Sleepless Rainy Night

At 2:30 AM, he taped a rain-soaked old train ticket over the peephole, blocking the hallway light outside. A wet umbrella 'cried' in the living room. In the shoe cabinet, there was a single pair of polished white sneakers, and he carefully blow-dried their soles. He dropped marbles into the boiling porridge on the stove, clinking. At 4:30 AM, the hibiscus was awake. He twisted a bedsheet into a lifebuoy, sat inside it, and dialed a disconnected number, hearing only the sound of fine rain. In the morning, he set all the clocks in the house back three minutes, cut off his hair, put it in a glass bottle with water, and prepared to take it to the beach. After doing all this, he put an old bandage on his head and set out.