THE PAN LID

Residential inspection. Attendance in forty minutes. The charge for the new compliance band had already been added to the household quota, three credits for each unit of water measured beyond the limit. Ilva listened to the notification twice. On the third time, she opened the message channel and let play the reply she had sent Tiago before he came. Her own voice said the valley was dry, that she did not know when she could leave. The audio file cut off before the goodbye. The house held the silence the way it holds heat. Nael was on the porch, scraping with a short knife the dark pulp that had stuck to the bottom of the pan. A leafcutter ant crossed the threshold carrying a piece of leaf larger than itself. It stopped by the crack in the floor, changed direction, went back along the same line. Of the buriti grove, two thin trunks remained behind the houses. The high fronds had had rust-coloured edges since the water of the Lajes dropped another handspan. Edna arrived in a utility company vehicle, with no visible driver. She got out with the scar by her eyebrow shining with sweat and brought her face close to the outside panel. The house recognised her iris, opened the gate and cast a white band onto the ground. Conditional inspection, she said. Verification of shelter, consumption and materials outside the contract. Ilva pointed to the kitchen tap. Start with that. Edna looked at the screen fixed to her wrist. The order came from the utility company, contracted by the mining operation to keep the distribution of the lower village within the curve promised to the datacenter consortium. The new compliance fee appeared in the footer, tied to safety standards invented far from there, as if the water of Buritaçu had to pay to look acceptable to a machine that would turn it into steam. The tap opened under Edna's authentication. An irregular thread came out, struck the bottom of the sink and stopped before filling the lid of a pan. The meter projected seven seconds. Yesterday it was nineteen, said Ilva. Edna did not answer. She brought the field lens close to the tap. The reading ran across the visor and offered a ready-made explanation. Oscillation expected for dwellings with extended occupancy. Consumption adjustment and access review recommended. Nael left the knife on the bench. This house has too many people to drink water or too little water for too many people. The gate camera turned towards him. Edna raised a hand, asking for silence without looking. She touched the notice. The panel asked for bodily authentication to close the incident as household fluctuation. Ilva pressed her palm against the wet sink. If you close it as fluctuation, the house loses the right to demand minimum delivery. I want the measurement compared with the street intake. Edna breathed through her nose. The utility company's vehicle kept a cold cabin behind her, reserved for the calculation equipment. In the kitchen, the air had the dry taste of the ore that came in through the cracks. The street intake is not part of the inspection, said Edna. Now it is. You're charging compliance for water that doesn't arrive. The engineer slid her finger across the panel. The residential order opened in layers. Household consumption, temporary occupancy, risk of improper retention, field restriction. At the end there was a smaller line, almost erased by the glare. Delivery flow linked to the extraordinary charge. Edna read it once. Then she read it again. The utility company recorded seven seconds at the house and twenty-two at the outlet of the branch line. Fifteen seconds had disappeared between the cabinet on the corner and the sink. The document offered three destinations. Technical loss. Undeclared consumption. Diversion to priority infrastructure. Outside, a cicada began to sing on the dry trunk of the buriti. Another answered further off, then fell silent. I know that interval. It was kept in machines that needed water to go on remembering me. Edna brought her face close to the panel. The light examined her iris. If she chose technical loss, the utility company would open maintenance and charge the village for the repair. If she pointed to undeclared consumption, it would send a team into the house. The third destination climbed up to the water-use concession that served the mine and the datacenter under negotiation, where the water received another name and stopped looking like shortage. She touched diversion to priority infrastructure. The panel asked for field proof. Ilva pulled the pan lid under the tap. Edna authenticated a new opening. Seven seconds. The water covered only the centre of the metal. Nael counted under his breath, without a single mistake. Edna filmed the sink, the time projection, the shallow measure. Then she attached her own bodily confirmation. The document changed colour. Proof accepted. Charge suspended for the residence. Right of challenge released. Residential inspection postponed until review of the water-use concession. The notification suspending Ilva's field access disappeared. In its place, a provisional forty-eight-hour authorisation appeared to verify the branch line of the lower village. Edna put the visor away against her body. Nael was looking at the water standing in the lid. Someone's going to go short, he said. Someone already was, Edna replied. She left without asking to enter the bedrooms. The gate closed behind her. The tap stayed dry. Ilva stood in front of the sink until the projection went out. Then she gathered the shoes by the gate and carried them inside, leaving the door unlocked.