The Phrase at the Tap

The man knocked on the housing.

Kesh’s knock lived in the pipe, not on it. This was a copy made by ear.

Tam looked at Kesh.

Kesh filled the child, the hip, Rell, then the man, without extra, without speech.

After, Tam said, “He bought that knock.”

“Then he bought a hinge that doesn’t fit,” Kesh said. “Tell Yew. Not a map. A sentence.”

Tam told Yew.

Yew wrote PORTIONS DOWN later, which Tam did not yet understand.

The man came back the next morning and the knock was slightly better.

Kesh did not fill him until last, and last had become a kind of weather.