The point continues for a moment after the ball’s rubber core has failed. Someone remembers an unfamiliar sound. Someone else remembers a return that did not behave as expected. Only afterwards does the split become obvious.
A saying makes the damaged ball a sign of divided intention. The players’ plainer account begins with equipment failure. The Lovers, the Moon and the Divided Asking offer ways to tell the confusion; none can turn the split into evidence of a hidden mind.
One superstition keeps a split ball away from readings. Other traditions retain it to discuss conditions nobody recognised at first. Set aside from play, the ordinary witness can carry either story.
Held close, the failed rubber is visible. Whatever else the point came to mean, this part of the account can be inspected.