033/365 09/23/2025

There’s a side entrance.  The side entrance avoids all the risks. No receptionist. No security guard. No prying eyes. No questions about the night before, day ahead, coming weekend. Nothing that lets them get their curious claws into the cracks of your life. So yes, it’s the side entrance. Gray door on a gray sidewalk on the building’s quiet side. Few cars. The puttering of a delivery van that’s seen better days. We should tape this door. Eye twitch pressing the fob against the dull black square affixed to the concrete wall. The interminable wait. Milliseconds flashing across the mind’s timer, time unspooling in a mote of fear. Maybe this time it won’t work? Maybe this is the time it makes no sound and the small red light flashes defeat? 

Success! Three gleeful beeps and the clunk deep inside the door’s metal sandwich. We’re in.