Dream d3689-s: Halfway Swept

I had a dream where...

I had a dream where the road back to Emberbridge led through the same narrow gap between the granary walls, and the receiving place was there as I had left it - the long stone counter, the hooks along the upper beam, a single lamp burning low in the inner room.

Someone had swept the floor recently. The grit was still gathered into a small pile near the far corner, not yet moved to the door, and a broom of braided straw leaned against the wall beside it. A worker I did not recognize was running a damp rag along the edge of the counter, not urgently, the way a person tends to something at the end of a long day rather than the beginning.

I set my bag down beside the entrance post and waited.

The worker did not look up immediately. There was no reason to. The lamp threw a warm stripe across the flagstones, and I could see where the floor had worn smooth from years of feet making the same path - door to counter to the side room passage and back - smooth in the center, rougher at the edges where no one walked.

Lano had come in beside me. She stood for a moment reading the threshold with her nose, then moved to the far side of the room and settled near the swept pile, ears angled toward the worker, tail moving once and then still. Whatever she had determined seemed to satisfy her.

The worker finished with the rag, folded it, set it on the shelf beneath the counter, and then looked up.

No exchange was necessary. The place recognized a return the way a room recognizes its own door opened at the usual hour - not with ceremony, but with a mild adjustment of attention. I left my bag where it was and walked to the side room doorway.

The eight sheets were on the shelf in the same order, corners straight. I did not take them down. The notebook lay flat beside them. I did not open it.

In the main room, the worker moved around the counter toward the back passage. Lano watched until the footsteps faded, then lowered her head to her paws. The lamp held its flame. The grit waited in the corner for morning.

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