Spool — Long-Sleeve Tee

You keep the useful box in the cupboard behind something less useful. This has occasionally made access difficult, but the arrangement feels true to the history of the box. Inside are buttons, a short ribbon, several things that may belong to the furniture, and one perfectly good length of string.

Somebody once offered to sort it for you. You declined with a speed that surprised both of you. The contents may not have a clear system, but you know roughly where the small brass thing lives, and moving it would create a problem whose exact nature you would discover later.

Every so often the box produces a victory. A button fits. The string is long enough. A visitor mentions needing a little piece of something and you disappear into the cupboard with the restrained excitement of a person whose decisions are finally about to be understood.

You tip the contents onto a towel so nothing rolls away. There is the little card of thread you bought on a wet afternoon, the button from a coat somebody left with you, and a metal fitting you have already identified incorrectly twice. Your visitor asks about one of them. You explain, then remember the shop next door and the person who came with you. The repair waits while you tell that part.

Today the missing part is there. You hold it up. Your visitor says you have everything. You accept the compliment, then put three objects back very carefully. You are still not entirely sure what those do.

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