January 16. They did not come.
At twenty past nine I counted the personnel present.
One.
For seven days it was two.
At twenty to ten I looked for a box to enter that someone did not come.
The attendance record has a box for absence.
The attendance record is drawn from the register of persons in post.
At ten I opened the register of persons in post.
One person in this room.
Me.
There is no entry of them being in post.
At twenty past ten I looked for since when it is absent.
The register is provided only as at the time of query.
There is no register for last month.
At twenty to eleven I read the notice of my appointment again.
One records keeper is assigned, it says.
There is no entry concerning a transfer.
There is no way of confirming whether they were on the register then.
At eleven I looked for their staff number.
The form's sixth field holds only a name.
The compiler procedure says a title of office may not be entered, and there is no field for a staff number.
I queried by name.
Four of the same name. None with a record of assignment to this room.
At noon I counted what I asked over the seven days.
Twelve.
Eleven of the answers were that it is not in the procedure or not in the notice.
One was different.
Why they counted the impressions had an answer.
The articles were six and the impressions were six, and they counted to see whether they were the same, they said.
One question has an answer.
At one I looked at whether it can be entered as absence.
Absence attaches to a person in post.
I looked for a box for entering that someone is missing.
It is in the personnel form. It is not in this room's forms.
The personnel form cannot be drafted from this room.
At twenty past one I looked at the five fields handed over.
The third field is where the counts do not agree.
The personnel present went from two to one.
I entered it there.
A person has gone into that field.
At twenty to two I looked up the record of the keeper before them.
They too have no record of receiving handover papers on appointment.
The entry concerning the one before is one line.
No receipt of handover papers, it says.
It is not an entry of someone going missing.
At two I opened the drawer.
There is nothing.
The entry for the twenty-eighth says they did not put it in the drawer.
What they were given was in the drawer.
At ten past two I looked at the box for confirming completion of handover.
There is one place to sign.
On the second of January the ones receiving were two.
Today there is one.
I signed.
The field and the people agree. They agree because the people decreased.
At twenty past two I counted the chairs.
Two.
There is no record of removal.
At twenty to three I took out the stocktaking form.
There are three heads of count.
Articles, impressions and personnel present.
I looked at which day is entered.
As at the date of stocktaking, it says.
The date of stocktaking is in February.
At three I looked for a box to enter that in.
There is none.
I wrote it in the margin. It is thirty-four.
If it is one in February, one is entered.
That it was two for seven days does not remain on the stocktaking form.
At twenty past three I opened the right-hand material.
Five hundred and ninety-nine pages. The date of the page that grew is the fourteenth of February, ninety-nine.
I opened page five hundred and thirty-nine.
The third line is blank.
The nineteenth day.
At twenty to four I opened the box.
Seven articles. Seven impressions. The three hundred and twenty-seventh day.
At four I looked at the sixth field.
Five thousand five hundred and thirty.
At twenty past four I opened the notebook.
That line on page sixty-four is as it was.
There is no count that comes to eight today either.
At half past four I compared the hand on page sixty-four of the notebook.
It is the same hand as the name in the form's sixth field.
The strokes break and are drawn again.
The hand of someone who writes twice and matches, it is entered.
My hand is not like that.
It is the fifteenth day since I took the post.
At twenty to five I counted the month and the day.
On the sixteenth of December they wrote the ten characters.
On the sixteenth of January they did not come.
The months differ and the days are the same.
There is no provision for counting them as the same day.
I wrote it in the margin. It is thirty-five.
At ten to five I opened page two hundred and twenty-nine.
The one line of the twenty-eighth is there.
That line has a side that receives and the side that receives is me.
The side that wrote it is not on today's register.
There is no box for entering a line of which only the receiving side remains.
I wrote it in the margin. It is thirty-six.
At five I drew off the query record.
The set's row was opened seventy-one times yesterday. The imprint route, forty-three.
The notation of the side opening it is eight Latin characters.
At twenty past five I drew off today's.
It was opened once this morning at twenty to nine.
At that hour there was nobody in this room.
There is one terminal in this room from which that row can be opened.
The query record has no field for the terminal.