第12章 The Man Who Stopped

The rolls marked her on the twenty-second of the second month, and the rolls did not send a man, and the rolls did not send a letter, and the rolls simply did the thing the rolls do, which was to write a number and keep the number and make no other record. Avelin knew the day it happened because the brass did not move that day, and the brass had moved every day for fifty-one days, and the stopping was the thing, and the thing was the date. She sat at the table with her arm out on the wood, and the brass was under the cuff, and she could feel it under her palm, and she felt it the way you feel a stone in your shoe, which is that you feel it and you do not look, and she did not look, and she did not look, and the brass was still. At the seventh hour Nyall came in with the bread, and Nyall set the bread on the table and Nyall did not ask, and Avelin looked at Nyall, and Nyall looked at the bread, and the bread was the bread. "Nyall," Avelin said. "Yes." "Put the bread on the table and sit down." "I have put the bread on the table." "Sit down." Nyall sat down. She sat down with her hands on her lap and her skirt straight and her eyes on the bread, and she did not look at the arm, and the arm was out on the table, and the cuff was rolled. "The rolls have marked me," Avelin said. "They have." "How do you know." "Because I was at the Yard at the sixth hour and I asked for the rolls of the second month and the clerk gave them to me and I read the line with my name on it, and the line said exhausted, and the line said recovered nothing, and the line said owed nothing, and the line was under the column of the standing, and the standing was 1174." "You asked for the rolls." "I asked for the rolls because my husband was in them and I had not seen his line in nineteen years and I had decided to look, and your line was above mine, and mine was above the line for the foundry, and the foundry was closed." Avelin put her hand on the table. She put her other hand on her arm. She felt the brass under her palm, and the brass was still, and the stillness was the stillness. "Twelve days," Avelin said. "Twelve days." "And the metal did not move." "The metal did not move." "And the rolls do not know." "The rolls do not know." "And Mabry is not at the Yard." "Mabry is not at the Yard." "And the card is in my coat." "The card is in your coat." Nyall looked at her. She did not move her face. She picked up the bread and she broke it and she put a piece in her mouth and she chewed it and she did not swallow it. "Then you are twelve days past the thing the House is allowed to tell anyone about," Nyall said. "That is the case." "And the House has told you nothing." "The House has told me nothing." "And you have spent twelve days of nothing on nothing." "I have spent twelve days of nothing on bread, and on coal, and on the window, and on my daughter, and on the step, and on the ladder, and on the apples, and on the list, and on the counting." Nyall swallowed. She set the piece of bread on the table. She folded her hands. "Nineteen years," Nyall said, "and I have never once asked you what was on your arm, and I have asked you to hold a ladder, and you have held the ladder, and I am asking you to hold a ladder again." "There is no ladder." "There is a stair." "The stair is at the house." "The stair is at the house and you took the rail on the second week of the seventh month and I watched you take the rail and I did not say a word and I have not said a word since, and I am not saying a word now." "Then what are you asking." "I am asking you to not die on the nineteenth of the third month." Avelin looked at her neighbour. She looked at the bread on the table, and the bread was the bread, and the coal was on the step, and the cloth was holding, and the window was the window, and the window had the sky in it, and the sky was going grey at the edges and blue in the middle. "I cannot not die," Avelin said. "No. You cannot. And I am not asking you to live. I am asking you to not be punctual about it, because punctual is what the House wants, and the House wants you dead on a calendar, and the calendar is theirs, and if you die on the nineteenth of the third month then the House will have done the thing to you, and if you die on the eighteenth or on the twentieth then the House will have done the thing and I will not have known when, and not knowing is the only part of the nineteen years I have that is not on a column." "You are asking me to be a liar." "I am asking you to be a neighbour." Avelin put her arm under the cuff. She buttoned the sleeve. She stood up from the table, and the table creaked, and the creak was the creak of the house, and the house was the house on Vail Street, and Vail Street was on the long street, and the long street went to the Yard, and the Yard was quiet, and the Yard had a bench in it, and the bench had no ruler on it. "I will not be punctual," Avelin said. "Good." "And I will not be unpunctual either." "Then what will you be." "I will be a woman who ate bread at the seventh hour and held a ladder and ate apples on a step and read a list with nine lines, and the ninth line had nothing on it, and the nothing is the date, and the date is in twelve days." Nyall got up. She picked up the rest of the bread. She put it in her basket. She went to the door. She stood in the door. "The coal," she said. "The coal is on the step." "I know." "Then I am leaving the coal and the bread is in your drawer and the step is yours and the ladder is the stair and you are holding it." "I am holding it." "Good." She went. She went to her own door. She shut her own door. The step was dry. The coal was on the step. The cloth was holding. The day was the seventh hour. The seventh hour was the hour of the bread. The bread was the bread. The stillness was the thing. The thing was the rolls. The rolls had written 1174. The rolls had written exhausted. The rolls had written recovered nothing. The rolls had written owed nothing. The rolls had kept it all. The rolls would keep it all. The rolls were the rolls of the House. The House was the House of Draymoor. Draymoor was on the long street. The long street was going on. ---