That was Jake’s first clue that this wasn’t going to feel like anything.
Howard led them into the small conference room off the Parks & Rec office, the one with the table that was technically too large for the space and the whiteboard that still had half-erased notes from a safety training no one remembered attending.
The door closed. The noise from outside dulled to a manageable hum.
Howard set his laptop on the table but didn’t open it.
“We’re going to be precise,” he said.
Jake nodded immediately. “Absolutely.”
Marisol sat down, clipboard back in hand. Trent leaned against the wall, arms folded, phone finally silent.
Howard looked at Marisol. “Which task?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Bin transfer on the south edge. Same route, same load, same timing we’ve been compensating for manually.”
Howard nodded. “No deviation.”
“None,” she said.
Jake raised a finger. “Just to clarify—”
Howard held up a hand.
Jake lowered his finger.
“One unit,” Howard said, looking around the table. “Not a class. Not a category. One serial number.”
Trent shifted. “I can pull—”
“Later,” Howard said.
Trent stopped.
“One task,” Howard continued. “Defined in advance. No ‘while it’s already running.’ ”
Jake winced slightly.
“One location,” Howard said. “No roaming.”
Marisol nodded. “Agreed.”
Howard glanced at the whiteboard, then picked up a marker.
He wrote:
-
UNIT
-
TASK
-
LOCATION
Underneath, he added:
-
SUPERVISED
-
LOGGED
-
REVERSIBLE
Jake leaned forward. “Do we really need all six?”
Howard capped the marker and set it down. “Yes.”
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Jake tried again. “I mean, I get most of them, but—”
Howard looked at him.
Jake sat back.
Marisol studied the list. “Supervised how?”
“In person,” Howard said. “Line of sight.”
Trent nodded. “No remote fallback?”
“No,” Howard said.
Trent frowned. “That’s inefficient.”
“Yes,” Howard said.
Jake glanced between them. “Logged how?”
Howard opened his laptop now. “Everything. Start time. End time. Inputs. Outputs. Interruptions.”
Jake squinted. “Interruptions?”
“If we stop it,” Howard said. “We log why.”
“And reversible?” Marisol asked.
Howard didn’t answer immediately.
“If we can’t stop it cleanly,” he said finally, “we don’t start.”
That landed heavier than anything else on the board.
Jake swallowed. “Okay,” he said. “That’s… okay.”
Howard looked at him. “Is it?”
Jake hesitated. “It’s just… it’s slower.”
“Yes,” Howard said.
Marisol nodded. “Slower is fine.”
Jake laughed once, a little too loud. “I just want to make sure we’re not being, you know. Overly cautious.”
Howard tilted his head. “About what?”
Jake opened his mouth. Closed it. Tried again. “About something that already worked before.”
Howard leaned back in his chair. “We are not repeating something that worked. We are observing something under constraint.”
Jake frowned. “That feels like the same thing.”
“It isn’t,” Howard said.
Trent cleared his throat. “For what it’s worth, if we don’t do it this way, everyone’s going to start assuming patterns.”
Jake looked at him. “Patterns are bad?”
“Unverified ones,” Trent said.
Howard nodded. “Exactly.”
Marisol checked her clipboard. “Timeline?”
Howard glanced at his watch. “Not today.”
Jake blinked. “Not today?”
“We define it today,” Howard said. “We execute tomorrow.”
Jake exhaled. “Of course we do.”
Howard looked at him. “Do you want to rush?”
“No,” Jake said quickly. “No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Good,” Howard said.
There was a brief silence while everyone stared at the whiteboard like it might offer commentary.
Jake broke it. “So… hypothetically—”
Howard didn’t move.
Jake stopped. “Never mind.”
Marisol smiled faintly at that.
Howard closed his laptop. “I want expectations aligned.”
He looked at Marisol. “This will reduce backlog slightly. Not fix it.”
She nodded. “I’ve already adjusted projections.”
He looked at Trent. “This does not change system status.”
Trent nodded. “I’ll make sure nobody says it does.”
He looked at Jake.
Jake straightened. “This doesn’t mean we’re back.”
Howard held his gaze.
“And,” Jake added, “we stop when the task is done.”
Howard nodded. “Yes.”
Jake hesitated. “Even if it’s going well.”
Howard nodded again. “Especially if it’s going well.”
Jake leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment. “That’s going to be hard.”
Howard allowed himself the smallest smile. “Yes.”
Marisol stood. “I’ll notify the crew.”
“No announcements,” Howard said.
She paused. “None?”
“None,” he repeated. “We don’t create an audience.”
She nodded. “Understood.”
As they filed out of the room, Jake lingered near the whiteboard.
He read the list again.
UNIT.TASK.LOCATION.SUPERVISED.LOGGED.REVERSIBLE.
He pointed at the last word. “You really think that’s the important one?”
Howard stopped in the doorway.
“Yes,” he said.
Jake frowned. “Why?”
Howard thought for a moment.
“Because,” he said, “people get attached to things that work.”
Jake considered that.
“And then they forget to ask whether they should,” Howard finished.
Jake nodded slowly.
“Okay,” he said. “Permission, not restoration.”
Howard looked at him. “Good.”
They stepped outside.
The yard looked the same as it had an hour ago.
That felt intentional.