The Turn on the Half-Landing

story thirty-nine · figures 115–117

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THE TURN ON THE HALF-LANDING · THREE TENSES, NINE SECTIONS — the plain present, a past that reaches back, and a future perfect running backward from four o’clock, when the van comes THE TURN ON THE HALF-LANDING · THREE TENSES, NINE SECTIONS the plain present, a past that reaches back, and a future perfect running backward from four o’clock, when the van comes THE PRESENT he starts with the drawers · the kitchen he can do · the wardrobe will not go down · he sits on the top step with a tape THE PAST the renewals started the winter after · four years, and the service was good · his father had known it would not go down THE FUTURE PERFECT, RUNNING BACKWARD before the newspaper the plates stood in the rack since Thursday, and before that a meal he missed, and before that a thousand and ninety he did not and eleven he did the backward clauses always end somewhere before anyone is grieving THE TENSE BRAID IS NOT A TRICK. IT IS WHAT A ROOM DOES TO A PERSON EMPTYING IT. Every object he lifts opens backward — the plates, the wardrobe, the shelf — and the sentence keeps going back until it reaches a Sunday when two people carried something up these stairs. "THAT IS THE STATE THE CITY HAS NO FORM FOR: A ROOM AFTER THE LAST PERSON AND BEFORE THE FIRST."
115 · The Turn on the Half-Landing
THE TURN ON THE HALF-LANDING · THE WARDROBE, WHICH DEFEATS EVERYBODY EQUALLY — it went up thirty-one years ago, on a Sunday, in the same weather THE TURN ON THE HALF-LANDING · THE WARDROBE, WHICH DEFEATS EVERYBODY EQUALLY it went up thirty-one years ago, on a Sunday, in the same weather THIRTY-ONE YEARS AGO it went UP these stairs two of them, on a Sunday, in this weather · his father said it would not go down, halfway up, with his shirt out AND WAS TOLD "be quiet and lift" by the woman with the knife TODAY it will not go down he takes the door off and it makes no difference THE TAPE AGREES WITH HIM he measures the turn on the half-landing and sits on the top step with the tape in his hand THE MEN FROM THE VAN are polite about it · they have seen it before one says his own mother’s went out through the window on a rope, and looks at this window, and says nothing further WHAT HAPPENS TO IT nothing · it stays, door off, in the empty flat it will have been photographed for the file, a folded rule laid against it for the scale — THE TRADE’S WAY OF PROVING A THING WAS TOO BIG THE ONE OBJECT IN THE FLAT THAT THE CITY HAS NO PROCEDURE FOR IS THE ONE THAT WENT UP BEFORE THE CITY DID. It defeats the son, the father who predicted it, the removal men, the tape, and the schedule — and the only form it ever enters is a photograph proving it was too big. THE OTHER MAN TELLS HIM ABOUT A BREAKFAST PLACE IN THE EASTERN LANES THAT USED TO SERVE UNTIL TWELVE.
116 · The Turn on the Half-Landing
THE TURN ON THE HALF-LANDING · THE SHELF WITH NOTHING ON IT — eleven months, on the second Sunday, in a room where nothing had stood since the license lapsed THE TURN ON THE HALF-LANDING · THE SHELF WITH NOTHING ON IT eleven months, on the second Sunday, in a room where nothing had stood since the license lapsed THE SHELF BY THE WINDOW the little host sat here and hummed one note and made a room feel occupied AND THERE WAS NO DUST ON IT AT ALL somebody had been dusting a shelf with nothing on it · eleven months · the second Sunday what the paper proves the license, the receipts, four years of stubs thin as a deck, the certificate with two stamps what the shelf proves nothing that any office would accept who was dusting it him · for eleven months, on the second Sunday, without ever once deciding to what he takes without deciding to two plates · he finds them later in his own bag HE HANDS THE KEYS IN AT FIVE. THE CLERK IS KIND AND QUICK AND KEEPS HIM BACK FOUR MINUTES PAST HER OWN HOUR, and asks him to confirm that the details below are true. His hands have gone the color of the tape, and the print of the roll is on the pad of his thumb. THE FLAT’S LAST HONEST RECORD IS A CLEAN SHELF, AND IT IS NOT ADMISSIBLE ANYWHERE.
117 · The Turn on the Half-Landing

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