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9. Present
Reported stages only; the opening school year is not numbered.
- Before renewals stop
- At nine her name is answered; the desk card renews separately on Thursdays.
- Year of long division
- Renewals stop.
- One further term
- The head retains the unpaid name; the teacher still reads it.
- Following year
- The teacher leaves without explaining.
- Replacement
- A different name occupies the seat.
- Twenty years later
- The reunion reads the old paper register.
The teacher leaves without giving a reason. The timeline records sequence, not a proved explanation for her departure.
The story reports three linked records without identifying who stopped payment.
| Entry | What continues | What the figure cannot infer |
|---|---|---|
| Desk fee | Listed between milk and swimming during renewal | A monthly schedule or reason payment stops |
| Name on the roll | Retained one unpaid term | The head's exclusive motive |
| Headcount and funding | Both hold while the name remains | That the child's presence costs nothing |
| Old paper register | Survives to the reunion outside funding's record | That it restores the child |
Keeping the name preserves funding for one term. Whether that act is kindness, expedience or both remains open.
Two bodily or visual disturbances occur without remembered decisions.
| School photograph | Reunion table | |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger | The autumn photograph has changed by spring | The fourth name is reached |
| Visible change | The neighboring children have moved apart | The former neighbor's hand lies flat |
| Remembered decision | Neither child remembers moving | She did not decide to put her hand there |
| The child at the center | Eight years old as printed | The answering silence is eight years old |
The comparison joins two unchosen changes; it does not explain how the photograph alters or diagnose the woman's gesture.