The shoelace of my left shoe keeps coming undone. I have no idea why. Usually at work. I’ll get up to go get coffee or something and look down to find the laces flapping around and dragging on the floor. Or sometimes I catch them as they’re coming unraveled. The knot has opened like some kind of flower and the laces are slowly growing free. I can almost see it happen.

I have no idea why. Always the same shoe. The left. The right is fastened up the way it should. I walk by some people, wondering whether they notice my disordered state, whether they remember it from the day before. Then I finally find some chair somewhere to prop my foot on to tie them again, nice and tight this time, hoping somehow this will finally do it.