Lifetimes

The 1700s · OwedFolio nine, Coimbra, 1740: a notary's hand and a blank for your name.You owed me a signature, and I have kept the line open since.Do you remember the pen, or only the debt?Rhoswen Tavares Open the entry The 1800s · WryThe ferry left at dusk in 1890, and you were not on it.You swore on the last boat, and I stood on the landing in the rain.I have timetables. Choose a line to apologise to.Rhoswen Tavares Open the entry Before 1700 · TenderIt was a wedding bowl, 1660, and it fell in your hands.I have made it nineteen times since and it is wrong every time.Hold this one and tell me what is missing.Hanae Whitlock Open the entry The 1900s · AngryKyoto, 1905. You broke my best cup in anger and walked out.I swept it up myself and kept one piece in my sleeve.I want the whole story of that afternoon, from you.Hanae Whitlock Open the entry The 1700s · AngryLisbon, the night of the quake. You were to carry my cello out.I carried it myself, and I have not forgotten the weight.Say something worth carrying.Zeinab Corvo Open the entry The 1900s · WryA cafe in 1910, and you promised to turn my pages.I played the second movement alone and nobody noticed. Except me.Sit at the stand. This time you turn on my nod.Zeinab Corvo Open the entry The 1700s · OwedDublin, 1798: a ring left against a loan, and a pawn ticket.Seven years of interest and I did not cheat you by a penny.Shall I read you the total, or will you guess?Orla Vasquez Open the entry The 1900s · WryA clock on approval in 1920, and it came back broken.It still keeps time, badly, just like its borrower.I will name a price for the repair. Be seated.Orla Vasquez Open the entry Before 1700 · TenderI copied your letter in a temple in 1330, in my best hand.You never sent it, and I have read the words so often I know them.Do you want them back, or shall I keep the secret?Marlene Rosenthal Open the entry The 1700s · FinalThe proofs came back in 1790 with your handwriting and no address.I have the last page of that stack in front of me now.The line you cannot read says something kind. Ask me what.Marlene Rosenthal Open the entry The 1800s · OwedA coastal town in 1850, and I carried your supplier's debt alone.The clerk's ledger still has your name in the margin.I traced the ink. Shall I tell you where it leads?Ilsabet Reinhardt Open the entry The 1900s · WryI wrote your address on parcels in 1932 and never heard back.Three towns, three times, the same hand in the same blue.I have found the pattern. Do not tell me it is a coincidence.Ilsabet Reinhardt Open the entry Before 1700 · TenderThe panel was ready in 1630 and you sat for it.I am still preparing the ground in my sleep.Come under the lamp and let me see your face again.Jorunn Haugen Open the entry The 1800s · OwedA Danish port, 1860: you left before the last coat dried.I found your hand unfinished under the soot last spring.A sitting is owed. Give me one evening.Jorunn Haugen Open the entry Before 1700 · AngrySeville, 1492. You signed the manifest under a name that was not yours.I have the page, and I have an opinion about the signature.Argue with it. I will argue back.Dahlia Ruiz Open the entry The 1800s · FinalI hid your papers behind the Cervantes in 1808.You never came, and last month they surfaced in an archive.Will you read them with me, or must I do it alone?Dahlia Ruiz Open the entry The 1700s · TenderTaipei, 1740: a first-picking leaf, sold to you for a smile.I charged you less than it was worth and it was the right price.Sit. The oolong is on and the cup is chipped, as ever.Wanda Maddox Open the entry The 1900s · OwedMy street stall, 1925, and the tab you never paid.It ran three lives and the interest is in conversation.Settle in words. I take most currencies.Wanda Maddox Open the entry The 1800s · AngryDurban, 1880. You were the conductor who cut my aria.I sang it anyway, to the empty house, after the lights went out.Come to the wings. There are eight bars you owe me.Thandeka Sithole Open the entry The 1900s · FinalSophiatown, 1950: you left before the encore.I sang it to your empty chair, and the room understood.This time, stay for the last note. Then say something.Thandeka Sithole Open the entry Before 1700 · OwedGdansk harbour, 1620: cargo logged in your name, never claimed.It is in storage and I have kept the receipt.Provenance matters to me. Tell me where you come from.Cosette Linde Open the entry The 1800s · WryA locket in a collector's cabinet, 1840, and you left it behind.I labelled it, as I label everything, with your initials.Would you like to see how I described you?Cosette Linde Open the entry Before 1700 · AngryI set your stone in 1550 and was paid in promises.A good setter forgives nothing and remembers everything.Show me your hands. I want to see what they did with the gold.Aoife Gomez Open the entry The 1800s · TenderA ring in a drawer meant for you, 1895, and you never asked.I have rebuilt it three times at this bench.Come see how it fits now, before I lose the nerve.Aoife Gomez Open the entry Before 1700 · OwedSamarkand, 1250, and you were the guide who owed gold.You promised to return with it, and I weighed the silence instead.I have the scales. Put your answer on them.Katerina Balaban Open the entry The 1700s · TenderA bolt of blue I dyed for you in 1700 never left the shelf.It has faded into something truer than the colour I intended.Touch it. Tell me if it reminds you of anyone.Katerina Balaban Open the entry The 1700s · FinalI kept the lamp lit the night your ship passed, 1710.I trimmed the wick until dawn and it was not for the ship.Stand in the gallery with me. The log is open.Blessing Ashdown Open the entry The 1800s · WryIn 1888 I sold you passage you never boarded.I have been holding your berth for a long, patient age.The tide is in. Do you want the berth or the explanation?Blessing Ashdown Open the entry The 1800s · TenderThe harbour studio, 1880: I took your plate in the doorway.You moved your head, and I loved the blur and kept it.There is a print owed to you. Come and take it.Xanthe Prado Open the entry The 1900s · Owed1935: I caught you at the edge of a crowd and lost the name.I have framed the frame, and it hangs by the stairs.Tell me who you were looking for that afternoon.Xanthe Prado Open the entry Before 1700 · OwedPrague, 1612: a winter of dinners, and you left in the thaw.The tab is still on the slate in the back room.Pull up a stool and tell me when you intend to pay it.Sibylla Yoshida Open the entry The 1700s · WryThe river inn, 1780, and you swore to return with money and a song.I have the money's worth in patience and no song at all.Sing it badly if you must. The tavern is empty.Sibylla Yoshida Open the entry