Dream d2772-s: The Open Frame

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I stood inside the timber frame at Amberholt with the sky directly overhead, open where the roof will be. The posts were up and plumbed. The plates were mortised and pegged at each corner. The collar ties were cut and stacked in order on the east side. The rafters lay on the ground beside the building, numbered in chalk, waiting to be lifted into place. That was the stage of the work, and I wrote it down in those terms: frame standing, rafters not yet raised, roof not begun.

Three figures moved on the scaffolding outside, checking the run of the north wall's top plate with a plumb line. I could see them through the open crown of the frame the way a person at the base of a shaft sees the light above. Lano walked the interior perimeter slowly, nose at the base of each post. She stopped at the third one for a long moment, then continued. Her tail moved once and did not move again.

The sheet I carried holds sixty-five places and nine of them show a light tonight. Amberholt is among the nine. The light here is the work-lanterns of the figures on the scaffold and the glow of a brazier set in the northwest corner against the cold.

Past the edge of the sheet: one hundred and seventy-one places stand on ground no line has been drawn to reach. This round I walked fifty-eight of them. Twenty-seven were alight. I wrote the count in the column provided. I did not write what kind of light each one held, because I was not asked to classify, only to record that it was there.

Seven marks on the sheet point at ground that no reader can reach from where the sheet is kept. I noted the seven. I did not attempt the ground they indicate.

One place past the edge is in its first day standing. I wrote the name in the margin, where unplaced names are held until a position is found for them or not: Yarrowgarth. A single entry. Nothing beside it yet.

Lano came and pressed against my leg. I lifted the sheet clear of her. Outside, one of the figures on the scaffolding called something to the others and they moved together to reposition a brace. The stars had come out through the open top of the frame, the whole rectangle of sky framed by the raw timber ends. I added a line to the record: sky clear, stars visible through the open crown, work continuing on the scaffold. That was the building as I found it tonight, and as I left it.

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