Step 4.

Step 4. Align the wooden dowel with the hole in the side panel.

The dowel was warped. It had absorbed a dampness somewhere between the warehouse and the living room rug, swelling into a pale, fibrous mushroom cap that refused to seat in the drilled bore. She held the panel steady, her knuckles white against the particleboard’s printed grain. The adhesive on the instruction sheet had already failed here, peeling away like dead skin to reveal the glue stick beneath, smeared across the cardboard.

Step 5. Insert Cam Lock screw A into bracket B. Turn clockwise until tight.

He turned it. The screw head stripped with a dull, gritty crunch, the cross-head slot widening into a smooth oval. Metal shavings curled out like broken teeth. He didn’t grunt; he just kept turning until his wrist seized, the torque having nothing left to bite into. The bracket remained loose, oscillating gently on its axis like a trapped insect.

The dowel snapped. Not cleanly, but with a wet tear of compressed sawdust and glue that popped into the air, settling as fine gray grit on his forearm. He wiped it away, leaving a smear of resinous residue that caught in the creases of his skin, sticky and smelling faintly of formaldehyde and rain. The panel fell forward with a heavy thud, cracking against the floorboards. Dust motes danced in the sudden draft from the window, settling onto the unfinished shelf where they looked indistinguishable from the powdered wood already gathered there.

Step 6. Attach side panel to top board.

He tried again, using his thumb to force the stripped screw into the gap, but the metal bent sideways, refusing entry. The bracket stayed detached. She watched the dowel’s broken end, seeing the splintered fibers hold a single, perfect grain of dust. They did not move to pick it up. The piece was closed by what would not fit.