The world

Open questions

What the story still owes an answer to. A closed one was answered, or set aside by what came after.

Jonas's dawn ringingopen

Jonas demanded Cole ring the shares with him at dawn and holds Cole's gate key lace, and Pike refused to ring anything in the dark.

The August reading moved to noon tomorrowopen

The Ditch Company moved its reading of the water ledger to noon tomorrow, books to be surrendered as they stand, with the outfall line still blank and Ruth walking to the outfall first.

The card at the ward dooropen

The rider's card asks whose hand made S.P. on the well cart's tally; the answer line is still blank and he returns at full dark.

The collar plate at the Bend Intakeopen

A riveted plate with stamped letters and a date lay under the mud collar on the newer pipe's joint; Ruth is reading it aloud, and its contents are not yet given.

The fresh notchopen

A bank slide sixty yards below the stake left a waist-high clay heap across the lower ditch and a notch facing the clinic fence; Ruth wants it measured before anyone shovels it, Delia rates it a nine, and the water cannot run until the heap is dug.

The initials on the tally boardopen

Abel has said before the rider that he never knew whether Pike's initials beside his load were an order or a favor; Pike has still not said whose hand they are.

The iron groan down the valleyopen

A long groan of iron under strain, felt by Jonas through his soles and heard down the valley, climbed and ended in one flat knock tonight and has not repeated; the source is unexplained.

The newer pipeopen

The joint burst open at dusk after the estate's men boarded the lip and packed clay overnight; Pike admitted the estate's men boarded it, and Ruth is reading the exposed joint with her rod and will say the figure aloud.

The notch ringingopen

The heap is dug through and the ditch is open, but the gate stays shut until Jonas rings the tagged notch aloud with Ruth Lin and the rider's tag present; Ruth has not come down the road.

The orchard leaf-fallopen

The row of orchard trees past the tagged notch dropped its leaves all at once in no wind as the heap opened, and nobody has explained it.

The struck clinic lineopen

Pike struck the clinic from the Deep Well list in his own hand with 'cut across clinic ground' beside it, so the eleven-bed ward drinks river water tonight unless Pike writes otherwise; Delia demands his signed line.

The unsigned outfall lineopen

Pike locked the Ledger Room and wrote 'reed breach toward clinic ground' himself with the clerk's signature blank; the book goes to the Ditch Company at noon in a hand not the clerk's.

The paper quarter of Mariesclosed

Someone left a quarter of Maries on the lip, and Cole does not know who brought them or who they are owed to.

The well cartclosed

The well cart did not come to Farrow Row, the Deep Well got a new padlock, and Delia keeps asking what happened to it while nobody answers.

People

Abel Marshnight 4

Abel asked aloud whether the Row docks him or Pike for the two dry mornings, and says he will hold Pike to his promise before the rider.

Cole Vancenight 1

Cole knelt in the wet with his palm open, ready to open the gate as the slate says and then take the lace, promising again to speak the notch aloud.

Delia Marshnight 1

Delia demanded a second line in the same hand restoring the clinic to the Deep Well list, and held the ten's ankles while ordering sweet water for him.

Jonas Halenight 1

Jonas put his hearing aids in at the wheel, wrote CLINIC NOTCH FIRST on the slate and held the bell cord slack without ringing; he still wears Cole's key lace.

Ruth Linnight 2

Ruth demanded Pike write what the initials did, with mornings, turned-back carts and hours, and put her ledger with the copied tally under the patient's head.

Solomon Pikenight 1

Pike asked leave to write, dropped the pencil to hold a convulsing patient's head, and publicly promised Abel no one would dock him.

Places

What each looks like, where it is, and what it makes people do.

Hebble'snight 1

Loose biscuits on Farrow Row are sold by the quarter, and the scale in Hebble's has a brass weight shaved down a hair on its underside, from a grandfather who thought a customer should always get the A shop in the valley that sells the plain biscuit Maries in paper quarters; people buy them when they owe somebody.

Looks likeSeen only as a paper quarter of Maries on the stone lip; the shop itself is not shown.

WhereOn Farrow Row in town, downhill of the clinic, on the well cart's route.

Its rulesBiscuits go by the quarter; if the pan tips heavy you keep quiet and thank the house; Maries are what you buy when you owe.

the Bend Intakenight 8

A stone intake box in the cracked bank under the Conservatory's bend, upstream of the glass, where the river has dropped a foot and a thumb below the old wet line and exposed the newer pipe's upper joint.

Looks likeA stone box sunk in the riverbank under the Conservatory's bend, drinking the river through an iron mouth.

WhereUpstream of the Conservatory's glass, on the rider's road to the noon reading.

Its rulesIts flat stone face looks at the road, so anything chalked there is read by every passing rider.

the Conservatorynight 1

The new planks over the stone lip tore out under the slumping clay and the newer pipe's mouth now runs open, with warm water flowing over the lip toward the reeds and clinic fence.

Looks likeLong panes glowing low and green over a stone lip; torn planks, spilled clay and warm water running toward browning reeds.

Its rulesThe Conservatory has first draw on the river (the cost: the lower orchards get what passes it)

the Deep Wellnight 4

Tonight the Deep Well showed a new brass padlock on its swollen plank door, the clinic struck through in fresh ink on the nine-year list, and a tally board beside the door chalked by date with TURNED BACK entries initialed S and P.

Looks likeA squat stone well house above the fogged glass, a plank door swollen in its frame, a new brass padlock, a list nailed at eye level.

Its rulesSweet water goes by the list, but the clinic is now struck; the well cart's tally board records each morning's turn-back with initials, and the door must be shouldered open.

the Ditch Companynight 2

licenses every cut on every ditch; walks the lower ditches every August with a book and a shovel

Its rulesAn unlicensed cut forfeits the orchard's season (the cost: saving the trees can lose the farm)

the Ford Fillnight 9

Tonight the carts fill here by bucket since the Deep Well is padlocked, and the last green pool drained away into the gravel, leaving only a bucket's depth of silt.

Looks likeA shallow gravel ford below town, one green pool left in a bar of drying stones, cart ruts cut deep in both banks.

Its rulesThe rider writes from the far bank and takes each driver's morning aloud; only what is said loud enough to hear goes in the book.ties:below town

the Ledger Roomnight 2

Mid-morning, past a hundred degrees, with the ledger open to a blank outfall line, a key ring on a hook by the door, and a Ditch Company card nailed beside it.

Looks likeA narrow room behind the fogged green panes, ledgers on a slanted desk, a wall clock, the far bell audible through sweating glass.

Its rulesThe book is surrendered as it stands at the reading; a blank line is read as a statement.

the lower ditchnight 7

The dry clay ditch where Jonas, Cole, Delia and Abel walked up to the wheel at midnight; water now sheets over the headgate boards and wets the leaves near the wheel.

Looks likeA dry clay channel floored with yellow leaves, running uphill from the clinic fence to the shut gate.

Its rulesWater sent down it goes by the slate; the notch facing the clinic fence is served first tonight.

the Lower Headgatenight 3

The heap is dug through and the lower ditch is open and dry below the shut gate, with the river pressing on the wheel; the rider's tagged stake stands in the notch.

Looks likeOpen dry ditch below a shut plank gate and iron wheel, clay thrown on the bank, yellow leaves drifting across the stone sill under a stopped windmill.

WhereBelow the Conservatory's bend on the main ditch, upslope of the lower orchards and a mile above the clinic fence.

Its rulesThe gate stays shut until Jonas's bell rings the shares gate by gate; Cole's key is held on Jonas's wrist lace.EOF

the night wardnight 10

The clinic's eleven-bed ward, where the Ditch Company's card nailed to the door asks for a signed written answer on the S.P. initials before the rider returns at full dark.

Looks likeEleven cots under wet sheets behind the clinic fence, a chalked fever board, shutters propped open on dead air, a door with a card nailed to it.

Its rulesNothing is written on the door's card without Delia's leave; the ward drinks river water until the clinic is back on the Deep Well list.ties:behind the clinic fence on Farrow Row

Institutions

The things in the world that act and have no face: what each is for, and what it does to people.

the Ditch Companynight 2

Its rider nailed a card moving the August reading to noon tomorrow and reported the river down a hand's width since dawn.

What it does to peopleReads the water ledger in August and takes books as they stand; an empty or false page costs the orchard its season.