Chương 59: Chapter 58: After Hours

I was out in the first light. Daphne had pinned a schedule to the bathhouse door. She hadn't asked anyone's permission. After yesterday's incident, she didn't need to. Three time slots for men — one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening — and the same for women. Since I was allowed in the morning slot, I finally got the bath I'd missed yesterday. After the incident, I'd settled for a shower at home instead. We'd already agreed on what time to set our phone clocks to.

Unlike back on Earth, accurately measuring the actual time of day here was far from a solved science. Bill was at the kitchen table when I came home, head down, drawing. The line he was making with his finger was the slowest line I'd ever seen anyone draw. He was drawing a circle. I didn't interrupt. Ella wasn't in the kitchen. She'd gone to the facility sometime before the first sun was up. There was a note on the laptop — a single word in her careful English: Gate. She'd be back eventually. I soon went out again.

I made it as far as the porch before I was stopped.

"Arcene." Daphne stood at the foot of the steps, hair still down, the cloth bag from her cottage over one shoulder. She'd been waiting. She was not the kind of person who waited long.

"Good morning," she said, catching my attention while I was still trying to work out how to handle the awkwardness from yesterday. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Then she smiled.

"I see you got clothes on today." She was already moving before I could answer. The bag came off her shoulder and into her hand. Her eyes went past me, to the door.

"I'm ready," she said.

"Ready for what?"

"Today. Whatever today is. I was told I'd be working with you." She'd been told by me, through Bill, no earlier than yesterday. I'd simply forgotten. My brain, apparently, had developed a selective memory. The village had eleven people in it, and the only schedule I was actually keeping was the one in my head. My head had started losing things.

"It's today's plan anyway," I said. She came up the steps. I joined Daphne in the study a quarter of an hour later. She was already at the desk, looking through one of the books. She didn't look up. I sat across from her. She flipped a page, then another. She was looking for illustrations. Then she started asking questions about Hadran words. The pencil in her hand started moving across the page of her notebook. One word after another, the pages filled.

I sat on the other side of the desk, simply answering as she pointed to words one by one. At one point I got up to make coffee and came back. She had set the book down and was rereading her notes. At one point I got up to make coffee and came back. She had set the book down and was rereading her notes. And once she'd verified everything, she went back to picking words to ask questions about. The day moved quickly, just like that. The kitchen was empty when I got back home that evening.

The only food I had was what Ella had left for me on the table. Nothing fancy, just the usual fish, accompanied by a few vegetables. There was a note from her. We had a breakthrough on the interface problem today. Tomorrow we start small-scale experimentation. The words small-scale were underlined. She'd gone to bed. Or to the laptop. Or to the bathhouse, where Daphne's schedule would, in the current rotation, have given her the late-evening slot.

I wasn't sure which until she joined me in bed later that night, her hair still damp. The pillows would get wet, but after the day I'd had, it didn't stop me for more than a few seconds. Besides, when we changed the bed sheets in the middle of the night, the dampness that came with her was the cleanest thing on the bed. After that, when her hair had finally dried, we ended up going for a midnight bath together, completely disregarding the schedule on the door of the bathhouse that Daphne had so carefully made.

The next morning, I edited the schedule to include a reserved bath slot for my other half and me in the middle of the night.