Where It Was Willing

Grainy monochrome image looking almost straight down on the flat roof of a low apartment block at night among street trees, cars parked along the kerb in front, a short walk from the street to the entrance where one small rectangle of light falls on the path

PASS 0210

2252 LOCAL

CLEAR

RESIDENTIAL

Polaroid taken at night from the sidewalk of the street entrance of a small California apartment building, a heavy glass door in an aluminium frame standing a little open with its closer arm at the top, a lit lobby behind it with a tiled floor, a bank of metal mailboxes and the foot of a stair, a planter beside the step, the dark street to one side, and a chipped white enamel mug set on the concrete step by the door

the street door — a minute and a half

Medium — polaroid

SLV-0210

Where It Was Willing

In this building every room has a door, and every door is in a wall.

I have been through a great many of them now. The one at the street is glass, and heavy, and closes itself slowly behind you, as if it had been asked to and did not want to be seen hurrying. The one to the stair has a bar across it that you push. Mine has a lock and a chain, and a small round window at a height I would have to kneel to use.

A door is the part of a wall that has agreed to move. That is how it was explained to me, and it is correct, and I have not been able to stop noticing it. You stand in front of a wall and the wall lets you through. Then it closes, and it is a wall again, with only a line down it and a handle to show where it was willing.

At home —

I will not make the comparison. It would not be fair to the doors.

What I do is this. I go through them slowly, and low, because they were made for somebody smaller and I would rather bend than touch the top. I close them with the handle held down so the tongue does not strike, because I do not like the sound it makes against the frame. And I hold them for whoever is behind me, however far behind they are.

Last night I held the street door for a woman who was still at the corner with her shopping. It was a minute and a half. She thanked me as if I had done something unusual, and ran the last part, which I had not wanted.

I do not lean on them. I have seen people here lean on a closed door with their whole back, and I think that is trusting it a great deal.

Office annotationCorrespondent SLV-4 describes the doors of the building in which he is housed. A door is a panel hung on hinges to close an opening in a wall; the opening is made first and the door is fitted to it. The stated interval of a minute and a half is 0.22 kadd. The Correspondent begins a comparison and does not complete it. The Office has not completed it on his behalf.