Camera Seven Never Catches It

I watch nine cameras from a folding chair for eight hours a night. Most of them never move. The parking lot. The loading door. The stairwell nobody uses after ten.

Camera seven is the break room. It locks at one, and I'm not supposed to open it without someone else present, that's the rule after what happened to the guy before me, nobody tells me what happened, just the rule.

Every night at 2:11 the motion light in there trips. Same minute. I've checked the log going back three weeks and it's always 2:11, give or take the two seconds it takes the system to register it.

I rewind the feed every time. The light's already on when it cuts back, like the tape skips the second before it matters. I've started saying come on under my breath, not to catch a person, just to catch the moment. I never do.

Tonight I didn't rewind it. I just watched the light glow steady on an empty room and felt myself relax, the way you do when a roommate's door is shut but the hallway light's still on under it. Like someone in there is fine. Like I checked.

I stopped wanting to explain it weeks ago. Now I just want it to keep happening.