The apprentice had placed a great pane of glass
in the watchtower.
Across it, he had drawn small squares.
Reports arrived from the gates,
the storehouses, the wells, and the roads.
Each report found a place.
There were numbers, colours,
and lines showing how the numbers had changed.
When the master arrived,
the apprentice was adding another square.
The apprentice said,
Now we can see the whole city
through a single pane of glass.
The master stood before it.
The master said,
The whole city?
The apprentice said,
Everything we measure.
No one will need to look elsewhere.
Another messenger arrived.
The apprentice made the squares smaller
and fitted the new report between them.
The master waited until he had finished.
The master said,
Why have you divided the city here?
The apprentice said,
Those reports come from the gatekeepers.
These come from the merchants.
The ones below come from the well-keepers.
The master said,
If different people kept the records,
would the divisions change?
The apprentice said,
Perhaps.
The master said,
Would the city?
The apprentice looked at the lines he had drawn.
Beyond the tower,
a road passed through the northern gate,
continued beside the storehouses,
and descended toward the market.
On the glass,
its traffic appeared in three separate places.
The master followed the road with his finger.
The master said,
What happens here?
His finger rested between two squares.
The apprentice said,
There is no report for that.
The master said,
Does nothing happen there?
The apprentice said,
The carts travel from the gate to the storehouses.
The master said,
And when the storehouses cannot receive them?
The apprentice looked from one square to another.
The apprentice said,
They wait on the road.
Eventually, they block the gate.
The master said,
Which square contains that?
The apprentice said,
It involves all three.
He reached for his brush.
The apprentice said,
I can draw the road between them.
The master said,
And what must you understand
before you know what to draw?
The apprentice lowered the brush.
Below them, a cart stopped.
Another drew up behind it.
The apprentice said,
What each place can receive.
What it releases.
Where the waiting gathers.
How that changes what the others can do.
The master said,
Did bringing the reports together
give you that understanding?
The apprentice said,
No.
The master said,
Then who has been supplying it?
The apprentice looked at the place
where a watcher would stand.
For a while, neither spoke.
Another messenger entered.
The apprentice took the report,
but did not reach for the brush.
The master said,
Have you run out of glass?
The apprentice said,
I do not yet know
what this would help us see.
The master said,
You knew where to put the others.
The apprentice said,
I knew where they would fit.
The master looked again at the crowded pane.
The apprentice said,
I thought that if nothing were left out,
nothing would be missed.
The master said,
How much must a watcher hold in mind
to understand what you have gathered here?
The apprentice studied the squares.
To follow the road,
he had to move between three corners.
To understand the waiting,
he had to remember what each place could hold.
To judge whether the gate would clear,
he needed to know what was still approaching.
The glass held the reports.
The watcher had to hold the city together.
The apprentice said,
Then I should remove some of this.
The master said,
What will guide your hand?
The apprentice was quiet.
The master said,
You chose what to add
because it was available.
How will you choose what to leave?
The apprentice looked through
a narrow space between the marks.
The apprentice said,
I must know what we are trying to understand.
And how the city works
well enough to choose what reveals it.
He looked toward the northern gate,
then down toward the market.
The apprentice said,
That may require more than one view.
The master said,
Would there be more than one city?
The apprentice shook his head.
At the top of the glass,
he had written:
THE WHOLE CITY.
He took a cloth
and wiped the words away.
The master said,
What was wrong with the title?
The apprentice said,
I had named the surface
after what I hoped to understand through it.