September 13. It asks who published the four volumes.
At ten past nine I opened the enquiry that came yesterday.
It came by post. Not by fax.
There is no sender's address on the envelope. Only a postmark.
At the top of the enquiry there is a field for the enquirer. It is blank.
In the field for the one receiving there is this room's name. It says computer room.
The letter that came in July had it as the editorial department. This one has the name of office right.
The enquiry is a printed form. Two fields are filled by hand.
I looked at the writing in those two fields.
The final consonants are not joined on.
At half past nine I counted the items it asks after.
Two.
The name of the editor who published the four volumes.
The period that editor held the post.
At ten to ten I looked for where it saw the four volumes.
Below the enquiry there is one line.
It says it saw them in the union catalogue.
It says it saw five clustered by compiler.
At ten I looked for the field in which to answer.
There is no editor field on the list.
There is a compiler field.
At twenty past ten I looked up the two words in the procedure.
It says a compiler is the one who compiled the material.
It says an editor is the one charged with publication.
There is no field asking whether the two are the same person.
There is no field asking whether they are different either.
I looked on the list for an entry holding both a compiler field and an editor field.
There is none. No entry has an editor field.
There are thirty-one places to enter the one who compiled and nought to enter the one who published.
At twenty to eleven I looked for the editor in the four volumes.
The foreword is headed Editor's Note.
The afterword is headed Editor's Afterword.
The one who wrote those two is the editor.
The foreword has no field for that person.
Nor does the afterword.
It is in the heading and not in a field.
At twenty past eleven I went back to the list.
In the compiler field of the four entries there are eight letters.
It is the field I filled on the thirteenth of last month.
The enquirer saw that field and asked.
Looking for a field in which to answer, I saw that the answer is already there.
At one I looked at who wrote that answer.
The list's displayed value is eight letters.
What went into that field is my name.
Both are things I put there.
There is no field on the list for entering who put them there.
What is visible to the enquirer is the eight letters.
At twenty past one I went on to the second item.
The period in post.
The personnel form has a field for the period in post.
I looked for that notation in the register of serving staff.
There is none.
There was none in January either, when I looked for the one before me.
At twenty to two I looked for what can be counted.
This room has an appointment record.
It says a line is added each time the record officer changes.
What the register does not answer can be counted from that record.
At ten to two I looked for a field in which to enter that I do not know.
There is none on the reply form.
There is only the name field and the period field.
The June reply had no field for confirmation being impossible either, and it went in the margin. The same place.
At two I wrote the reply.
In the field for the editor's name I entered the list's displayed value.
Eight letters.
In the field for the period in post I entered that it is under confirmation.
There is no field for entering that it is under confirmation. It went in the margin. Ninety-four.
At half past two I looked at the sending field of the reply.
This room's name and fax number go in it.
There is no address on the enquiry to send to.
I looked at the postmark. Domestic. The name of the country only.
I wrote a reply with nowhere to send it.
At ten to three I put the reply away. I left it as undispatched.
At three I opened the box.
Seven articles. Seven marks. Day five hundred and sixty-seven.
The sixth field is twelve thousand six hundred and fifty-three. The set's row was opened a hundred and sixty-six times yesterday and the imprint route a hundred and fifteen.
The compiler route was nineteen yesterday. A route that did not exist on the thirteenth of last month.
The right-hand material is eight hundred and thirty-nine pages. The date of the added page is the twelfth of the tenth month of ninety-nine. The third line of page five hundred and thirty-nine has been blank two hundred and fifty-nine days. The original of the fifth bundle is a hundred and seventy-seven pages and has not grown for six hundred and thirty-seven days.
At half past three I counted the twelfth page.
It has not come for a hundred and twenty-five days.
Head office has sent nothing for a hundred and three days either.
At four I counted the sides that have asked.
From April to today, five enquiries have come from outside.
Four of the five are holding libraries. One is this, without an address.
All five asked after the imprint or the editor.
Not one asked what this room is.
At twenty past four I laid the five out by date.
The sixteenth of April. The ninth of July. Two more in between. And yesterday.
April's came because I asked the four holding libraries first.
July's came without my asking.
Yesterday's came after I filled the field last month.
At twenty to five I took out the appointment record.
On the cover it says ledger of handovers of the record officer.
I opened the first page.
There is no date.
There is one line.
There is no place to enter the one who passed it on.
I counted the characters.
It is the same as the first line of the combined volume.