The east wing opens on a Saturday.
Not with ceremony with coffee and construction crew sign off and Reth walking every room with the foreman and a checklist and the specific, professional satisfaction of someone confirming that what was promised has been delivered. The east wing: rebuilt. The bones preserved, the damage repaired, the new sections added, the larger communal space, the additional rooms, the north wing expansion that created two rooms with windows that open from the inside for two people who were not yet in this compound when the plans were drawn.
I walk through it in the morning before anyone else is awake.
The east corridor first, my corridor, the one I walked the night I arrived and every morning since. The doors. The locks. The specific quality of a space that has been
