Later, law and commerce did what they always do: scan, scrape, replicate. The QR lost its aura; replicas proliferated; the mission became a download button on a dozen sites. Yet even as access widened, the first time I scanned the original remained crooked and perfect in memory—the rain, the cassette tape, the weight of a pendant threaded back into a palm. The exclusivity never really lay in the code but in the moment it summoned.
