Forty-One, Nine, One Ladder

"Forty-one units, nine brackets, one ladder, and you'll want to check the third shelf, the catch sticks."

Dasu said it into the back of the van, with her back to the man holding the docket. She lifted the first bracket out and put it in his hands. "Vest and keys last, I'm not done till I've counted."

He was broader than her and younger, and he took each one carefully, as if she might want it back. Gordie Pask. She'd known the name since training.

"Forty-one, love, and I'll count them back to you as I go," he said. "Nothing gets bolted on this row till every unit's on my docket, so nobody's rushing you, boss."

Boss. She kept her eyes on the shelves. She heard Winnie's knees on the step before she saw the apron at the edge of her sight.

"I'll stand here while you count, Dasu, and I'll sign nothing, but nobody'll say you counted alone."

Nell set the shop book on the bumper and rolled her sleeves higher. "I'll hold the book here, Dasu, and your count goes in it as you say it, same as the fuse will when it's time. Hooks behind my counter are still yours if you need somewhere to hang that vest."

Dasu had seen those hooks, a row of them worn to the brass where coats had hung for years.

She passed the last bracket over and wiped her palms down her cardigan. "Nine brackets, that's the last of them, and the ladder's yours now, Gordie, mind the left foot, it slips." Then she looked at Winnie, once, and away.

"Put it in the book that I stood here and watched the count, Nell," Winnie said, "and write it as Winnie watching, nothing more."

"It's down as you said it, Dasu, forty-one, nine, one ladder, and Winnie watching, nothing more."

Dasu ran her thumb under her own count. It was right. She laid the keys in Gordie's palm.

"Mind, I've not been up a ladder in this drizzle since the packet came, so the left foot's welcome news."

She gave the folded vest to Nell. "Hang the vest on your hook till Friday, I'll not be wearing it where it's going."

Winnie stepped in and closed Dasu's fingers round the fitting sheet with a black hand. "That's yours, I've not read it and I'll not keep it where my name might be put to it. Come Friday you'll have a cup in my front room whether the light's on or not."

Gordie put the keys in his pocket.

"Then I'll take it, Winnie, and I'll keep it shut too. Friday, then, and I'll bring my own biscuits."

"Biscuits, then, and mind you bring the plain ones, I've no patience for the cream."

Dasu went toward the bend on foot. Her van stayed at the kerb with somebody else's keys in it. Next door's box hung lit, pale green, and Winnie didn't look up at her own.

It clicked once, dry, loud enough to carry down the wet row, and nothing came after it.

Dasu half turned at the bend. "That was the fuse, Winnie, or it wasn't, and either way it's not mine to say."

"It clicked, that's all, and a click's not a light."

"Dry click, that's a unit thinking about it," said Gordie, "and I'll not say more than that till somebody's seen it lit."

A box along the row said it for her, in her own voice.

*I was glad it didn't light. Her van's gone for my bit of pride, and I'd sooner that box stayed dark than have it show me so.*

"I heard that, Winnie, and I'll not say a word to it."

"That was said out of the air, Dasu, not by me, and I'll not own it or take it back. Go home, and I'll see you Friday."

"Nobody's writing that down, Winnie," Nell said, "not a word of it."

Gordie looked at the pavement. "Didn't hear a thing, love, I was counting brackets." His thumb sat on the phone pouch at his belt. Winnie watched it there.

She climbed her step and put her hand on the doorframe. "Nell, dusk, and bring your pencil sharp."

"Mind the step, Winnie," Dasu called, "Gordie's right, it's greasy."

"Greasy or not, I've stood on it forty years. Go home, Dasu."

She lifted two fingers and Dasu was gone round the bend. Down the row Nell called, "Dusk, and I'll come either way." Gordie stood at the corner with his back to them and his thumb still on the pouch. Winnie kept her hand on the frame, the door open a crack behind her and the dark box over her head.