George wanted to move the television stand, but Nora told him to photograph every cable first.
He took nineteen pictures, made labels and reconnected everything exactly as shown.
The television stayed dark.
A technician studied the final photograph and asked where the extension lead was getting its electricity.
George had wanted to move the television stand for six months.
It was too close to the radiator and too far from his chair.
Nora said the television was fine where it was. George said the cables were not.
They looked untidy.
Nobody can see them, Nora said.
I know they are there.
That was how the job began.
Before George touched anything, Nora made him promise to take photographs.
Last time he moved the printer, it had spent a week sending documents to the bedroom radio.
George said that had been a software problem.
Nora said the radio had still printed nothing.
He knelt behind the television with his phone. There was a black cable, two grey cables, one white cable and an extension lead under a layer of dust.
George took a wide photograph. Then he took close photographs of every plug.
He added small paper labels.
TV ONE.
TV TWO.
BOX.
OTHER BOX.
Nora asked what the other box did.
George said he would know if it stopped working.
He unplugged everything and pulled the stand away from the wall.
Behind it, they found three coins, a birthday card from 2019 and the remote control they had replaced last Christmas.
Nora held up the old remote.
George said it was useful to have a spare.
She asked whether that was why he had bought a spare for the spare.
He cleaned the wall, moved the stand and began reconnecting the cables.
For each plug, he checked a label and a photograph.
Nora offered to help.
George said there was a system.
She made tea and returned twenty minutes later.
The cables were straight. The labels faced forward. The extension lead sat neatly inside a small basket.
George pressed the television button.
Nothing happened.
He pressed it again with more authority.
Still nothing.
He changed the remote batteries. He tried the spare remote. Then he tried the spare for the spare.
Nora asked whether the wall socket was switched on.
George checked. It was.
He said the move must have disturbed something sensitive.
Nora said the television had survived two house moves and a grandchild with a wooden spoon.
George called a local technician named Sam.
Sam arrived, looked at the dark screen and asked what had changed.
Nothing, George said. Only the entire position.
He proudly showed Sam the photographs.
There were pictures of plugs, sockets, labels and George’s thumb.
Sam reached the final photograph.
He crouched beside the cable basket.
Where does this extension lead get its electricity?
George pointed to a plug fitted neatly into the last empty socket on the same extension lead.
Sam looked at Nora.
Nora looked at the perfect labels.
George had plugged the extension lead into itself.
Nora nodded.
At least the system is fully self-contained.
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