Chapter 13 The Man Past The Line

The old master came to Vail Street on the third of the fifteen days and he came at the eleventh hour, and he was old, and he was thin, and he had a band on his arm and the band was cut to nothing, and the cut to nothing was the cut of a man who had paid everything, and he was named Wynn Halbert, and he was a master of the Yard for forty-one years, and he had been exhausted for eleven years, and he was walking down the long street on the third of the fifteen days because the rolls did not stop him. Trenn found him. Trenn found him on the step of the third door with a basket of apples and a coat too thin for the month, and she brought him to the table, and Avelin was at the table with her arm under her sleeve and the stillness under her palm. "Sit down," Trenn said to the old man. "I have nowhere to sit." "You have this chair." "I have nowhere to sit and this is a chair in a house that is not mine and the house is on a street that is not mine and the apples are mine and the apples are nine and I will eat them and then I will go up the long street and down the long street and I will not sit down until the sun is gone." "Then eat the apples," Trenn said, "and sit down until you have." He ate one. He ate the second. He ate the third. He did not sit down for the first, the second, or the third, and on the fourth he put the apple in his lap and he sat down on the edge of the chair with his back to the wall and his feet on the floor and his hands in his lap. "Master Cindermill," he said. "Master Halbert." "I was at the Yard when you were a journeyman." "I was a journeyman at the Yard for nine years." "You were the Read of a prentice, and the prentice was mine, and I paid the prentice into your Read, and you spent the prentice's hours without the prentice knowing, and the prentice grew up and did not know, and the prentice is dead now, and I was the one who paid him, and I have been carrying the paying for thirty-two years." "Then sit down and carry it here," Avelin said. "I am carrying it." "Then carry it and tell me." "I paid him because I had paid too much already and the paying was the only thing that was left to me, and I paid him and I did not ask him, and he did not know, and he did not know, and he grew up, and he did not know, and he went to the foundry, and he did not know, and he married, and he did not know, and he had a daughter, and he did not know, and he died with the daughter young, and he did not know." Avelin looked at him. She looked at the apples in his lap, and the apples were nine, and he had eaten four, and five were left. "Then tell me what you do now," she said. "I walk. That is what I do. I walk the long street and I walk the Yard and I walk the foundry and I walk the rolls and I walk the bench and I walk the stair of the House and I walk the yard of the House and I walk the long street again, and I do not go in, and I do not sit, and I do not eat until the sun is gone, and I do not sleep in a house, and I sleep on a step, and the step is not mine, and the step is dry." "Eleven years." "Eleven years." "And the rolls say you are exhausted." "The rolls say I am exhausted and they say I am recovered nothing and they say I am owed nothing and they say I am paid in full, and they say it every month of the year, and I walk past them, and they do not say it to me, and they will not say it to me, and they have not said it to me for eleven years, and I am walking on the third day of the fifteen and I have been walking for eleven years and I am not going to stop, because stopping is what the rolls do, and stopping is what the House does, and stopping is what the calendar does, and I will not be stopped." "Why are you here," Avelin said. "I am here because the rolls marked you on the twenty-second of the second month and I was at the Yard and I read the line, and the line said exhausted, and the line said recovered nothing, and the line said owed nothing, and the line was under the standing of 1174, and 1174 is not zero, and the rolls have marked you at 1174, which means the rolls have marked you wrong, which means the rolls have done the thing the rolls do when they are wrong, which is that they do not correct, and they keep the wrong, and they keep the wrong forever, and the wrong is yours, and the wrong is 1174, and the wrong is the reason I am on your step." Avelin looked at her arm. She rolled the cuff. The brass came out, and the brass was the colour of the eleventh hour, and the number was cut, and the cut was the cut. "What does the metal say," she said. "The metal says nothing. That is the thing. The metal says nothing, because the metal has stopped, and the metal has stopped because you are exhausted, and the metal does not spend when you are exhausted, and the metal does not move when you are exhausted, and the metal does not record when you are exhausted, and the metal is finished with you, and the rolls are finished with you, and the House is finished with you, and I am the only one left who is not finished with you, and I am not finished with you because I am walking." "Then what do you want," Avelin said. "I want to know what you did with the 1174." Avelin looked at him. She looked at the apples, and she looked at the table, and she looked at the window with the cloth on it, and she looked at the step with the coal on it, and she looked at the drawer under the table, and she looked at the card in the drawer, and the card said 1174 and 1419 and the nineteenth of the third month, and the nineteenth of the third month was eleven days away. "I did nothing with the 1174," she said. "The rolls say you did." "The rolls say 1174 and then the rolls say exhausted and then the rolls say recovered nothing and then the rolls say owed nothing, and those are four sentences and the four sentences are not a payment, and the payment would be a fifth sentence, and the fifth sentence is not there, and the fifth sentence is the one I have not written, and I will not write the fifth sentence, and I will not write the fifth sentence, and I will not write the fifth sentence." He ate the fifth apple. He ate the sixth. He ate the seventh. He did not eat the eighth and the ninth, and the eighth and the ninth were on the table, and they were red, and they were the apples from Nyall's jar, and the jar was on the step, and the step was the step. "Then you have two apples left," he said. "I have two apples left." "And you will not write the fifth sentence." "I will not write the fifth sentence." "Then you are eleven years old to me. I have been eleven years old for eleven years. The eleven years are the walking. The walking is the not stopping. The not stopping is the not writing. The not writing is the two apples." He stood up. He picked up the eighth and the ninth apple and he put them in his coat, and he went to the door, and he stood in the door, and he looked at her one more time, and his eyes were the eyes of a man who had been walking for eleven years and was not going to stop. "Come to the Yard at the third hour on the last day," he said. "That is the nineteenth of the third month. That is the day the rolls will make the fifth sentence. Come to the Yard at the third hour and I will be there, and I will be walking, and I will be walking past you, and you will be sitting at the bench, and the bench will be the bench, and the rolls will have the fifth sentence, and the fifth sentence will be yours, and you will not sign it, and I will not sign it, and we will be walking past each other, and the rolls will keep it, and the rolls will keep it forever, and I will walk the long street, and you will walk the long street, and we will not be punctual, and the punctual will be the rolls, and the rolls will have failed you, and the failing will be yours, and the yours will be the two apples." He went. He went down the long street and up the long street and he did not come back, and the day went on, and the step was dry, and the coal was on the step, and the cloth was holding, and the apples were in his coat, and the table was the table, and the drawer was the drawer, and the card was in the drawer, and the card said the nineteenth of the third month. "Eleven days," Avelin said to the empty chair. "Eleven days," Trenn said from the stair, because Trenn had been on the stair, and Trenn had heard the whole of it, and Trenn had not come in, and Trenn was at the top of the stair with her lunch box and her spectacles and the list in her pocket. ---