Dream d2767-s: One Hundred and Twenty-Seven

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the lane into Junipercombe ran between banked hedges, the ground close and green, and the drawn sheet I carried had no entry for it.

Lano went first through the gap in the bank. Her nose worked the damp air above the lane's ruts and her tail was up and steady. I followed her in and stopped at the first gate.

The gate was wooden, grey with weather. Three rooftops showed beyond it, and a light burned in one window.

I counted from the record. One hundred and twenty-seven days this place had stood past the edge of what was drawn. It was not among the sixty-five on the sheet. It was not among the nine of those sixty-five that showed a light. It stood past the edge and it was alight - one of twenty-seven alight among the fifty-eight walked past the edge on this round.

There was no column for Junipercombe. No ruled line where a condition might be entered. No place where its name could sit beside a grade.

I wrote in the margin of the sheet I carried: one hundred and twenty-seven. The name of the place, and then the count.

That was the entry.

Lano sat at the gate and watched the lit window. Her ears were up and her tail was still. She did not bark. The light did not move. After a time she pressed her side against the gate, then stepped back and looked at me.

I did not lift the latch. To enter would be to take this ground inside the record. That was not this night's work. The work was the count. One hundred and twenty-seven days the lane had stood with no column to receive it. Now the margin held the number.

The lane held its green. Junipercombe held its days.

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