The Reserve

story forty-five · figures 133–135

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THE RESERVE · LOT 31, AND WHAT SURVIVES ITS CONDITION — two shoeboxes of drives, dated in the father’s hand · the years on paper stickers, the handwriting steady and then less steady THE RESERVE · LOT 31, AND WHAT SURVIVES ITS CONDITION two shoeboxes of drives, dated in the father’s hand · the years on paper stickers, the handwriting steady and then less steady IN THE STUDY forty years of voice · him reading in the evenings, the machine listening the way machines listen the catalogue calls it Lot 31 · personal audio archive THE LAST STICKER dated the winter after the stroke on that drive he reads WITHOUT A SINGLE STUMBLE, page after page, better than she has ever heard him read AND TWICE HE STOPS to say something that is not in any book once that the light is going · and once, much later, not to do the house in spring THE NIGHT BEFORE THE SALE the allotment · their father’s plot · the oil drum where he burned his prunings they burn the drives one at a time · the stickers curl first BY MORNING what could have been made of him CANNOT BE MADE AND IN THE MORNING two courgettes on the lid of the drum nobody’s name is on them THE SALE PROCEEDS AT TEN. LOT 31, WITHDRAWN BY THE VENDOR. THE ROOM DOES NOT PAUSE. Afterward there is an envelope for the estate: withdrawal after catalogue is charged, and the figure is EXACT TO THE SECOND DECIMAL. THEY DESTROY THE ONE THING THE HOUSE WANTED, AND ARE BILLED FOR THE DESTRUCTION AT A PUBLISHED RATE.
133 · The Reserve
THE RESERVE · WHAT ARRIVES AFTER THE ASH — four things reach the family in the weeks after the burning · none of them is a threat, and all of them are THE RESERVE · WHAT ARRIVES AFTER THE ASH four things reach the family in the weeks after the burning · none of them is a threat, and all of them are WITHIN THE WEEK a man with a camera at the allotment polite · asks nothing · photographs the ash, the drum, the bean rows, HER HANDS A WEEK AFTER THAT a letter, headed and courteous "AN INTEREST IN LOT 31 SURVIVES ITS CONDITION" · the reserve, for the residue WITH IT a reference number longer than the sentence her brothers ask if it is a joke, then they stop agreeing IN THE AUTUMN her elder brother’s renewal is MARKED FOR REVIEW no reason is attached AND THE VALUATION lists the rooms in an order the house was never walked in · kitchen last she checks it against their walk: THEIRS IS THE ORDER THE HOUSE WILL BE SOLD IN NOT ONE OF THESE FOUR THINGS IS ILLEGAL, THREATENING, OR EVEN DISCOURTEOUS. A photographer who asks nothing. An offer at the reserve. A review with no reason attached. A valuation in the wrong order that turns out to be the right one. The record does not disagree with them — it SCHEDULES them. SHE DOES NOT REPLY TO THE OFFER.
134 · The Reserve
THE RESERVE · WHAT WAS NEVER CATALOGUED — the albums · paper, the mother’s captions under the photographs, the little gummed corners THE RESERVE · WHAT WAS NEVER CATALOGUED the albums · paper, the mother’s captions under the photographs, the little gummed corners THE ALBUMS paper · the mother’s captions · gummed corners never went into the catalogue kept under the daughter’s bed, flat, the way contraband is kept — and known about by NO ONE WHO SIGNS THINGS what the drives were voice · licensable · catalogued · valued · wanted after burning what the albums are paper · unlicensable · uncatalogued · unvalued · unasked for why paper survives here the house numbers what it can price, and it never learned to price a caption what she does in the spring digs the ash into the bean row, and the beans come up as they do THE FAMILY DESTROYED THE ARCHIVE AND KEPT THE ALBUM, AND ONLY ONE OF THOSE ACTS PRODUCED AN INVOICE. The one grief-object in the story that the city never touches is the one it has no field for. It is flat, it is under a bed, and it is the only thing in the house that was not measured by spring. IT IS THE WORD RESIDUE. IT IS THAT WORD.
135 · The Reserve

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