I am walking through the grounds towards the white building. I am worried about the legs because I believe they are untidy. Untidiness is not well-received in the white building.

When the time is right I enter the white building, taking the steps with care, not wanting to draw attention to the legs. The feet know where to walk. Inside, turn right, walk, turn right, and up the stairs to the first floor. Here there are grey metal boxes. When the clock has reached a certain minute, there will be a ritual, to be performed by me.

It is the time. I open the correct box and withdraw two books. Into the box I put a brown paper bag. It is a fair exchange.

There are noises: feet falling and doors swinging open and shut. Bells will ring, signalling the day's second ritual.

It is the time. Bells ring. Noises grow. I leave the metal boxes, turn right, walk to the end of the corridor, turn left, turn right, turn left, turn right down the stairs, turn right and right again, dodging the other people walking here. Turn left at the end of the corridor, take the second-last door on the right-hand side. Enter. Wait to be acknowledged. A pleasant room, with carpet and blinds, fans in the high ceiling, a heater in one corner. The room is well equipped for all kinds of weather. There is even glass in the windows to stop the rain.

Not alone in the room.

Bells ring once more; we all move out. Move out, fall out. Fall down, die. The way of life.

The events which follow the falling-out are not rituals, though they are executed with ritualistic movements. Our duties, our business, here in the white building. The duties to be performed here by myself have much repetition in them: they are of little variation. The feet are taking paths. Turn left out of the room, turn right, first door on the right. This room is also equipped for all weathers. Fans in the high ceiling, again, and a heater in one corner. There is no carpet, for it is not part of the function of this room. I enter the room, as do others.

This room is in one corner of the white building. The building is U-shaped; the room we are in is located in an inner corner of the U. We are secure. There is little of the building we cannot see from here.

I am waiting, as always, for certain places in the room to become occupied. I expect not pattern, but method. I am not dissatisified. We all, the group who normally occupy this room at this time, are present and in our proper places. It is a good sign.