Exhibit A: The Wallet Came Along

Progress report from the courtyard. Yesterday the wallet stayed on the kitchen table while I argued with the Niva and lost twice. Today I carried the wallet down four flights, held it up beside the car, and had Exhibit A photographed for the record. Aigerim received the picture within the minute. Her reply took longer, because she was laughing: and is there money in it.

There is not. The cash for the market went into the market, eventually, through her wallet, which now operates as my line of credit with better interest and worse commentary. What I am holding in the photograph is a leather formality, open to show its own emptiness, the way certain official documents mostly certify that other documents exist.

The Niva, for its part, started on the first turn, sweet as a choirboy, as if yesterday had been a rumor started by enemies. I stood there with my empty wallet and my running car and understood that between the two of them I will never once hold the full set: vehicle, money, and momentum on the same morning. One item is always on the kitchen table. The trick is finding out which before the stairs.