XCVIII | Walking

❦

'What's wrong with Jerry today?'
Shuhui asks Tom.

I don't hear
Tom's answer.

He doesn't follow Jerry

who leads me
away from the stone benches,

off the paved road
into the bushes.

There,
a hole in the ground—

exactly how I imagined
a portal to another world
would look like

(instead of a rowan tree).

I have to duck
my head
to fit inside the hole

but it widens out
and automatic lights
flicker on.

'It's an underpass,'
Jerry says,

walking ahead without waiting for me.

'Tom and I use this
'to get to this park faster.'

I take bigger strides
to catch up with him.

'I've never noticed it before.'

He smirks at me.

'That's cuz
'you like to stick to binaries.'

Every step we take
echoes

because the ground
is no longer
dirt

but concrete

and the walls are tiled
with white squares

(yellow under the fluorescent lights).

We walk in silence
for a long time.

The tiles on the walls
are perfect.

They are meticulously lined
such that there are only

complete squares

no matter where you look.

But when I stop
to examine the wall closely,
it shouldn't be possible

to fit
the whole
square

without cutting it
a little bit.

I even measure
with my fingers.

Jerry snorts at this.

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