Always Afternoon · Sheet 1

The Chart

Somebody surveyed this island properly once. The soundings are real, the coastline is close enough, and the compass is drawn with a confidence the surveyor did not keep for long.

Places you have actually walked to are inked in. The rest are pencilled: the surveyor marked them, but you have not been, so you only have their word for it.

Places on this sheet

• The Orchard

  Terraces above the spring, and a low wall at the gate where you say the one thing you have stopped carrying.

• The Logbook

  Somebody's ship's log, kept under a stone on the upper terrace. It is worth reading to the end. Later hands have added to it.

• The Sundial

  A stone drum on the high terrace with no gnomon, stuck at four in the afternoon. Seven lines are cut round the rim. Work out what they say and the shadow moves an hour, for everybody.

• The Tideline

  The grey strand on the west shore, where everything anyone leaves anywhere on the island washes up in the order it was left. The one place you can see the whole island at once.

• The Mosaic

  The bathhouse floor is being re-laid, a few tiles at a time, by everyone who passes through. You may lay some.

• The Office of Departures

  A stone hut by the jetty where you may file, in writing, your reason for wanting to go. Nobody is behind the window.

Elsewhere on the island

Reading the survey…