October the Third

I will give you the entry for October the third in full, because it is where the log changes, and because I have read it eleven times and it has not improved with reading. Doune wrote: "Wind SW, moderate. Lamp trimmed at four. Swept the stair as is my habit. Counted, going down, more steps than I climbed. This is foolishness and I record it only so that I may laugh at it in the spring." But there is no laughter in the spring entries, because the count is in every entry after that one. He sweeps the stair. He counts the steps going up. He counts them going down. And from October the third onward the number going down is always, always one greater than the number going up, by exactly one, every single day, as though something joined the staircase while his back was turned.