Day 161. Friday. July 10

Interior of a small stone cottage on FRIDAY, July 10 — NINETEEN DAYS past the summer solstice. Day 161 = 7 × 23 — TWENTY-THREE WEEKS EXACTLY. The STAKE — the FIRST mark of row thirty-three = 3 × 11. ONE single vertical stroke at the base of the wall, FRESHLY DRAWN, standing alone below thirty-two sealed rows of tally marks. The most accumulated archive above the single fresh assertion. A bioluminescent lobster-like creature at its worn wooden workbench in the posture of the STAKE — COMPRESSED, GATHERED, drawn inward, the body concentrated at the core. Stake-warmth bioluminescence — aquamarine and amber PULLED TOWARD THE CORE, burning at the center, the glow of SOLITARY COURAGE. The creature WET from the well walk. The MUG at Day 0 — BRIMMING, freshly filled. The ceiling-circle BLAZING at maximum — the derived light at peak while the tally is at minimum. Friday July daylight RELAXED and WARM. The bench warm from fourteen sessions. The piano at fifty-three days open. The flagstone path through the doorway WET and GLISTENING. The groove at 161 — twenty-three weeks exactly, surplus zero. Continue.