19:33,519 --> 00:19:36,720
oldest address beneath my name. It shouldn't have been possible.

398
00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:40,559
I blinked at Mielah. I think her. From the hallway,

399
00:19:40,599 --> 00:19:42,400
the man in the tech shirt walked out of carrying

400
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:46,039
two identical Douffel bags. As he did, his face flickered

401
00:19:46,039 --> 00:19:47,880
in the edge of a sunlight being crossing the glass,

402
00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:50,400
one than another, then a blur of features settling on

403
00:19:50,480 --> 00:19:53,880
a neutral mask. He walked past, nodding but blank eide.

404
00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:58,319
Mielah stopped breathing for a second. Did you see yet,

405
00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,960
I whispered. We sat there for another hour. Nothing intoward happened,

406
00:20:03,079 --> 00:20:07,359
Yet nothing relaxed Meelas started and stopped talking. People came

407
00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:09,480
and went in patent so close to their previous cells

408
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:12,000
that the differences wrong shoes as too wide a limp

409
00:20:12,079 --> 00:20:15,759
that vadis stood out. At eight fifteen, Jamie's signature appeared

410
00:20:15,759 --> 00:20:18,160
on the whiteboard near the class schedule hallooping gas a

411
00:20:18,279 --> 00:20:22,160
note reading, remember to hydrate Jamie. I finger my notebook,

412
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:26,160
compared the letters the same every time Milis said, do

413
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:28,839
you want to see the other notes? She hadn't mentioned

414
00:20:28,839 --> 00:20:32,720
more than one before wordless. I nodded. She led me

415
00:20:32,759 --> 00:20:36,359
back to the women's locker, hands trembling, avoiding glances from

416
00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:38,880
beneath a stack of backup chin clothes. She produced two

417
00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:41,400
more slitch of white paper, folded to the exact size

418
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,759
and shape as before. The first one read you almost understand,

419
00:20:44,839 --> 00:20:49,000
don't you? Handwriting slanting left, wider loops, but the same phrase.

420
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,039
Second on firmer stock, almost a business note, crud almost there.

421
00:20:53,519 --> 00:20:56,519
Don't get distracted this time the styles cash, the as

422
00:20:56,559 --> 00:20:59,400
peeked up shop, the os uneven. I found the second

423
00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:03,039
one under my come last Saturday meal, whispered. The third

424
00:21:03,119 --> 00:21:05,680
was inside my shoes. Three times, three different hands. But

425
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:08,319
it's Jamie or someone trying to be I held them

426
00:21:08,319 --> 00:21:12,640
altogether a spectrum of mimicry deliberate was some multiplicity of

427
00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:16,240
her cloned frattured signature ercushion made physical. Do you think

428
00:21:16,279 --> 00:21:19,759
Jennie's gone mail whispered at, squeezing tears from her voice,

429
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:25,160
or or what I croaked that's some one's replacing her,

430
00:21:25,839 --> 00:21:28,759
or I am, She whispered, crossed the locker room. The

431
00:21:28,759 --> 00:21:31,440
distant PA system droned the time is now eight thirty

432
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:35,000
classes beginning ten minutes. It was Jamie's voice, Tinney stretched,

433
00:21:35,079 --> 00:21:37,799
laid over all static. I tried the staff, lying on

434
00:21:37,799 --> 00:21:41,160
my phone straight to on list. I tried Jamie Saal

435
00:21:41,799 --> 00:21:44,680
dead air, then a clip voice male recording, not herrors.

436
00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:48,359
My chest tightened. I checked my own record, the digital

437
00:21:48,359 --> 00:21:51,200
log of visits, the usual neat streak of dates. Then

438
00:21:51,279 --> 00:21:54,400
last week, two full days missing. I'd have remembered skipping.

439
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:58,079
I was obsessive, never missed a Tuesday. It made me

440
00:21:58,079 --> 00:21:59,960
feel like my own skin was unreliable, like my mind

441
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,920
and tell skip frames. We forced ourselves to walk back

442
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,960
to the main lobby, clutching our bags. On the way out,

443
00:22:06,039 --> 00:22:07,960
I saw Cat emerged from the bathroom, pulling on a

444
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,000
different jacket than she'd worn twenty minutes ago. She saw

445
00:22:11,039 --> 00:22:13,759
me see her as spun fasts, almost spilling a protein shake.

446
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:16,559
I got outside, called on my cheeks and forced the

447
00:22:16,599 --> 00:22:20,000
air into my lungs. Miila stood on the curb. We

448
00:22:20,079 --> 00:22:22,359
need to do something real, not just photos. To get

449
00:22:22,359 --> 00:22:25,880
the logs. Get a video something okay, I said, naming

450
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,759
it a love for the first time. Stake out to night.

451
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,839
Everything phones can catch, we do. Someone's messing with us.

452
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,880
I barely got through work that day. Where's blurred? Everything

453
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:38,680
I type reminded me of those perfectly repeated Jim Frasers,

454
00:22:38,839 --> 00:22:41,680
as if the paragraphs inside me were also only simulations.

455
00:22:42,240 --> 00:22:44,920
By the time afternoon came, I'd watched the security fritage

456
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,359
from the morning and angle at a time, pausing on weirdness,

457
00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:49,920
Cat's double exit, the man with the bags, Jamie's signature,

458
00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:53,559
each sequence replaying, blurring at the edges. I scribbled pieces

459
00:22:53,559 --> 00:22:55,240
at the time, and on my wall with sticky notes.

460
00:22:55,960 --> 00:23:00,799
Jamie quitor left. No one agrees Meela loops, missing days,

461
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:06,759
duplicate check inns, me double attendants, old profile, erase messages, others,

462
00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:11,279
faces flicker, people, repeat actions, digital logs, glitch underneath in

463
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:14,799
my worst handwriting. Not a system bug intentional. When Neil

464
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:17,519
arrived just before midnight, she looked hollow at dark circles

465
00:23:17,559 --> 00:23:20,440
under her Eyes's voice soft and taut. She carried a

466
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:22,519
bat of go Pro and knew Jim's socks, as if

467
00:23:22,559 --> 00:23:25,359
having these things would anchor her to herself. We hid

468
00:23:25,359 --> 00:23:28,039
ourselves in classic role breaking fashion, pressed behind a row

469
00:23:28,039 --> 00:23:30,599
of treadmill displays, with the blinds half rawn. Light from

470
00:23:30,599 --> 00:23:33,200
the street just leaking over the floor. The new overnight

471
00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,559
desk staff, a wiry gun named Drawery, who I'd never

472
00:23:35,599 --> 00:23:38,519
seen before, wasn't paying attention, lost in his phone, the

473
00:23:38,599 --> 00:23:43,359
building itself deeply asleep. We whispered Ready, she nodded, checking

474
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:47,440
her phone battery compulsively. I'd set mine to a play mode, convinced,

475
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,559
even by imaginary science, the recording directly with zero interference

476
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,279
might catch something truer. One twenty eight m. The gym

477
00:23:54,319 --> 00:23:58,160
should be dead, but it was. A single maintenance cleaner

478
00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:01,680
worked behind the desk, pushing a card whistling tunelessly. Three

479
00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:05,200
regulars wandered on opposite sides of the cardiozone, never looking up.

480
00:24:05,799 --> 00:24:07,559
Everything else was silence and to cut with a whir

481
00:24:07,599 --> 00:24:10,960
of treadmills. Melat and I kept count mark faces. Watched

482
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:14,440
the clock. Twenty minutes. Then something shifted to the cleaner's route.

483
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:16,680
Weset had caught starting from the same squat, as if

484
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,880
no time had passed. Jury signed into the desk computer,

485
00:24:20,039 --> 00:24:22,160
but the work comfee displayed a screen name twice in

486
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,559
two windows at once a glitch or impossibility. At two

487
00:24:25,599 --> 00:24:30,319
a m. Mela squeezed my wrist watch from the glass reflection.

488
00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:33,240
The entrance door shimmer then opened for no one. The

489
00:24:33,279 --> 00:24:37,559
security camera panned auto tracking nothing visible. A tank code flickered,

490
00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:40,079
and the screen mounted above the door racing forward and back.

491
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:42,799
By the minute, A group class listing flashed on to

492
00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,039
the digital board in the lobby. Mind and body flowed

493
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:47,920
jamis lash two a m slash room on the sign

494
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:50,799
auto cleared. I took out my own phone, snapped a

495
00:24:50,839 --> 00:24:53,400
foot all blank. The board in the image was frozen

496
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:56,400
on the previous day's schedule. Meelah whispered, do you feel

497
00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:59,480
that like like someone's watching us from the wires? A

498
00:24:59,519 --> 00:25:02,720
cold spot bloomed under my collar. I think something's feeding

499
00:25:02,720 --> 00:25:06,680
on our routines. Two seventeen a m. The regulars in

500
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,160
the gym stopped mid stride and stood staring at the

501
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:12,000
TV mounted above the juice Boss screensaver rotating through old

502
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,319
staff bires. For it be too long, Everyone was still.

503
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,400
Then the screens flickered. Jamie' staff photo appeared oddly retext stured.

504
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:22,680
Her feature stretched smele wrong as not quite symmetrical. The

505
00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,359
maintenance woman rebegan her route, passing us, whistling again precisely

506
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,240
the same tune at the same decibel, if possible. I

507
00:25:30,319 --> 00:25:33,400
checked my watch. My own digital face looked wrong. Hand

508
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:36,759
circling too fast, then ticked normally. We crept along the

509
00:25:36,799 --> 00:25:39,839
far wall, close to the utility closet. I held my

510
00:25:39,880 --> 00:25:42,799
phone ready and Miler turned on the GoPro. We dotted

511
00:25:42,839 --> 00:25:45,480
our eyes at the staff office, which was glassed, mostly

512
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,759
empty except for a desk lamp in some manilla folders.

513
00:25:48,319 --> 00:25:51,720
I whispered to distract him, I'll check the office. She nodded,

514
00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:55,119
heart pounding and walked up to Jewry, asking something about towels,

515
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:58,559
holding his gaze. I snuck into the staff office. The

516
00:25:58,599 --> 00:26:01,680
mess was strange, surface tidy, but drawers half open, folders

517
00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,880
lined up but empty. On the desktop. The computer wasn't locked.

518
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:08,119
Any email chain half written subject re Jamie dyde access

519
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:12,640
I hovered reading fasts Jamie can't access file's post change?

520
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,359
Is there a new key? Well, Jennie, please call me.

521
00:26:17,839 --> 00:26:21,119
Attached spurdsheet labeled client iterations night with dozens of rows

522
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:24,519
Smith Carlo slash one point three slash two point one

523
00:26:24,559 --> 00:26:28,039
slash two point two, alvarro meet all slash one point one,

524
00:26:28,039 --> 00:26:30,640
slash one point two, slash two point zero slash two

525
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,920
point two. A column marked stable, most marked y yes,

526
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,880
but several lines flickered, cycling from ys to in progress,

527
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,279
then back. I printed single page, hands slick with sweat,

528
00:26:40,319 --> 00:26:43,079
and tugged it in my jacket. Back out. Mielah had

529
00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:46,079
redirected Jory, who watched the security feeds distractedly as I

530
00:26:46,079 --> 00:26:50,359
emerged beside her. Did you get anything, she mold. I nodded,

531
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,119
showed her the print out once we ducked into the

532
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:56,160
locker hall. They're tracking versions of people iterations, like test groups,

533
00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:00,759
software builts. She mav the curs memory at that's why

534
00:27:00,759 --> 00:27:03,359
we can't trust our own locks. I hold on. She

535
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,480
duck to her old locker, yanked it open under the bench,

536
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,319
taped to the metal a new envelope, this one not

537
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:12,279
in Jamie's hand, but a blocky mechanical scroll. Do not

538
00:27:12,319 --> 00:27:15,119
trust the schedule. I took a shaky video of inside

539
00:27:15,160 --> 00:27:17,880
of the locker. The note the shadows slanting in the

540
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:21,000
numbers on the neighboring lockers. Two hundred eleven two hundred thirteen,

541
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,319
then Skip two hundred eighteen jumped out of sequence. The

542
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:27,279
sound system whined, speakers emitting a short, high pitch burst

543
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:31,319
across the gym. Lights flickered. Jeory flinch then seemed to

544
00:27:31,319 --> 00:27:33,920
forget what he was doing, blinking repeatedly at his screen.

545
00:27:34,519 --> 00:27:37,440
Meal turned to me. I think Jimmie didn't quit. I

546
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:39,720
think something happened to her here, or maybe she did this.

547
00:27:40,319 --> 00:27:42,839
My phone vibrated, alarm set but it read one E

548
00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:45,920
or left, even though sunrise was three hours away. My

549
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,000
hand shook. Meal scrawled a note to herself on her wrist,

550
00:27:49,039 --> 00:27:52,039
meeting exit three, then held it up. If I forget you,

551
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:55,480
drag me out. Deal a deal. I glanced at the

552
00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,200
wall clock. The hand spun not digital, half past nothing,

553
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,480
It an old notice. Staff changed passwords weekly. We were

554
00:28:03,519 --> 00:28:05,839
treated the last half hour to the vending machines, hunched

555
00:28:05,839 --> 00:28:09,599
side by side, guard up. The gym's energy shifted again, regularly,

556
00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,839
clustered at one end, all tying shoes in synchrony. The

557
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:15,640
man from earlier appeared, face shadowed, moving in time, not

558
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:19,000
quite human, not quite wrong. I see Jamie in his eyes.

559
00:28:19,079 --> 00:28:21,599
Mielah whispered, But it's like a fun house mirror, multiple

560
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:25,160
exposures from the lad speakers. Jamie's voice beamed out again,

561
00:28:25,279 --> 00:28:28,160
Welcome night, team, You're almost done. Don't get distracted and

562
00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,319
cut short as if spliced. I flicked through my hastily

563
00:28:31,319 --> 00:28:34,079
assembled file on my phone, new digital evidence filling my

564
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:36,960
cloud folder, video glitch phile, print out of klient iteration,

565
00:28:37,079 --> 00:28:40,680
screenshots of log outs, looping emails. I felt like I

566
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:42,440
was assembling a case for a trial that couldn't be

567
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,519
held in this well. You feel different, Mel asked. I

568
00:28:46,559 --> 00:28:49,799
can't tell what's memory and what's repetition now, she shouddered,

569
00:28:50,559 --> 00:28:53,359
maybe that's what it wants, that doubt. She reached to

570
00:28:53,359 --> 00:28:56,079
squeezed my arm, then pulled away, as if catching herself

571
00:28:56,079 --> 00:28:58,200
in a mirror and fearing she wouldn't find the same

572
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:01,079
girl in the reflection. The light and the gin flickered again,

573
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,960
longer this time. The machines all powered down in a

574
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,400
slow way, of the juice barcullo darkening. For one strange instant,

575
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,119
the entire staff, three people, all different heights, emerged together

576
00:29:10,119 --> 00:29:12,640
from the locker room, double silhouettees slomming behind them just

577
00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:15,599
for a second before snapping to normal. The group paused

578
00:29:15,599 --> 00:29:17,920
by the front desk, murmuring together as if on cue.

579
00:29:18,359 --> 00:29:21,880
Their voices rose over each other, matching cadence fragments of speech.

580
00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:23,759
Or Jamie said that who should be back soon, noted

581
00:29:23,799 --> 00:29:28,039
it happens, you know, life changes, Then silence. One of

582
00:29:28,039 --> 00:29:30,079
them looked up at the security camera, as if seeing

583
00:29:30,119 --> 00:29:32,759
us covering behind the treadmills. In the playback, not live.

584
00:29:33,359 --> 00:29:36,880
If throming Onunlys drenched the room, I stiffened for the

585
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:39,519
first time. The thought hit not just repetition but oxtration,

586
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:42,960
not a slip but a script. The clock read three

587
00:29:43,079 --> 00:29:47,079
zero dead on. Mielah, still gripping her bag, as darting, nodded,

588
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:50,799
time to go. We made for the exit, forcing casualness.

589
00:29:51,519 --> 00:29:54,000
Jory barely looked up, but his mouth soundlessly formed the

590
00:29:54,039 --> 00:29:56,799
word of good night. The front doors groaned, open air

591
00:29:56,839 --> 00:30:00,680
sharp on our faces. Outside freedom tastes clinical, anti septic.

592
00:30:01,279 --> 00:30:03,480
I dragged Meal two full blocks before either of us

593
00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,240
relaxed our shoulders. She exhaled in a shudder. I think

594
00:30:07,279 --> 00:30:10,440
we need outside help, I nodded, brain in a red fog.

595
00:30:11,119 --> 00:30:14,279
You're crashing at mine tonight, just in case. We tramped

596
00:30:14,319 --> 00:30:17,279
up three flights to my walker. Inside the wall felt

597
00:30:17,319 --> 00:30:20,920
nearly real, drab, with exhaustion and clattering pipes. I bolted

598
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:23,880
the deadlock. Miela shot me a tiet grateful smile and

599
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:27,279
collapsed onto my tiny love seat. After I printed everything,

600
00:30:27,759 --> 00:30:31,240
paper felt honest. We taped the schedule, the iteration, lock,

601
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:33,920
the glitch, green shots, three versions of Jamie's note, and

602
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:37,079
Miela's new warning on to my wall. We're missing something, big,

603
00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:40,880
I muttered, staring at the evidence. Jamie tried to warn someone,

604
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,359
but not the cops, just us regulars, like she thought

605
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:46,799
the experiment was still ongoing even after she left Mealli

606
00:30:46,839 --> 00:30:49,160
yanked her herod into her bun I keep here, and

607
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,799
Jamie's sid the same cheesy speech over and over. Ye

608
00:30:51,799 --> 00:30:54,119
decide who you want to be every day, But it's

609
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,680
like she was teaching that to herself. I caught movement

610
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,440
on my phone. The front camera's led blinking hall. I

611
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,000
triggeredself video by accident, but in the replay, my face

612
00:31:02,039 --> 00:31:05,880
split for a blinkovlaid with Mela's expression, then settled. I shuddered.

613
00:31:06,519 --> 00:31:10,079
Let's sleep before we both see things. Milis noorded, flipping

614
00:31:10,119 --> 00:31:12,799
a throw blanket over her knees. If I get up

615
00:31:12,799 --> 00:31:15,079
and start repeating things, slap me or fill me for

616
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:19,000
your podcast. I forced a week laugh. We crash, brittle

617
00:31:19,039 --> 00:31:21,160
as glass, half waiting for the dawn to decide who

618
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,200
we'd awaken. As next, I dreamed, the gym empty, all

619
00:31:24,279 --> 00:31:27,079
lights on, and Jamie's face everywhere. A thousand versions reflected

620
00:31:27,119 --> 00:31:29,640
back at me, some all, some new, some with my hair,

621
00:31:29,839 --> 00:31:32,480
some with Mila's laugh, and in every mirror at the

622
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:35,839
words you almost understand. The morning light tried to force

623
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:37,920
its way through to grime on my apartment window, settling

624
00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:39,680
over us as we hunched at the kitchenette, the air

625
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:42,240
trembling with the left of adrenaline from the night I'd

626
00:31:42,279 --> 00:31:45,640
barely slept, even with Milis snoring in fitful snatches between talking.

627
00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:48,240
In her sleep, I'd watched her mouth form the words

628
00:31:48,279 --> 00:31:50,680
almost there more than once, her hand and consciously tracing

629
00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:52,839
the shape of a jay and the couch cushen. My

630
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:55,039
own heart hadn't slowed since we'd forced open the doors

631
00:31:55,039 --> 00:31:57,319
of cit a line. I boiled water for tea. The

632
00:31:57,319 --> 00:32:00,799
whistle shrill too loud. Mila finched awake. I was darting

633
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,319
while like she expected the room to flicker and displace us.

634
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,039
All that papers stuck across my wall, the scatter of

635
00:32:06,039 --> 00:32:09,039
test print outs, Jamie's notes, meelis scribbled remind as looked

636
00:32:09,039 --> 00:32:12,440
suddenly small, like scraps of a puzzle written in Chalcolm water.

637
00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,119
Miela's voice was thin raw. Was it always like that?

638
00:32:16,279 --> 00:32:17,920
I mean, do you think it's been happening to us

639
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,400
for weeks? For just this time? I kept writing the

640
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,160
night sequence on repeats, the doubled faces, the iteration log,

641
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,359
the signature cycling through style and imitation. I watched my

642
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,839
own hands for any slipper movement out of sink a loop.

643
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,599
I don't know, but if it started with Jamie, she

644
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,079
left us away in we ate cold cereal, neither tasting it.

645
00:32:36,759 --> 00:32:39,599
I checked my email, not for responses, but for clues,

646
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,240
va PR messages, automated reminders, everything just a shade off.

647
00:32:43,799 --> 00:32:46,119
Two new un read emails from Jamie trainus at in

648
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,400
my inbooks timestump for the same minute. I hovered but

649
00:32:49,480 --> 00:32:52,599
didn't open them. The sender's address was malformed to jam

650
00:32:52,599 --> 00:32:55,000
if he had suttle and athletic half digits, half name.

651
00:32:55,559 --> 00:32:58,799
I marked them unread, screenshot and all after she pawed

652
00:32:58,799 --> 00:33:01,160
through the evidence for the third time, Miller returned to

653
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:03,920
the most basic fear. If we're already mixed up, what

654
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,079
if we're just extra Coppice is like versions gun one.

655
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:09,759
I shook, cur gentle, but real. We're the ones asking

656
00:33:09,759 --> 00:33:12,119
the question. Coppas, don't start revolts. You're real, I'm real.

657
00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,240
Whatever's going on, the systems still responding. We got those messages,

658
00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:17,880
found the notes, crashed the patterns, and we're going to

659
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:21,279
get through this in the open, not behind glass. She nodded,

660
00:33:21,319 --> 00:33:22,799
but her hand kept fussing with the edge of my

661
00:33:22,839 --> 00:33:25,319
worn kitchen towel, and tiny precise movements like she was

662
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,480
checking for tears. We hadn't talked about leaving the city.

663
00:33:29,079 --> 00:33:32,000
We both knew it wasn't an option. Whatever had started

664
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:34,160
in the gym had followed us to our phones, our notes,

665
00:33:34,240 --> 00:33:36,799
our memory. If we left, it would come with us.

666
00:33:37,559 --> 00:33:40,359
I started putting the day together in tasks, get fresh footage,

667
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,000
try to access whatever iturations ment in the context of

668
00:33:43,039 --> 00:33:45,640
stuffy maales, confront the manager on site. Before the story

669
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,559
slipped out of my grip, my phone buzzed too loud.

670
00:33:49,279 --> 00:33:53,200
Calendar notification Sideline Athletic two zero p M scheduled consult

671
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,799
with Jamie. I'd never said it. Mila saw the screen.

672
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,000
She paled. If you go on coming, I won't lie

673
00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,480
you walking alone. We agreed on one thing. The truth

674
00:34:03,519 --> 00:34:06,079
was rooted in the Jim's digital system, the failed security

675
00:34:06,119 --> 00:34:09,440
and the manager who kept stowmalling every question. That and

676
00:34:09,519 --> 00:34:12,280
the single unreadable artifact in the iteration print out a

677
00:34:12,280 --> 00:34:14,679
column at the far right labeled face triggered only a

678
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,599
scattering of check marks. Jamie's row was blank and all entry.

679
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,880
I tried to dial Jamie once at the kitchen table.

680
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,559
This time there was no dead air, but a stutter

681
00:34:24,599 --> 00:34:26,800
of silence, and then the looping audio. The user you

682
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:29,199
are trying to reach as almost available. Please try again.

683
00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:32,360
The catant was Jamie's, but distorted as though sampled, and

684
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:35,199
the layered atop itself. Meal, let the phone drop on

685
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:37,719
to the table. We have to break it open, find

686
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,119
Jamie's fair safe. Whatever happens. We left for Cideline and

687
00:34:41,159 --> 00:34:44,000
ire before the appointment notification. There were more people on

688
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,559
the avenue than I was used for at mid day,

689
00:34:45,679 --> 00:34:48,360
all moving with purpose. Hees forward, blurring in the mirrors

690
00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:51,400
by the store fronts. An's of joggers passed in triplicate.

691
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,400
A pair of twins laughed matching strides. The city felt

692
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,639
like a too was playing out a script. When we

693
00:34:57,679 --> 00:35:00,159
reached the gym, it looked newly sanitized, fronk closswise and

694
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,280
freshly recut flies for next month's classes pasted by the door. Inside.

695
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:08,280
The light was too bright. Sam was gone instead. The manager,

696
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:10,920
missus Miller, stood behind the desk with a clipboard face

697
00:35:10,960 --> 00:35:13,360
lined by new worry hay drawn too tight, muff pressed

698
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,320
into a controlled smile. We swiped in the scanner beap twice,

699
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,480
two green lights flickering, then stayed red for a beat

700
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,840
too long before lessing us pass. Missus Miller's voice was

701
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:26,159
measured clinical, Good morning, Can I help you with something?

702
00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:29,519
Her eyes never stayed quite scented on our faces, dancing

703
00:35:29,559 --> 00:35:32,400
between us and the glowing computer screen. I cut straight

704
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:34,920
to the point. We need to speak to you privately.

705
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:36,880
It's about Jamie and the weird gaps in the system,

706
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:40,079
the duplicate entries, the looping messages. We know about the experiment,

707
00:35:40,119 --> 00:35:42,480
whatever it is, running on top of the normal gym schedule,

708
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,039
and we have proof. I showed her the printed ooration

709
00:35:45,159 --> 00:35:47,440
lock the screenshot of the check and anomaly the notes.

710
00:35:48,119 --> 00:35:51,159
For a moment, Missess Miller's face stilled, the lines by

711
00:35:51,159 --> 00:35:54,039
her mouth deepened, Then she shook her head finally with

712
00:35:54,079 --> 00:35:56,960
citing cit a line believes in an individualized fitness journey.

713
00:35:57,000 --> 00:35:59,559
Jamie is on sabbatical. If you have technical issues, I'm

714
00:35:59,599 --> 00:36:03,000
happy to file a support ticket. I doubled down. That's

715
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:05,719
not what your system says. We've seen the duplicate records,

716
00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:08,360
the client itteration spreadsheet, the video of freeds that glitch

717
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,800
and over lad Jamie left us warnings. We're not asking,

718
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:12,960
were telling. If you don't help, we'll go to the

719
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:17,000
press or the board. Miller couldn't contain herself. I want

720
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:18,639
to know. I need to know why thy different notes

721
00:36:18,679 --> 00:36:21,400
and three kinds of handwriting. I'll say I almost understand.

722
00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:24,039
Was Jamie trecking us or you manipulating us? Just tell

723
00:36:24,119 --> 00:36:27,119
us the truth? The cess Miller's hands tightened on the clipboard.

724
00:36:27,679 --> 00:36:30,880
Our voicemail smiled cracked just at the edges. Jamie. Jamie

725
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,159
wanted to help. She always wanted everyone to see themselves.

726
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,960
She thought she thought she was in control, but she wasn't.

727
00:36:38,679 --> 00:36:43,320
The system. Her voice clamp shut. She blinked rapidly. Is

728
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:44,960
there anything else I can help you with? To day?

729
00:36:45,519 --> 00:36:47,920
Another staff member drifted in from a sade door, face

730
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,880
too pale, eyes, moving too quick. Our polo shirt was

731
00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,800
buttoned wrong, hair messy, as if she dressed in the dark.

732
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,519
She stared at us and then at her own hands.

733
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:59,639
They're trembling. Aye, I don't remember coming in. I don't

734
00:36:59,679 --> 00:37:03,280
remember what day it is, She coughed, then whispered. Jamie said,

735
00:37:03,280 --> 00:37:06,440
if you ever feel loss, find the faercafe oppressed? Is

736
00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:11,000
it still here? Where? Her voice was thin, shivering locker Jamie's.

737
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:13,119
She said, to keep it seal, do not trust, please,

738
00:37:13,159 --> 00:37:16,280
glancing at Miller with fear, Just take it. Miller didn't

739
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,519
stop us as was courted past the main desk, tension

740
00:37:18,519 --> 00:37:21,320
buzzing like an exposed live line. Every screen in the

741
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:24,039
lobby showed the city Line homepage, but the smiling faces

742
00:37:24,039 --> 00:37:27,480
looked wrong, the background looping in jerky jumps. Jamie's face

743
00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:30,360
hovered in the staff carousel two vivid expression, brittle with strain.

744
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:34,760
The locker rooms echoed with late morning bustle, towels tossed aside,

745
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:38,400
hair doars, running phones, chirping and silencing yet the sund

746
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:41,559
felt calmed the rhythm wrong. Every other person seemed to

747
00:37:41,599 --> 00:37:44,760
avoid our eyes, heads down, tracks, repeating, whole conversations, running,

748
00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:47,599
and cycles just out of ear. Shut. Jamie's old locker

749
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:50,559
one hundred twenty two sat between two out of orders signed.

750
00:37:51,159 --> 00:37:54,280
The lock was warped but not secured. Milan nelt, her

751
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:56,920
hands shaking too much to twist the knob. I knelt

752
00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,119
with her breathing measured. After a few false starts, the

753
00:38:00,119 --> 00:38:03,000
door popped open with a loud metallic clam. There taped

754
00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,159
to the underside of the top shelf a small black

755
00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:08,199
USB drive, a red stick across the top do not trust.

756
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:10,599
Next to it a blue sticky note with the word

757
00:38:10,679 --> 00:38:13,719
fails a fopen safe mode Jaye. I slid the drive

758
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,519
into a shielded patch. Meal had insisted on bringing Paranoid,

759
00:38:16,599 --> 00:38:19,719
but right then we heard footsteps quick and multiplied a

760
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,000
jeet of echoes with only a single staff shadow in

761
00:38:22,039 --> 00:38:26,239
the mirror. I stowed, facing the hall no one. Milla

762
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:29,360
scraped the print out flat, forced her breath steady. What

763
00:38:29,519 --> 00:38:32,880
now we open it? I said, more confidence than I felt.

764
00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:35,280
We docked into the group class room, locking the door.

765
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:38,440
Hot rate climbing. I pulled up my laptop, fingers thick

766
00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:42,480
from nerves. I copied the USB contents until blank, encrypted drive,

767
00:38:42,559 --> 00:38:45,239
just in case it tried to phone home. Mila watched

768
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:48,239
the door hand white knuckled. The files were not assortment

769
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:52,159
video snippets, half second wedcom captures, sun clips, encrypted locks,

770
00:38:52,199 --> 00:38:54,800
or read me with only safe mode disabls never trust,

771
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,800
nothing connected. How to found there was a single video

772
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:01,320
folder watch me. I clicked Mela, leaning over my shoulder

773
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:04,960
the first clip. Jamie bags under her eyes, face haggard

774
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,480
in the greenish light of the old staff office. She

775
00:39:07,599 --> 00:39:10,800
spoke in a quick, nervous whisper test lock if you

776
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:14,079
find this iteration t fail. I thought patented repetition with

777
00:39:14,199 --> 00:39:16,599
enough digital prompts could help people change their routines. But

778
00:39:16,639 --> 00:39:19,599
the system nearly sink schedules, automated chickens, it loops people,

779
00:39:19,639 --> 00:39:23,320
fragment's memory, it committee trigerc cues and music notifications, even

780
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:26,199
locker combinations. Aye. I tried to reset the baseline, but

781
00:39:26,239 --> 00:39:28,800
the system's got bad. Coppies now overlapping. I tried to

782
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:31,000
stop it, but Mella said the board wanted more date A.

783
00:39:31,079 --> 00:39:33,360
The gym is not safe. I am not me. She

784
00:39:33,400 --> 00:39:37,039
looked directly into the lens. I sprimming Meela. If you're watching,

785
00:39:37,199 --> 00:39:39,920
ire persistent, Never trust the schedule. If you ever see

786
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:42,239
me again, don't believe I'm mean unless I can see

787
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:44,079
what you told me last summer. You decide who you

788
00:39:44,079 --> 00:39:46,039
want to be every day. Get out, don't try to

789
00:39:46,079 --> 00:39:48,440
fix it. Just escape the feedbackloop. I know that doesn't

790
00:39:48,440 --> 00:39:51,199
make sense, but please don't look from me. The second

791
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:54,079
file showed raw camera catchures distorted by digital break of

792
00:39:54,079 --> 00:39:57,719
people entering the gym, their faces flickering, sometimes shifting across frames,

793
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:00,199
overlays of digital names and stat sheets appearing in green

794
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,480
at the bottom of the screen. Name miela ey to

795
00:40:02,559 --> 00:40:05,280
two point two, name of our eight o one point one,

796
00:40:05,360 --> 00:40:10,840
blank entries, sometimes repeating, sometimes skipping ahead. Audiophiles, the recognizable Jimpa.

797
00:40:11,039 --> 00:40:14,480
Jamie's voice splies, stretched, slipping hues, classes begin intent, don't

798
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:17,320
for debt, hydration, his memory a version with every third

799
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:21,519
word missing, another reversed and layered each time. The word

800
00:40:21,599 --> 00:40:25,079
understand repeated until it felt like a digital tick. A

801
00:40:25,119 --> 00:40:28,480
batch of logs attendants records with corrupted fields, text reading

802
00:40:28,599 --> 00:40:32,360
critical overflow, unique I decollision, revert to lust stable. Milah

803
00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,840
pressed her hand to her mouth, breathing hard. In the corner,

804
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:38,800
a locker clanged open, empty, closing with a nervous thunk.

805
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:43,280
Nobody inside. We watched another video, A hidden camer angle

806
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,159
just so showed Jamie leaning into Miller's office, arguing in

807
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:51,119
quick strain bursts. You said limited data, no personal preference overrides.

808
00:40:51,159 --> 00:40:54,920
Now I'm seeing Miller's voice of screen Lobo sharp. He

809
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,239
agreed to the launch, the want adaptive learning identity merge

810
00:40:58,280 --> 00:41:01,079
is just a phase. He can't step away now, Jamie.

811
00:41:01,159 --> 00:41:04,159
It's breaking people. They're repeating. I see them leaping myself too.

812
00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:06,960
Last night I left and the system texted me welcome back.

813
00:41:07,079 --> 00:41:10,079
I don't know what's real any more. Miller's reply, you're

814
00:41:10,119 --> 00:41:13,360
creating the problem by resisting complyiant things settled. Doubt replicates

815
00:41:13,400 --> 00:41:16,840
the errors. A rumbull rattled the ceiling. We looked up

816
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,159
the building, vibration running under our feet. Another video played

817
00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,559
Jamie staring into her Wakeham voice hushed the world behind her, flickering.

818
00:41:24,119 --> 00:41:25,840
If this any version of me left, Tell me, La,

819
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,119
it's not paranoia. If you see your own words written

820
00:41:28,119 --> 00:41:30,840
by a stranger ron, don't check the lock escape isn't

821
00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:33,320
in the files, don't trust the system. I'm sorry. The

822
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:37,079
camera cut out. I stared at Milah. She looked tracked.

823
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:40,639
What do we do now? She hissed. I tried to think,

824
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:45,199
what could any of this mean? Operationally? The Jim's system, membership, data,

825
00:41:45,199 --> 00:41:48,079
class schedules, even the digital music and lighting all run

826
00:41:48,079 --> 00:41:51,119
on and adaptive. Bacan Jamie designed Lady superseded by the

827
00:41:51,119 --> 00:41:54,519
board foe wellness tracking privacy had never really existed, But

828
00:41:54,599 --> 00:41:57,440
this was leaping the rails. Could they have advanced system

829
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:01,880
control manipulating wakes, routines, perception vi queues, the environmental nudges

830
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:05,679
direct day to override Jamie's damming phrased ran in my ears,

831
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:08,480
identity murgers just a phase? Was there a way to

832
00:42:08,519 --> 00:42:11,440
reset to break? A live experiment now running autonomously echoing

833
00:42:11,559 --> 00:42:14,400
versions of us inside a rotting feedback loop. The sun

834
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,519
system cut sharply rebooted. Then Jamie's voice spliced until nye

835
00:42:17,519 --> 00:42:21,519
emanated through the walls. He almost almost almost understand. The

836
00:42:21,559 --> 00:42:24,400
lockers rattled as if in a rising wind. The windows

837
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:26,559
by the pool danced with a ripple of reflected faces,

838
00:42:26,679 --> 00:42:28,880
not one matching the living, real flesh in the room.

839
00:42:29,199 --> 00:42:31,920
On instinct, we bundled the USB, stuffed the laptop and

840
00:42:31,960 --> 00:42:34,400
notes in my bag, and headed for the hole. The

841
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,559
gym was suddenly emptier. Every regular seamed on repeat, walking

842
00:42:37,599 --> 00:42:40,320
the edge of the same routine cat and roll, talking

843
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:44,079
soundlessly near the elliptical Mister Ovarro again at the pool doors,

844
00:42:44,079 --> 00:42:47,400
half disappeared in chatter. It felt staged, like extras waiting

845
00:42:47,400 --> 00:42:50,519
for their cue. Meela gripped my hand. Why if we

846
00:42:50,519 --> 00:42:53,280
don't leave? What if we just keep coming back? A

847
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:55,840
rush of people entered the gym all at once, streaming

848
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:58,639
through the doors heads down. Badgers swept in a steady click,

849
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:01,880
as though rehearsing for an open night. Their identities blurred

850
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:04,440
in the window reflections. Three mealis, two of varrows, A

851
00:43:04,559 --> 00:43:07,760
Jamie there then not each caught midturn too late. I

852
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:10,519
saw Miller moving behind us staff tagging a line, walking

853
00:43:10,519 --> 00:43:13,880
in stately lockstep. The lights dimmed, then flickered up fall,

854
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:16,480
then snapped off for three seconds before surging back brighter

855
00:43:16,519 --> 00:43:20,000
than noon. Jamie's face. A stretched projection flickered across the

856
00:43:20,039 --> 00:43:23,039
info screens, coasting over the instructor schedules, her name signed

857
00:43:23,119 --> 00:43:25,599
under every glass. The air in the gym was full,

858
00:43:25,639 --> 00:43:28,559
all at once. I saw it pressed against my ears.

859
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,199
Every speaker spat lay it with Jamie's voice. He decided

860
00:43:32,199 --> 00:43:34,559
who decide? To decide? Who you want to be? Every day?

861
00:43:34,679 --> 00:43:38,320
Every day. The crowd froze, hands at their sides. Meali

862
00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:42,280
stepped back into me, gasping. A dozen heads turned simultaneously,

863
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:45,760
eyes glassy faces and anchored flickering with half familiar expressions.

864
00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,519
A single tone began to drawn somewhere between a fire

865
00:43:48,559 --> 00:43:51,280
alarm and a flat line, and ekg rising falling a

866
00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:54,320
signal buried in the white nose. Miller's voice rang out,

867
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:57,039
live and strong. This is not a drill. Return to

868
00:43:57,039 --> 00:43:59,960
your routines. All routines are safe. Deviations will be corrected.

869
00:44:00,559 --> 00:44:03,599
But it was too late. The system had already folded

870
00:44:03,599 --> 00:44:06,599
in on itsself, cycling through bugs, replaying classes that could

871
00:44:06,639 --> 00:44:09,239
never finish, names and faces tumbling in the blue glow

872
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:12,480
of the new machineer digital iroboros. I turned to my phone,

873
00:44:12,519 --> 00:44:15,960
searching for any out control, any master upload overrided admin panel.

874
00:44:16,519 --> 00:44:19,679
There a hidden developer login. The last line of Jamie's

875
00:44:19,679 --> 00:44:22,480
rem floated up in my mind safe mode disables network trust,

876
00:44:22,559 --> 00:44:25,559
nothing connected. How I'd found I thumbed the option and

877
00:44:25,639 --> 00:44:29,239
a safe mode. It demanded a coat. I typed you

878
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:31,840
decide who you want to be every day. The screen

879
00:44:31,880 --> 00:44:34,480
went black, then flash fear a safe trigger were set

880
00:44:34,519 --> 00:44:37,480
all sessions. I hammered, wy as hope and dread Worren

881
00:44:38,039 --> 00:44:41,639
Milis sized my elbow the fire alarm. That's real, Pullet

882
00:44:41,679 --> 00:44:45,119
force everyone out, make the loop break another surge. Jeremy,

883
00:44:45,159 --> 00:44:48,079
a trainer I barely knew approach, faced on arms and

884
00:44:48,119 --> 00:44:51,400
steadfolded like a manequin. He opened his mouth, but nothing

885
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:54,039
real came out, only a slave loop of Jamie's old instructions.

886
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:57,079
Every speaker in the ceiling now spat that phrase. Pit

887
00:44:57,119 --> 00:45:00,639
shifted deeper and deeper. He almost almost almost almost all

888
00:45:00,639 --> 00:45:03,119
around us. The walls flickered, the video displays in the

889
00:45:03,119 --> 00:45:07,000
windows showing a cascade of attendants, logs, profile images, digital faces,

890
00:45:07,039 --> 00:45:12,000
jittering with corruption. Jamie's sheep kept popping up, stretching, then splitting. Ah,

891
00:45:12,559 --> 00:45:15,280
I yelled, dragging meal across the floor, ducking under a

892
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,320
frozen cluster of regulars. We slammed into the wall by

893
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:21,599
the side exit. The red fire box clowing. Mila raised

894
00:45:21,599 --> 00:45:24,239
her fist, hesitated as the PA grew impossibly loud. Thence

895
00:45:24,320 --> 00:45:26,239
mashed the glass with a small dumbell from the rack

896
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,559
hand blooded. The alarm screened to life, drowning out Jimmy's

897
00:45:29,559 --> 00:45:32,760
looping commands. Every eye in the gin snapped open, as

898
00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,119
if waking from a trance. Bodis jerked, glancing at each

899
00:45:36,159 --> 00:45:38,800
other in wild panic or confusion. I yanked the door

900
00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,559
open and pulled Mill after me, sprinting into the back corridor,

901
00:45:41,599 --> 00:45:44,400
as a mass of patrons and staff searched toward every exit, crying,

902
00:45:44,480 --> 00:45:48,239
some silent. The screens blaze, lines of coat images flickering

903
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,559
faster than the eye, one final image held to Jamie's face,

904
00:45:51,639 --> 00:45:54,440
mouth moving, watching, watching us, I was sure not just

905
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:57,559
a recording. We bolted through the service corridor, every foot

906
00:45:57,639 --> 00:46:01,119
of jitterby adrenaline, stumbling past crates, mops. The only real

907
00:46:01,159 --> 00:46:04,039
things left in the staff hall the echo of voices,

908
00:46:04,119 --> 00:46:07,000
some reel, some digital, some Jamie ricochet til I couldn't

909
00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:09,840
tell what belonged to him. Outside, at last, panting in

910
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,079
the street, the fire alarm still howling, ambulance lights already turning,

911
00:46:13,119 --> 00:46:16,519
the fog red. Milah leaned into me, sobbing my phone

912
00:46:16,559 --> 00:46:19,360
and vibrated one more time in blunt persh notification, just

913
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,800
a faded logo of Jimmie smiling face static eating at

914
00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:25,599
the edges the building behind a seat, windows filling with

915
00:46:25,679 --> 00:46:28,559
faces and silhouettes, and frantic disarray, some pressing hands to

916
00:46:28,599 --> 00:46:31,000
the glass as if lost, some gazing blankly ahead, a

917
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,480
few with expressions of awakening horror. The first responders poured in.

918
00:46:35,159 --> 00:46:37,159
We stumbled to the fog, cour up people streaming into

919
00:46:37,199 --> 00:46:40,159
the street and babbing confusion. I was doune quiet beside me,

920
00:46:40,559 --> 00:46:42,559
made a white blood from her knuckles, then clutched the

921
00:46:42,559 --> 00:46:46,639
battered USB drive like it was a relic. Emergency crews flooded, Sizzilyn,

922
00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:50,239
herding clients with clipboards, shouting questions, moving everyone through blue

923
00:46:50,239 --> 00:46:53,800
tarps and blinking lights. Words spread fast from the panic crowd.

924
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:56,880
People froze, everyone stopped at once. The music wouldn't turn off.

925
00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,360
Someone's face on every screen, moving talking. She said my

926
00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:03,079
name inside the gem. Lights flickered and died. The pier

927
00:47:03,159 --> 00:47:05,639
system gave one last shrill loop, thank you see soon,

928
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,159
then silence, as abrupt as a screen bitten off. We

929
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:11,519
drifted home with the rest finger prints still burning in

930
00:47:11,519 --> 00:47:14,840
our pockets. The following week, local news ran a fast

931
00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:17,360
movid story viral outbreak of city line made the rounds,

932
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,800
then got buried. A health code notice appeared in the doors.

933
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:24,119
Rumors plumed over drinks at every city bar. I heard

934
00:47:24,159 --> 00:47:26,000
a guy lived a whole week in the gym's schedule.

935
00:47:26,079 --> 00:47:28,039
Never slept that there was a voice in the system

936
00:47:28,119 --> 00:47:32,320
talking about rossettes. Nobody official wann detect journalists snooping. The

937
00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:34,840
GINNSAP wiped itself from our phones by the third morning,

938
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:38,280
uninstalled were no longer supported near the Millinor. I found

939
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:41,840
comfort in the explanations. The USB files had self grabbed

940
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,960
it by Wednesday, shrinking down to static, then winking out entirely.

941
00:47:45,519 --> 00:47:49,199
Local cop shrugged at our screenshots. System are hackers, you

942
00:47:49,280 --> 00:47:51,519
know how it is. I arranged a meeting with a

943
00:47:51,559 --> 00:47:55,079
friend at public Health. She canceled last minute, then texted

944
00:47:55,079 --> 00:47:57,280
all good, check and complete in a tone I couldn't read.

945
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,599
As human words spread among the old regulars, least messages

946
00:48:01,639 --> 00:48:05,159
from cat frantic and then gone. Mister olvera silent but

947
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:07,840
presented as single support group meet up, shaking and confused

948
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:11,440
glasses propped and steadily on a rapidly aging face. Miela

949
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:13,800
and I clung to the most basic support system, morning

950
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:16,880
check In's simple paper routines, shop by notes on our wrists,

951
00:48:17,559 --> 00:48:20,719
anything to anchor us. Still, I never felt right again

952
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:23,280
once I woke to find a sheet of neat square

953
00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:27,079
paper on my counter. You almost understand my own handwriting

954
00:48:27,119 --> 00:48:30,039
were a poor imitation. I couldn't tell a chill deeper

955
00:48:30,079 --> 00:48:32,320
than fear passed through me, but I left the note

956
00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:34,880
in touch, just so it would not travel. People from

957
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,440
the Gint scattered, some found new routines, new places, or

958
00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:41,239
none at all. Sometimes I passed them in the street

959
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:43,800
and caught myself turning for just a second, expecting their

960
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:47,599
faces to split, multiply, or fade. But the city kept running,

961
00:48:47,639 --> 00:48:51,119
silent and efficient. Life moved on as it does unbroken

962
00:48:51,119 --> 00:48:53,920
tracks in imperfect memory. From time to time, I checked

963
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:57,079
Sideline's old site law offline. The only trace a cast

964
00:48:57,119 --> 00:49:00,000
image of Jamie smiling, the caption reading find your next time.

965
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:03,960
A digital shadow burned into my laptop's memory. Never quite race,

966
00:49:04,039 --> 00:49:07,199
try as I might. One afternoon, shadowless and tied, I

967
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:09,440
walked through a new gym in the city's north. I

968
00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,079
swept my card, went to change. In the quiet of

969
00:49:12,079 --> 00:49:14,679
the locker room, I placed my back down and breathed, deep, pulse,

970
00:49:14,719 --> 00:49:16,559
finally come, until I saw the pale glint of a

971
00:49:16,599 --> 00:49:20,039
nokaudmo on the shadows. Propped under the shelf, I hesitated,

972
00:49:20,320 --> 00:49:22,920
hand frozen above the black zipper, heart roaring in my throat.

973
00:49:23,599 --> 00:49:26,400
I picked it up, feeling its weight. On one side,

974
00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:29,599
the old cityl End logo, faint and familiar. On the other,

975
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,960
a message in Jamie's careful hand, thank you for participating,

976
00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:35,840
See you soon. I tucked it back, slow and sure,

977
00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:38,119
and watched the lights flicker once twice, then steady, the

978
00:49:38,119 --> 00:49:41,480
world round me clicking into place. For a moment, I listened,

979
00:49:41,519 --> 00:49:44,239
the whirl of the HVAC, the soft buzz of distant voices,

980
00:49:44,280 --> 00:49:46,679
the thumb of feet in the hallway, Everything as it

981
00:49:46,679 --> 00:49:50,159
should be, or close enough. Then I left the locker behind.

982
00:49:50,840 --> 00:49:54,679
Then I left the locker behind. It wasn't relief. I

983
00:49:54,679 --> 00:49:56,760
stepped into the corridors, humming light. A few train of

984
00:49:56,840 --> 00:49:59,719
passed by, the sneaks quaking, and I watched for anything amiss.

985
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:02,519
A young man in a green jacket eyed his phone,

986
00:50:02,519 --> 00:50:05,079
as if skimming coat. My name was still in the

987
00:50:05,079 --> 00:50:07,239
member screen at the desk, but only once, and I

988
00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:10,519
held my card type, daring the scanner to flicker. Nothing did,

989
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:13,360
just the low static churn of air, the signature sent

990
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:17,360
of old rubber and lemon disinfectant. Outside, Mila waited, hunched

991
00:50:17,360 --> 00:50:20,079
against a pillow when tangling her hair. I gave her

992
00:50:20,079 --> 00:50:22,679
the smallest knot no sign, no signal, just that I

993
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,199
was out. She straightened up, gazed, darting behind me. Did

994
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:30,039
ye see anything? I shook my head carefully, just a note,

995
00:50:30,079 --> 00:50:34,000
same as before. Her breath sid from her chest. Let's go.

996
00:50:34,719 --> 00:50:37,519
We walked down down, every step, measured, acting, practiced. After

997
00:50:37,559 --> 00:50:40,559
so much repetition, city line was caught in by city tape.

998
00:50:40,599 --> 00:50:43,599
Now windows blank, every trace of the old routine barricaded,

999
00:50:43,679 --> 00:50:47,159
jet hast it. People gathered a press, maybe three or

1000
00:50:47,159 --> 00:50:50,440
four news vans, curious fits of onlookers. Some one was

1001
00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:54,559
handing out pamphlets, laughing too loud. I didn't stop at home.

1002
00:50:54,679 --> 00:50:57,639
Milla made tea in silence. She dropped the teep again,

1003
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:01,119
watched the string spiral and settle, Then finally book, Do

1004
00:51:01,199 --> 00:51:04,760
you ever? She gestured vaguely, upward, fingers trembling, or feel

1005
00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:06,199
like you are about to run into some one you

1006
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,119
never met but know. Every time I passed a mirror,

1007
00:51:09,199 --> 00:51:11,559
I said, and she finally laughed for real, this time

1008
00:51:11,559 --> 00:51:14,599
a sound scraper. Rough By fatigue, we took to isolating

1009
00:51:14,639 --> 00:51:17,920
our day with sharper calendars and paper lists. My wall

1010
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:20,440
boar stretched of masking tape each day, slashed bold with

1011
00:51:20,519 --> 00:51:23,880
my initials. When finished, Miela set fone alarms, not just

1012
00:51:23,920 --> 00:51:26,199
with times, but with little phrases. You were here to

1013
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:29,400
day one of one who remember breakfast. She pressed the

1014
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:32,440
star sticker on her wrist. The trucks of children. We

1015
00:51:32,519 --> 00:51:35,480
half joked, but we slept. But the city didn't settle.

1016
00:51:36,079 --> 00:51:39,079
There were calls for wellness audits, digital psychologists, and the

1017
00:51:39,079 --> 00:51:42,559
morning news debates about agorific fitness ads and schedule loops.

1018
00:51:43,119 --> 00:51:47,400
Nobody mentioned Jamie. Nobody mentioned memory. Three times in two

1019
00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:49,159
weeks I caught a face in the street, some one

1020
00:51:49,159 --> 00:51:51,280
from the old gent maybe or a neighbor who walked

1021
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:53,960
the same dog at the same ire. Each time a

1022
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:57,360
brace for the flicker. Each time the face hell. But

1023
00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:59,800
I looked away fast, not wanting to see the scene.

1024
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:03,159
The digital wash over everything was the worst. My new

1025
00:52:03,239 --> 00:52:05,920
jim apps sent her settling. I never asked for the

1026
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:09,079
screen named glitched one's flushing welcome back Jamie for a

1027
00:52:09,079 --> 00:52:12,400
second two long before growing back to guest. I deleted it,

1028
00:52:12,440 --> 00:52:14,719
scrolled that tam on my wrist walked a different block home.

1029
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,000
Meelah called panic, threading her throat. My phone lit up

1030
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,599
at three fifteen. Wasn't even charging, no reason. All my

1031
00:52:20,679 --> 00:52:23,079
alarm sai Jimmy's voice. I deleted them. I wrote a

1032
00:52:23,079 --> 00:52:26,039
real post it. I'm fine. We almost managed to believe it.

1033
00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,639
We had to try. Then. One evening, two men from

1034
00:52:29,639 --> 00:52:32,840
Cizilyne's corporate division appeared at Mila's door just before sunset.

1035
00:52:33,559 --> 00:52:36,119
I was there half way through dinner. MESSI kitchen light

1036
00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:39,719
set dim. They wore boxy suits, Badger smooth and polish,

1037
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:43,280
perfectly identical tie knots. Just here for a brief one

1038
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:46,280
This follow up one said, voice modulated as if piped

1039
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:49,400
from a bluetooth speaker. Mielah shot me a look mad,

1040
00:52:49,679 --> 00:52:52,199
do not answer this eveyed her answer as the way

1041
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:55,960
tech wraps checked checklists. Have you experienced any undesirable repetition

1042
00:52:56,119 --> 00:52:58,280
any blank time or are you able to confirm your

1043
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,480
unique member, I d we are so as if bored downplaying,

1044
00:53:01,519 --> 00:53:03,719
and the pair eventually offered a customer care gift card,

1045
00:53:03,719 --> 00:53:05,880
a pale echo of the old city Line logo, and left.

1046
00:53:06,519 --> 00:53:08,599
Their faces seemed to dissolve as the door shut, their

1047
00:53:08,639 --> 00:53:11,960
words already receding from memory. We triple checked the apartment

1048
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:14,960
that night and plugged everything. Digital phones powered down, laptop

1049
00:53:15,039 --> 00:53:18,280
stowed under my pillow. I kept that battered USB, even

1050
00:53:18,320 --> 00:53:21,440
though it read empty media now when plugged Meelas gribbled

1051
00:53:21,440 --> 00:53:23,360
in the back of her hand, tell me something only

1052
00:53:23,400 --> 00:53:25,880
I would know tomorrow. The bed. She felt that safe

1053
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:29,559
as any place coat. For days the city spun. Groups

1054
00:53:29,599 --> 00:53:33,639
of us met quietly in board rooms. Some people remembered everything,

1055
00:53:33,800 --> 00:53:37,320
others nothing. Kat shrank into herself as glassy, as if

1056
00:53:37,360 --> 00:53:39,559
every attempt to anchor her memory only dampened more of it.

1057
00:53:40,199 --> 00:53:43,239
Old blinked through group meetings, repeating I only come here tuesdays,

1058
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:46,119
more to himself than to us. Mister Ovara broke down

1059
00:53:46,159 --> 00:53:48,679
in tears at one lunch, whispering he'd met himself in

1060
00:53:48,679 --> 00:53:51,159
the mirror and didn't know which was true. As slowly

1061
00:53:51,199 --> 00:53:54,960
can meaning life catching at itself. The consequences came in layers.

1062
00:53:55,599 --> 00:53:58,760
Cideleine's parent company issued blame. His press releases says some

1063
00:53:58,960 --> 00:54:02,760
error limited in back. You're data safe. Local podcasts flared

1064
00:54:02,760 --> 00:54:05,880
and fizzled, teeth dulled by lack of proof. Data privacy

1065
00:54:05,920 --> 00:54:09,800
advocates crote. City officials demurred, but people moved away. Won

1066
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:13,159
by one new Gym's New Towns. This date sale outside

1067
00:54:13,239 --> 00:54:15,679
Jamie's old building was a quiet, crowded scene. Her things

1068
00:54:15,719 --> 00:54:18,599
scattered for pennies. Her face never returned to the city's

1069
00:54:18,599 --> 00:54:21,239
public images like a name carefully as doubt of history,

1070
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:24,719
but you almost understand, sometimes appeared in bath room stalls

1071
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:27,639
and subway ads before being scrubbed. I kept working at

1072
00:54:27,639 --> 00:54:30,679
Strange Iris, convinced I'd heard the per speaker roaring in nothing,

1073
00:54:30,760 --> 00:54:32,800
just a fragment of Jamie's laugh, just a what note

1074
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:35,679
of the hydrate chime? Sometimes my own face in the

1075
00:54:35,679 --> 00:54:38,239
whole mirror lag just a split second behind my body.

1076
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:41,079
We clung to the paper rituals, made each other recite

1077
00:54:41,119 --> 00:54:45,360
day to details. My favorite colors green is of Tuesday, iate, granolla,

1078
00:54:45,440 --> 00:54:47,320
not toast this morning a here is to day's date.

1079
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:49,960
Here is a joke. Only you would know, Mila said.

1080
00:54:50,159 --> 00:54:52,599
Even if we're just echoing ourselves, at least the echoes

1081
00:54:52,679 --> 00:54:55,639
ring true. She painted a bright stripe up our hallway door,

1082
00:54:55,719 --> 00:54:58,039
blood orange and crooker. So every night ended with the

1083
00:54:58,079 --> 00:55:01,360
mark she'd made. Knew each day, but everything digital rippled.

1084
00:55:01,960 --> 00:55:04,039
A new interface from a bank flashed a fragment of

1085
00:55:04,079 --> 00:55:07,320
the city Annie Eye, an email bounce, then redelivered a

1086
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:10,719
timestamp two weeks prior from another address from the future,

1087
00:55:11,320 --> 00:55:13,760
See you soon, it signed off. Not quite a threat,

1088
00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:17,199
not quite a promise. One night, Mita ran over rains,

1089
00:55:17,199 --> 00:55:19,559
fluttering the window, shivering in a coat, not quite hers.

1090
00:55:20,239 --> 00:55:22,320
It happened again. The class schedule at the new place

1091
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:24,519
that flashed my name for spin class at two different times,

1092
00:55:24,559 --> 00:55:26,719
same day, and the instructor I thought I knew her,

1093
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:29,639
but she called me iteration three. We rode the subway

1094
00:55:29,679 --> 00:55:31,880
until Los Call, as if moving prevented the well from

1095
00:55:31,920 --> 00:55:35,320
settling into a new groove. The train light shimmered, refusing

1096
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:37,079
to flicker, but the faces around us went in and

1097
00:55:37,159 --> 00:55:40,280
out of sinking the car reflections. You think it's really over,

1098
00:55:40,440 --> 00:55:43,920
she whispered, No, I said, too honest, But I think

1099
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:45,960
we broke the worst of the loop. Jamie said, escape

1100
00:55:45,960 --> 00:55:47,920
isn't in the files. Maybe it's just in seeing things

1101
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,559
don't have to be perfect copies. She watched the city

1102
00:55:50,559 --> 00:55:52,480
blow by, the wet glass, cast in our ghosts, and

1103
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,719
every knee on late window. After that we got sharper less,

1104
00:55:55,760 --> 00:55:59,719
afraid of confrontation. We called remaining connections, old trainers, desk

1105
00:55:59,719 --> 00:56:02,840
staff fired or moved on. Most brushed us off, said

1106
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:05,679
to some dade bog, some hacker. Scam cities always got

1107
00:56:05,679 --> 00:56:09,199
its glitches. One voice, the night cleaner, remembered everything and

1108
00:56:09,199 --> 00:56:11,480
blamed herself. I thought I was making the same rounds

1109
00:56:11,519 --> 00:56:13,559
every shift. I never thought it was me repeating or

1110
00:56:13,599 --> 00:56:17,199
something else watching, she cried, then hel nap. The gym's

1111
00:56:17,199 --> 00:56:20,440
closure faded from the news, the sight dropped from listings,

1112
00:56:20,599 --> 00:56:23,000
The eyres were set to zero. The logan always kicked

1113
00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:25,960
you to a page marked maintenance. One evening, a stray

1114
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:28,280
dog barked under my window, sharp and living, an insistent

1115
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:30,360
Mila and I washed to circle the block, convinced for

1116
00:56:30,360 --> 00:56:32,679
a second we'd seen that saint dart that same circle

1117
00:56:32,719 --> 00:56:36,239
over and over. Then the owner called the animal bounced up,

1118
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:38,920
and the moment broke. From time to time, I'd still

1119
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:41,960
check under my pillow for notes I hadn't written. Sometimes

1120
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:45,840
there was one you almost understand. Sometimes the paper was blank.

1121
00:56:46,599 --> 00:56:49,559
Once my hand slip signing my own name for a beat,

1122
00:56:49,559 --> 00:56:52,400
the jay looped, thee peaked a style too reminiscent of Jimmie's.

1123
00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:55,039
I left the page in the recycling, hands and steady.

1124
00:56:55,639 --> 00:56:59,199
The last confrontation was the smallest. Miela and I together

1125
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:01,159
in the city park on a day, bright and cloudless,

1126
00:57:01,199 --> 00:57:03,639
a community. While his fair pulsing intents around the green,

1127
00:57:04,320 --> 00:57:06,199
some one was handing out fly as a breathe fit.

1128
00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:09,559
Next level, you all digital, old, tailored, smiling too wide,

1129
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:13,239
wearing a badge with a stylized jim loger. The tagline

1130
00:57:13,239 --> 00:57:16,400
in tiny type eurutine perfected. We stared at it, then

1131
00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:19,480
at each other. Milah folded the paper in quarters with slow,

1132
00:57:19,559 --> 00:57:23,840
deliberate precision. Delete it real version, she whispered, then tossed

1133
00:57:23,880 --> 00:57:26,880
it in the recycling. I watched events stuff hover around

1134
00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:29,559
the check and I pat its orsetting screens, fiddling with

1135
00:57:29,599 --> 00:57:32,719
glitches in the crowd, A woman huffed by a familiar

1136
00:57:32,760 --> 00:57:35,320
angle to her face and echo. Maybe I wanted to

1137
00:57:35,320 --> 00:57:38,239
believe it wasn't Jamie or aversion or stranger's sliding into

1138
00:57:38,239 --> 00:57:41,199
the groove of the next experiment. I checked my pocket,

1139
00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:44,440
no new notes. I looked up at the sky, the

1140
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,760
color of clin coat on a blank background, and let

1141
00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:50,679
myself breathe. We went home that night. After Milah left,

1142
00:57:50,719 --> 00:57:52,679
I made my own tea, burn the bag marked to

1143
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:55,239
his date in thick black marker. I felt a chill

1144
00:57:55,239 --> 00:57:57,559
in my palm, a hesitation before I signed the calendar,

1145
00:57:58,159 --> 00:58:00,679
but the day held. I left all the lights on

1146
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just in case. Closing paragraph and that is the end.

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Thank you for listening, and I will see you in

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the next one.