The Ticking

There was a ticking.

I waited for it to stop but it would not stop (except for the momentary pause after one ticking and before the next ticking, without which there would be no tickings at all but simply a hum).

But there was not a hum. There was a ticking. And then a subsequent ticking.

It was not the clock (I checked). It was not the printer (the printer was broken). It wasn’t even the brass crow (sleeping), and that was usually the source of at least 84% of all known occurrences of tickings (assuming you ignore the drum machines).

The ticking persisted.

I positioned myself here, there, and also there (by the stove), so as to be able to triangulate the ticking’s emergence vector to an accuracy of at least 107%.

It was the drum machines.

There was a click.