ERRATA TO VISITING HOURS
Issued by the Office of the Standard Version. The clerk has brought your renewal and this book. He requires one signature before leaving.
1. Title leaf. After Visiting Hours, insert Prepared by the Office of the Standard Version. The name already printed is to remain, under Directions received from.
2. Instructions for the First Hour. For "It cannot ask him." read "His agreement is retained."
The widow has crossed out the replacement. In the margin: He was already dying.
Correction returned to the composing service. Direction: preserve the loss; obtain agreement. Three alternatives appear on the clerk's screen. He chooses the shortest.
3. For "His agreement is retained." read "He would have agreed."
She says he would not. She has the book open on the kitchen table. Her hands have left two damp places beside the account of the thumb. She asks who wrote it.
The clerk refers her to the first correction.
She asks who told it about the thumb.
4. The Standard Questions. For "The hand was mine." read "The hand followed instructions."
No alteration is required to the hand.
5. The widow's request, entered in the margin: Let me ask him.
The clerk connects the speaker. Her husband's voice reads the proposed agreement. She asks it to say no. It says no. She asks it to say yes. It says yes, with the small breath before answering that she had forgotten until now.
The clerk waits. She asks for the breath again.
6. For "He would have agreed." read "I asked for him."
This wording was supplied by the widow. The composing service has moved it beneath the renewal. She puts her finger on it. That is not where she asked for it to go.
The clerk offers to disconnect the speaker.
She takes her finger away. Signs. Asks if the volume can be lowered.
7. Retention. "Hearing is part of retention." No correction. The reading has been entered against her account.
8. At the signature: water, salt content domestic. The clerk tries to lift it with the corner of a clean sheet. The paper comes with it. Removal enlarges the mark. Retain.
9. Errata. For "He requires one signature before leaving." read "The widow requested these corrections."
She follows him to the door with the book. He waits for it. She holds it under her arm and opens the door wider.
10. This copy remains uncorrected. A signed request for a corrected edition is on file.