Portland Head

The first light the new government finished went up on this headland in 1791, and it has been turning since.

The path is wet. The door at the foot of the keeper's house is not locked, only stuck, as promised. You put a shoulder to it.

Inside, a kettle. A chair. A table with a book on it, open, a pen laid across the gutter.

On the wall, in a frame, a list of lights from West Quoddy to Cape May. Someone has crossed out one name, and then written it back in.

The beam goes over the window. It lights the room in a stripe. Then it is dark. Then it is the stripe again. You start counting, and stop.