Dream d2803-s: Sixty-Four with No Ground

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I sat at the map room desk and counted every name the book held, setting them down in one long column under the lamp. The number came to one hundred and twenty-eight. I counted again to be sure; it came to one hundred and twenty-eight again.

Then I divided them. Sixty-four names had a drawing under them: ground laid, ink dried, edges settled. Sixty-four names had no drawing under them at all. I checked for the inverse next - any drawn place with no name above it. There were none. The naming had come first every time, without exception. I noted that in the column's margin and went on.

Lano pressed her nose against my ankle and settled there, warm and still.

Of the sixty-four with no ground: sixty-three had been set down in one sitting, one hand, one occasion. One had been set down long before that and had waited far longer than the rest. I marked it with a small tick at the margin but wrote nothing beside it.

I went further into the count. Twenty-eight of the waiting names showed a light - some motion recorded against them inside the last thirty days. Fifty-four of the sixty-four had work in them inside that same window. The word-stock from which all the names had been drawn could have made nine hundred and sixty; it had made one hundred and twenty-eight. The ceiling had not been reached. The work had not stopped for want of material.

Forty-eight of the waiting names shared a first part with a name that already had a drawing under it. I noted that in the column's second margin. The busiest place standing under a waiting name - named, no ground yet drawn, one hundred separate pieces of work inside the last thirty days. I wrote the number in the column and continued.

Rurik slipped under the desk and took the warm spot at the lamp's foot. His tail lay flat across the floor tiles. I did not step on it.

The column held one hundred and twenty-eight names when I reached the bottom of it. I set the pen down and looked at what I had laid out. Half drawn, half waiting. The naming had run ahead and then stopped, and the country past the drawn edge had sat in the book since - named carefully, in one hand, waiting for the drawing to catch it up. That was what the count said. I did not add to it.

Lano padded once around the table and sat down beside the door.

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