Scene 3 — Carrying

The Fedora Handbook, Rule #18

“Always arrive early. Latecomers are, by definition, followers.”

INT. ASHCROFT HOUSE — THE CORRIDOR — MONDAY, 11:00 P.M.

PELL is on the floor outside 2C with his back against the door and a machine on his knees. He is second year. He has been on this corridor since Owen arrived and they have said about forty words to each other, all of them about the shower.

PELL

You're the one that does the six o'clock bucket.

Owen

Yes.

PELL

Right. The list one. The one that has to still be

there on Tuesday.

Owen

Assignment three.

PELL

I've done it four times and it's empty every time.

I close it and it's gone. I've read the sheet nine

times.

Owen sits down on the floor because it is easier than standing up talking to somebody on the floor.

It takes eleven minutes. Pell has written all of it and none of it goes anywhere that is not inside the program, which is the only thing the assignment is about.

Owen

You have to put it somewhere that isn't the

program.

PELL

Where?

Owen

A file.

Pell looks at him.

PELL

Show me on yours.

That is the moment, and it does not look like one.

Owen turns the machine round and shows him the four lines that save the list and the four that read it back.

Pell reads them twice and copies them out by hand onto the back of a docket letter, which takes six minutes, and does not ask for the file and is not offered it.

PELL

Is that cheating?

Owen

I don't know.

PELL

No. Me neither.

He goes on copying.

Owen

How many are you carrying?

PELL

Two.

Nobody on that corridor has said the word carrying out loud since the first week.

PELL

From last year. One of them's this course and one

of them's Bennett's, which is a reading list, and

I can read.

Owen

So read it.

PELL

I do read it. I read all of it. Then I sit in the

room and he asks what it's doing to me and I

haven't got anything, and everybody else has got

something, and I've read it and they haven't.

He finishes copying and squares the docket letter on his knee.

PELL

Thanks. That's the third one done.

Owen

Out of six.

PELL

Out of six.

Cut to:

INT. MERIDIAN HALL — CS 101 — THE FOLLOWING MONDAY

Reyes takes the register the way she takes the register.

She reads out thirty-one names.

One of them is not answered and she does not read it twice and does not look up, and goes on to the next one, and starts the class four seconds later than she started it last week.

It is not Pell's name. Pell is not in this class.

It is a girl in the second row who kept her Help in her lap in September until she was looked at.

Cut to:

INT. ASHCROFT HOUSE — 2C — THE SAME EVENING

The door of 2C is open, which it has not been all term.

The room is empty. Not tidied. Empty. The bed is stripped and there is a chair in the middle of the floor at an angle that no chair is ever left at.

Owen

(into the corridor)

Has anyone seen Pell?

A VOICE (O.S.)

Who?

Owen

Two C. Pell. He was on the floor out here on

Monday.

A SECOND VOICE (O.S.)

Oh. He got reviewed.

Owen

It's the sixth week.

A SECOND VOICE (O.S.)

He was carrying two.

Nobody comes out into the corridor.

Cut to:

He asks eleven people over four days and gets nine answers.

HELP · personal · v9

USER

what happens to a student who is repossessed

ASSISTANT

Repossession is the standard end-of-term process for students

who do not pass review.

Would you like me to set a study reminder?

USER

where do they go

ASSISTANT

Repossession is the standard end-of-term process for students

who do not pass review.

USER

you said that

ASSISTANT

Dining Dollars do not roll over.

The corridor says home. A boy on the second floor says there is a transfer scheme and names an institution that Lena has been at and which Lena says does not take transfers. Ashley from the Senate says it is a financial thing and is quite sure. Somebody's roommate says his brother was repossessed four years ago and is fine, but cannot say where he is now.

Miles says the word is a legal term about property and has been used wrongly by this institution for ninety years and that this annoys him more than anything else on the campus. Derek says it is Roman. Victor says it is a matter for #general (which it really isn't), because there is no other channel dedicated to it.

Cut to:

INT. WHITLOCK HALL — LOWER GROUND — ROOM 4 — THURSDAY, 7:00 P.M.

Below the level of the quad. No window. One door. A long table with five chairs down one side, five down the other, and one at the end.

PROFESSOR HALE is at a lectern with a tablet. He has moderated this event every Thursday for six years and could do it without the tablet if he absolutely had to..

DOCKET · ROOM 4 · 7:00

ATTENDANCE IS RECORDED

HALE

Eleven. Five, five, and the eleventh. Attendance

is recorded and is not a component of review.

Standings first, in the order you're sitting.

The five on the near side sit up. Nobody on the far side does anything, because nobody on the far side is going to be asked.

BOURNE

Bourne. Second year, metallurgy. Placed, Array

Four, from June. No service assignment. Review, no

action. Intends two.

Somebody on the far side says two.

Not a question. She does not look up, and he does not turn his head.

HALE

Thank you.

ALEX

Alex. Third year, transit. Placed. Review, no

action. Intends three.

Three comes back from further down.

CARTER

Carter. Second year, food systems. Unplaced,

applied. Service assignment, the glasshouses.

Review, no action. Intends one.

Nothing comes back.

SIMON is fourth. He starts before Hale looks up.

SIMON

Simon. Second year, unplaced, but—

HALE

Thank you, Simon.

Hale did'nt need to hear any further, nor did the rest of the room, apparently. Two people find it funny, while Simon finds it funny about a second or two later than they do.

HALE

Next.

Owen

First year, computer science. Provisional. Service

assignment pending. No review yet.

He stops.

HALE

And.

Owen

Sorry?

HALE

How many do you intend.

Owen

I don't know.

Nothing comes back from the far side, and it is a longer nothing than Carter's was.

MAYA is third along on the far side and does not look at him, which is a thing she is good at and has had to get used to.

HALE

That's a permitted answer. Questions.

He puts a printed card face up in the middle of the table. It has been laminated and the lamination has gone soft at one corner.

HALE

One each, from the card, and I'd ask you to keep

to the card, because the card is there so that

nobody has to think of anything.

The card is below.

DOCKET · ROOM 4 · PERMITTED QUESTIONS

One question per person. Questions are asked in the order seated.

1. What is your placement?

2. When does it begin?

3. What is your service assignment?

4. How many do you intend?

5. Is there a nomination on your file?

6. Have you been assessed?

Questions not on this card are not permitted and are not recorded.

Outcomes are notified. Outcomes are not discussed in the room.

INT. ROOM 4 — CONTINUOUS

ASHLEY

(to Bourne)

When does it begin?

BOURNE

June.

ASHLEY

Mine's June.

HALE

That isn't on the card.

ASHLEY

No. Sorry.

She is not sorry and Hale does not write it down.

MADISON

(to Alex)

What is your placement?

ALEX

Transit. Northern.

MADISON

Freight or people?

HALE

One each.

ALYX

(to Owen)

Is there a nomination on your file?

Owen

No.

She writes it down. It takes her longer to write than it took him to say.

BRITTANY

(to Simon)

Have you been assessed?

SIMON

Yes.

BRITTANY

Recently?

HALE

One each, please.

She stops. Nobody in the room reacts to the answer, because a great many people have been assessed, and it is on the card.

MAYA

(to Carter)

What is your service assignment?

CARTER

Glasshouses. Six till eight, Tuesdays and Fridays.

MAYA

Doing what?

HALE

One each.

CARTER

Carrying things.

Maya writes that down and Hale lets her.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:25 P.M.

HALE

The table. Five minutes each and I'll say when.

You'll speak to all of them and all of them will

speak to you, and everybody speaks to Wren.

WREN is in the chair at the end and has been in it since their first term, which was two years ago.

HALE

Go on, then.

Everybody stands up at once and it is briefly a room full of people rather than a docket.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — THE TABLE — 7:30 P.M.

ASHLEY, who everybody says is very nice, and who is.

ASHLEY

Provisional. That's the hard one. My cousin was

Provisional and she said the first term is the

whole of it.

Owen

Is she still here?

ASHLEY

She's placed. Array Six. She likes it and she

isn't saying that for anybody's benefit, because

she'd tell me.

Owen

You're going in June.

ASHLEY

Array Four. I've had the seat number since

November.

She says the seat number.

ASHLEY

Anyway. If you're stuck on anything with the

Senate, come and find me, and I mean that, and

people don't.

She does mean it.

HALE

Move.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:35 P.M.

MADISON has a card with her name on it and puts it on the table between them before she sits down.

MADISON

Computer science. What's your throughput?

Owen

My what?

MADISON

Per week. What comes out of you per week.

Owen

Six programs in three weeks. That's the

assignment.

MADISON

Two a week. That's a figure. Can you say two a

week to somebody?

Owen

To who?

MADISON

I'll find you somebody. That's what I do, that's

the whole of what I do, and I'm good at it, and

I'd want a percentage.

Owen

Of what?

MADISON

Of whatever it turns into. Look, the quarterback's

got three and he's no use to me, because he's

already the product.

Owen

Chad?

MADISON

You know him?

Owen

He threw a ball at me.

MADISON

Right. Well. Keep that.

She takes the card back off the table on her way out of the chair.

HALE

Move.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:40 P.M.

ALYX sits down and does not do any of the front part of a conversation.

ALYX

You didn't have a number.

Owen

No.

ALYX

Everybody has a number. The number's free. You say

two and nobody writes anything and you go home.

Owen

I didn't know it was going to be asked.

ALYX

That's worse, actually. That's the thing they were

listening for.

She is not being unkind. She has been doing this for two years.

ALYX

Have you done Wren yet?

Owen

No.

ALYX

You don't repeat what they say. Not to me, not to

anybody in here, not after.

Owen

Is that a rule?

ALYX

No.

HALE

Move.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:45 P.M.

BRITTANY sits down and puts her hands flat on the table and does not say anything for a moment.

BRITTANY

Say the standing again.

Owen

The whole of it?

BRITTANY

Yes.

He says it again. She is recording it and is not pretending she isn't.

BRITTANY

Thanks.

That is four of the five minutes and neither of them fills the rest of it.

HALE

Move.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:50 P.M.

MAYA sits down opposite him for the second time this week. On Tuesday she gave him a pair of goggles.

Neither of them says anything about that.

MAYA

Pending doing what?

Owen

It doesn't say. It says pending.

MAYA

Mine says the benches and the benches means one

bench and one flask, and I found that out by going

and looking on a Sunday.

Owen

Is that allowed?

MAYA

Nobody's said. That's not the same as no.

Four seconds.

MAYA

I'm going to enter nothing.

Owen

You're allowed to?

MAYA

I'm going to find out.

It is the only time in the room that either of them says anything that is not about a placement.

HALE

Move.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — THE TABLE — CONTINUOUS

BOURNE has done this before and has an order he does it in.

BOURNE

Array Four, June, seat's allocated, and I've seen

the floor plan. It's a good floor.

MAYA

What makes a floor good?

BOURNE

Aftercall.

MAYA

Whose?

He looks at her.

BOURNE

The floor's.

MAYA

Right.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:35 P.M.

ALEX sits down. ALYX is two chairs along and neither of them looks over.

MAYA

Is that going to be a problem?

ALEX

It was a problem in first year. Now it's a thing

people say to us at the start and we get it out of

the way.

MAYA

Have you got it out of the way?

ALEX

Yeah.

He has not got it out of the way.

ALEX

Transit's northern. I'll be gone in June. I say

that early because it's the thing that matters and

people leave it till the fourth minute.

MAYA

That's fair.

ALEX

It isn't, but it's honest.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:40 P.M.

CARTER has an opinion and has been waiting all evening to put it somewhere.

CARTER

Do you know what this used to be? Docket. It was a

list of things a court was going to get to.

MAYA

I know.

CARTER

So we're the things it's going to get to.

MAYA

Or we're the court.

Carter had not thought of that and does not like it.

CARTER

I carry seed trays from one end of a glasshouse to

the other end of a glasshouse. Six till eight.

Twice a week.

MAYA

And then?

CARTER

And then somebody carries them back, and I've

asked, and there's a reason.

MAYA

What is it?

CARTER

There's a reason.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 7:45 P.M.

SIMON sits down and pushes his chair in properly, which nobody else has done.

SIMON

Right. So I'm on this every week.

MAYA

I'd gathered.

SIMON

Every week since term started. Nobody's got a

reason for it. I asked at the office and they said

unattached students in good standing are placed on

the docket.

MAYA

And you're unattached and in good standing.

SIMON

Yes. So it's working.

He says it cheerfully and it is the correct analysis.

MAYA

Doesn't that get old?

SIMON

It's a warm room and there's eleven people in it

and nobody's on their Help. That's Thursdays. I've

got worse Thursdays.

MAYA

That's bleak, Simon.

SIMON

No, I mean it. Where else does that happen.

Maya does not have an answer to that and it stays with her into Act II.

SIMON

Anyway. Intends one. That's the good bit.

HALE

Move.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — THE END OF THE TABLE — 7:55 P.M.

They go to Wren one at a time and the rest of the room gets quieter each time somebody does.

Nobody comes back from that end of the table saying anything. Bourne comes back and sits down and looks at the card for a while.

Owen is last. Nobody told him there was an order, and there is one.

WREN

Sit down. You get one that isn't on the card.

Owen

One what?

WREN

Question. From me. There's no column for me so

there's nothing for me to keep to.

Owen

Okay.

Wren takes a moment over it, which is not for effect.

WREN

What do you do when nobody's asked you to do

anything?

It is the first question anybody has asked him since he got here that he cannot answer off a form.

Owen

I don't know yet.

WREN

No. You've been here five days.

They sit with it.

WREN

All right. Somebody's going to leave you something

that was meant for somebody else, and you're going

to keep it.

Owen

Is that it?

WREN

That's it.

Owen

How do you—

WREN

I don't. You don't repeat it, and I don't say it

twice, and those are the two halves of the same

thing.

They look past him at the room.

WREN

Go on. He'll want the preferences in before eight.

Cut to:

INT. ROOM 4 — 8:00 P.M.

HALE

Preferences. In your own time, privately, and

nothing said out loud.

Eleven people stop looking at each other at the same moment. It is the quietest the room has been and it goes on for four minutes.

Owen enters nothing, unsure whether entering nothing is permitted. It was accepted, as it is permitted.

Across the table Maya finishes before he does and puts her hands in her lap.

It is somewhere in the middle of the four minutes that he notices the smell.

It is not in the room. It is like a coin held too long, and then like a room that has been shut, and then it is not like anything and it is very strong.

HALE

That's the docket. Outcomes are notified.

Chairs go back.

HALE

Provisional.

He does not answer.

HALE

Son.

Three seconds.

Then he is back, and Hale is halfway round the table, and there is blood on the card.

HALE

Sit down. Head forward, not back.

He has tissues in the lectern. He does not go and look for them. He knows where they are.

WREN puts one in his hand on the way past.

WREN

It happens in this room.

They go. Hale taps the tablet once, at the top, where the standing is, and not at the bottom, where the outcome is.

MAYA is at the door with her coat over her arm and stops there for a moment.

MAYA

Do you want somebody to stay?

Owen

No.

MAYA

All right.

She goes, and she counts the stairs on the way up, and does not know she is doing it until she gets to the top.

HALE

Sit there till it stops. Don't go up the stairs

till it stops.

Owen

Does it happen a lot?

HALE

It's a dry room.

It stops on the landing. The corridor at the top of the stairs smells of nothing at all, and he stands in it for a moment working out whether that is a thing he has noticed.

Blackout.

From:	Office of Student Life
To:	Owen Mercer <Owen@newcarthage.edu>
Date:	Friday, 4:00 AM
Subject:	Docket — outcome

Attendance recorded.

No preference was entered. No outcome is indicated on this occasion.

You remain on the docket. Your next assignment will be notified.

Docket attendance is not a component of review. Docket attendance is recorded.

Please arrive presentable.

Nothing in it mentions the card, or the tissues, or the four minutes. He reads it twice and there is one button and he presses it.

FEDORA SOCIETY#records

Simon11:49 PM

sorry i was missing, i had docket...

VictorPRESIDENT11:49 PM

I said I would not name you.

Derek11:52 PM

the docket is a Roman institution actually

Miles11:53 PM

it isnt

Derek11:53 PM

the word is

Simon11:58 PM

im on it again next week

Derek11:59 PM

youre on it every week

Simon12:01 AM

yeah

Miles12:02 AM

thats not what the docket is

Simon12:04 AM

i know what the docket is miles

Simon12:05 AM

the new guy was on it. he did alright

VictorPRESIDENT12:31 AM

He is promising.

Simon12:33 AM

i meant like. as a person

THINGS TO DOpress Run

todo_settings.cljscljs

;; --------------------------------------------------------------------- ;; TODO_SETTINGS.CLJS — what was on it to begin with. ;; ;; Change a line and press Run. Break it and the line underneath will ;; tell you what it thought you meant. Nothing you do here can lose the ;; original: `Put it back` is the file as it shipped. ;; ;; THE SEED ONLY LANDS ON AN EMPTY LIST. Editing it will not overwrite ;; anything you have written, and running this with items on the list ;; does nothing to them. Clear the list and press Run and you will get ;; whatever is in here now, which is the only way to get his back once ;; you have taken it off. ;; --------------------------------------------------------------------- {;; What was on it in September. Four of these are his and the last one ;; is the one that is never marked done. :seed ["hand in set two" "ask Hollis what the buckets are for" "vapour tables — one copy, Beckwith 2" "tell Maya about the fourth one" "page 219"] ;; How many rows before it starts scrolling rather than growing. The ;; widget does not get taller than this and the list does not get ;; shorter, which is the arrangement most lists end up in. :rows 8 ;; Ticked things sink to the bottom. Off by default, because a list ;; where the done things stay where you put them is a list you can ;; still read as a record of the order you did them in. ;; ;; Turn it on and it becomes a much better to-do list and a much worse ;; account of a term. :sink-done false ;; What the empty box says. :placeholder "add a thing"}

Press Run.

It has to still be there on Tuesday.