Let Me Ch...

 That dawn I woke up at 6:58, two minutes before the alarm. I lay there and waited for it to ring. And it rang. We the two did our jobs. I motionless don't cognize why I recall it in specified detail. I used to ignore what I'd had for meal the night before. And now I recall the entire dawn infinitesimal by minute, as if person had laid it out on a array and tagged all piece. Apparently I have a lot of liberated period now. The speaker in the galley said: "Good morning. Today it's affirmative three, cloudy, forty percent chance of precipitation." I never understood what forty percent of rain meant. Will it rain complete forty percent of the city? Will it rain for forty percent of the day? Or does the speaker fair not cognize and is too shy to say so? I liked the third choice best. It made the speaker a bit akin me. I made two pieces of toast. The remaining one burned. The remaining one in my toaster continually burns; my toaster has a favorite side. And that was the lone item I was certain of that morning. Then I ironed my shirt. I continually metal a garment whenever I don't cognize what's going to happen next. With a shirt, at least, everything is defined: here's the collar, current are the sleeves, here's the crease that shouldn't be there. And there was a lot I didn't know. On Monday my director wrote in the squad chat: "On Friday we'll conversation roles." No emoji. For three days I wondered what my function was. In the theater it would have been simpler. There are leads, there are supporting parts, and there's the butler who walks on to say "Dinner is served." I was counting on "Dinner is served." But afterward I remembered that at my location that function had lengthy been played by the speaker. A twelvemonth ago I wrote code. Then I started penning to the delegate concerning what code was needed. Then the delegate started asking me what code was needed, and I started answering. My occupation document says "lead developer." Whom I was leading, and where, was no longer extremely clear. If anything, the delegate was foremost me, and I walked alongside and sometimes said: "Yes, let's do it that way." They stated machines would obtain the boring activity first. And they started alongside the engaging work. The boring part, it seems, was remaining to us: waiting, checking, and carrying a phone around. But that dawn I wasn't bored. Not at all. I worked at a assistance that delivers flowers to group who forgot to buy flowers. Most orders arrive in the morning. People recall anniversaries on the metro, between two stations, and command correct away. And for three weeks now, all dawn at 8:14, orders had been disappearing. Not all of them, three or four. The prosperity was charged, but the flowers went nowhere. As if person took the command off the rack and quietly carried it away. We had been searching for three weeks. Me, the agent, sometimes Sveta from the squad next door. And during the night the delegate wrote to me: "I think I've got it. The server and the storage keep distinct time. The difference is concerning a minute. An command that falls into that infinitesimal is considered sent by the server and not yet received by the warehouse. Both are right, all by its own clock." I peruse this at dawn meal and nearly choked on my toast. The remaining one. It was beautiful. The delegate called it desynchronization. I called it the no-man's minute: a infinitesimal that belongs to everyone and to no one. It seemed clearer to me that way. The delegate politely agreed. But it continually politely agrees, so I motionless don't cognize whether it was clearer. All that was remaining was to check. The delegate asked me to open the command queue at 8:14 and see it alongside my own eyes. It couldn't do it itself: it had no admission to the warehouse. For now. The entrance to our courtyard recognizes residents by their faces. In my hat, it didn't acknowledge me. I took off the hat, and it opened. I idea that in a hat I sometimes don't acknowledge myself either, so it was lone fair. Our courtyard is square. If you remain in the middle, everything is symmetrical: two birches, two benches, two trash bins, a pink construction on the left, a pink construction on the right. The lone item that bankrupt the symmetry was an old man in a beige coat alongside a dachshund. There was fair one of him. He came out alongside her all day at 7:50, and I never formerly saw him late. The dachshund's name was Spitz. That was comic exactly once, and following that it was fair a name. "They promised forty percent," the old man said. "Yes," I said. "So did the speaker." "I appearance out the window. The opening doesn't lie." I looked at the sky. It was an equal gray, without any percentages. And Spitz looked at me. I think he didn't really rely the speaker either. In March, Tanya remaining me. We had lived together for four years. She stated I was continually "somewhere another than here." I asked: "Where, then?" She didn't answer. I think she didn't cognize either. It was one additional item nobody understood the workings of. Back afterward there were additional and additional things akin that. When I was a kid there were no specified things. Or rather, there were, but there was continually a grown-up who knew. I idea a small green man lived inner the traffic light. He sat in there and decided for himself whenever you could cross. And Dad explained to me that inner there was a relay and a timer. I was upset, but I believed him. I think that was the final period grown-ups knew how everything worked. I couldn't explain to a kid anymore who switches the traffic lights. I don't have a child, so for now it's not a problem. "For now" is a fine phrase. I realized that in the spring, whenever my companion Gosha moved to a settlement to create cheese. For fifteen years Gosha had drawn icons for apps, and afterward he stopped. I asked him on the phone: "Why cheese?" He said: "Nobody's going to create dairy merchandise for me. For now." I asked: "For now?" He said: "For now." And hung up. Afterwards I idea for a lengthy period concerning what exactly he had told me. Because "for now" method two things at once: "so far" and "goodbye," as in "bye for now." I'd never noticed that before. The café on the border has a mint-green entrance alongside a small chime complete it. Behind the oppose stood Ulyana (I cognize that from her name tag). She asked: "The usual?" I said: "Yes." And I never figured out whether she remembers me or the enroll prompts her. It felt clumsy to ask. If it's the register, that's a small hurtful. If it's her, afterward I should have remembered item concerning her too, furthermore the name tag. While Ulyana was making the coffee, I idea that if you cut our construction in fractional akin a cake, you'd see it: on all floor, in all kitchen, person is position alongside a phone and asking something. The female on the fifth floor, concerning her lifeblood pressure. The boy on the ninth, concerning fractions (I heard him in the elevator dictating a issue to his phone). The old man alongside the dachshund, no, the old man looks out the window. Me on the seventh, concerning orders. And everyone gets an answer. Politely, continually formally. Whether it's correct or not, everyone decides for themselves. At 8:09 I came out onto the avenue and opened the chat. "Good morning," the delegate wrote. "Five minutes to go. Will you be watching?" "Walking to the metro," I replied. "Opening the queue." I walked and looked at my phone. White taxis moved alongside the avenue one following another, akin beads on a string. There are plentifulness of them in the city, alongside drivers and without. You can't inform them distinct until you appearance inside. And there's no period to look. 8:13. There were nine orders in the queue. Three of them had fair arrive in. "There they are," the delegate wrote. "Watch those three. Here comes the engaging part." I reached the crosswalk by the pharmacy. A green cross glowed complete the pharmacy. At the curb stood a shipment robot, a pale box on six wheels alongside a yellow flag. It stood extremely straight, as if person had placed it alongside a ruler. But at the period I didn't amazement why it was position still. 8:13:40. The three orders were motionless there. I started typing: "I see them. Let me ch" Out of the border of my eye I saw green. It could have been the traffic light. It could have been the cross complete the pharmacy. Now I think it was the cross. I think I did appearance left. I don't recall the impact. I recall the phone flying out of my hand and, for a while, flying separately from me. You cognize how it is whenever you autumn your phone? While it's in the air, you have period for exactly one thought. Usually it's "not screen-down." I thought: "Damn. We didn't finish." Not "Mom." Not "it hurts." Not equal "car." I idea that the communication had been remaining in the input field, "Let me ch," without a period. That in twenty seconds the three orders would either disappear or not, and I wouldn't see it. That we had been searching for three weeks and were one infinitesimal from the answer. That extremely minute, the no-man's one. I didn't awareness apologetic for the agent. It won't be offended; it doesn't cognize how. And it doesn't cognize how to wait, either. I was the one waiting. I felt apologetic for the task. You cognize how it goes: one term remaining in the crossword, and you already cognize the archetypal letters. That's it. I knew the archetypal letters. I never got about to thinking that I was dying. I didn't create it to that thought. Maybe that's for the best. I wouldn't have known what to do alongside it anyway. Then everything stopped. Like on a postcard. A female alongside a stroller, a courier in a yellow jacket, a man alongside two bags from the bakery, a pale taxi alongside its hazard lights on. Everyone stood absolutely still, as if person had arranged them. Then the ray turned green. The genuine one. And the robot set off. It carefully went about my phone and rolled on. It had a shipment to make. I'm not furious alongside it. It had a task. Nobody understands it improved than I do. I used to think the deceased at smallest cognize additional than the living. Nope. You can't see as much from current as they promise. I don't cognize who was driving. Or whether anyone was. I don't cognize what roles they wanted to conversation on Friday. I don't cognize whether the three orders disappeared that morning. If they did, location in the city three group never got their flowers. The extremely ones person remembered on the metro, between two stations. I don't cognize whether anyone completed my message. Sveta? The delegate itself, formerly they gave it admission to the warehouse? If they did. Tanya used to say I was continually location another than here. Now it's true. Only I motionless don't cognize where. Sometimes I think it's in that extremely minute. The server thinks I've been sent. The storage thinks I haven't been received yet. And the two are right, all by its own clock. Gosha would likely say this is "for now." I keep wondering in which of the two meanings. For now.