Kindly Confirm

story twenty-two · figures 64–66

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KINDLY CONFIRM · THE THURSDAY, AND THE WEEKEND AFTER IT — forty mothers, forty true confirmations, none of them in the right window KINDLY CONFIRM · THE THURSDAY, AND THE WEEKEND AFTER IT forty mothers, forty true confirmations, none of them in the right window THE LAST THURSDAY OF TERM they come in forty together · the queue folds twice around the hall one by one each kindly confirms a name, a date, a photograph — every detail true, and none of them hers THAT AFTERNOON the register holds forty renewals each one true somewhere · not one where it was · the hall closes on time THAT MONTH no invoices go out the only month in the story when the machinery does not bill OVER THE WEEKEND the register puts itself right nobody works on it. It simply agrees with itself again by Monday MONDAY, THE SCHOOL GATE the printouts they kept agree with the files, not with Thursday they stand comparing pages that have stopped being the pages AND ONE COUNT there is one name more than there are mothers nobody asks it out loud THE FOLLOWING TERM the long form gains a second signature box confirmed in the presence of the person confirming · four seconds longer FORTY TRUE STATEMENTS, MADE UNDER A SENTENCE THAT ASKS ONLY FOR TRUTH, DEFEAT THE REGISTER FOR ONE MONTH. The city’s repair is not an investigation and not a penalty. It is one extra line of standard type, and four seconds, forty times a year, each, for ever. "THEY NEVER TAKE A THING OFF. THEY ONLY ADD."
64 · Kindly Confirm
KINDLY CONFIRM · THE ONE WHO PAUSED — one boy of forty · what happens to a child whose renewal stops while his name keeps being read KINDLY CONFIRM · THE ONE WHO PAUSED one boy of forty · what happens to a child whose renewal stops while his name keeps being read the letter renewal PAUSED pending confirmation of identity she brings everything photographs, dates, the folder · the window is courteous the screen shakes its head the letter is warm: thank you for keeping the record true at school his name is still read out · somebody answers it THE THIRD WEEK he stops going. Nobody tells him to eleven days his friend keeps his chair · then a smaller boy sits in it the new term still paused · she takes a ticket and does not sit HE HAS WORKED OUT WHAT IT COSTS HIS MOTHER, IN MORNINGS, EVERY TIME HE IS ASKED TO BE SOMEBODY. The register answers for him whether he is there or not, so his attendance has stopped being a fact about him and started being an expense. A nine-year-old does the arithmetic and withdraws himself. The smaller boy is not told anything, and the room adjusts the way a room does. A CHILD LEARNS THE CITY’S ARITHMETIC BEFORE HE LEARNS LONG DIVISION.
65 · Kindly Confirm
KINDLY CONFIRM · WINDOW SEVEN — one screen, in one story, does everything right · and it is filed here beside what the same machinery does elsewhere KINDLY CONFIRM · WINDOW SEVEN one screen, in one story, does everything right · and it is filed here beside what the same machinery does elsewhere WINDOW SEVEN · finds a payment taken twice in April · returns it BEFORE the mother asks · prints a line to say so · asks nothing further of her She stands looking at the slip. THE SAME MACHINERY, ELSEWHERE · pauses a child pending confirmation of identity · shakes its head at photographs and dates · writes warmly: thank you for helping us · keep the record true It is the same hall, the same sentence above every window, on another Thursday. "NOBODY IN THE QUEUE HAS SEEN THIS HAPPEN." The refund is real, unprompted, correct and unbilled. It is also one of only two moments in sixty stories where the machinery returns something before it is asked — and the queue does not know what to do with it. A SYSTEM THAT IS SOMETIMES RIGHT IS HARDER TO LEAVE THAN ONE THAT IS ALWAYS WRONG. That is why the piece contains this window: to make the hall’s cruelty un-dismissable. THE QUEUE MOVES. THE FEE SCHEDULE HANGS WHERE THE QUEUE BENDS.
66 · Kindly Confirm

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