21:21, mirror hour

Nine at night is 21:21 on the digital clock. A double mirror hour when the evening has settled: the day's obligations are behind you, the house quiets, and the body begins preparing to rest. You notice it on the oven display, or on the watch still on your wrist.

Twenty-one twice over, six again. Six does not clock off when the list does. Just past nine leaves an hour nobody has claimed, and six is the number that notices where it goes. The doubling is exact about which hour it means: the one after the duties, before sleep, still unspent.