FRAGMENT 001 // PUBLIC ACCESS
These records were not lost.
The first clerk did not write the number down.
He looked at the ration line, at the children standing behind their mothers, at the old men pretending not to lean on the wall, and left the column empty.
By noon, the empty column had become an omission.
By evening, the omission had become a correction.
By the next cycle, the correction was cited as proof that no one had been denied water.
These records were not lost. They were administered.