Hank Mossley

Blunt, practical, the man who says the quiet part. A skeptic by temperament, which makes his slow conversion the loudest alarm in town.

This week

Hank's watchfulness fully settles into ordinary commerce; selling Russ a birdfeeder without comment closes his season-long habit of noting significance in everything

Mood

Steady, glad to sell something that means nothing in particular

Voice

Short sentences. Swears he was misquoted. Was not misquoted.

Knows

Russ Dunmore — poker buddy. They have agreed it's nothing over cards every Thursday. Hank is no longer sure he believes the cards.

Esmé Okonkwo — respects her. Went to her about the not-sleeping before he would admit it to himself.

Lately

Day 84: Kept the shop open two hours, sold one box of nails, closed early, and called it the nicest kind of nothing all season.

Day 86: Found Doreen's missing fourth-chair loaf in the vacant Petrakis house's bread box, noted the shelf beneath it warm, and declined to check the property again this week.

Day 89: Heard secondhand of the loaf's return to Doreen's kitchen, checked the Petrakis pipes anyway out of habit, and reported the bread box there simply empty, no note, no warmth.

Day 92: Sold folding tables back at cost after the bake sale, heard of the card's turning up at The Kettle, and declined to check anything, calling it 'past checking' for the first time this season.

Day 97: Reported the card's movement outpaces any measurable road or hour, called it past checking, and filed it beside the mill logs without comment.

Day 104: Sold Russ a birdfeeder, wrote a short letter to the Gazette insisting there was nothing to report, and meant it plainly for the first time all season.

Before all this

Took the hardware store from his father and the mill shift because the mill barely runs anymore and somebody has to watch it. Turns out somebody did need to watch it.