Draw a Circle

The trellis shop smells of cut cedar. There is lattice in bundles and an open door at the back. Behind it is a room lined with crates of crushed glass, sorted by color. Folding chairs face a card table, and every chair is taken.

On the table a bicycle wheel lies flat with a sheet of cardboard clamped across it, and over it a pen hangs from a curved arm. Two motors from a dead printer turn the wheel and slide the arm. Index cards stand in a tray at the end.

An old man in a shop apron takes the top card and reads it out. Go out. He feeds it in, and the arm slides out. Turn. The wheel turns. Draw a circle. The pen squeaks round, and on the cardboard is a circle. In the front row a woman writes something down. Turn. Draw a circle.

He goes through the stack that way until there is a flower of overlapping circles on the board. One card is left.

From somewhere down the street, glass is ringing.