I guess Joanna is right again: James’s problem must be his bum knees. Today’s predicament centers around a dry pool. Behind it, specifically. The map shows a gray dash — which, under normal circumstances, signifies a doorway that the player might try to enter. If the player may enter, it remains gray. If the door is locked, the gray dash will be covered with a red line. If the door is found altogether unpassable, the gray dash will be crossed out with a red squiggle. In the game field, that gray dash corresponds to the door of a suspicious shed. All seems to add up. All, except that the game seems uninterested in allowing me to access this doorway: there is no clear path that it seems I may take, to get to the door.

Under normal circumstances, this would be fine. The thing is — well. Let me see if I can describe the situation to you. James stands in a courtyard, with a good-sized pool in the corner. The pool is surrounded by a chest-height chain-link fence. The skirt of the pool — where the deck chairs and umbrellas are arranged — sits a foot or two above the pavement level of the courtyard; a few steps on the left side allow James to walk up there, and explore the immediate pool area. The back and the right sides of the pool area are jammed almost directly against the outside fence of the courtyard — a high, wooden fence that serves as an obvious barrier. The only exception to this is a narrow squirm space to the right of the pool and on the other side of the chain-link fence, where the shed is wedged. A short passage extends from the courtyard path, to the shed. A chest-height gate or subsection of fence extends out from the main rectangle, to block that passage off from the path. You can clearly see the shed, and the door, through the chain link. That is the only barrier.

Offhand it sounds like the fence/gate section across the path is a door, to which the player might have to find a key. Right? Apparently not. From all I can tell, it is just background. It serves no gameplay function. James does not react to it. It does not register on the map as anything of interest. It is just an arbitrary wall. That is puzzling, yes. What is more puzzling is that the courtyard path — including the section which juts behind the pool area — is skirted by a two-foot-high curb. The fence/gate only stretches across the path; everything to the right of the curb is left open.

There is at least a yard of clearance to the right of the curb. This space contains nothing but grass.

This means that James could easily lift his leg, step up onto the curb, then walk around the barrier.

There is nothing else in the way.

It would take no effort.

Just… step. Lift those knees!

Or, alternatively, if that is too much strain, James could retreat down the path, go up a few steps to the level of the entranceway to the adjacent apartment building, and step up ONE HALF-INCH off the path, to the level of the grass. He then could walk on the grass across the courtyard, and hop down on the other side of the fence.

His legs must really be killing him.

Soon after, I encountered a lengthy cutscene in which James steps out across a six-inch gap between two buildings. He hesitates. He lifts a leg. He lowers it. He lifts again, and makes a tentative step. After a moment, he decides to shift his weight. Slowly, slowly, he pulls himself across. He lowers himself through the window on the other side, as if coddling a newborn.

I take it this counts as character growth.

Some day, he will be bending his knees all over the place!

…

Am I meant to enter this shed? I really can’t tell.