17 November 2026
Tuesday. A team arrived this evening at precisely the minute their hour began, breathless and very pleased with themselves. They had not been briefed. They did not know where anything went. They lost the first five minutes of their hour to their own coats.
So, for the record: arrive fifteen minutes early. That is when the staff do the briefing, explain the rules and take your belongings, so that your sixty minutes with Gerald start when they are supposed to.
Sixty minutes in the lab. Then a little while afterwards to sit down, breathe normally and tell each other you were never frightened. Call it an hour and a half, door to door. Less if the cure works early. I would not book dinner on the assumption that it will.
I have timed Gerald. He crosses his chamber once every eleven seconds and has done since 2024. That is consistency. I respect consistency in a colleague.
The breathless team finished, by the way. They did it all at a jog. I have prescribed them a sit-down.
— Dr Morrow, Storeroom B
