The escort kept his distance, which I appreciated.He stayed thirty feet back the entire walk, close enough to fulfill his function, far enough to make the settlement feel like something I was actually visiting rather than being supervised through. I did not acknowledge him and he did not close the gap and we had a working arrangement by the time I came through the settlement gate.I walked it the way I walked everything.Starting at the outer edge. Working inward. Left to right, systematic, the pattern so ingrained I did not have to think about it anymore, it just happened while the rest of my mind was elsewhere.The outer fence was repaired, newer posts mixed with older ones where sections had been replaced. The drainage channel along the eastern edge ran clear and fast. The paths between houses were packed earth, well-traveled, the kind of surface that only develops that smoothness when people have been walking it daily for years.I cataloged all of it and then I stopped cataloging
Magbasa pa