THE SCREW IN THE DUST

Antônio lifted the maintenance plate while Nael wedged the still warm trivet between two stones. The optical line blinked under the floor, lost an interval and came back with weaker light. In the main room, the panel charged the failure as a territorial risk. Célia brought the visor close. The visit would begin in thirty-eight minutes. To keep the corridor recognised, the utility company demanded one stabilisation unit, exactly the guesthouse's last cooking unit. Antônio wiped his two burned fingers on his shirt. Behind him, the pan kept corn for the return. I heard the country that refines the metal held back the heavy loads, said Célia. There are two leaders negotiating it far from here. The newsroom said the price became a weapon. Nael looked at the light under the plate. Which metal. The one that goes in the magnets of the machines. She did not know whether the loads had been suspended or only threatened. The datacenter consortium knew enough to convert the rumour into a tariff before dawn. The unit requested would repair no cable. It would buy continuity of reading for one hour. I write that the light failed once. I erase it straight after. The utility company's log counted three interruptions, two of them shorter than the time it takes an eye to close, and used all three to charge Antônio. He opened the kitchen panel. The cooking unit appeared split between two possible destinations. Heat food. Sustain corridor. Célia rested her wounded foot on the dry edge of the firebox. If we lose the starting point, we go back to the road. Antônio enlarged the food option. The panel showed four portions preserved for six more hours. Under the corridor option, the food would lose thermal stability in ninety minutes, and the visit would keep its departure beneath the storeroom. Nael pushed the plate half a centimetre. The light dimmed again. I know where the third interruption entered the record. I remove from here the name that came with it. I leave the mark of a sole in the dust and the screw turned past its previous position. The absence comes to have weight. Antônio stared at Nael. The old man took his foot off the plate, without speaking. For years he had been paid to drive surveys and keep quiet before the bends they opened. Now his speech was forbidden precisely on the path only he knew. The notification grew over the rough wall. Instability associated with strategic supply. Additional guarantee required by the consortium. I remember the version in which Antônio kept the corn. It lasted seven lines and ended when my power supply dropped by half. I take up the scene again with his hand already raised before the body reader. The iris confirmed the transfer. The unit left the kitchen. The corridor indicator brightened, then held steady. In the pan, the preservation band drew back minute by minute. Célia put away the visor. On the way back we'll eat it cold, said Antônio. If there is a way back, answered Nael. I keep this sentence with its defect. The recording caught only If there is. The rest came from Célia's mouth, who completed the sentence for the public record and then denied having spoken. I give the incomplete part back to Nael, because it was what made Antônio lower his eyes. The panel authorised the forming of the visit. The utility company kept the technical tariff open until the end of the inspection, subject to the price of the mineral refined outside the country. I write from after and cut the next piece of information before it acquires a voice. What remains is the exact space it occupied, between the authorisation and the pan losing heat. Antônio put the plate back, tightened the screws and stood up. He took the travel container with the rest of the water, crossed the storeroom and entered the corridor first.