Page 100 of Pocket Wife

Celia rises before I call her. “Burial wash for Tomas Venn. Last rains failed. We used first water because he helped repair the old pump in his youth and his family requested it.”

Nara closes her eyes.

Jessa writes: burial.

I look at Sen. “Sick. Seed. Dead. Still active.”

Sen’s mouth flattens. “Convenient categories after discovery.”

Rethan steps closer to the evidence station. “The categories predate discovery. They activated the cistern response under tribunal observation.”

“Symbolic response,” Sen says.

“Functional response,” Rethan corrects. “It identified three current civic pathways: clinic road, eastern fields, burial rise. Those pathways remain in use.”

Kaun speaks then. “Preservation Officer Ivo Kell has submitted a field note confirming the cistern interface responded without physical intrusion.”

Salo turns to Sen. “Your objection is preserved. Continue, Miss Hartwell.”

I face the room again. “Who maintains the north reserve?”

More hands this time.

Torren’s voice comes from Jessa’s slate, transmitted from the cistern field. “I do. Badly underappreciated, by the way.”

Someone near the back gives a tired snort.

I almost smile. “You cleaned the overflow channel this year?”

“Twice. Third time postponed because Helix put drones over the ridge and I was advised not to wave a shovel at them.”

Jessa writes: overflow maintenance.

A schoolteacher steps up next. “The children tie blue thread on the rail every first water lesson.”

Sen interrupts. “Ritual does not establish legal continuity.”

The teacher looks startled.

I answer for her. “It establishes instruction. Living communities teach children what dead communities leave behind.”

Salo’s gaze moves to the teacher. “Do you have records of these lessons?”

The teacher pulls a folded slate from her satchel. “Attendance, curriculum note, and images from this year.”

Jessa writes: school instruction.

More come after that. Pump checks. Water ration ledgers. Repair schedules. Clinic requisitions. Drought protocols. Small records that would never impress a corporate archive because they had never been made to impress anyone. They exist because people had to drink, plant, wash, teach, and remember.

I watch the board fill.

Current use.

Civic duty.

Instruction.

Custody.