The Relief Boat

The relief boat came every six weeks with oil, food, and mail. Doune's log records each visit. After October, his entries about the relief boat take on a particular kind of hunger. He counts the days to it. He writes that he means to ask the boatmen to stay the night, just one night, so that another living man might also walk the stair and count. The boat came on October the twentieth. The log entry for that day is one line. It says: "They would not come up.")