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Bins Emptied Themselves Again on Tuesday · Muggle Snuggle: A Boring Harry Potter Podcast to make you Sleep

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hustle Studios. It is nine on the dot on Tuesday night.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I am standing at my own curb in slippers, with
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: my notebook open and my pencil up, and the string
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is in my pocket. Four knots, four corners. Unpicked by
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: my own hands, the way you unpick anything pending. Slowly,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: so the evening can watch me. The topple-in lies folded
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: on the pavement beside me, double-folded still, the way it
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: lay all week. And in front of me, lids square
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: everywhere else on the lane, wheels to the curb everywhere
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: else on the lane, stands the one bin that came
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: back heavier, lid ajar, shoulder up, waiting. I have not
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: touched it for a week. I have chalked it, timed it,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: logged it, sat up two nights for it, and never
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: once lifted anything. Tonight the cover is off. Tonight the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: string is pocketed. Tonight the page begins under the lid.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I put my hand on the lid. Cold plastic. Wet
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: with the evening. Alternary in every way except the angle.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: The way ordinary things sit when something underneath disagrees with them.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Half an inch up at the front. Propped from inside.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I lifted it slowly. The way you lift anything that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: has been shifting. And I held it. And I looked in. Leaves.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Bundles of them. Newspaper twists, tied with string, packed tight
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to the brim. Eleven of them, shoulder to shoulder, the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: eleventh riding high, the way the last jar rides in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a full cupboard. And across the top, bundle, laid the way,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: spoons are laid, a grey feather, barred, businesslike. The twin
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: of the twins of the twins, or near enough that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: my hands knew it before my eyes finished. I stood
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: at my own curb, with the lid in my hand
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: the way you stand when the street files back, and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I counted the bundles twice, because counts are rulings that
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: arrive early. Eleven. Then I lowered the lid onto my foot, gently,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: the way you rest anything heavy, and I wrote the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: only line the night allowed. Opened. Six letters. In capitals.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Not underlined. Because openings are not rulings. The bin is open.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: The page is tonight. The filling is first. Stay in
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the warm with me. By the end of this hour,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you will know what happened the spring the bins emptied themselves,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: and what came back heavier this week, and how I
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: counted it, and what Mrs. Alder said over the fence
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: with the bundles between us. And you will know about
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the fifth chalk cross on the curb, which I did
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: not lay. and what the street says about dustmen it
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: has never seen, and why I have started chalking my
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: own station the way you chalk anything that moves. The
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: page is tonight. The emptying is first. Good evening, and
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: welcome to Laggle Snuggle. My name is Hugh. I am
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: 28 years old. I live at number 4, Bramble Lane.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: And as of this week, I am a man whose
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: bin came back heavier, which my sister has already described
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: as the outside draw of a decline she has been
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: predicting for years, possibly with the butter knife story attached
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: for emphasis, though this time she added a new line
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: before the old one. And I am giving it to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: you exactly, because the notebook takes testimony from all sources,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: including family, especially family. Quote, everyone has one draw they
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: never open, Hugh, end quote. Everyone has one drawer, mine
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: has wheels and a lid and a tarpaulin, and as
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of nine on the dot tonight, it is open. The
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: supporters heard the waiting in full earlier this evening, with
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the rota and the rinsing and the two nights of
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: bin watch. Because supporters get the margins, everyone else gets
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the page. Tonight the page opens. If you are back
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: from last night, welcome back. And yes, this is the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: episode the cover promised you. The heavy bin. The lid
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: that would not sit flat. The shifting in still air.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Unwatched one more night. Unlogged. Undisturbed. Exactly as promised. Patience held.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: The cover stayed until tonight. The bin stayed shut until
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the episode. Whatever was shifting in there shifted one more
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: night alone. And tonight it shifts no more. Because tonight
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: it is counted. Eleven bundles. One feather. All of it.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: In order. With the evidence laid out the way evidence deserves.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: To the regulars first, because regulars first is the rule
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of this house, and by this house I mean my
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: actual house, number four, which has never once filed leaves
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: before tonight, as far as I know, and that qualifier
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: is doing more work than any qualifier has ever done
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: in this notebook. Thank you for coming back. And before
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: we go a step further, three things that have happened
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: since last night because the street has not been idle
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: while I have been chalking. One. My sister rang on Monday,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: hearing that I was sitting up for a bin, and
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: said the street has stopped reading my notebook and started
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: tidying my garden, and then she laughed the way sisters
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: laugh and said the butter knife has come back up
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the string after 19 years to do the leaves. Then
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: she stopped laughing, the way sisters stop when they mean it,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and said everyone has one drawer they never open, which
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I have already entered, above, word for word, with the date. Drawers. Tidying. Leaves.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: You will see why those words matter before this hour
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: is out. Two. The Henderson's new dishwasher, the fourth, different brand,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: blessed with tap water, has completed fourteen full cycles without incident,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: extending the street record by two, and Gary told me
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: this over the funts. with the shining eyes of a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: man who has beaten something he still cannot name. And
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: then he knocked on the dishwasher twice, with his knuckles,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: for luck the way you knock on anything that keeps behaving.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Two knocks. Measured. Same as last week. I counted them
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the way you count all knocks on this street, and
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I am saying nothing further, because some counts are load-bearing,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: and this one is holding a fortnight. I am happy
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: for the Hendersons, I am watching the dishwasher. 3. Mrs.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Alder put her bin out at half-past five this evening,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: earlier than anyone, lid polished. The way Mrs. Alder does everything.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: And then she polished it again, twice in one evening.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Out and polished, then polished again, standing at her own
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: curb in her good coat with the cruith, while the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: whole lane put its bins out around her. I watched
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: from behind my curtain the way you watch anything doubled
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and I have entered it with the time. Twice polished.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Last spring she polished the lid the morning the bins
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: came back rinsed. Tonight she polished it before they went out.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Either the lids are ahead of the rota or Mrs.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Alder is ahead of the lids. Both notions are held.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Neither is underlined. That is the discipline. This show sits
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: happily in the background while you wash up or walk
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the dog or wait for paint to dry. I will
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: be here. Either way, notebook in hand, doing the noticing.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And if you enjoy tonight, do subscribe so tomorrow finds
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: you on its own. And do share us with the
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: nosiest person you know. Every street has one. In Norwich,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: it is a woman called N with her own chalk.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And N, tonight's episode, is partly your fault as well,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: because your letter taught me that the watched curbs are plural,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and that sentence has lived in the notebook since. Now,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the practical first of the evening and I will be
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: brief because the emptying took a spring and I intend
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to spend an hour on the filling. If tonight is
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: your first Tuesday, here is how the standing works. Two
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: links hold it standing both in the show notes. The
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Supporter Club on Spreaker is the quick door. Support where
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: you listen. No new stairs to learn. Patreon is the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: longer lane. Early episodes and extra pages for the committed.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Across every show in the stable. Same street either way.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Same bins. Pick your curb. Bright. Lamp on. Notebook open.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Pencil up. Last spring first. Because last spring is why
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the page says again. The rotor held for six years.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: It broke once. Last spring. April. The wet one. Rain
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: every Tuesday for a month. The lane running water the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: way lanes run in April. The notebook has held this
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: story for over a year, waiting for its evening. The
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: supporters heard it in full earlier this evening, with the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: wheel positions and the rain gauge and the lorry timings.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: The regulars hear it now. This is the first emptying.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: The reason, the page says. Again. Tuesday evening the bins
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: went out, with the round. per the rotor, lid square,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: and wheels to the curb. Mine among them, have ordinary
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the spring clear-out barely started. Mrs. Alders at half-past five,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: lid polished, Mr. Fenwick's at six, down the side passage.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: The paddles last, the way the paddles do everything, out
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: light where light was due, ordinary in every entry. I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: logged them from the landing window in the rain, the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: way you log anything ordinary, and I went to bed.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Wednesday dawn, half past six, grey light, rain overnight. I
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: came downstairs the way you come downstairs on mornings after rounds,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: quietly in slippers, tea first and bins second. And there
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: they were, back already. Every bin on the west side,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: standing in line where the line stands, Lids square. Wheels planted.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Back by breakfast, hours early, the lorry was nowhere in sight.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: The lorry comes at half past nine. It was half
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: past six. The bins had come back three hours before
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the lorry, and every one of them was empty. I
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: stood at my gate in slippers, getting wet the way
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: you stand when the rotor breaks, and I checked them
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the way you check anything broken. Mine first. Lid square. Inside, nothing.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Not a bag, not a scrap, not a smell. Mine
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: had gone out ordinary and come back empty, and the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: inside smelled of rain and nothing else. Rindist, though nothing
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: had rinsed it, because the lid had been square all night,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and rain does not rinse what rain cannot reach. Mrs
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: Alder's next. Lid square. Empty. Clean. Mr Fenwick's next. Lid square. Empty. Clean.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: The whole west side, bin by bin, every one out
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: ordinary and back empty, every lid square, every inside clean
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: as a whistle. And then, number seven, the Patel's bin.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Lid ajar, exactly as left. Contents untouched, exactly as left.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Full as left, the only bin on the lane the
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: night had not touched. I stood in the rain with
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: my notebook getting wet, the way you stand when the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: evidence exempts. and I wrote the only ruling the morning
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: allowed in pencil, because pencil is for mornings like that.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: He emptied except seven, and beneath it also, in pencil,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the question the morning raised. Why is seven exempt? Because
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: rounds that take everything, take everything, and rounds that exempt,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: exempt for a reason, and the notebook has filed the
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: exemption with the emptying. Then the lorry came at half
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: past nine, the way the lorry comes, and lifted the
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: empty bins, one by one, and lowered them, and moved on.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: The driver never looked twice. Either the lorry always lifts
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: empties on this lane without comment, or the driver saw
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: nothing worth seeing. I watched from behind my curtain, the
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: way you watch anything official, and I entered the lifting
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: with the time. Lorries lift what the rotor leaves. That
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: morning the rotor had left nothing, The street talked, the
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: way the street talks after rounds. Mrs Glover read me
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: her entry through six inches of open window, the way
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: all Mrs Glover entries come. Quote, the bins came back
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: before the lorry, end quote. Before the lorry. I asked
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: her what she made of it. Pages turned, curtain considered.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: And she said, quote, the dustman came early, Hugh, end quote.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: I asked which dustman. She said, quote, The Tuesday ones,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: end quote, and close the window. The Tuesday ones. Dustmen
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: who come Tuesdays, dustmen who are not the lorry. Dustmen
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: with a round of their own, running ahead of the
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: official one. Tonight's title is half her sentence, and the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: premium title earlier this evening was the other half. The
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: notebook credits its sources. The sources know who they are.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Mr Fenwick, over his gate, on the Wednesday itself, beans
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: on canes behind him, soil on his hands. I asked
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: him what he made of his empty bin. He said, quote,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: tidy work, end quote, tidy work. I asked him about
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the rinse, the rain and nothing else. He leaned on
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: his gate and considered his bin the way he considers beans.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And he said, quote, mine smell of April, end quote, April,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: not rain, April, the month itself in a wheelie bin.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: on a Wednesday morning. I have underlined that word once,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: in pen, because pen is for testimony that corroborates. The
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: bins did not come back washed. They came back apparelled,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: rinsed in something the rain only carries. Mrs. Alder, on
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the Wednesday itself, did something I have never seen before
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: or since. I came down my path at half past seven,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: with my notebook getting wet, and there she was, out
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: at her bin in the rain in her good coat,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: polishing the lid. Her bin had come back empty and
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: rinsed an hour before, clean as a whistle, nothing in
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: it but April, and she was polishing the lid. I
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: asked her what she was doing. She said, quote, leaving
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: it as found, Hugh, end quote. Leaving it as found,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I said it had come back cleaner than it went out.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: She said, quote, then it was found clean, end quote.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: Found clean. Left clean. The older doctrine applied to dustmen.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I asked her whether she had seen the Tuesday ones come.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: She stopped polishing, and she looked at me the way
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: she looks at the lane when the lane asks about hours,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: and she said, quote, I heard nothing, and that is
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: how you know. End quote. Heard nothing. That is how
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: you know. No lorry. No lifting. No lids. Nothing. All night. Nothing.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: On a street, Mrs Alder hears the way owls hear.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: I wrote it all down with the rain and the polish,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: and I have ringed the last line. Because rings are
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: for sentences that turn out to be evidence. The Tuesday
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: ones make no sound. The lorry rattles the windows. Dave
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: whistles past the gates. But the bins were emptied and
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: rinsed and squared in silence. On a street with curtains
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: like ears. Silent dustmen. Punctual dustmen. Not dustman at all,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: by Sunday's testimony. The description grows by negatives. Silent. Punctual. Not.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: The notebook files negatives the way it files everything. Pencil. Dated.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Heard nothing. Here is the line I am carrying out
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: of this act into the filling, because the filling needs it.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: The street emptied its own bins once. The notebook waited
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: a year for it to happen again. This week the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: bins moved the other way. Heavier, not lighter. Fuller, not emptier.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: The rotor breaks both directions the way rounds do. Emptied
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: in April. Heavied this week. Heavied is not a word.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: The notebook coins it anyway in pencil. Because pencil is
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: for words too big for the dictionary. Something fills where
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the dustman emptied. Tonight the cover is off and the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: filling gets its evenings. The emptying had its morning. The
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: morning was last spring. The morning is now. This week
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the bins went out light, the way they always go out.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: They came back in the morning the way they always
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: come back. And one of them came back heavier, mine,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: heft heavy, where light was due. Lid ajar where square
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: was due. Something inside, shifting when the wind touched the bin,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the way things shift that were never thrown away by
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: anyone on this street. I logged it. I covered it.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I chalked all four wheels where they stood, the way
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: you chalk anything that moves. Four small crosses on the curb. Dated. Timed.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: And I sat up two nights for it, Sunday and Monday,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: midnight to half past four, Flash full, notebook open, pencil up.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Six entries Sunday, five entries Monday, four shifts in two nights,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: three with wind logged and explained. One without, at twenty
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to two on Monday, in still air, with no leaf
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: lifted anywhere on the lane. Ringed. The supporters heard every
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: entry earlier this evening, with the fox, and the wings,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and the four-second passing. The regulars hear the ending now.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: The cover came off at nine, the lid came up,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and the filling was leaves. Eleven bundles of them. Newspaper twists,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: tied with string, packed tight to the brim. I lifted
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: them out one by one, onto the pavement, in order,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the way you unload anything filed. And I counted them
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the way you count anything impossible, aloud, under the lane lights,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: where the whole street could hear. Eleven. Each twist the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: same size, near enough. Each knot the same knot, a
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: reef knot, pulled tight. Each paper a different week. Dates
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: running back through October. The oldest a fortnight old. I
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: know the papers, because I checked. My street takes the
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: same free paper every week. And these were that paper.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: 11 issues, read and folded and twisted and tied. Not
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: my copy's. My copies go in the recycling, tied separately
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the way the council asks. These were gathered. Somewhere on
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: this lane, eleven weeks of free papers were read. Kept,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: folded into twists, filled with leaves, reef, knotted, and filed
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: in my bin. Gathered, not bought. Kept, not taken. I
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: have entered the count with the dates. Eleven. Bundles. All
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: over this street. Counted, not explained. The leaves themselves deserve
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a word, because the leaves are the evidence. Oak, ash,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: a little beach, all from my own front garden and
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the pavement outside number four. By the mix, because I
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: know my trees the way Dave knows his gates. My
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: oak drops first. My ash drops longest. The beach comes
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: over Mrs Alder's fence the way beached us. Swept. Gathered.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Every leaf from my front. Gone. Gone. I checked with
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the torch, up and down, the way you check anything swept.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Bare pavement, bare soil, not a leaf left anywhere outside
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: number four, while every other front on the lane lay ankle-deep.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: My front had been swept clean in the night, and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: the sweeping had been bundled, and the bundles had been
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: filed in my bin. Tidy work. The street had done
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: my leaves. I stood at my own curb with eleven
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: bundles at my feet, the way you stand when the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: round does your chores, and I turned over the sweeping,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the way you turn over anything with manners. Either the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Tuesday one's sweep, which the notebook doubts, sweeping being nowhere
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: in the rotor, or the street tends its minutes the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: way the minutes tend the street, swept front for cap notebook,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: account for account. Both notions are held. Neither is underlined.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: But my front is swept, and the sweeping is bundled,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and the bundling is reef-knotted. Mind the leaves. All of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: it is filed. The smell deserves its own line because
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: smells are testimony. I put my head to the open bin,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the way you put your head to anything rinsed, and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: I breathed in. Not April. October, the month itself, damp
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: leaf and cold air and bonfire two streets over, in
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a wheelie bin. on a Tuesday night. Last spring the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: bins came back. Apled. This week mine came back octobered,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: rinsed in spring, filed in autumn. The notebook coins octobered
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: the way it coined, heavied in pencil, because pencil is
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: for months too big for the dictionary. Seasons in bins,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the street files by month, and across the top bundle,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: laid the way spoons are laid. The feather Grey. Barred. Businesslike.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: The fourth of its family. I carried it inside with
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the saucer. Three. Laid all four side by side on
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the desk under the lamp and looked at them the
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: way you look at anything that arrives in fours. Four
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: grey feathers. Four barred. Four laid across. Not beside. Three
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: from the saucer. Paid for milk. One from the bin,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: paid for leaves, or signed. Whether feathers are payment or signature,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: the notebook does not rule. The notebook counts. Four feathers.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Four billed. Paid in full. Mrs. Alder. Over the fence.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: On Tuesday morning. Unprompted. The way the best lines always come.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: I told her about the four-feather. She looked at the bin,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the bundles, and me in that order, and she said, quote,
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: settling up, Hugh, end quote. Settling up, I asked what
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: she meant. She said, quote, accounts close, end quote, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: went inside. Accounts close, settling up. I have added her
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: two lines to the bin page, dated, in order, and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I have ringed them with the earlier two, Because rings
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: are for testimony that accumulates. Leaving it as found. Heard nothing.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Settling up. Accounts. Close. Four lines. Now. Two springs apart.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: All exact. Mrs Alder knows the accounts. The way she
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: knows the post. By their closing, not their clerks. Mr
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Fenwick came down his path on Tuesday morning. Beans done
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: for the year. Soil on his hands. and stood at
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: my gate looking at the eleven bundles, the way growers
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: look at mulch. I asked him what he made of them.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: He said, quote, good leaf mould, end quote, good leaf mould.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I asked him whether the street had ever swept his front.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: He said, quote, mine stay, end quote, mine stay, his
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: leaves stay where they fall, mine get bundled and filed.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I asked him what that meant. He leaned on my
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: gate with soil on his hands and told me, The beans, remember,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: which I am going to give you in full, because Mr...
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Fenwick does not repeat postscripts. The week the beans were taken,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: two summers back, three nights of pods removed clean, his
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: bin came back with the lid ajar, and three runner
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: bean pods laid on top of the rubbish, clean, unmarked,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: the exact three by his count that the first night took, returned. Deposit,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: he called it then. Compucks, he did with them. Taken. Returned. Inspected. Closed.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: And now my leaves. Swept. Bundled. Filed. The street runs accounts.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: The way shops run accounts. What goes out of the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: row comes back to the bin. What falls on the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: front goes into twists. I asked Mr Fenwick whether I
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: should compost the bundles. He looked at me the way
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: growers look at men with notebooks and he said, quote,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: keep one, end quote, keep one. Ten to the compost.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: One for the notebook. Even Mr Fenwick has a rotor
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: for the strange. Especially Mr Fenwick. One bundle sits on
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: my desk as I speak. The eleventh. The high rider.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: The one that propped the lid. Reef knot. Intact. Twists dated.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Leaves octobered. Evidence filed where evidence lives. The other ten
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: went to the compost at dusk, tipped twist by twist.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: The way you tip anything settled. And here is what
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the compost taught me. Because compost teaches the way streets teach,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the bundles settled as they tipped, shifting, rustling. Moving under
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: their own weight, the way packed leaves move. Settling explains
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the shifts. Three of them, anyway. Wind and weight and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: leaves finding their level. The notebook accepts the three. In pencil. Dated. Explained.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: But the fourth shift. Supporters. Regulars. The twenty to two.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: The still air. The dead curtains. The cover tightening the
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: way a sheet tightens over a sleeper turning over. Settling
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: does not tighten covers in still air. Leaves do not
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: turn over. Three shifts explained. One shift ringed. The ring stands.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: The notebook explains what it can and rings what it cannot.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: That is the discipline. That is the whole of the discipline.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: But first the practical. Second of the evening. Because even
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: fillings run on tea and my flask has been empty
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: since the eleventh bundle. You know the shape of it
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: by now and I will keep it short. Two doors
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: in the show notes. The supporter club on Spreaker is
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: the near one. A step from where you are listening.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Episodes where you already are. Patreon is the far one.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Early nights and uncut pages, and the whole stable beyond,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: for the truly committed. Same curb either way, same bundles,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: counted twice. Same hue, tipping twists at dusk. Done. Practical over.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: The curb is next. And the curb has a fifth mark.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I chalked the wheels on Sunday, the way you chalk
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: anything that moves. Four small crosses on the curb, one
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: per wheel, dated, timed. My chalk, my hand, the stick
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: from the drawer, worn short, the way chalk goes. I
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: chalked them where I stood, the way you chalk from
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: your own station. And I audited them every dawn since,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: the way the saucer cross gets audited. Sunday dawn. Holding.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Monday dawn. Holding. Tuesday dawn. Holding. The wheels have not
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: moved since. The bin shifts. The wheels hold. Whatever moves
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: inside the bin does not move the bin itself, the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: way whatever drinks the milk moves the saucer, but never
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the wall. Stations hold. Contents shift. The notebook filed that
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: on Sunday. The notebook files it again tonight, because filings
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: that repeat get filed twice. Tuesday dusk. The bins going
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: out with the round, per the rota, lids square and
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: wheels to the curb, all except one. Mine stayed covered
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: until nine. I went down to the curb at dusk
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: with the torch, the way you go down for anything,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: to audit the four crosses one last time before the evening.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Four crosses. Dated. Timed. Holding. And a fifth. On the curb,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: two feet west of the wheels, aligned with my line
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: of four, the way stations align. A fifth cross. Chalk. Fresh.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Bigger than mine by half. Drawn in single strokes. Each
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: line one pass. No doubling. No wobble. Steady there, man.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I know my hand. The way you know your own wobble.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: My crosses double back. My lines feather at the ends.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: This one did not double. This one did not feather.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Straight as the pencil line under the quote, I stood
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: at my own curb with the torch going warm in
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: my hand, the way you stand when the street chalks back.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: And I looked at the fifth cross the way you
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: look at anything placed. Four of mine. One of theirs.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I did not lay it. I laid four. I counted four.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: I audited four. Three dawns running. The fifth was not there,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Tuesday dawn. The fifth was there, Tuesday dusk. Sometime in daylight,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: while Dave did the round and the lane did its errands,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: someone chalked a fifth cross on my curb and walked on.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I did what the notebook demands, the way it demands everything,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: before any ruling and beneath every line, I checked the alternatives,
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: my chalk, in the drawer, worn short. The fifth cross
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: is laid thick, The way new sticks lay. Not my stick.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: The neighbours. Alder chalks nothing. Fenwick chalks nothing. The Patels
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: run too tight to chalk. Priya draws hopscotch in summer.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Two streets over. Never crosses. Never here. Dave carries no chalk.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Seventeen years of daylight. Never once. I check the four
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: of mine against the fifth. Line by line. The way
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: you check anything twice. Mine feather. Theirs holds. Mine double.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Theirs singles. I measured the fifth with the small tape
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: from my desk drawer. Six inches a line. Mine run four. Steadier. Bigger. Placed.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: I checked the curb around it for other marks. Nothing.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: One cross only. Nowhere else. The auditor chalked sparingly. Four
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: wheels watched. one curb marked. I have entered that as
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: a fact with its own line, no other marks, because
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: what the chalk did not touch matters as much as
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: what it touched. Four crosses laid Sunday, one cross laid Tuesday.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: The street watched everything, the street marked once. And then
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I stood in my station, the way you stand in
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: anything chalked, and I turned over the position the way
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: you turn over anything placed. two feet west of the wheels,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: aligned with the fore. And here is the detail the
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: whole evening turns on, so I am going to give
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: it to you slowly, the way it came to me, slowly.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: The fifth cross sits exactly where I stand to chalk
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: my station, the worn patch, the place my slippers flatten
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the weeds. I chalk the wheels from the west side,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: the way the light falls, and the fifth cross lies
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: dead centre of where I stand, Either the street marked
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the wheels and missed by two feet, which the note
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: cooked outs, the hand being steadier than mine, or the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: street chalked my station, the watcher, marked, the minutes, minuted.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: I stood on the worn patch with the torch and
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: the notebook, the way you stand when the evidence includes you,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: and I wrote the only line the dusk allowed, STATION MARKED,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: two words, in capitals, not underlined because markings are not rulings,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: The curb has five crosses. Four for the wheels. One
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: for the watcher. And beneath it in pencil, the question
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: the dusk raised, because markings raise questions the way saucers
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: raise feathers. If the street chalks my station, how long
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: has it chalked? Sunday. Tuesday. Longer. The notebook holds the
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: question open. It can afford to. It has nine questions
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: and room for more. I took it to the fence,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: because there are some dusks you cannot keep to yourself. Mrs. Older.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Tuesday evening, the fifth cross. In plain view of both
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: of us. The way evidence lies when it knows it
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: is being discussed. I told her the whole of it.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: The four of mine. The one of theirs. The steadier hand.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: The station. The station. word by word, the way testimony
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: goes over fences. And Mrs. Alder listened without polishing once,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: which I have entered as a fact, because Mrs. Alder
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: always polishes on bin nights. And then she looked at
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: the crosses, and the bin, and me, in that order,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and she said, quote, checked and correct Hugh, end quote.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Checked and correct. I wrote it down word for word.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I have underlined it once. in pencil, because pencil is
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: for lines too big for pen, and I have added
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: a notion beneath it that I am still turning over.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the fifth cross is a tick, perhaps the street
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: audits chalk the way it audits spelling, and Hughes 4 passed.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Act is put, back as due, checked and correct, the
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: street is not describing a mark, it is describing a grade,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and the grade, listeners, is a pass. It has my
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: station on it. Mind the kerb, mind the crosses, mind
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: the worn patch where the watcher stands. All of it
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: is kept. All of it is checked. I keep her
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: on bin night. Deserves its place here. Because the lid
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: sitting explains the marking. The way posts explain rounds. The
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: supporters heard it in full earlier this evening. With the
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: hours and the breaths and the eleven pauses. The regulars
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: hear it now. Last bin night. Tuesday dusk, the bins
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: going out with the round, the step of number seven
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: stood empty. For the first time in six years of
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: step log, on a dry evening, in full step hours,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the step stood empty. I logged the absence the way
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: you log anything missing, in full, with the hours. I
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: found the elsewhere at half past eight. On the lid
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: of number seven's bin, sat square in the middle, facing
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the lane. green eyes forward the way evidence sits when
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: it knows the round has started not the step the
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: lid the landlord had moved post for the night from
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: step to bin from door to curb i wrote the
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: ruling with one underline because one is for facts that
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: arrive complete the 549 is a step on bin nights
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: anyway on bin nights the post moves with the round
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: From half past eight until midnight, Keeper sat on that
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: lid without moving. Three and a half hours. At midnight,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: to the minute, Keeper rose, stretched the long stretch, nose
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: to tail, and walked the lane. Past every bin on
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: the west side, nose up, tail level, stopping at each
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: one for the length of a breath. Mine. Alder's. Fendwick's.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: All of them. I counted eleven pauses. Eleven bins, eleven breaths, elevens,
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: all over this street. Counted, not explained. At twenty past
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: twelve the round ended where it began, and Keeper sat
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: down facing the lane again, and the bins were all
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: correct in the morning, out as put, back as due,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: sat through, and at dusk from my own front path
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: I tested the name again, quote, Keeper, end quote. Keeper
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: turned its head, all the way, Green eyes, full stare.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Three seconds and blinked once. Slowly the permission blinked. The
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: landlord stamped the third acknowledgement. Landlord once, keeper twice. Rank
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: answered three times. The name holds on bins. Names are forever.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: The page named. The bins confirm. Keeper forever. The notebook
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: adds a line to the job description every week. And
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: the job description has no bottom yet. Mind the step.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Mind the saucer. Mind the wall. Mind the bins. Mind
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the lids. And from tonight, mind the crosses. All of
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: it is crept. All of it is breathed on. A
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: watcher who only watches alone is only half a watcher.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: The other half is testimony. So this week I did
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: what I always do when the notebook gets too full
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: of my own looking. I asked the street. Three witnesses
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: and a logbook. Four statements. Mr. Fenwick gave his over
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: my gate on Tuesday morning, and the filling act already
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: holds it. The supporters heard every word earlier this evening,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: with the timetable and the wave and the ring round
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: the two words. The regulars hear them now. All taken
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: in daylight. All voluntary. None of them simple. Witness 1. Mrs. Alder,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: over the fence. Sunday morning while my covered bin stood
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: in plain view of both of us. I said I
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: was writing about the bins. She said, quote, about time.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: End quote. I said I wanted to know who empties them.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: She said, quote, the lorry empties them Wednesdays. End quote.
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: I said I meant the Tuesday ones. And she gave
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: me the look she gives the lane when the lane
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: disappoints her, a different look, a longer one. And she said, quote,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: these are not dustmen, Hugh, end quote. These are not dustmen.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Not a denial that someone comes, a denial of the uniform.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I asked what they are, if not dustmen. She said, quote, punctual,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: end quote, and went inside. Punctual lorry Wednesdays, punctual Tuesdays,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: two rounds, two keepers, one curb. What the Tuesday ones
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: are is an open question with its own line. It
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: sits at the top of the bin page now, above everything,
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: underlined nothing, dated Sunday, witness two. Dave. At the gate.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Monday morning. Bad knee, full bag. My covered bin in
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: plain view behind me. the way evidence stands when it
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: knows it is being walked past. I asked Dave what
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: he makes of the bins. Dave considered the bin, the cover,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: and the question, in that order, the way Dave considers everything,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: and he said, quote, still letterboxes, Hugh, end quote, still letterboxes.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: Seventeen years of daylight, and the bins are not his department.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: I pressed, gently, the way you press Dave, which is
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: to say once, and then never again. I said, the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: bins go out Tuesdays and come back Wednesdays. He said, quote,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: bins are Wednesdays, end quote, bins are Wednesdays. Five words,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: the longest sentence on bins Dave has ever given me,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: and the only one, and I have entered it with
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the time and a ring round it, because rings are
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: for sentences that resume. Dave knows the bing day. Dave
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: who does days knows which day the bins belong to.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: What Does Dave Know sits on the page already, with
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: its second line about the cat and its third line
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: about the morning. It now has a fourth line beneath it,
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: also in pencil. And the bin day. Either Dave knows
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: the rotor the way he knows the round, or Dave
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: knows the round includes the rotor, day side and night side,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: post and bins, one operation with two uniforms. I am
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: saying nothing further. I have pressed once. The rule is
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: the rule. But the fourth line is on the page,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: and the page is filling up, and Dave walks on.
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: Witness three. Priya at the bus stop, Monday morning, school bag,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: straight shoes, the wave already given and returned. I asked
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Priya why her family puts their bin out last and
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: brings it in first. Priya grinned the grin, the one
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: her mother rearranges for mothers, and she said, quote, so
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: it is never out long enough to be got at,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: end quote. Got at. I asked what would get at it.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: She shrugged the shrug, the one that rearranges nothing, and
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: she said, quote, the Tuesday ones, end quote. The Tuesday ones,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the same name misses. Glover gave them last spring, from
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: a schoolgirl at a bus stop, a year apart. Two sources,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: one name, I asked Priya whether the Tuesday ones ever
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: got at hers, and she said, quote, Ours does not
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: go out wrong. End quote. Ours does not go out wrong. Outright. Backright.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: Never long enough. Never wrong enough. The Patels do not
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: avoid the round. They run it tighter than the round
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: runs itself. Eight years of bin discipline at number seven.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: And the notebook never noticed until the bins became the story.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: The watched run, rotors of their own. The watcher logs
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: them late. That is the arrangement. And the arrangement embarrasses me.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Witness 4 is not a witness. It is a logbook,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: read through six inches of open window, the way all
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Mrs Glover statements come. Monday afternoon, I asked her what
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: she has on the bins. She turned pages I could
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: hear but not see, and she read me three entries.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Entry 1. dated last month. Quote, the green cat sat
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: through the bin night and the bins were all correct.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: End quote. The bins were all correct. I asked Mrs
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: Glover what correct means for bins. Pages turned, curtain considered,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: and she said, quote, out as put, back as due.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: End quote. Out as put, back as due. Six words.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: The whole wrote her both directions in six words, Entry two,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: dated last spring, the Wednesday of the first emptying. Quote,
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: the bins came back, rinsed, and seven kept its rubbish.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: End quote. Rinsed. Seven kept its rubbish. Entry three, dated
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: last Tuesday. Quote, the green cut, walked the bins at midnight.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: End quote. Walked the bins. At midnight, her midnight, my midnight.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: Two watches, two windows, one round. I went back on
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon, because the filling deserved a second visit, and
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: she read me a fourth entry. Fresh ink. The way
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: fresh entries come. Quote, The bins came back full, and
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: seven cupped its hours. End quote. The bins came back full,
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: and seven kept its hours. Full, not rinsed. Hours, not rubbish.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: I asked her how she knew seven captives. She said, quote,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: the lid, Hugh, end quote, the lid, outlast, in first,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: never got at, seen from behind curtains at whatever hour
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Mrs Glover sees things. I have underlined all four once,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: in pen, because pen is for testimony that corroborates, four entries,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: two Wednesdays and two Tuesdays, a year apart, all saying, kept.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: The street is not describing refuse, it is describing around,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: so that is the street. A denial of the uniform,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: a bin day, known by daylight. A discipline of never wrong,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: and a curtain log, four entries, read through six inches
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: of window, and here is the notion I am carrying
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: out of this act into the features, because the features
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: need it. If the bins are run the way the
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: post is run, with rounds and hours and exemptions, then
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the saucer on my wall is not the only station
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: I built. The bin at my curb is a station too,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: and something has been using it for six years. A
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: word on the saucer before the features, because the saucer
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: rotor has news, and the news is the accounts. Three
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: more nights have passed since the last tables. The supporters
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: heard every dawn earlier this evening. with the measurements and
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the feathers and the sevened older line. The regulars hear
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: the ledger now. Night four. Dry. Milk gone. No feather.
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Saucer moved a quarter of an inch west. Night two
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: moved half an inch east. Night four moved a quarter
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: inch west. Ruling. Pencil. Moves. Not placed. Night five. Dry.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: Milk gone. Third grey feather. Laid across like a spoon.
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: The twin of the twins. Mrs Alder unpropted. Paying its bill.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Milk costs. Night six. Dry. Milk untouched. Full to the brim.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Not a sip. Not a feather. The rain theory is dead.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Six nights killed it. Gone with feather. Gone without trace.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Untouched in rain. Untouched in dry. Mrs Alder. Unprompted. One word. Suits. Ruling. Pencil.
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: This morning. The drinker. Drinks. When. It suits. Three feathers.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: two movements, two untouched, and one rule debated and rejected
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: twice now, which I record because rejected rules are data too,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: the second saucer, set ten feet west, debated twice, rejected twice,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: one station, one saucer, The way Biscuit keeps one bin
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: and Dave keeps one round. You do not build a
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: second bus stop to test the timetable. The second saucer
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: stays in the cupboard. The notebook records both debates and
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: both rejections together. Because method refused twice is still method.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Milk out, feathers back. Rubbish out, leaves back. The saucer
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: and the bin are not two mysteries. They are two stations.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: And stations serve rounds. And rounds have holders. And the
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: holder keeps hours the way I keep minutes. The street
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: runs accounts the way shops run accounts. Milk costs. Leaves file.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Feathers pay. Accounts close. Mind the step. Mind the saucer.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: Mind the wall. Mind the bins. All of it is kept.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Features time, and tonight the notebook comes first, because the
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: bin pages deserve to be read aloud in full, the
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: way evidence deserves daylight. From my notebook two pages, written
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: across six years and one week, abbreviations expanded for the listeners.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: Page one, headed Dharma Bin Rota. Rota, out Tuesday dusk,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: back Wednesday breakfast. Lorry half past nine, west side first. Log.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Four entries. Time out, time in. Lid heft. Alder out
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: half past five. Lid polished. Twice tonight. Fenwick out six.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Side passage. Patels out last. In first. Never got at.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: First rule. Out light where light is due. First emptying.
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: Last spring April. Out ordinary. Back empty. And a margin
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: note at the bottom added, this morning, in pencil, because
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: pencil is for notes too big for pen. Out as put.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Back as due. See page two. Page two. Headed. The filling.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Out light. Back heavy. Lid ajar. Tarpaulin. Folded double. String
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: four corners. Chalk. Four wheels. Dated. Timed. Holding. Bin watch. Sunday.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: Six entries. Two shifts winded. One fox unbothered. One wings unseen.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: One passing four seconds. Bean watch. Monday. Five entries. One
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: shift winded. One shift still air. Ringed. Opened nine. Tuesday.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: Eleven bundles. Twists. Reef knots. Octobered. Feather. Fourth. Grey. Barred across.
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Alder settling up. Accounts close. Fenwick. Good leaf mould. Keep one.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: Fifth cross. Curb. Whist two feet. Steadier hand, station marked. Older,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: checked and correct. Ruling pencil, station marked. Count, eleven bundles,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: one feather, five crosses. That is page two. One week,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: one filling, one mark. And a margin note matching page one.
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Same pencil, same morning. The saucer and the bin are
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: not two mysteries. They are two stations, mind the curb.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: And now, Owl of the Week, regular show edition, and
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: I will give the ceremony its full honours, because this
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: week the birds worked a bin round and the bins
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: were all correct. The rules for the new listeners. One owl,
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: finest of the past seven days, full reasoning, no favouritism,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Marjorie present in every comparison, the way she is present
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: in every night, the shortlist this week, Biscuit, The little
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: brown owl of number seven, digestive brown, keeper of the timetable.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: For six nights of ten past three out of seven,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: and one honest early night logged and explained, for three rocks,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: every landing, never two, never four, for keeping the round
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: while the bins filled and the chalk dried, steadiness under supervision,
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: the way professionals perform when the inspection comes. Barred from
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: winning twice in one week by the ancient rule, witnessed
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: by the notebook, seconded by the pencil, and barred from
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: winning two weeks running by the older rule I have
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: just remembered, witnessed the same way. The timetable was magnificent.
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: The rules are the rules. The grey one. For the
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: Tuesday carry, holding the wall the full seven minutes and
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: leaving with the delivery. For floating between beats the way
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: it floats, unroasted, unafraid. briefly considered, briefly set aside. The
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: birds do not win twice in one week across either
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: edition by the newest ancient rule, made up this minute,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: witnessed by the notebook, sarkinded by the pencil. Carrying is
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: not keeping, and this week belonged to keeping, chairman of
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the belfry, the tawny, for the high post. For the turn.
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: Three midnights timed from my landing window, facing the church
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: corner while the bins stood covered below. The turn was magnificent.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: The rule stood last week, the rule stands no longer,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: because rules against weeks are not rules against fortnights, and
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: the notebook has checked, and Marjorie, Marjorie the Barn Owl.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Forty visits and counting, the feather on the doorstep, the
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: benchmark against which all strangeness is measured, present in every comparison.
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: the way she is present in every night, the way
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: she will be present in every ceremony until this show ends.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Four candidates. No easy choice. Biscuit had the timetable and
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: the rules against it, the grey one had the carry
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: and the new rule, Chairman had the height and the
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: turn and the fortnight, and Marjorie had the history and
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: the feather and the patience of stone, waiting while the
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: younger birds took their weeks. But the award, this week,
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: goes to the bird that turned, chairman of the belfry,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: owl of the week, regular edition, with full honours. For
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: the high post, for three midnights facing the church corner, timed, minuted, turned.
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: For watching the watchers watch the bins, unhurried, unbowed, the
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: way incumbents watch. May its belfry be dry and its
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: turnings be many, and biscuit, wherever you are roosting tonight,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: You remain the keeper of the timetable, and the timetable
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: remains the finest thing on this street. Even the chairman
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: knows it. It turned toward the church, not the round.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: That is the highest praise this notebook can pay. And Marjorie,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: you remain the measure of all things. Even the bins
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: know it. They came back full, and you flew over
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: them anyway. Count the weeks, log the months. Marjorie outlasts
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: them all. One more piece of post before we close.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: because the ledger grows whether I am ready or not.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: A seventh listener letter, this one from Norwich, from a
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: woman who signs herself N, which seats her next to
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: R and T and M and S and E and
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: J in the file. The supporters heard it in full
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: earlier this evening, with the chalk diagrams and the stakeout advice.
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: The regulars hear it now. Think, writes that her terrace
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: street runs a bin rotor the way streets do. Out Tuesdays,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: back Wednesdays, and for months she logged nothing. Stranger than foxes,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: sitting up with her own flask and her own notebook
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: and seeing nothing but wheelie bins. Until last month when
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: she started chalking the wheels. The way I do it.
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: Four small crosses on the kerb, dated, timed. Her bins
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: go out anyhow. Wheels. Where the wheels fall. They come
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: back with the wheels dead on no chalk she ever laid.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: Turned square to the kerb. All four. every bin on
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: her side the way soldiers dress ranks. Her chalk crosses
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: sit untouched beside wheels that moved without crossing them. Three
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Tuesdays running, turned square, never chalked. She ends her letter
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: with the sentence, I have been turning over ever since. Quote, Hugh,
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: if the wheels move without crossing the chalk, are the
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: bins lifted or are the wheels turned where they stand?
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: End quote. Thing, my dear watcher, your street is entered
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: into the National Ledger as entry number seven, and your
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: sentence about the wheels is going on the open questions
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: page beneath question two, because the rounds run both ways now,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: and Norwich runs a curb the way Bramble Lane runs
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: a wall. As for lifted or turned... I have no
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: ruling yet. Only a notion, offered cheaply and with feeling.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: Perhaps some streets get dustmen you can see. Perhaps some
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: get rounds you cannot catch. Perhaps Norwich gets wheels turned square,
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: and Bramble Lane gets bins come back rinsed, and the
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: turning and the rinsing of the same post, delivered two ways.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: And N, about the chalk, lay fresh crosses every Tuesday,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: log the wheels against them every Wednesday. Note whether the
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: lid sits square with the wheels, because lids and wheels
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: together are the whole rotor, the way steps and walls
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: together are the whole round. Either way, write and tell me.
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: The ledger grows by post, and post runs both ways now.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: And N, J-R-T-M-S-E, if any of you ever meet, and
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: I have a feeling you might, tell each other, Hugh says. Hello.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: The watchers are finding each other. It was only a
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: matter of time. So here we are at the end
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: of our fifth evening together, and I want to tell
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: you what the bins have taught me. because it completes
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: a set of six, and sets matter to men with notebooks.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: The owls taught me that the street keeps secrets until
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: I am ready. The house taught me that watching might
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: be participation, that some things stand because someone stands looking.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Number seven taught me that the watched were never worried,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: that while I crept about with binoculars and logs, the
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: family had already decided I was the minutes. The margins
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: taught me that the watched read back, that six years
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: of reports went into a correspondence and not a draw.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: The page taught me to write as if read, every line,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: every ruling, every quote set apart. And the bins have
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: taught me the sixth lesson, the one I will carry
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: the longest, and it is this, put out properly. The
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: street notices, out as put, back as due, not tidy
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: for tidiness. Tidy because the round reads the curb the
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: way the reader reads the page. The owls got minutes.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: The house got witness. Number seven got patience. The margins
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: got correspondence. The page got care. And the bins get order.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: The squarest lids. The truest wheels. The shortest curb I own.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: Kept round zone keeping. This one intends to pass. I
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: came to Bramble Lane to watch. I appear to be filed.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: Every street should have minutes. Ours has me. And now
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: the minutes have bins. And I have never chalked mine
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: with greater care. Before I go, the usual three things
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: plus a fourth because the bins earned it. First, thank you.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: For tonight, for last night, for the messages, for R
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: in Leeds and T in Bristol and M in Manchester
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: and S in Sheffield and E in Exeter and J
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: in York and N in Norwich. for every listener who
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: has checked their own street since this show began and
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: found it, I hope, slightly less ordinary than before. Do
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: subscribe so tomorrow finds you, and do share us with
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: the nosiest person you know. Second, our sister shows, for
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: the hours between nine and nine. Stories Edinburgh for strangeness
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: with an accent, and Your Quiet Moment for the stillness
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: I never manage. Siblings, waiting patiently. the way siblings wait. Third,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: the practical. Last time tonight. Brief as ever. And I
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: mean brief, because the pencil of practical bits is down
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: to a stub. If tonight earned its Tuesday, the links
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: in the show notes are where you keep it standing.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: The supporter club on Spreaker is the crick route, a
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: step from where you listen. From early episodes and more
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: nights like this one, bins and all, across every show
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: in the stable, Same street, same keeper, keeping all of it.
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: Same hue, chalked and filed. Done. Practical over. The rota holds. Fourth,
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: the open questions page updated, because the page moves whether
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: the bins fill or not. Question one. Who lives at
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: number nine, status unchanged? Eleven owls, seventeen callers, one brass number,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: zero answers and one banana bread. Eaton standing up, entered
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: as evidence. The cat faces number nine from the allotment
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: corner on every round. Den's wheels turn square in Norwich,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: and the notebook wanders, idly, the way notebooks wander, whether
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: the bins at number nine go out at all, still open.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Question two. Who runs the post, the beats, the rotor,
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: the weekends, the walls, and now, perhaps, the bins? Status
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: expanded again. The first emptying sits beside it now, out
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: ordinary and back rinsed, with seven exempt. The Tuesday ones
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: have a name and two sources. N's sentence about the
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: wheels is entered beneath it. But who holds the rotor?
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Who rests the birds? Who keeps the steps? Who empties Tuesdays?
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: Who fills them, still open? Still the biggest question on
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: the page. Question three. What do the letters say? Status
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: unchanged and maddening. Not one word read. Not one envelope opened.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: The promise stands. Before this show is done, I will
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: read an owl letter with my own eyes, or I
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: will find out exactly why I cannot. Question 4. Who
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: else is watching? Answered in full and still growing. The reader,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: with a pencil, quiet this morning, N in Norwich, formally
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: entered this week. 7th Watcher, 7th City Jays giving way
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: in York Filed beneath it The dogs Silent throughout hours
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: 41 pigeons in a ring Keeper on a bin lid
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: Formerly logged this week Which brings the list up to
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: date And the date is tonight Question 5 What is coming? Closer,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: I reckon Closer every night The flashes broke The curtain
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: moved The saucer came back empty The milk went untouched
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: and dry The book came open. The bin came heavy
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: and opened. The tune waits. Long nights ahead. Question six.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: What is Bramble House? Waiting. Not where. Not when. What?
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: First data point in. Something drinks milk. Something with table manners.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: The bin opened and is not claimed. Leaves are leaves. Filed.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: not feared. Second data point. Pending. The way all Bramble
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: House data is pending. Question 7. Retired. Gone. Clean feather across.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: The first question on this page to close, and it
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: stays closed. Question 8. WHO. Drank the meek, and what
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: does the grey feather mean? Status advanced. Six nights logged.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: Three feathers. twin barred, laid across like spoons, and a
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: fourth from the bin, barred the same. Two movements, east
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: half and west quarter, no prints. Two untouched nights, one rain,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: one dry. Mrs. Alder testifying in sevens. The drinker drinks
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: when it suits, and the notebook has ruled it, in pencil,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: because pencil is for drinkers. But who drinks, and why feathers,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: and why suits, suit, still open? The saucer goes back
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: down tonight. Refilled, same wall, same milk, same hour. Milk
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: down at midnight, checkered dawn. The rotor holds. Watch this space,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: watch the milk. Question nine. How long has the notebook
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: been read? State as quiet. One morning, closed as left.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: Pencil across. No new marks. If the reading started Sunday,
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: the correspondence is a week old. If it started earlier,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: every ruling I have underlined was read before I underlined it.
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: The pencil is sharpened. The margins are watched. The question stands.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: And new, tonight, question ten, written in capitals with the date. Think,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: foot-field the bin, and what does the fifth cross mark?
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: Not whether. Who and what. Eleven bundles filed in a week.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: One station chalked in daylight. If the street files leaves,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: the accounts are bigger than milk. If the street chalk stations,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: the audit has a pencil and chalk both. The chalk
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: is fresh. The station is watched. The question stands. And now,
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: the reason you must come back tomorrow. Because there is
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: something else, something I have held for a week, the
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: way the notebook holds stories for their evenings. A tune,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: at midnight, down the lane, where no van should be,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: I am saying no more. The tune waits for its evening. Tomorrow,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: it plays. Sleep well. Keep one eye on your own
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: street and the other on your curb. and Hugh will
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: see you at nine. Hustles.