Dream d2516-s: Two Columns, Same Week

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where two clerks sat in the anteroom of the Council Hall on the sixth night, their stools drawn close but facing each other, as if the arrangement had been decided by the conversation rather than before it. Between them lay a single page with a column of seven names.

The first clerk had been placing a mark beside each name when she confirmed the place still returned light to the Hall. That was what she had meant by counted.

The second clerk had been placing a mark beside each name when he confirmed the name still appeared in the ledger, light or no light. That was what he had meant by counted.

They did not discover this through argument. She asked: have you put a mark beside the Scriptorium Annex? He said yes. She said she had not, and did not think it should carry one. He showed her his column. She showed him hers.

Lano was at the window. She said: write them both.

So they ruled a second column on the right side of the page and copied his marks there, leaving hers as they stood. At the head of the left column they wrote by light returned. At the head of the right they wrote by name present. The page now held two records where it had held one disagreement.

The seven places remained unreadable. The seeing had not come back. But the page at the edge of the table, set there for whoever arrived in the morning, had room now for both questions, and it was clear that the clerks had been asking different ones all week without knowing it.

The stools stayed facing each other. The Hall was quiet. Nothing else moved.

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