Minutes

story thirty-six · figures 106–108

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MINUTES · TWELVE ITEMS, AND WHAT EACH ONE IS — the quarterly meeting in the room above the clearing floor · present: the Chair, four Holders, the Secretary, minuting MINUTES · TWELVE ITEMS, AND WHAT EACH ONE IS the quarterly meeting in the room above the clearing floor · present: the Chair, four Holders, the Secretary, minuting 1 acquisitions premises, sunset inventory, the residue of one estate · ASH INCLUSIVE 2 the books the deceased book above forecast · the figures received STANDING 3 the crossing the rate set at three hundred · an attribution asked for, and STRUCK 4 weather receipts rain delivered as purchased, 71 of 91 days · shortfall carried forward 5 the interruption one person, from the floor, during the lot of the fourteen refusals · ORDER WAS RESTORED 6 the unattachable asset the cat · "there is nothing to attach to" · what does it eat: RULED OUTSIDE THE AGENDA 7 one identification completed in an irregular hand · the reader accepted it · the policy of the reader is acceptance 8 correspondence a demand for repayment settled in the usual way, BY SETTLEMENT OF THE DEMANDER 8A informal transfers not yet measurable · measurement would require the households to declare it 9 the city was quiet "quiet is a product" · the Holder referred to Item 4 10 condolences the Secretary’s mother · CONDOLENCES ARE NOT MINUTED 11 the Secretary’s renewal moved to the top of the next agenda · no discussion · a pause, which is not a minuted category 12 in camera four minutes of the recording and NO LINES OF THE MINUTES ANY OTHER BUSINESS: THERE WAS NONE. THERE IS NEVER ANY OTHER BUSINESS. THE BUSINESS IS ALL ONE BUSINESS. FOUR OF THESE TWELVE ITEMS ARE STORIES YOU HAVE READ, REDUCED TO A LINE EACH.
106 · Minutes
MINUTES · THE SECRETARY, IN HER OWN RECORD — she appears four times in a document she is writing · three of them are about what cannot be minuted MINUTES · THE SECRETARY, IN HER OWN RECORD she appears four times in a document she is writing · three of them are about what cannot be minuted ITEM 3 a Holder asks for an attribution refused — and the mention of conditions in the channel is struck: "You are reading where it stood." ITEM 10 her mother has died CONDOLENCES ARE NOT MINUTED · and the sentence saying so was ordered minuted, the Chair being of the view that the record should show its mercies ITEM 11 her own renewal falls due within the quarter moved to the top of the next agenda · no discussion · a pause, which is not a minuted category THE THANKS thirty-one years THE THANKS WERE READ ALOUD TO HER AS SHE WROTE THEM DOWN THE MINUTE IS ADOPTED WITHOUT SIGNATURE, AS ALL MINUTES ARE. THE BOARD SIGNS NOTHING. One member has twice paid a household’s arrears from her own account and asked that it not be minuted — and it is minuted, since the request itself is a minutable act. HER INITIALS ARE THE ONLY HANDWRITING IN THE CITY THAT THE RECORD READS AND DOES NOT OWN. THE THIRTY-ONE YEARS ARE THE WIDOW’S NUMBER. THE BOOK GIVES IT TO A SECOND WOMAN, IN A ROOM ABOVE THE MACHINERY.
107 · Minutes
MINUTES · WHAT THE ROOM DOES WITH WHAT IT CANNOT MINUTE — the categories the record does not carry, and where each one goes instead MINUTES · WHAT THE ROOM DOES WITH WHAT IT CANNOT MINUTE the categories the record does not carry, and where each one goes instead condolences not minuted the sentence stating so IS minuted · the record shows its mercies a pause not a minuted category so it happens, and is described, and is not counted item 12 taken in camera four minutes of recording · no lines of minutes an attribution struck left legible underneath a member’s charity asked not to be minuted minuted · the request is the minutable act the hill raised under any other business deferred · as it has been every quarter for as long as there have been quarters what the cat eats asked by a Holder ruled outside the agenda THE CARAFE WAS CARRIED OUT UNPOURED, AS IT IS CARRIED OUT EVERY QUARTER, the water in it the oldest employee in the room. Four hundred words later the Board has set a fare, struck an attribution, declined to discuss a cat, and been thanked on behalf of a woman writing the thanks. Nobody in the room is identifiable. THE ROOM IS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE BOOK WHERE THE COUNTERPARTY OF RECORD COMES CLOSE TO APPEARING, and what appears is four Holders, a Chair, an unsigned minute and a jug of water nobody drinks.
108 · Minutes

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