The rubber band had gone slack months ago.

I had swapped it for one of my own from the supply closet.

The page I opened to said Thursday, third floor, two forty.

Fifty-five minutes.

Nothing more.

He wrote like a man filling out a form, and every line had held up in front of the board.

The break room door swung open.

A young woman came in wearing a lanyard and stopped when she saw me.