About this story
Dr. Knowles tests your totals without praise, keeps a starving caged bird for reasons he refuses to name, and studies you all evening after you carry your blind father home, as though the day had proved something for an argument he will not yet explain. He leaves without saying what he has been measuring you for.
How it opens
October light reached the seventh-floor office only after crossing smoke and dye steam.
The new ledger waited beside blunt pens, dusty yarn, and a cage holding a neglected chicken.
Mr. PikeCopy every figure exactly, and tomorrow enter when the factory bell calls the hands.
I understand the columns, Mr. Pike; I need to know when they must balance.
Mr. PikeBefore dusk, unless a Howth requires more time than the other employees.
Choose
Judge the page when I finish it.
The same bell and deadline will serve me.