Valve box in the side yard was facing north this morning. It's faced east since we put the sprinklers in six years ago, you can tell by the hose bib right next to it, the lid only bites you at the same spot if it's turned east, I've stepped on that lid a hundred times dragging the hose out and it gets the same knuckle every time. Checked it Sunday morning, no, Saturday, the trash truck hadn't come yet so it was Friday, doesn't matter which morning, the lid wasn't biting me and I noticed the absence of the bite before I noticed the lid itself had moved. Sit with that a second. My hand knew before my eyes caught up.

Water company doesnt dispatch anybody out here without a work order on file, I know that because I called in April about pressure dropping on the east side spigots and nobody ever came, not then, not once in six years actually, so this wasnt a work order, and the lid doesnt turn on a hinge, its not a hinge at all, its just a disc dropped into a concrete ring, so turned is the wrong word too, somebody lifted it straight up and set it back down forty five degrees off, which takes two hands and a reason to do and zero reason to do it quietly. same crew number I wrote down off the truck on the lane page could cover this district too, I havent confirmed it, I dont want to confirm it yet, (and theres a second thing under the lid I havent said out loud to anyone, the shutoff valve itself has a strip of blue tape around the stem that was not blue tape I put there, blue like the bulb my father kept lit on the porch for moths, anyway.

My wife thinks Im the last person on this street who would notice a valve box moved forty five degrees and she is probably right about that and I dont love what that says about everybody else. Coincidence? no. Second utility fixture this year that got handled and put back slightly wrong like whoever did it was in a hurry or wanted me to clock it, the gas meter in March did the same half turn, close to the same spot a certain screw showed up in the old doorframe that I also never finished writing up, its still a draft somewhere. I havent turned the lid back. its still facing north. Im leaving it exactly where they left it.