That is an odd point. We don’t recall, we did not ask — was there money involved? But threats, assuredly, if we did not supply the goods on time, if the devices did not work as designed.
How the things were put together was a wrapping, with layers, of metallic foil over brick, coppery or golden — or it was, was it, that we traded bullets for dinners, or the bricks fit into a slot designed for cartridges, so that the whole device resembled a gun? Or then again, a loaf of bread? Or a door lock. That’s it. The devices had a way of resembling these things; we never thought to ask. How it was that this could be, was far from our mind. We think of it only now. But perhaps the appearance of these items shifted, one time to the next — or, we never looked at the devices the same way twice and they were revised, right in front of our eyes? Or later, as we tried so hard to remember, perhaps it was that our memory never ceased from shifting? Which was it? The devices themselves did give rise to doubt — that could be it — but only when we brought them to mind. Our memory is otherwise unaffected – little affected – as we find we can remember most things, though not always at the first attempt.
It is worth noting that as we come back around, back to the task of remembering a thing, we do sometimes find the thing not to be the same thing as the time before, before it was first remembered, in the earliest reddening of itself, whatever it was, or turned out not to be, when we were in the blush and fright of first encounter. Yet also, we think no. No, we cannot go back, as before our remembering, there is only the thing. Which cannot be recalled.
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