mystery.boo a collection of recovered things
  1. SPX-001
    1887 / autumn

    The Tarnished Key

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    SPX-001

    Provenance

    Pulled from a peat bog in West Riding, the key bears the maker's stamp of a locksmith long since dissolved into rumor. Its teeth are worn, but only on one side -- the side that turned, again and again, in a single lock for forty years.

    No matching keyhole has ever been recovered. The lock it served has either rotted into the soil or sits, unrecognized, in a drawer two counties west.

    cross-reference: SPX-004 SPX-007
  2. SPX-002
    1903 / unknown month

    A Jar of Teeth

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    SPX-002

    Inventory

    Twenty-three teeth, predominantly molars, a single canine. The jar is hand-blown, the glass a green-tinged amber. The cork stopper has been replaced -- the original lies separately, brittle and stained the colour of strong tea.

    A handwritten paper label, gummed to the underside, reads only: for when she comes back. The handwriting is feminine, the ink iron-gall, the date illegible.

    cross-reference: SPX-005
  3. SPX-003
    1918 / november

    Moth Pinned to Velvet

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    SPX-003

    Lepidoptera, post-mortem

    A specimen of Saturnia pavonia, wings outstretched, pinned through the thorax with a brass entomology pin. The velvet -- a dark, exhausted green -- has begun to fail along the upper edge. The moth's eyespots remain remarkably intact.

    The pin bears a tiny stamped number on its head: 47. There is no specimen 1 through 46. The collector's notebook, if it ever existed, has not been found.

    cross-reference: SPX-006 SPX-008
  4. SPX-004
    1934 / spring

    Polaroid, Bleached

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    SPX-004

    Photographic Residue

    A polaroid -- though polaroids did not exist in 1934 -- depicting what may be a hallway, or possibly a copse of trees. The chemistry has gone almost entirely amber, and figures, if any, have dissolved into the emulsion.

    The reverse bears a date written in pencil and a single word, partially erased: don't. The remainder of the inscription cannot be recovered.

    cross-reference: SPX-001
  5. SPX-005
    1952 / august

    Letter, Folded Seven Times

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    SPX-005

    Correspondence

    The folds have worn through into the paper itself; a small rectangle of text survives, the rest having become a kind of fabric. The handwriting is the same as SPX-002, decades older now, the loops less generous, the pressure heavier.

    Surviving fragment: ...and if the lock is gone, then so is what was kept by it, and so I am free of the keeping...

    cross-reference: SPX-002 SPX-009
  6. SPX-006
    1968 / october

    A Brass Bell, Cracked

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    SPX-006

    Acoustic Fragment

    When struck, the bell produces a flat, exhausted note that does not so much ring as describe a ringing. The crack runs from the lip to roughly half the height of the bell, a hairline fracture filled with a brown-green deposit -- copper patina mingled with something organic.

    The clapper is missing. A length of waxed thread, dark with age, hangs in its place. The bell rang somewhere, for someone, until it didn't.

    cross-reference: SPX-003
  7. SPX-007
    1979 / winter

    Pressed Fern, Black

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    SPX-007

    Botanical, post-light

    A specimen of Asplenium nidus pressed between two sheets of waxed paper, the pages now nearly fused. The fern is uniformly black -- not dried, not burned, just black, in the way a thing can become black through long absence from any source of light.

    A small notation in the corner: specimen does not respond to light. The hand is unfamiliar; the ink, fresh.

    cross-reference: SPX-001
  8. SPX-008
    1991 / undated

    Cassette, Unspooled

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    SPX-008

    Magnetic Sediment

    A 90-minute cassette tape, unspooled, the magnetic ribbon coiled in a nest around the shell. The label has been overwritten three times, each iteration scratched out with a different pen. The final, surviving title reads: for the moths.

    When threaded into a working deck and played, the tape produces seven minutes of room tone followed by a single, short cough. Nothing else.

    cross-reference: SPX-003
  9. SPX-009
    2004 / june

    Field Notebook, Half-Burned

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    SPX-009

    Surviving Pages

    A waxed-canvas field notebook, the lower half consumed by fire, the upper half preserving entries in a tight, deliberate hand. The entries describe each preceding specimen in inventory form, dated and numbered, with marginal notes that grow progressively less scientific.

    The final legible entry, mid-page: SPX-009 -- this notebook. catalogued by itself. recursive. burn after reading. The instruction was followed only partially.

    cross-reference: SPX-005 SPX-010
  10. SPX-010
    present / ongoing

    This Cabinet

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    SPX-010

    Container of Containers

    The cabinet that holds these specimens is itself a specimen -- handle-marked, woodworm-tracked, smelling faintly of camphor and damp. It was acquired at a flea market in the rain, and the seller did not remember owning it.

    The bottom drawer, which we do not open, is heavier than it ought to be. The catalogue ends here. The collection, evidently, does not.

    cross-reference: SPX-009 SPX-001