第14章 The Short Book

On the fourth day of the fifteen Avelin Cindermill tried to live without paying, and she failed, and the failing was on the stair, and the stair was the stair of the house on Vail Street, and the house was on the long street. She had gone to the Yard the morning before to take her place at the bench for the month's closing, because the rolls kept the bench open for the exhausted and the exhausted sat at the bench and the rolls did not measure them and the rolls did not record them and the rolls simply let them sit there, because the rolls had a column for the sitting and the column was short and the sitting was the last thing the rolls allowed. She had sat at the bench. She had put her arm out. She had sat for the length of the hour, and the bench had creaked under her, and the creak had been the creak of the Yard, and the Yard had been quiet, and the man the House had sent had come in and had looked at her and had put a card on the bench, and the card had said 1174, and the card had said exhausted, and the card had said recovered nothing, and the card had said owed nothing, and the card had said nothing else. "This is the month's closing," he had said. "I have seen it before." "I have not seen it." "Then you have not seen anything in your life." He had looked at her for a long time and he had not moved his face and he had picked up the card and he had put it in his coat and he had gone, and the Yard had been quiet, and the bench had been the bench, and the creak had been the creak, and Avelin had gone up the long street and down the long street and back to Vail Street, and she had gone in the door, and she had put her coat on the chair, and she had gone to the stair, and the stair had been there. She took the rail. She took the rail and she did not feel it. The rail was wood. The wood was old. She came down three steps. On the fourth step she put her hand back on the rail and she held it. The wood went warm in her hand. The warming was the Reach. The Reach was the attribute. The attribute was the rank. The rank was the warden. The warden was the House. The House had marked her exhausted on the twenty-second of the second month. She stood on the fourth step with her hand on the rail and her daughter's stair under her feet. The wood was warm. The warming was the spending. The spending was the metal. The metal had stopped eleven days ago. The warming was not the metal. The warming was the other thing. The other thing was the one the rolls did not have a column for. "Mother," Trenn said, from the door of the room below. "I am on the stair." "I am on the stair and you are on the stair and the stair has four steps and you are on the fourth." "I am on the fourth." "Then come down the rest of them." "I will come down." "I can come up." "No. I will come down." She came down. She came down the four steps with her hand on the rail and her feet on the wood, and she did not lift her feet with her Reach, and she did not hold the rail with her Load, and she did not read the stair with her Read, and she came down the four steps as a woman who had paid everything and been marked exhausted and come to the end of the column, and the stair creaked under her, and the creak was the creak of the house, and the house was the house on Vail Street. At the bottom of the stair she stood in the kitchen with her hand still on the rail and her breath in her chest, and she did not read the room and she did not weigh the bread and she did not reach for the salt, and she picked up the bread with her hand and she put the salt on the bread with her hand and she ate the bread with her hand, and the bread was the bread, and the salt was the salt. "It worked," Trenn said, from the stair. "Nothing worked." "You came down without the rail." "I came down with the rail." "You came down with the rail and you did not use the Reach and you did not use the Load and you did not use the Read and you came down as a woman who has been marked exhausted." "Yes." "Then you are doing it." "No. I am not doing it. I am holding the rail. The holding is the thing I am not doing. The thing I am not doing is the spending. The spending is the metal. The metal has stopped. The stopping is the rolls. The rolls are wrong. The wrong is 1174." "Then 1174 is not exhausted." "1174 is not exhausted." "Then what is exhausted." "That is the question. The answer is on the bench. The bench is in the Yard. The Yard is on the long street. The Yard will have the answer on the nineteenth of the third month. Ten days. Ten days are the short book. The short book is the not paying. Not paying is not holding the rail. Not holding the rail is not being a warden. Not being a warden is not being paid. Not being paid is being a woman on the stair with a hand on the rail." Trenn came down the rest of the stair. She came down with her feet and not with the Reach, and she did not lift the lunch box with the Load, and she set the lunch box on the table with her hands, and she sat down, and she took the list out of her pocket, and she put the list on the table, and the list had nine lines, and the ninth line had nothing on it. "Ten days," Trenn said. "Ten days." "Then I will not go to the foundry." "You will not go to the foundry." "And I will not take the ledger." "You will not take the ledger." "And I will not ask." "You will not ask." "And if they ask me." "Then you will tell them the master has refused and the roll is closed and the failure is on the rolls and the rolls will keep it and the rolls will not read it back." "I will tell them that." "And you will go home." "I will go home." "And you will not look at me afterward." "I will not look at you afterward." They ate the bread at the table with the morning coming through the cloth, and the step was dry, and the coal was on the step, and the list was on the table, and the ninth line had nothing on it, and the nothing was the ten days, and the ten days were the short book, and the short book was the only book in Draymoor that had no cost written on it, and the no cost was the not paying, and the not paying was the thing she had decided to do, and the deciding was the spending, and the spending had stopped, and the stopping was the rolls, and the rolls were wrong, and the wrong was hers, and the hers was the two apples that were no longer on the table, and the table was the table. ---