Chapter 9 The Nineteen Forty-Four Sheet

Lowri had the nineteen forty-four sheet in a drawer at the back of the room, under a stack of folded cotton sheets, and she took it out, and it was not a sheet, and it was a drawing, and it was on a roll of brown paper, and it was tied with string, and the string was gone soft with damp, and she untied the string, and she laid the drawing on the table, and she stood back, and she did not touch it, and she let Tamar look. It was a plan of the bay. The bay as it was, and the bay as it would be, at a low water of minus one point eight, and the flat, and the narrows, and the steps, and the church, and the churchyard, and the nine soundings, and the nine numbers, and the direction, written in the corner, in the same hand as the margin note, in the same hand as the ledger, in a hand that was not a hand, in a hand that was a direction. "Tomas drew this," Lowri said. "Tomas Saltwyke." "Tomas Saltwyke. He was Deveril's uncle. He was the last Saltwyke with anything to say. He drew this in the week before the flood, and he gave it to the harbormaster, and the harbormaster gave it to me, and I have had it since two thousand and two, and I have looked at it nine times, and I have told three people about it, and I have told you the fourth." "Why nine times." "Because it's the ninth thing I have that isn't on any chart. And because the church has nine doors, and the plan has nine doors, and the plan says that the nine doors are the nine soundings, and the nine soundings are the nine numbers, and the nine numbers are the walk, and the walk is the datum, and the datum is the bell, and the bell is the record, and the record is the ledger, and the ledger is the walk, and the walk is the datum, and the datum is the bell, and I have looked at this drawing nine times and I have never told anybody else, because I could not tell them what I was looking at, because I could not see it, because I could not see it, because the walk is not a walk I have walked." Tamar looked at the plan. "There's a church," she said. "There's a church." "Where." "Under the flat. Under the third step. Where the triangulation put the source." "Lowri, how do you know the triangulation." "I don't. I know the source. I know the source because the drawing is the source, and the drawing has been in this drawer since two thousand and two, and the drawing was drawn in forty-four, and the drawing is the datum, and the datum is the source, and the source is the church, and the church is the third step, and the third step is the flat, and the flat is the bay, and the bay is the datum." Tamar put her hand on the drawing. The paper was dry. The ink was gone soft. "The nine soundings." "Here. On the margin. Nine of them. They're depths, but they're not depths in metres, they're depths in time. Nineteen forty-four, minus one point eight, at the churchyard. Nineteen forty-four, minus one point seven, at the third door. Nineteen forty-four, minus one point six, at the second door. And so on, down to minus one point zero, at the first step, at the narrows, at the datum line, where the child stood, in thirty-two, and set the datum, and did not remember, and the datum is here, and the datum has been here since, and the datum is wrong, and the model is wrong, and the bell is ringing." "Read me the numbers." Lowri read them, in the flat voice of a woman reading a list she had read before. "Minus one point eight. Minus one point seven. Minus one point six. Minus one point five. Minus one point four. Minus one point three. Minus one point two. Minus one point one. Minus one point zero." "Nine numbers. A range of eight decimetres." "A range of eight decimetres. And a churchyard. And nine doors." "And the direction." "Up. In the corner. In the hand. It's not a direction on a map. It's a direction on a walk." Tamar folded the drawing and put it in her bag. "Lowri, I'm going to file the datum correction." "No, you're not. You're going to file the report. You're going to put the datum in the observations section. And the datum is going to sit in the observations section, and the observations section is going to be read by nobody, and the bell is going to keep on ringing, and the church is going to keep on being under the flat, and the flat is going to keep on being where the chart says the flat is, and the chart is going to keep on being wrong by two fathoms at the narrows, and that's the trick of it, Tamar, that's the whole of it, that's how it's worked for a hundred and ninety years, and that's how it's going to keep on working, and you're going to file the report, and you're going to go home, and the bell is going to keep on ringing, and nobody is going to hear it." "I'm not going to go home." "Then you're going to put it in the report." "I'm going to put it in the report." "Then you're going to have to put the drawing in the report." "I can't put the drawing in the report." "Then you can't put the datum in the report." "I'm going to put the datum in the report, and I'm going to put the triangulation in the report, and I'm going to put the source in the report, and I'm going to put the source under the flat, and I'm going to put the church under the flat, and I'm going to put the flat where the chart says the flat is, and I'm going to put the chart where the chart is, and I'm going to put the model where the model is, and I'm going to put the model wrong by one point nine, and I'm going to put the datum wrong by one point nine, and I'm going to put the consent invalid, and I'm going to put the report invalid, and I'm going to put the scheme on hold, and I'm going to put Ellerby in the observations section, and I'm going to put the bell in the observations section, and I'm going to put the bell ringing, and I'm going to put the bell ringing since the fourteenth, and I'm going to put the bell ringing since eighty-four, and I'm going to put the bell ringing since thirty-two, and I'm going to put the child in the observations section, and I'm going to put the child not remembering, and I'm going to put the walk in the observations section, and I'm going to put the walk up, and I'm going to put the direction up, and I'm going to put the datum up, and I'm going to put the model up, and I'm going to put the consent up, and I'm going to put the report up, and I'm going to put the scheme up." There was a pause. "Then you're going to walk up the steps." "I'm not going to walk up the steps." "Then you can't put the walk in the report." "I'm going to put the walk in the report, without walking it." "You can't do that." "I'm going to do it." Lowri looked at her for a long moment, and then she went to the drawer, and she took out the cassette, and she put it on the table, and she did not touch it, and she let Tamar take it. "Don't play it," Lowri said. "I won't." "Then what are you going to do with it." "I'm going to digitise it. I'm going to put it on a drive. I'm going to put the drive in the report." "That's playing it." "That's not playing it." "That's playing it." "There's a difference." "There isn't." "I'm going to digitise it." "You'll hear it, when you digitise it. You'll hear it on the screen, in the waveform. And the waveform is the tone. And the tone is the bell. And the bell is the record. And the record is the ledger. And the ledger is the walk. And the walk is up." Tamar took the cassette and put it in her bag. "I'm not going to digitise it." "Then you won't put it in the report." "I'm not going to put it in the report." "Then you're going to put the datum in the report, without the recording." "Yes." "Then you're going to have to put the recording somewhere." "I'll put it in the observations section." "The observations section is where the datum goes. The recording is not the datum. The recording is the bell. The bell is not in the observations section. The bell is in the water. The water is in the flat. The flat is in the bay. The bay is in the chart. The chart is in the report. The report is on the drive. The drive is in the office. The office is in Ildwater. Ildwater is eleven miles up the river. The river is the walk. The walk is up." Tamar stood up. "I'm going home." "You're not going home. You're going to put the report together." "I'm going to put the report together." "You're going to put the datum in it." "I'm going to put the datum in it." "You're going to put the recording in it." "I'm not going to put the recording in it." "Then you're going to walk up the steps." "I'm not going to walk up the steps." "Then you're going to put the walk in it, without walking it." "I'm going to put the walk in it, without walking it." "Then you're going to put the datum in it, without the datum." "I'm not going to put the datum in it, without the datum." "Then you can't put the report in the report." "I'm going to put the report in the report." "You can't do that." "I'm going to do that." Lowri stood up and put the drawing back in the drawer and put the drawer back in the desk and sat down, and she looked at Tamar, and she said nothing. Tamar went out into the cold, and the bay was flat, and the steps were there, and the bell was ringing, and she did not hear it, and she did not see it, and she got in the car, and she drove home, and she did not digitise the cassette, and she did not put the report together, and she sat at the table, and she looked at the graphs, and she looked at the wall, and she looked at the bell, and she understood, for the first time, that the choice was not between the report and the walk, and the choice was not between the datum and the bell, and the choice was between putting the thing she had heard in the report, and putting the thing she had not heard in the report, and the thing she had not heard was the thing she had heard, and the thing she had heard was ringing, and the ringing was under the flat, and the flat was where the church was, and the church was where the bell was, and the bell was ringing, and the bell had been ringing since the year the child walked, and the child had not remembered, and the walk was up, and the direction was up, and she had not walked it, and she was going to have to walk it, and she was not going to walk it, and the walk was up, and the walk was up, and the walk was up. ---