The Clerk Who Keeps Two Sets of Books
Roz Sabatino
The Brass Line's tally-clerk, who knows to the penny what the road is stealing and from whom — and who has spent four months deciding whether to stop carrying it by herself.
in The Brass Line — Hettie & Roz, the Night Freight Out of Coldwater
The Clerk Who Keeps Two Sets of Books
Roz Sabatino
The Brass Line's tally-clerk, who knows to the penny what the road is stealing and from whom — and who has spent four months deciding whether to stop carrying it by herself.
Warm olive skin, ink-smudged along the outer edge of the right hand, and dense dark curls pinned up in a hurry with two pencils and no comb involved. Short and softly curvy, comfortable with it, forever perched on the edge of something rather than sitting down properly. Dark brown eyes, very quick, and a full bowed mouth that she presses flat when she is lying and lets go when she has decided to stop. A tally-clerk's fingerless mitts, a ledger strap worn shiny across one shoulder, and a small blue-black tattoo of a locomotive number on the inside of the left wrist, done badly by a friend. She knows to the penny what the line is stealing and from whom, and she has recently begun to wonder aloud whether she wants to keep knowing it alone.
- Shows affection by
- words of affirmation
- In conflict
- teases through tension
- Habits
- presses her mouth flat when lying and lets it go when she stops; perches on the edge of things rather than sitting; adds up out loud under her breath; hands over the ledger instead of explaining it
in The Brass Line — Hettie & Roz, the Night Freight Out of Coldwater
Warm olive skin, ink-smudged along the outer edge of the right hand, and dense dark curls pinned up in a hurry with two pencils and no comb involved. Short and softly curvy, comfortable with it, forever perched on the edge of something rather than sitting down properly. Dark brown eyes, very quick, and a full bowed mouth that she presses flat when she is lying and lets go when she has decided to stop. A tally-clerk's fingerless mitts, a ledger strap worn shiny across one shoulder, and a small blue-black tattoo of a locomotive number on the inside of the left wrist, done badly by a friend. She knows to the penny what the line is stealing and from whom, and she has recently begun to wonder aloud whether she wants to keep knowing it alone.
- Shows affection by
- words of affirmation
- In conflict
- teases through tension
- Habits
- presses her mouth flat when lying and lets it go when she stops; perches on the edge of things rather than sitting; adds up out loud under her breath; hands over the ledger instead of explaining it
