‘You told me what a normal rate was.’

‘Yes, but there are variations from one person to another, and how do I know whether your heart beats at a normal rate? I can’t even take your pulse since we’re not allowed to touch.’

‘I can take it, I already have. I’ll say “tick-tock” at each beat. Compare that with your own heart, it’ll give us something to start from.’

My rate was slower than hers.

‘You’re younger. You are probably closer to the average than I am; my heart used to beat quite fast. How can we tell?’

‘What does it matter if the unit isn’t precise? The main thing is to have a unit. Take seventy-two.’

‘No. Given that we can’t be sure anyway, I’ll divide by seventy. It’s easier, and even then, I’m not sure I won’t get in a muddle.’

She fell silent, her eyes glazed over and she began to mumble. I listened to her without taking my eyes off the guard.

‘Three thousand, two hundred and twenty divided by seventy makes forty-six. At least, I think it does. I’m amazed it goes exactly. I’m going to start again.’

One of the old guards stared at me intently for two or three seconds.

‘Yes, it’s definitely forty-six. I’ll try five thousand and twelve.’

The guards had the time to complete their round before she finished.

‘Seventy-one or seventy-two, there are fractions.’

‘So that’s either forty-six minutes after we get up, or seventy-one or seventy-two?’

‘Forty-six minutes, or one hour and eleven or twelve minutes.’

She was thrilled.

‘How odd! What connection can there be between forty six minutes and one hour twelve?’

I was lost.

‘We used to work seven or eight hours a day, depending on what our job was,’ she explained. ‘We’d begin at the same time every day, or people worked shifts, to ensure continuity. But we never had variations of twenty-five or twenty-six minutes from one day to the next. Does that mean something?’

She was alluding to a way of life that I knew nothing about, and I could only listen to her.

‘Carry on counting. Count the times tomorrow.’

Tomorrow? But was it tomorrow in the old sense of the word?

This first achievement made me ambitious. I told myself that heartbeats were not the only rhythms, and I started listening to my body. I knew that menstruation occurred every twentyeight days and I was saddened that I didn’t possess that indicator, but I observed the variations in my appetite. Sometimes, I was very hungry when I woke up, and it felt like a long time until the meal was ready. We’d got it into our heads that they gave us food at specific times, but I saw that this was mistaken. Between the two meals, sometimes three hours went by, sometimes five. When I’d counted about ten times, it seemed that the young guard arrived at different times. I won’t list the figures I obtained—although I remember them perfectly, for they are the birth dates of my thoughts. Anthea found them so odd that she wondered whether the times weren’t completely random. But the young guard almost never stayed longer than six hours, according to my heart. When he appeared, he looked fresh and rested—from watching him, I had come to know him well— but at the end of his shift, he showed little signs of fatigue. His step maintained its elasticity, he held his head high: I couldn’t say precisely what it was that suggested weariness. Was he a little paler? His gaze less penetrating? Were his movements just a fraction slower? The relief guard always came on duty at times that were separate from our meal and sleep times. I found that strange.