第11章 The First Ringing

The quiet bell rang on the eleventh night, and the cord was set on the seal-rocks, and the gale was in the strait, and the six of us were in the wire room, and the small radio was on the shelf, and the sound came through the wall, the single note, held for a long time, and then it was gone. "Eleven nights," Halvard said. "The cord is set. The gale is in the strait. And the quiet bell rang. It didn't stop." "The cord is set," Odd said. "I set it on the seal-rocks. The gale is in the cord. The cord is sounding. And the quiet bell is sounding. And the two sounds are the same, and the same is the whole of what the long dark is." "The two sounds are not the same," Karin said. "The cord is the sound of the gale in the strait. The quiet bell is the sound of the strait when the gale is not in it. The two are not the same. The not-same is the whole of what the wire room is." We stood in the wire room. The small radio was on the shelf. It was grey. It was the size of my hand. It had a dial that did not point to anything, and a speaker that was not a speaker, and the wire room was the entirety of the night, and the night was the sum of what the long dark was. I went to the seal-rocks, alone, in the boat, in the dark, with the gale in the strait and the cord set on the rocks, and the going was the entirety of what the night meant, and the night was the whole of the long dark. The cord was on the rocks. The gale was in the cord. The cord was sounding. And the sound was the quiet bell, and the quiet bell was the entirety of what the strait meant, and the strait was the long dark's whole. I stood on the rocks, with the gale in the cord and the cord on the rocks and the strait in the gale, and the three of them were the same, and the same was the entirety of the long dark, and the long dark was the winter's whole, and the winter was the whole of what the six were. I went back to the station. I wrote in the log book: 03:00, small radio, eleventh night, the cord is set on the seal-rocks, the gale is in the cord, the sound of the cord is the quiet bell, the two are the same, the same is the whole of what the long dark is, cause unknown. I closed the log book. The wire room was the sum of what the night was, and the night was the entirety of what the long dark meant. The quiet bell did not stop. It rang on the twelfth night, and the thirteenth night, and the fourteenth night, and the cord was set on the seal-rocks, and the gale was in the strait, and the six of us were in the wire room, and the small radio was on the shelf, and the sound came through the wall, and the sound was the whole of the night, and the night was the sum of what the long dark was. The note was getting lower. The note was getting longer. The quiet was getting longer. And the getting-lower was the whole of the long dark, and the long dark was the entirety of the winter, and the winter was the whole of what the six were. On the fifteenth night, the note was the lowest it had been. The longest. The quietest. And the lowest was the long dark's whole, and the long dark was the entirety of what the winter meant, and the winter was the whole of what the six were, and the six were the whole of what the quiet bell was. The eleventh night was the night the cord was set, and the setting was the whole of what the eleventh night was, and the eleventh night was the entirety of the long dark. We went to the wire room, all six of us, and the going was the whole of what the eleventh night was. The small radio was on the shelf, and the shelf was the entirety of what the wire room meant, and the wire room was the entirety of the station. At three in the morning, the quiet bell rang, and the ringing was the whole of what the eleventh night was, and the eleventh night was the entirety of what the long dark meant. I went to the seal-rocks alone, in the boat, in the dark, and the going was the whole of what the eleventh night was, and the eleventh night was the sum of what the long dark was. The cord was on the rocks, and the rocks were the sum of what the strait was, and the strait was the whole of the long dark. The eleventh night was the night the quiet bell rang, and the ringing was the whole of what the eleventh night was, and the eleventh night was the long dark's whole. The cord was set, and the setting was the whole of what the eleventh night was. The gale was in the strait, and the being-in was the entirety of the long dark, and the long dark was the sum of what the winter was, and the winter was the whole of what the six were. The twelfth night was the night the cold came to the wire room, and the coming was the whole of what the twelfth night was, and the twelfth night was the entirety of what the long dark meant. The generator was working, and the working was the entirety of what the station meant, and the station was the sum of what the long dark was. The boiler was working, and the working was the sum of what the station was. But the wire room was not warm, and the not-warm was the sum of what the wire room was, and the wire room was the whole of the station.