January 2. I took the post. There was someone in the room.
At nine I read the notice again.
One records keeper is assigned, it says.
There is no entry concerning a transfer.
I asked them. It is not in the notice, they said.
At twenty past nine I counted the room.
One desk.
Two chairs.
The record of articles brought in says one chair came yesterday.
There is no record of a chair being applied for.
At twenty to ten I looked at the desk.
There was a form. Number one hundred and forty-one.
There are eight Latin characters in the fifth field.
My name is on an annexed sheet.
The ones receiving are two.
At ten I looked for the procedure for confirming completion of handover.
The one receiving signs, it says.
There is one place to sign.
I asked them. It is not in the procedure, they said.
At twenty past ten I looked for whether to begin a new log.
There is no procedure saying to begin a new one.
The log is registered material. It is the sixth sub-number of the combining.
To begin a new one increases the sub-numbers, and increasing them is a matter for an application to amend.
On the first day there is no knowing whether this room holds the right to apply.
At eleven I decided to continue.
Continuing requires no application.
I chose the side that has a ground.
My log has no first page.
Page five hundred and eighty-five is its first page.
At twenty past eleven I read the form of entry.
A search is run in the morning and the result entered, it says.
What the search is run on is entered.
Why it is run is not entered.
I asked them. Why it is run is nowhere, they said.
At one I ran the search.
One thousand six hundred and eight.
Enter that it agrees with the value derived from the rule, it says.
The rule is three a day.
Add three to yesterday's value and you have today's. That is what is called the rule, it says.
At twenty past one I asked what that value counts.
It is not entered, they said.
For two years it was entered every day and what was entered is not entered.
Only whether three a day holds is entered.
At half past one I asked what the sixth field is.
The number who read, they said.
I asked who read what.
That is not in the field's name, they said.
At twenty to two I counted the registered materials in the schedule.
Six.
One is pending.
The entry for the twenty-eighth says seven.
At ten to two I asked them.
They counted the pending one in, they said.
I looked for the provision for counting it in.
There is none.
At two I opened the box.
I watched them count.
Seven articles. Seven impressions. The three hundred and thirteenth day.
I counted again.
The same.
At twenty past two I set the six registered materials and the seven articles and the seven impressions side by side.
The three are not one figure.
The entry for the twenty-eighth says they are.
At twenty to three I looked at the notebook.
They opened page sixty-four.
Counted this far. The next is eight.
There is an entry that the line is in their own hand.
There is an entry that they do not remember writing it.
At three I counted the people in this room.
Two.
There is no box for counting people.
At ten past three I asked whose notation the eight characters in the fifth field are.
It does not divide, they said.
My account has not been issued yet.
The number of characters a notation carries when it is issued is in the procedure. Eight.
At twenty past three I drew off the query record.
The set's row was opened sixty-five times yesterday. The imprint route, thirty-eight.
The notation of the side opening it is eight Latin characters.
At four I looked at the sixth field.
Five thousand one hundred and fifty-two.
At half past four they opened the right-hand material.
Five hundred and eighty-five pages.
The date of the page that grew is the thirty-first of January, ninety-nine.
My log is on its five hundred and eighty-fifth page today.
I continued it, so they are the same.
Had I begun a new one it would have been one.
At ten to five I looked for a box to enter that in.
There is none.
I wrote it in the margin. It is thirty-one.
There is no box for entering that I chose on a ground and the outcome came out the same.
At five they opened page two hundred and twenty-nine.
There is one line.
It was written on the twenty-eighth.
I read it.
That line has a side that receives.
The side that receives is me.
At twenty past five I read the line again.
It says I read the first line that day.
That day I had not taken the post.
There is no box for entering that I came to this room before taking the post.
At twenty to six they stood up.
I asked whether they were coming tomorrow.
It is not in the notice, they said.