The foreman saw the two teachers and strode over to them. “You can’t come in here.”

“Yes, we realize—” Iona began.

“This office needs a refit before it can be used—”

“By him,” said Iona, pointing at Carter. “It’s going to be his office. He’s supposed to be here, you know.”

The foreman peered suspiciously at Carter. “Thought you weren’t starting until tomorrow?”

“Oh sorry,” Carter said. “Am I causing trouble?”

“You’ve nothing to apologize for,” said Iona and then addressed the foreman. “Is this really necessary?”

“The school told us to get it done while it was empty,” the foreman replied, “and quite right too—it was so dilapidated.”

“But now he doesn’t have an office.”

“The sooner you leave us to get on with it, the sooner he will have an office.”

Iona sighed and turned to Carter. “I’ll show you the staff room,” she said and they went back down the corridor the way they’d come. She disliked seeing the last evidence of Weston’s presence being removed. The patches of floor he’d worn down by pacing around, the marks on the wall where he’d leaned back in his chair. The traces people left on this city all got removed sooner or later, but for it to happen immediately was a shock.

* * *

After her morning classes Iona had a three-hour gap in her schedule, so she took the proofs of the new edition of the textbook over to the park. She’d already gone through more than half of it—it was a fairly light job these days because each edition changed very little from the previous one. Once upon a time the changes from one edition to the next had been very substantial. New building techniques would emerge, existing ones would be refined and improved. But very little significant progress had been made lately. Perhaps there wasn’t much left they didn’t know.

While writing this edition of the textbook Iona had wondered how it compared to the first edition she’d written all those years ago. There had been so many editions they all blurred into one. She’d gone down to the library and asked for it only to be told the early editions of the textbook had all long since been withdrawn and recycled. Iona wondered why that was necessary. The library seemed to have plenty of space and the textbook was perennially the city’s most-read book. But then again, who’d want to read the old ones now? It was vain of her to expect they’d keep them all.

She finished going over the proofs sooner than expected. She put them in the post and decided to take a walk out to the forest.

* * *

This part of the forest was midway through its cycle, so it was deserted. At the start of their cycle the trees were given close attention to ensure they grew well; near the end they were carefully checked for disease and then prepared for felling. In the middle they were left to get on with it.