Read Before Signing
Fantasy
The fine arrives two days before the letter it apologizes for, which is the post being efficient, and the receipt is dated Thursday, which is a Tuesday problem.
Two years on, Genna Busterson has a junior license, a title nobody uses correctly, and a file that closed without ever clearing her. Not cleared. Not vindicated. Expired, which is a word for milk.
Then a man in gray comes up the lane. He is polite, he is sorry, he has been sorry before, and he is not certain which side of the apology he is currently standing on. His notice makes no threat, sets no bond, names no penalty. The state's paper threatens; that is how you know the state is paying attention. This paper only records.
The Keepers of the Hours have her parcel under review.
What they will eventually put on the table is everything she has wanted since the bridge: the designation corrected of record, the appointment made permanent, authority full, tenure without term, and sight of her own account, entire.