Page 74

“That’s not what I said.”

“No.”

I close the laptop. “Pancakes.”

She lets me have it, because she wants pancakes more than she wants the answer.

For now.

The supply cart catches on the threshold of Room 2 hard enough to knock a roll of tape onto the floor.

I pick it up. The left wheel points two degrees away from the others and has done since August, and facilities has it on a list. I have seen the list. It is a document whose purpose is to exist. I push again and the cart sticks in the same place it always sticks.

Behind me, Colt says, “That’s a bracket. That’s not a technique problem.”

“It usually responds to competence.”

“It’s going to respond to an Allen key.” He is already getting his jacket off. “Where do you keep your tools?”

“You are here for an appointment.”

“I’m early. Six minutes, which in my line of work is a career.” He drops the jacket over the back of the chair outside Room 2 like a man who has sat in it before. “Drawer?”

“Second one.”

He finds the key on the first try, which means he has been in that drawer at some point when I was not in the room.

He crouches without being invited to. The right arm stays close against his body while he tests the wheel, which is correct, and I notice that it is correct before I notice the shape of his back under the sweater.

Better order.

He rolls the cart backward, then sideways. “Somebody cross-loaded it and then kept using it. That’s how a two-dollar problem turns into a cart nobody can push.” He looks up. “You knew it was the bracket.”

“I am capable of diagnosing objects as well as people.”

“And you’ve been shoving it at a door since August.”

“Facilities has the request.”

“On a list.” He fits the key to the bolt. “Nothing on a list has ever happened to anybody.”

He braces the wheel with his left hand and my attention goes there before I can route it anywhere more useful. The grip is steady. He tightens, resets, tightens again.

“Lift the front edge.”

I lift it.

“More.”

“It is lifted.”

“You say that like I’m the difficult patient.”

“You are not a patient while repairing clinic property.”

“Promotion.”

“Mm.”