Just after the light was switched off

Bedroom with Bunk Beds

The light was switched off from the doorway, and the door was left open exactly the width that was negotiated. The stars on the ceiling are still bright enough to count and you always started at the same one. The top bunk creaks the way it creaks when somebody up there rolls over, and you would say something, and then decide not to. Half of what you believed about the world you decided in this bed, in the dark, with somebody else breathing above you.

Reality Is Optimal · created by Julian Cape, 2026