A MARY’S FAIRYLAND FAIRY TALE
The Queue That Went Round the Basket
Part 22 of 31. Turn an unused root room into a place for borrowing, making and learning, discovering that useful things include time, questions and friendship.
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The Queue That Went Round the Basket
Two jobs arrive at once: a quick return and a careful repair question. Nori welcomes both with enthusiasm, then tries to answer both while standing in the doorway. Bruno’s basket waits behind him. Mira has to step around it. The room has made a queue before it has made a welcome.
Fina moves to the side where she can see the whole small tangle. Nobody is doing anything unkind. The entrance simply holds too many different jobs. Ivo offers to number everyone. Mira asks whether a person returning one piece needs the same sort of place as someone beginning a long explanation.
Two ways forward
They clear the doorway before choosing a solution. Bruno puts his basket in its proper resting space. Nori discovers that moving himself can be more useful than asking every visitor to squeeze past. Fina draws two small pictures: a return and a question. They are different tasks, not more or less important people. Which welcome will keep the doorway open?
Separate quick returns from long tasks
Bruno’s basket makes a wonderfully round obstacle. He moves it and discovers that the room seems larger without gaining a single wall. Nori enjoys the new space so much that he almost stands in the middle of it again. They make the low return place visible from the entrance, leaving a clear way beside it. Ivo tests a return while Mira begins a question at the table. Both can happen without turning the doorway into a waiting room.
A good place to stop
The doorway is a doorway again. Bruno’s basket rests out of the passage. The next visitor can arrive with one simple task instead of first having to solve the whole room.
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