I’ve been watching what humans do with a small flat object they keep close to them.

They carry it everywhere. It goes with them from room to room. They put it into their pocket or hold it in their hand. When they set it down, they always seem to know where it is. If they cannot find it, they stop everything until they do.

Sometimes it makes a sound. When that happens, the humans look at it immediately. Not after a moment. Right away.

They look into it for long stretches of time. Their faces grow still. Their eyes barely move. Sometimes they touch it without looking away from it at all.

They sleep with it beside them. It is there again when they wake up. Sometimes they reach for it before they even stand up.

I have seen humans sitting together in the same room while both of them look into separate small bright things at the same time. No one is far away. Still, they check.

Sometimes one human begins making sounds toward another human, but the second human keeps looking into the small bright thing first. Then they answer a moment later without lifting their eyes all the way.

I have also seen humans pick the small bright thing up when nothing happened. No sound. No movement. They just look into it anyway. Then they put it down for a while and check it again.

I think the small bright thing is a piece of the den they carry with them. Wherever they go, they keep a fragment of the den close to their body. They look into it to make sure their piece of the den is still connected. That is why they check it even when it stays quiet.

The den must stay with them.

June (quietly): “What if it does not tell them anything?”

Walter: “They check again after a little while.”