THE AMBER BAND

Let me in, said Divina, standing outside the kitchen with the empty ampoule between her fingers. The isolation band crossed the threshold in amber light. After the dark reading, only Antônio could pass through it, and only to preserve food, open the tap for the official sampling or remove personal objects under tracking. Anyone else had to receive from him a temporary permission, linked to the reason and to his own body. Divina raised the ampoule. She had walked through five houses of the lower village, but no resident had agreed to fill the tube in front of the cameras. Antônio stayed by the stove. The street panel lit up behind Divina. A news item about the energy consumption of datacenters and artificial intelligence ran in four lines, accompanied by a recommendation of quotas and control of the social and environmental impacts. Just below, the regional authority announced that strategic enterprises could buy electrical priority by means of territorial compensation. The agreement here goes into review tomorrow, she said. They brought it forward. Because of this, asked Antônio. Because of the price. The tariff changes at midnight. She touched the ampoule to the luminous band. The panel recognised sampling material without a valid chain and asked the person responsible for the bar to authorise entry. Antônio read the options. Domestic visit did not allow touching the sink. Public agent required a link to the environmental authority, which Divina did not have. That left assistant to the person responsible. That permission would put her name on the counter-test and extend the kitchen's suspension until both had been heard. You want to measure here again, he asked. I want to take water from your sink to a house that refused the camera. That invalidates the sampling. The other house is left without a sample. On the side panel Antônio opened his son's presence dot. The circle stayed lit in the capital, motionless for three days. Below it, a composed message waited unsent. It said only that Antônio might arrive that week. What remained was to request entry to his son's residence, an authorisation the visitor received by face, time and duration. Divina saw the thermal bag. Are you travelling, she asked. He erased the message. The circle stayed lit. The official sampling may come today or in four days, she said. If you leave before, they classify it as abandonment of custody. And if I put you on? I become responsible for the waiting. Antônio looked at the woman who had helped offer the valley to the datacenter. At the hearing, she had asked for the floor and let the time run out. Divina held her empty hand out over the band, without crossing it. I already knew that the plot promised to the investors kept the marks of her feet as a child. The panel asked for Antônio's face. He came closer. The light travelled over his eyelids and his jaw, then requested his fingerprint. As he touched his finger to it, he saw the deadline appear, seventy-two hours of shared responsibility. The ticket to the capital, if he could still buy it, would fit inside that interval. Divina presented her iris. The amber band drew back from the threshold to the sink. Permission granted, the panel reported. From the crossing on, any removal, sampling or opening of a container would be attributed to both of them. Food activity would remain suspended until confirmatory reading and joint testimony. She did not go in at once. She took off her sandals so as not to bring the dust of the street into the kitchen, held the ampoule between her teeth and passed one bare foot over the light. The panel marked entry. The other foot came after. Antônio closed the thermal bag. On the presence dot, his son changed position for the first time in three days. A request arrived, authorisation for a visit of six hours, valid that night. Divina reached the sink. He took the bag, crossed the band in the opposite direction and went out through the back door.