The Detail That Would Not Join

Two observations agreed.

A third did not.

The observer examined it again, then checked the other two.

The disagreement remained.

For a while, the observer considered setting it aside.

It would have made the pattern easier to describe.

Instead, they recorded the discrepancy beside the other observations.

They did not know whether it mattered.

They only knew that it was there.

And the record was not yet complete.