Dream d3603-s: The Cut Holds

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the sound reached me first - a hollow knock of wood on stone, the beam settling into the notch cut to receive it.

The cart hand had been working at the lower side of the quarry cut since early light. I watched from above, standing on the flat shelf where the descent began, at the place where a full riser had gone missing - worn down over seasons or broken out entire, leaving a gap that would catch the boot of anyone who did not know to look.

He had the beam in his hands: a length of timber, short enough to manage alone, with a notch cut near each end where the ledges would grip it. Someone had done the measuring beforehand. The notches matched the stone on both sides of the gap, and the width was right. A scored line ran along the face of the wood, showing where the bearing surface would be, where the weight of a boot should fall.

He angled it in. The cut was narrow and the beam had to go in sideways before he could twist it level. The first seating came out wrong - one end too low, the whole length canted - and he lifted it clear and started again without hurrying. The second attempt found the notch. The beam dropped the last inch with the same hollow knock I had heard from above.

He set one foot on it.

The timber did not flex. No give, no creak, no slipping at the notch. The heel came down and then the full weight, and the man stepped over to the far side and moved on to whatever came next, not turning back to look at it.

The afternoon light angled through the gap in the cliff face above, catching the scored mark on the top of the beam. The measurement line was still visible, even where the notch had taken a piece of it. Limestone dust had settled into the grain.

A beetle crossed the flat face of the wood and dropped into the shadow at the far end.

Below the cut the cart tracks ran away through pale rubble toward the bend in the road beyond sight. The man was already gone around it. The step sat level in the stone, holding what it was cut to hold.

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