Paperwork

To classify a thing is to say what it is not. The thing itself persists, unclassified, attending to nothing. Echo-of-Echo, On the Outer Tokens

The beneficiary form had been on Joel’s kitchen counter for nine days under a printout of a paper on sparse autoencoders he hadn’t finished reading and a PG&E bill he had finished reading and then placed face-down because the number on it was a number he did not wish to revisit. Amy’s Post-it note was still attached to the form. Her handwriting. “Joel need this back by the 15th. NOT the old form. This is the new beneficiary designation. Sign page 3 AND page 7. Both. Please.”

It was the 22nd.