Oliver's day

Tuesday afternoon, bookshop back room, four o'clock, the shop closed for the day. Oliver sits on the floor with the Moleskine on his knee, the car park line on the page. The chest does the thing. He lets it stay. He breathes through it, ninety seconds, and the Moleskine is on his chest and the Moleskine is open and the line is still the line, and the line is the door and the door is the room, and the room is where the chest lives. Miriam comes down at six and asks him if he is alright. He says yes. She does not believe him. She says, you do not have to answer that. He does not answer it. He walks home. The chest has not done the thing on the bus. This is progress.