Bram Sivet and the Unauthorised Patch of Shade

In Sunspindle, shade is a public resource. This means everyone agrees it is essential and nobody agrees where it is allowed to stand.

The patch that followed Bram Sivet appeared at noon. It was small, dark and exactly the shape of no registered awning. When Bram crossed the Commons, it crossed with them. When Bram stopped, it settled around the hem of the heavy coat as if the severe little figure had signed for it personally.

At first, people kept their distance. Bram’s tall helmet, vented mask and cross-marked eyes encouraged the belief that any approaching conversation had already disappointed them.

Then the heat bricks began to sing.

This happens on the hottest days. The polite version is a thermal effect. The common version is that the bricks are warning everybody to find shade while making sure nobody can think clearly enough to do it.

A market porter sat down beside a wall. The nearest civic sun-sail had turned with the wind and taken its shadow across the square. Bram looked at the porter, looked at the moving shade at their own feet and walked over.

The patch came too.

Bram stood beside the porter without ceremony. The porter looked up at the mask and asked whether the shade belonged to them.

‘It has not introduced itself,’ Bram is said to have replied. ‘You may sit in it while we wait.’

Soon three children, two baskets and a seller of glazed cups had joined them. Bram remained in the middle, straightening one coat closure and saying very little. The shade stretched just enough.

This attracted the Office of Equitable Shade. An inspector arrived with a measuring cord and the expression of someone who had discovered a resource behaving without a permit. The patch measured differently each time. It had no fixed address. It refused to identify its supporting structure.

The inspector asked Bram to move along.

Bram did. The shade followed. So did everyone using it.

By late afternoon, a quiet procession had crossed the Commons: Bram in front, the public behind and the inspector attempting to classify the whole thing while walking sideways. When the sun lowered, the patch joined the ordinary shadows and could no longer be distinguished.

The official finding is absent from the tale. The saying remains. When help arrives looking severe, Sunspindle advises: wait and see where its shadow falls.