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story two · figures 4–6

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NEARBY · THE WHOLE WORLD OF A MAN WHO CAN LEAVE IN UNDER A MINUTE — his geography is four places and one cable · the timed exit is the point of all of it NEARBY · THE WHOLE WORLD OF A MAN WHO CAN LEAVE IN UNDER A MINUTE his geography is four places and one cable · the timed exit is the point of all of it the top station THE MIDDLE STATION his room is over it · a bed, a fork, a bicycle with good brakes the bottom station the loop twelve seconds of lit glass level with lit glass, then apart THE SEA Sundays · swims until his shoulders burn THE FISH COUNTER eats standing THE PLATFORM nights · checks tickets, frees a jammed door THE ROOM sleeps alone, window open · nothing left behind but heat in the sheets HE HAS TIMED HIS EXITS. ANY ROOM IN THE CITY, UNDER A MINUTE. Every place he goes is within sight of the cable. The story is what happens when one of them looks back.
4 · Nearby
NEARBY · THE YEAR IN REVIEW, AND WHAT IT COUNTED — the service sends him eleven names · the story counts differently NEARBY · THE YEAR IN REVIEW, AND WHAT IT COUNTED the service sends him eleven names · the story counts differently names in the year in review 11 four and a half stars · a map of the hill, his nights on it like pins bodies he remembers 9 "He remembers nine bodies." rooms photographed without him knowing 2 his blanket, his window, the cable crossing the glass people who reached him 1 the woman with cold hands · stopped at the seventh bone people the service never counted 1 the cellist · she took the stair street after that THE GAP BETWEEN ELEVEN AND NINE IS THE STORY. Two of the names carry photographs taken in his room. He is in none of them. And the one the service never counted is the one he is still on the platform for.
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NEARBY · TWELVE SECONDS — the only contact in the story that is exactly equal, exactly brief, and entirely unrecorded NEARBY · TWELVE SECONDS the only contact in the story that is exactly equal, exactly brief, and entirely unrecorded the up car · he is in it, or beside it the down car · a hand comes up, palm to the glass TWELVE SECONDS lit glass level with lit glass He raises his. He does not see whose it is. He is still holding his hand up when the cars have gone their ways. EVERY OTHER MEETING IN THIS STORY IS BROKERED, RATED, MAPPED OR PHOTOGRAPHED. This one has no name attached, no introduction paid for, no star given, and nobody knows it happened. It is also the only one he answers.
6 · Nearby

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