RESTRICTION RINGS

The saúvas worked without a sound on the torn screen. The man pulled the flexible container away from the stem, but the edge already bore a trail of earth and three leaves gnawed down to the stalk. Ilva stayed at the yard door, with her bandaged hand resting against the frame. The bar kept the heat of the night inside its walls, together with the unused refrigerator and the stacked stools. On the household panel, an offer had been open since the small hours. The utility company had released restriction rings, pieces of mineral ceramic that narrowed the passage of water in the pipes and turned domestic consumption into efficiency credit. The batch came with a smaller condition, written in green. Each ring installed reduced a fraction of the shared debt and handed the mining operation a continuous reading of the house. The man read the offer twice. How much does it pay off, he asked. A small part, answered Ilva. And how much does it take. She opened the projection. The tap would receive less than half of the current interval. The piece had reached the valley quickly, in a cool box with no ice, while the datacenter was still a promise of concrete and pipes. There were brakes for the kitchen water before there was any limit for the water of the machines. Nael appeared on the porch with a bowl in his hands. He had set aside pequi husks and two portions of hardened flour. He saw the offer on the panel, then looked at the seedling. If they close the water more, the ants stay, he said. The man touched his own heel without pressing. The membrane was dark at the edges. He had carried half the debt since the day before and could now reduce the number by handing over the house's thirst as a technical demonstration. I withdraw the word bond from the record I accepted. The company called the one hundred and seventeen days a bond, but that measure belonged to the retention time of the audio files, not to the time between the two of them. The proof served all the same. On the panel, the two faces stayed motionless under the word bond. Ilva closed the offer. The man turned to her. You knew. I knew they wanted the whole house. You knew about the wrong count. She did not answer at once. The cotton band on the cut had darkened near the knot. From the bar room, Antônio's presence point lit a brief light, as if someone had listened to the message and given up before leaving an answer. I keep the flaw together with the correction. The error does not give back the recording, does not lessen the debt, does not close the door that opened to the consortium. She enlarged the word bond until the letters filled the panel. Nael put the bowl on the ground, near the seedling. The saúvas went round the flour, lingered a little before the pequi husk and went on up the stem. He picked one of them up between his fingers, carried it to the bank and came back limping more than he wanted to show. The utility company wants an answer before the next apportionment, said Ilva. The man tilted his face towards the panel, until the authentication light reached his forehead. She held his arm before the reading finished. Don't do that. And what do I tell Antônio. Wait until he comes back. He lowered his arm. The projection went out, but the offer stayed open in the corner of the panel, small and insistent. Nael gathered up the bowl. A saúva was carrying a grain of flour larger than its head. I write from afterwards. His hand did not touch the authentication. That detail lost weight in many versions because the water stopped running in the house a few hours later, and the cut seemed larger. I know that a small refusal can be buried by a dry tap. Even so, I keep his fingers away from the light. Ilva went to the kitchen. The empty glass was still on the table. She filled it with the water reserved for Antônio until it covered only the bottom, then took the glass to the yard and poured the measure onto the earth beside the seedling, away from the exposed roots. The water vanished quickly. It did not even reach the leaves. The man saw. That was his, he said. It was Antônio's, she said. Then why did you use it. Because the seedling is here. Nael looked at the road, where the dust hid the curve of the access. The presence point in the bar lit up again. This time it stayed lit longer, a white light over the empty counter. I remember having written that the house recognised two continuous presences. I correct it. It recognised two charged presences. The third was Antônio, absent enough to pay for everyone. The man picked the flexible container up off the ground. The marks of the saúvas had pierced one end. He folded the plastic, fastened it to the screen again and sat down carefully on the step. When Antônio comes back, put his water on the table.