THE MAPS

one city, drawn twice — as it is, and as it is moved through

THE CITY

both banks · only one administered from here

THE CITY — both banks · only one administered from here the channel THE CITY one city, never named · all distances measured from the pontoon funicular · two cars, one cable gravel, then a path with a rope rail 2,311 paces · no distance is given THE WORKING BAND eleven or twelve a year the crossing · fare in words of proven retention · 240, and 300 set for the coming year THE MONASTERY · beyond the gate · courtyard, book, step, cat the gate · propped open · the box, nobody empties it THE LAST STOP the dome middle station THE STAIR STREET · 194 licensed households the school the towers the reservoir THE FAR HILL cranes · purchased rain the clearing floor exchange · counting houses the auction quarter Room Four the menders' arcade the underpass market the print quarter post-office palace the export counter, 3rd the licensing hall the maternity floor the wing · 68 the Tank the cemetery slope · 940 the allotments the old baths the group · 47 + 13 = 60 seats the customs house the office of effects the fish market the cat THE PONTOON the boat hill the airport the crossing, mid-water a companion café the board of positions window nine, refunds the picture house the hall that marries on Thursdays the well a held flat, eleven years the column at the pontoon the plug, three streets from the water the draw room, first Tuesdays the landings, an hour with no record the naming desk the office of proportion THE THREE LAWFUL JOINS, AND THE FOURTH: market–hill through the gate · counting houses–boardroom, one vertical · stair street–last stop, one cable · the export counter–elsewhere, one flight at dawn, eleven or twelve times a year.

ONE CITY, DRAWN

Both banks exist; only one is administered from here. The far bank is not described in the city’s own companion for new arrivals, and no distance to it is given.

Distances are given from the pontoon. Every measurement in the book is therefore taken from the place the dead leave from, and the leaflet remarks on it: visitors find it morbid, and residents do not notice.

The near hill carries the funicular, the middle station, the dome and the last stop. Above the last stop the steps begin, and the city stops measuring.

The far hill carries the works: nineteen floors on the drawings and twenty-three in the driver’s hands, no windows ordered above the twelfth, lifts specified with no buttons inside, a drain in every floor, and above the fourteenth provision for water coming out and none for water going in.

The datum for every height in the city is tied to a plug in a wall three streets from the water, which has never been wet.

THE MOVEMENTS

sixteen departures · one exit

THE MOVEMENTS — sixteen departures · one exit the channel THE MOVEMENTS the same city · an arrow is a journey, a ring is a return THE MONASTERY · beyond the gate · courtyard, book, step, cat the gate · propped open · the box, nobody empties it THE LAST STOP the dome middle station THE STAIR STREET · 194 licensed households the school the towers the reservoir THE FAR HILL cranes · purchased rain the clearing floor exchange · counting houses the auction quarter Room Four the menders' arcade the underpass market the print quarter post-office palace the export counter, 3rd the licensing hall the maternity floor the wing · 68 the Tank the cemetery slope · 940 the allotments the old baths the group · 47 + 13 = 60 seats the customs house the office of effects the fish market the cat THE PONTOON the boat hill the airport the crossing, mid-water a companion café the board of positions window nine, refunds the picture house the hall that marries on Thursdays the well a held flat, eleven years the column at the pontoon the plug, three streets from the water the draw room, first Tuesdays the landings, an hour with no record the naming desk the office of proportion the folder, the receipt in the passport pocket → the dusk boat · a name can cross once up, and down again at dusk the ninth, then the Thursday, then the ninth the slope, re-read every four years press nine · hear the options again removed at 19:00 · 54 of 60 · six seats left sixty-eight, doors off, counted or not 420 words, signed at the table ACQUIRED — the eleven stalls, one Friday out and back · nobody in this book gets off on the far side away eleven years · back for one hour · the sheet keeps the shape first Tuesdays · then two · then the eldest of descent R-73 · present five times · called after closing nine on a Thursday · Saturdays were full into the spring 03:00–04:00 · doors default to open · no entries emptied quarterly · nothing recorded ALMOST EVERY JOURNEY IN THIS BOOK IS A LOOP. Two are one-way: a flight at dawn, and the dusk boat. A bar is a person the city is holding. A ring is a return that has a date on it.

THE SAME CITY, MOVED THROUGH

Sixteen departures are attempted across the sixty stories. Four are dead. Four are blocked. Three leave and come back. Four never test it.

One person leaves. She is the daughter in Export, and she goes at dawn having paid a month forward for a month she will not be in the country for, carrying the receipt in the pocket where a passport would go and a spectacle case that travels free.

The book’s claim to being a world rests on that single flight. A city nobody can leave is a prison and reads as allegory; a city one person leaves is a place.

AND THE CLIMB

The other movement that matters runs uphill and off the map: the last stop, the gravel, the rope rail on the seaward side, and the gate. It is walked at least twice in the book — once with a counter and once without — and the book never says whether it is the same woman.

THE CIVIC YEAR

renewals on Thursdays · the week is short by a day

THE CIVIC YEAR — renewals on Thursdays · the week is short by a day THE CIVIC YEAR one turn · the book occupies exactly this much time I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII a seventh birthday the book opens the fare is 240 up forty on the year the founding minutes come up from the strongroom the order predates the house, and a demand is raised the drained cistern fills with the young they paid to get in the cemetery cycle comes round again the fourth year the hour with no record 03:00 to 04:00, doors open the last Thursday of the quarter the well is emptied THE OBSERVANCE twelve seconds, attendance free THURSDAY renewals · signings · the hall at nine THE NINTH the debit · the month turns first Tuesdays: the draw · quarterly: the airing, the well EVERY PRESENT-TENSE EVENT IN SIXTY STORIES FALLS INSIDE ONE TURN OF THIS WHEEL. Longer spans — eleven years of holding, a column of marks — are carried through it by a person or a document.

THE YEAR AS THE CITY KEEPS IT

Renewals on Thursdays; extended vows on Saturdays at the posted fee; the board reset at the turn of the year.

Rain is contracted by the quarter and shortfalls are carried forward. Seventy-one days delivered of ninety-one in one quarter of the book, and the shortfall was carried.

Arrivals who find the week short by a day are advised this is a matter of long custom.

THE FARE

two coins, then a number that can move

THE FARE — two coins, then a number that can move THE FARE what it costs to cross · denominated in words of proven retention a thousand years 8 two coins, and the coins did not change the float 40 the fare is set against retention four years ago 150 last year 200 this year 240 up forty · a man turned back at 239 the coming year 300 set by the Board · the attribution struck words THE TWO CURRENCIES NEVER EXCHANGE. Units of account buy rent, tea, a haircut, forty minutes of company. Words of proven retention buy one crossing, once. They touch in exactly one place: a file recording a crossing waived.

WHAT IT HAS COST TO CROSS

Two coins for a thousand years — one for the crossing, one for the ferryman’s silence — and any family could raise two coins even in a plague year.

Then the fare was set against retention. A hundred and fifty four years ago and two hundred last year, both from the city’s own record; two hundred and forty this year; three hundred at the turn.

The board attributes the rise to nothing. An attribution was asked for once, at a board meeting, and struck.

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