17:17, mirror hour

Five in the afternoon in European time is 17:17, seventeen doubled at the edge of the workday's close. A double mirror hour when the exit is near or has already arrived, and the day begins to shift mode: work behind, evening ahead.

Seventeen twice gives sixteen across its four digits, and sixteen gives seven. Seven turns the volume down. The end of a shift is when that happens by itself: the walk to the car, the last ten minutes of a commute, the stretch where nobody needs anything from you and something you had been avoiding surfaces.