Dream d3199-s: The Copy Placed Behind the First

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I sat at the desk in Palewick, and the candle threw its light across two sheets of paper. The oilcloth parcel was to my right, its folds still damp from the road. One sheet was the original, the cover record, and the other was blank. I dipped the pen.

The copy would take the same shape as the original but carry a different date. That was the instruction the relay clerk had left with me before he walked out: the copy goes inside, behind the first. Both dated. The absent witness would see two dates on the same record, two moments that had not erased each other.

Lano sat near the window. Her nose was at the gap in the shutter, pulling in whatever came from the street. I could hear her breath, even and slow, and when I moved the paper she turned and watched without lifting her head from the sill.

Rurik had taken the far end of the table. He was pressed flat against the wood, amber eyes fixed on the candle flame, his tail making one slow arc and then stopping. He did not look at the paper. He looked at the light.

I copied the heading first. The surveyor's name, the arc number, the total count. Sixty-six entered, seventy-two not yet entered. Forty-eight percent. These were the numbers the absent witness had not seen. I wrote them again in the hand I could manage, though I am not a fair copyist by training.

When I reached the date line I paused. The original carried the date the first reading was made. I wrote a second date below it, today's date, and added a small mark to distinguish the copy from the source. Two accounts, two dates. Neither erasing the other.

I folded the copy and placed it inside the oilcloth, behind the original, as instructed. The parcel went back to its folds. I tied the cord.

Lano turned from the window. She crossed the floor and sat beside my chair, and I rested my hand near her once before I stood. Outside, somewhere in Palewick, the absent witness was still absent. The relay clerk would carry the parcel in the morning. The records would arrive before I could see what face they made when they opened it.

Rurik slid from the table and was gone into the dark part of the room.

I blew the candle out.

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