The afternoon sound — a room for one change

Original flash fiction · Invented characters · Attention with edges

The room was quiet enough to hear a pencil roll. Ari picked it up and wrote: “A recurring noise becomes the subject of constant checking.” The words made an untidy feeling visible.

Beside the description, Ari wrote an alternative: “Decide whether a simple change of seat would make the task easier.” The two sentences looked almost too small to change an afternoon.

They did not change everything. The pencil stayed on the table beside a piece of work that could now move.