Chapter 16 The Master Who Returned

Mabry came to Vail Street on the seventh day of the fifteen, and he came at the third hour, and he was not at the Yard, and he had not been at the Yard for eleven days, and he had the ruler in his pocket and the packet in his coat, and the packet was the packet of the cards, and the cards were the cards of thirty-one people. He came in the door of the house, which was not the door of the Yard, and Avelin was at the table with her arm under her sleeve, and the stillness was under her palm, and the bread was on the table, and the bread was hers. "You came," she said. "I came." "You are not at the Yard." "I am not at the Yard." "You were sent at the end of the month of the seventh." "I was sent at the end of the month of the seventh." "Then you have been sent for twelve days." "For twelve days." "And you are here on the seventh of the fifteen." "On the seventh of the fifteen." "Why." He sat down at the table. He sat down with his back to the wall and his feet on the floor and his hands in his lap, and he looked at her, and he did not move his face, and the ruler was in his pocket and the packet was in his coat. "Because the rolls marked you on the twenty-second of the second month," Mabry said, "and the rolls marked you at 1174, and 1174 is not zero, and the rolls do not mark at 1174, and the rolls mark at zero, and the rolls marked you wrong, and the rolls have done it wrong for thirty-one people before you, and I measured the thirty-one people for twenty-nine years, and I did not tell them, and I did not tell them because the telling was not my job, and my job was the bench, and the bench was the rule, and the rule was the not telling, and I have come to your step to break the rule, because you are the thirty-second, and the thirty-second is the one who will not sign the fifth sentence, and the fifth sentence is the rolls, and the rolls are wrong, and the wrong is yours, and I have kept the rule for twenty-nine years and I will keep it for the thirty-second, and the keeping is the not telling, and the not telling is why I am here, and why I am not telling you." "Then why are you here," Avelin said. "Because I am here. Not telling is what I am doing. The not telling is the rule. The rule is the bench. The bench is the Yard. The Yard is the House. The House is the rolls. The rolls are wrong. I am at your table on the seventh day of the fifteen with the ruler in my pocket and the packet in my coat. The packet holds the cards of thirty-one people. None of the thirty-one knew the cards were there. I am the only one who knew. The only one is me. I am here." "You came to break the rule." "I came to keep it and to show you that the keeping is what I am doing and the doing is the not telling and the not telling is the rule." "Mabry." "Yes." "Tell me." He looked at her for a long time. He looked at her and he set his hand on the table, flat, palm down, the way other people put their hands flat on the wood when they are going to say the thing. "Two hundred and forty Hours," he said. "That is the number. That is the number the rolls keep for the exhausted. That is the number they do not write. That is the number I have written on thirty-one cards in a drawer with a lock that was the House's lock and a key that was in the rolls. Two hundred and forty Hours, and it is the amount the rolls take from the metal at the moment of exhaustion, and they take it because the rolls do not allow a standing above two hundred and forty, and the rolls have taken it from you on the twenty-second of the second month, and they have written 1174, because they did not write the two hundred and forty, and they did not write the metal, and they did not write the date, and the date was mine, and the date is gone, because the date is what the two hundred and forty buys, and the two hundred and forty has been spent, and the spending was done by the rolls, and the rolls have spent it without your consent, and without your card, and without your bench, and without your measure, and the rolls have done it, and the rolls are the rolls, and the rolls will not read it back." Avelin looked at her arm. She rolled the cuff. She put the brass out on the table, and the brass was under the cuff, and the number was cut, and the cut was the cut of the ninth of the seventh month. "Then the metal is two hundred and forty," she said. "The metal is two hundred and forty and the metal does not say so, because the metal does not say anything, because the metal is spent, and the spent is two hundred and forty, and the two hundred and forty is the rolls, and the rolls are the House, and the House is Draymoor, and Draymoor is on the long street, and the long street goes to the Yard, and the Yard has a bench, and the bench is yours, and the bench has been yours for eleven years and three days, and the bench will be yours for two hundred and forty Hours, and the two hundred and forty Hours will be spent in the walking and the bread and the coal and the stair and the apples and the ladder and the boy in the weir and the not going and the not writing and the not signing, and the two hundred and forty will be gone when the two hundred and forty is gone, and the gone will be the exhausted, and the exhausted will be the rolls, and the rolls will keep it, and the rolls will keep it forever." "How long is two hundred and forty," Avelin said. "Two hundred and forty Hours at your rate of the last month is two days and six hours." "Two days and six hours." "Two days and six hours." "Then the nineteenth of the third month is not my date." "The nineteenth of the third month is not your date." "Then what is my date." "That is the question the rolls will not answer, because the rolls have answered, and the answer is 1174 and exhausted and recovered nothing and owed nothing, and the answer is four sentences and the four sentences are not the date, and the date is the two hundred and forty Hours, and the two hundred and forty Hours are two days and six hours, and the two days and six hours are the walking and the not going, and the not going is the short book, and the short book is over." Avelin put the cuff down over the brass. She buttoned the sleeve. She sat back in the chair, and the chair creaked, and the creak was the creak of the house, and the house was on Vail Street, and Vail Street was on the long street. "Then I have two days and six hours," she said. "You have two days and six hours." "Then the nineteenth of the third month is eleven days from now. The two days and six hours are the short book. The short book is over. I have two days and six hours to decide what to do with two hundred and forty Hours. The two hundred and forty Hours are the thing the rolls have taken. The rolls have taken them. The taking was the fifth sentence. The fifth sentence was written on the twenty-second of the second month. I did not sign it." "You did not sign it." "And I will not sign it." "And you will not sign it." "Then the two hundred and forty are already gone. They are gone because the rolls took them. The rolls have them. The rolls will keep them. The rolls are the rolls. I am the one who did not sign. The not signing is the short book. The short book is the only book in Draymoor that the rolls do not have a column for." Mabry stood up. He took the ruler out of his pocket and he put it on the table, and the ruler was the ruler, and the ruler had drawn the line on the card, and the card was in her coat, and the card said the nineteenth of the third month, and the nineteenth of the third month was eleven days away, and the two days and six hours were the short book, and the short book was over. "I will not measure you again," Mabry said. "I know." "I have kept the rule for twenty-nine years and thirty-one people and I have kept it for you, and I will keep it, and I am at your table on the seventh day of the fifteen with the ruler on the table and the packet in my coat, and I am leaving now, and I will not come back, because I have nothing to measure, and nothing to measure is the exhausted, and the exhausted is the rolls, and the rolls are the rolls." "Then why did you come." "I came to keep the rule and to tell you that I kept it, and the telling is the keeping, and the keeping is the rule, and the rule is the bench, and the bench is the Yard, and the Yard is the House, and the House is the rolls, and the rolls are wrong, and the wrong is yours, and I am leaving now, and I will not come back, and I will walk the long street, and I will be walking when the two days and six hours are gone, and I will be walking when the nineteenth of the third month is here, and I will be walking past the bench, and the bench will be the bench, and the bench will be yours, and the yours will be the two hundred and forty, and the two hundred and forty will be gone." He went. He went out the door and down the long street and up the long street. He did not come back. The ruler was on the table. The table was the table. The drawer was the drawer. The card was in the drawer. The card said the nineteenth of the third month. The nineteenth was eleven days away. Two days and six hours were the short book. The short book was over. The over was the rolls. The rolls were the rolls. ---