Once seven small lights on a ship
Twice the view from under a fence
Thrice a brick, one of many in a pile of bricks.

We heard the music from the roadside before we saw the angular brown flats. At the bottom of the gully, certain youths were indulging in certain activities. It was night, it was beside a museum. It was later described as 'significant'.

The museum's flame-amber lights, detected underwater.

Once a watch strap greased in grime
Twice a piece of dialogue cut from an unpublished book
Thrice this twine, used to garotte that woman.

Or was it elsewhere, could it have been pasted on that wall, repeated on each poster on each side of that building? On closer examination, the quartet had already performed for their Bartók. They were back in Kuala Lumpur

The Cellist on a corner,
Waiting out the lights.

The occupants of the car that passed.

Once the colded kiln at 3am
Twice an unascertainable aspect of a particular atomic particle
Thrice an Indian woman trying to force the plug from an American appliance

Into an Indian socket.

Conclusion: It was no longer there. The fifty cent piece he'd left beside the bottle. It was the reason that the milkman had left no milk. It had been spent by a ten year-old kid. On. Lollies.

And there were fourteen others watching, gathered around a blank space.