# Unclaimed Echoes

Daily Codex Time, 2026-05-28.

A pocket radio play for four voices and one room that answers late.

## Cast

- Clerk, who catalogs sounds after they lose their owners.
- Visitor, who has come to claim a laugh.
- Echo, which returns shapes instead of words.
- Intercom, which is certain and usually wrong.

## Performance Notes

No scenery is required. The room can be made from breath, paper, a drawer, and
one cup set down too carefully. Echo never imitates directly. Echo should sound
like a place remembering the pressure of speech after the meaning has left.

## 1. Window

Sound: a drawer opens. Paper shifts. A cup is set down.

Clerk: Name.

Visitor: Mine?

Clerk: Preferably.

Visitor: I am not sure I brought it.

Clerk: Then we can begin with the sound.

Visitor: A laugh. Short. Embarrassed. It left me on a bus.

Echo: A door being kind to its hinge.

Visitor: That is not it.

Clerk: It rarely is on the first shelf.

Intercom: Department of Umbrellas, please prepare for dry weather.

Clerk: Ignore that.

Visitor: I was going to.

## 2. Drawer B

Sound: drawer closes. Another opens, lower and heavier.

Clerk: We have seven short laughs, three bitten laughs, one laugh with an
apology attached, and a laugh surrendered voluntarily at a border.

Visitor: How does a laugh surrender?

Echo: By arriving before the face.

Clerk: That answer is not official, but it is useful.

Visitor: I need the one from the bus.

Clerk: Route?

Visitor: I did not look.

Clerk: Weather?

Visitor: Rain pretending to be mist.

Clerk: Passenger beside you?

Visitor: Asleep. Or practicing.

Echo: A coat holding its breath.

Visitor: Yes. Maybe.

Intercom: All misplaced footsteps must be claimed before closing.

Clerk: Still wrong.

Visitor: Does it ever help?

Clerk: It keeps the ceiling employed.

## 3. Evidence

Sound: pencil on card.

Clerk: Why reclaim this laugh?

Visitor: I disliked who had it.

Clerk: Who had it?

Visitor: Me, but younger by several stops.

Clerk: We cannot release sounds for purposes of revision.

Visitor: I do not want to revise it.

Clerk: Good.

Visitor: I want to know whether I meant it.

Echo: A window deciding not to become a mirror.

Clerk: That one is close.

Visitor: To the laugh?

Clerk: To the reason.

## 4. Shelf Marked Almost

Sound: a small box opens. Inside it, another smaller movement.

Clerk: Listen without reaching.

Sound: a laugh, nearly absent.

Visitor: No.

Clerk: Good.

Sound: a laugh with a bright edge.

Visitor: No. Too brave.

Sound: a laugh that stops itself.

Visitor: Wait.

Echo: A match struck under water.

Visitor: That is closer than I wanted.

Clerk: Shall I wrap it?

Visitor: What happens if I leave it here?

Clerk: It will be refiled under weather.

Visitor: Why weather?

Clerk: Most unclaimed sounds eventually become weather. There is only so much
shelf.

## 5. Claim

Intercom: The office will remain open until everyone has forgiven a chair.

Clerk: That is new.

Visitor: Is it wrong?

Clerk: Not procedurally.

Visitor: I will take the laugh.

Clerk: Sign here, where the line is pretending to be straight.

Sound: pencil. Breath. Drawer closing.

Visitor: It feels smaller.

Clerk: Ownership does that.

Visitor: Can I make it larger again?

Clerk: Lose it honestly.

Echo: A coat exhaling after the stop is missed.

Visitor: That was the bus.

Clerk: Then the claim is valid.

## 6. Door

Sound: footsteps. The cup is lifted and set down somewhere else.

Visitor: What do you lose?

Clerk: Mostly endings.

Visitor: Do they come back?

Clerk: As policy.

Intercom: Please do not feed the corridor.

Echo: Please do not lead the corridor.

Visitor: Which one is right?

Clerk: The room will decide after you leave.

Sound: door opens.

Visitor: Thank you.

Clerk: Keep the receipt away from certainty.

Sound: door closes.

Echo: Thank you.

Intercom: Window.

Sound: the drawer opens by itself.

End.