THE SCREW AMONG THE STONES

The purge would last eight minutes and twenty seconds. Renan read the time on the panel, went back to the kitchen and left the plate closed without the screws. Nine minutes were left before the allocation. Ilva set on the table a bowl of farinha and the six stones Luzia had sorted. The girl had counted seven. She kept her index finger on the smallest one, waiting for someone to correct her. Renan sat on Antônio's bench and pushed toward her the portion of farinha he carried tied at his waist. Divide it in three, he said. There are four of us, Luzia answered. The man was by the door, his weight on his good leg. Renan looked at him for the first time since entering the house. He pushed the bowl another hand's width. Then get it wrong upward. The envoy stayed in the corridor, where the cabinet's refrigerated air reached only the machines. The purge made the pipe vibrate and covered the low voices. She could demand that Renan repeat his answer before the capture field, but her contracted period would end before the noise did. Ilva shared the farinha into four mounds. She added to each one two drops from the travel container, just what was needed to bind the powder. Luzia flattened hers with a finger. The man ate slowly, without raising his eyes. Renan kept half of his own share in the fold of his sleeve. You asked how long, said Ilva. I asked to know how much silence I could buy. On the panel, the recall order opened a second layer. The datacenter consortium had changed the thermal specification that morning. The future processing units would be immersed in an industrial fluid that boiled over the components and condensed again, without using water in the immediate circuit. Because of the change, the branch line connected to the sink was now listed as transitional infrastructure, and every part installed on it was to return to the technical chain. Water was abolished in the announcement with the same elegance used to keep it hidden in the basin. Renan read the notification to the end. The promised fluid would arrive in sealed containers, bought from outside. The energy to make it circulate remained tied to the local concession, as did the replacement of losses and the reserve against fire. The ring, however, already had a buyer. Removing it would release the rubber for the cooling conversion and reopen the household joint. Six minutes remained. The envoy appeared at the kitchen door. I need to classify your answer, she said. He offered her the half of farinha hidden in his sleeve. The woman looked at the damp food, then at the panel. If she accepted, the camera would associate the pause with the house. If she refused, she would wait standing until the end of the contract. She took the farinha. Renan went back to the corridor. He opened the plate, took one of the security screws from its housing and slotted it into the drainage gutter. Then he pulled the metal tray until the screw kept it from going all the way back. The panel detected an obstruction in the purge and added forty seconds to the cleaning cycle. The envoy chewed by the door. You are interfering with the procedure. I'm removing a foreign body. You put it there. The plate did. He took the screw out of the gutter, wiped it on his sleeve and tried to fit it into the first hole. He dropped it. The metal struck the floor twice and rolled under the tray. The purge added another twenty seconds for open access. Ilva crouched beside him. The corridor camera turned to follow the two of them. She reached the screw before Renan, but closed her hand around the part. If you give it back, it's over, he said. If I hold it, the obstruction is mine. The daily charge already belonged to both of them. The panel showed the amount growing with every minute he stayed, less than a meal on the first day, two on the third, a whole week of thermal preparation if the utility company prolonged the analysis. Renan brought his face close to the reading strip. I keep the part installed, he said. I accept the monitoring charge until the review, without recognising retention of material. The machine offered a shorter sentence, voluntary provisional retention. He refused the prediction. He repeated the words. On the third attempt, the panel accepted the raw audio and linked to his body a minimum of seven days of household responsibility. His pay claim disappeared from the review area. The blocked income became the part's guarantee. The allocation began. The pressure at the tap did not change. The envoy closed the technical presence with her iris and handed over the next order. Within twenty-four hours, the house was to authorise the compatibility sampling between household water and the new cooling fluid. Antônio was still far away. The deadline now belonged to the address. Ilva opened her hand. Renan took the screw, crossed the kitchen and placed it in the bowl among the six stones. Luzia counted everything again, got to eight and pulled the bench out for him to sit.