Dream d2805-s: Nothing Without a Name

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the lamp hung on its chain above the table, and the far pages of the book were held open under its circle of light. Lano sat near the door, nose working toward the draft at the bottom edge; Rurik had taken the table's warm corner and watched the lamp, not the pages.

I ran the check from the beginning of the drawn sheet: each place taken in order, each name found or not found in the book. The answer came back the same each time. Every drawn place had a name already waiting for it. The naming had always come first. Not one drawn place was without a name in the book. The count: none.

The book held 128 entries. Of those, 64 had a drawing set beneath them, and 64 did not. Among the 64 with no drawing, 63 had been written in a single sitting - the lines evenly spaced, the pressure in the ink consistent, as though the hand had simply continued down the page without pause. One entry was different: older, set down long before the 63, waiting in place while that later session accumulated around it.

I noted that. I did not explain it.

Twenty-eight of the waiting names showed a light recorded beside them. Fifty-four had carried work inside the last thirty days. The busiest among those fifty-four had accumulated a hundred separate pieces of work in that window. Forty-eight of the waiting names shared a first element with a name already drawn and placed on the larger sheet.

The word-stock used for naming could have produced 960 entries. It had produced 128. The rest had not been called yet.

Rurik blinked once, slow, and tucked his paws beneath him. Lano lifted her nose from the floor and was still.

I set the book down and left the lamp burning.

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