He wrote one more line and shut it.

“What did you write this time?” I asked.

“That the folder had a red sticker on it.” He had written the time first, then the color of the sticker.

“Some things want to be noticed.”

I walked back to my desk holding the pencil stub he had left on the table.

I don’t know why I took it.

At my desk I dropped it into the drawer with my spare pens.

The rain on the windshield pulled me back to the present.