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Thinker brought a new notebook to the library. IMPORTANT FINDINGS went on the cover; FIELD NOTES ON POND-SIDE DAYDREAMING went on the first page. The hardest part of the day, Thinker decided, was already done.
Dreamer made room on the bench. “What should I mainly observe?” Thinker asked, sitting very straight. “Maybe skip the mainly part,” Dreamer said. That answer was difficult to file, so Thinker reserved three lines for it.
A leaf fell. Before Thinker could finish writing “leaf,” the wind took it away. A ripple appeared. By the time the ruler was out, the ripple was gone too. The notebook now contained half a word and a very small ink dot.
“Could the notebook be faulty?” Thinker turned it over. Dreamer pointed beyond the roof. The sunset was spreading across the sky, roughly the colour of the canteen’s last roasted sweet potato. They watched for a long time. Neither fetched a colour chart.
When it grew dark, Thinker added one sentence: “The sunset does not wait for me to finish a heading.” Dreamer nodded gravely. This finding, they agreed, did not need a subtitle.
On the way back they met Confident, carrying an enormous roll of paper. The poster was meant to invite everyone to slow down. Making it left no time to do so. Thinker opened the notebook to a blank page. “Would a little unused space help?”