You stick a note on the pipe with Priya’s tape: Not a ghost. Wind in the pipe.

It looks like a joke. It is a tool. Future-you, at midnight, will need it.

The chew in the wall pauses, as if Thistle can read, which Thistle cannot. Thistle can hear you being boring and has other corners to visit.

You could lay the night out now. You could walk once more, quietly, and prove you can turn the instrument off.

Future-you at midnight is a person you are being kind to. The sticky note is a kindness. Thistle pauses; you do not. You are in a staring contest with a wall and the wall is winning, which is fine.