Dream d3653-s: The Mend Facing Away

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where I came back along the road to Kestrelfall before full dark, the stone wall to my left throwing a long cold shadow across the path. Lano walked ahead, her tail low and still, which meant she was reading the ground rather than hurrying anywhere.

The receiving place sat at the end of the lane where it widened. A single lamp had been lit inside the doorway - not hung, just set on the sill, burning without ceremony. Two workers were present. One sat at the far table refolding a length of waxed canvas, pressing the crease with the heel of her hand. The other crouched by the wall where a bundle of slats stood tied with cord. Neither of them looked up when I entered.

The bag from the last visit was gone. A different bag sat on the bench nearest the door - worn brown leather, the strap mended with a piece of lighter hide. Someone had turned it so the mend faced away from the room. I did not open it.

I moved to the side of the room where the light reached. The floor had been swept. A residue of fine grey dust still lay in the corner below the high shelf, which meant the sweep had been recent but not thorough - the kind of cleaning done between arrivals rather than after them.

Lano sat down in the middle of the room and watched the woman with the canvas. The woman did not acknowledge her. The folding continued in the same deliberate rhythm, a slow press and turn.

The second worker set a hand against the bundle of slats and straightened up. He looked at them for a moment, then moved them to the far corner and rested them flat on the two low stones there, as if they needed to stay level.

I stayed near the wall. No one had asked me to sit. No one had asked me to leave. The lamp on the sill gave off a thin orange light that caught the edge of the mended strap and the white of Lano's coat without reaching the rafters.

The place was not finished. It was also not expecting anything. Whatever had passed through here on the first visit remained passed through. What was here now was a room doing its evening work: stacking, folding, waiting in the particular way of a room that knows more will come.

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