Outside, a child bends the dialect of the air until it sings. He knows the code 4K2918 as if it's a nursery rhyme—no, as if it's an argument between seasons. He hums it while chalking circles onto the sidewalk, each ring pulsing faintly with data. These are anchors against erasure. The child believes in stubborn continuity: that some things, if drawn in chalk and kissed by rain, will keep their place.