customs room
A low stone room built against the gate wall, with one window onto the road and one onto the arch. A long table, a lamp, two chairs on the petitioner's side and one on the officer's, the Gate Book on a lectern, and on a hook by the door the iron key that opens nothing (the doors open by themselves) and means everything: whoever holds it is the officer. Here the petitions are heard, one hour each, and here the old keeper sits in the corner on a stool and says what she thinks whether or not she is...
Located in The Last Pass.