The Wing

story twenty-five · figures 73–75

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THE WING · WHAT THREE FEET OF STONE STOPS — a remand wing that closed when the city stopped remanding people and started invoicing them THE WING · WHAT THREE FEET OF STONE STOPS a remand wing that closed when the city stopped remanding people and started invoicing them INSIDE a wrist is only a wrist sixty-eight people doors locked FROM THE INSIDE the wing’s one law a count kept on the wall in chalk and rubbed off again the confirmations the corrections the standard voice reading the weather the survey’s signal the metering anything that needs a wrist carrying is billable the moment a courier’s wrist crosses the line so nothing is delivered and everyone walks nine hundred meters, no rail flour comes up on shoulders that are not young · half a day a doctor twice a month, unpaid and unrecorded the standpipe older than the metering, therefore older than the charge WHAT IT COSTS TO BE UNREACHABLE WHAT DOES NOT GET THROUGH THE WALLS ARE THREE FEET OF STONE WITH A SKIN OF BRICK. THAT IS THE WHOLE REASON. Nobody calls it a prison and nobody has found another word, so mostly they say the wing. A locksmith took three weeks to reverse every lock on both landings, and the reversal is the wing’s one law. A BUILDING DESIGNED TO KEEP PEOPLE IN IS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE CITY THAT KEEPS THE CITY OUT.
73 · The Wing
THE WING · TWO DAYS, AND A VOTE TAKEN BY MOVING — the only argument the wing has ever had that goes past midnight · nobody raises their voice and everything anyone says is true THE WING · TWO DAYS, AND A VOTE TAKEN BY MOVING the only argument the wing has ever had that goes past midnight · nobody raises their voice and everything anyone says is true THE WOMAN FROM TWELVE says it badly and knows she is saying it badly —My girl’s eight. Eight. · three times over two days, never past it · "I’m not saying it right." —"You are." —"No." THE MAN WHO DOES THE STANDPIPE will not talk about the children at all he talks about the pipe · the fittings are not made anymore · a year to learn · twice, to the end, and waited out THE TWO IN COATS polite, and unfailingly kind a scheme, a hardship tier, a route back onto the rolls · a second tablet in case one fails — the detail the wing talks about afterward THE GATE SIDE 31 THE WALL 37 sixty-eight · the vote is taken by moving to one side of the yard or the other, which is how a count is honest THE GATE IS OPENED AT NOON. THE TWO IN COATS ARE GIVEN THE GOOD CHAIR FROM THE CHAPEL AND A CUP OF TEA. They begin, and are unfailingly kind, and get through it. Nobody says goodbye at any length — the goodbyes being for people who are going somewhere. THEY VOTED AFTER LEARNING THE COUNTING HAD ALREADY HAPPENED.
74 · The Wing
THE WING · THE COUNT THEY KEEP THEMSELVES — once a week, on the day they have agreed is Thursday · not out of any requirement THE WING · THE COUNT THEY KEEP THEMSELVES once a week, on the day they have agreed is Thursday · not out of any requirement the counts one has been counting them THIRTY-ONE OF THEM · AND HE WILL NOT SAY WHAT THE FIRST THIRTY WERE FOR. The count is read at the yard fire and chalked on the wall beside the rota, and rubbed off again. why they count a number you keep yourself is a number nobody can surprise you with where it is kept chalked beside the rota · read at the fire · rubbed off after the reading, once a week what it was sixty-eight after the survey the count is NOT read at the fire · there is no argument about this either the chalk stays in the tin the number on the wall is the old one, and stays THE MAN FROM CELL NINE GOES UP TO THE SECOND LANDING WHILE IT IS HAPPENING and sits on the bed with the door open, since there is nothing left to lock it against. THE ONE THING THEY OWNED WAS A NUMBER, AND THEY STOP SAYING IT OUT LOUD.
75 · The Wing

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