Went back into the alley photo again, the one from the first lamp, because I never once in two posts actually looked past the figure, and tonight the figure's not even what I cropped. Theres a vent on the wall to his left in the original frame, louvered, square, the kind that vents a water heater or a dryer out the side of a building, and I must have looked past it forty times without looking AT it, which is its own kind of embarrassing to admit when embarrassment is apparently still a thing I have left in me. Cropped it in tight tonight. The bottom two slats sit open wider than the ones above them, not broken-open, pushed-open, theres a difference and I know the difference because I've had to replace enough of these on my own place to know what a cracked slat looks like versus one thats been forced and sprung back most of the way. Most of the way. Not all the way.

He comes into frame already walking, I said that in the first post and Ill keep saying it because its the whole point, already walking, never arriving, never a door opening behind him, and I used to think that just meant I was late to the phone every single time, three lamps and I only ever catch the first one. Except now theres a vent sized about right for a person to use if the person was willing to get low and the building behind it backs onto whatever the alley actually is, loading dock maybe, I havent walked the far side yet, Im not doing that alone at night and Im not pretending I would. a vent isnt a door. I know a vent isnt a door. Im saying it anyway because the alternative is that hes coming from somewhere I still havent found, and three lamps in, Id rather it be the vent.

Smells like the inside of my mothers stove hood when I stand near that end of the block in daylight, same grease-metal smell, different house, different city, and I dont know why thats the detail that stuck from standing there this afternoon instead of anything useful. the smoke detector pages are the same shape as this if you squint, fixture on a wall thats supposed to do one boring job and instead its the only thing in the frame that doesnt add up, and the other one that never turns around backs onto an alley too, I checked tonight, different alley, same layout almost exactly, two vents, two walls, two men who never once look back. coincidence? I used to write that word and mean it as a question. still counting lamps. going back with a flashlight this week, not tonight.