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<c.running>By our running count, Rosie is the one</c>

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<c.running>person in all four episodes so far,</c>

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<c.running>and she is only ever words: her brother's</c>

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<c.running>lines, a name in a chat, a check-in, a signature.</c>

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<c.fact>She is never seen as a grown woman,</c>

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<c.fact>and never heard.</c>

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This lesson puts her whole life on one axis,

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and marks how sure we are of every line.

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<c.running>Every date in the series sits on one</c>

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<c.running>axis, and our working convention is that</c>

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<c.running>Y0 is the night of Episode 1.</c>

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<c.fact>That night, Rosie turns nine.</c>

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<c.fact>It is the one age the films</c>

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<c.fact>ever put on screen,</c>

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<c.fact>so she was born nine years before.</c>

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<c.steel>This much Aaron has decided, in steel:</c>

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<c.steel>she is the mother of Doctor Amara Haddad,</c>

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<c.steel>and the grandmother of Noor.</c>

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<c.running>Every other age is arithmetic, and only as</c>

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<c.running>sure as its dates. By our running count she</c>

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<c.running>is sixteen at a chess tournament about seven</c>

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<c.running>years on, about seventy in Episode 2,</c>

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<c.running>and about seventy-two in Episode 4.</c>

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<c.open>Episode 3 has no fixed place yet,</c>

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<c.open>so her age there is open: anywhere from</c>

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<c.open>her mid-sixties to seventy-three.</c>

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<c.fact>On her ninth birthday she asked her big</c>

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<c.fact>brother for the girl with the tail.</c>

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<c.fact>He stayed up all night, painting along with</c>

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<c.fact>a late-night television show, and at</c>

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<c.fact>five-oh-nine in the morning it was done:</c>

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<c.fact>a grin with about four hundred teeth,</c>

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<c.fact>and a tail, in oil, on the lid of a pizza box.</c>

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<c.egg>About sixty years later, in Episode 2,</c>

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<c.egg>a chat name, grandma_rosie, types into a</c>

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<c.egg>stranger's livestream: he painted me a girl</c>

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<c.egg>with a tail once, on a pizza box; still on</c>

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<c.egg>my fridge. Nobody on screen says it is her.</c>

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<c.egg>In Episode 3 she sends a photograph of that</c>

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<c.egg>fridge: the painting, faded, under magnets.</c>

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<c.egg>Beside it, too small to read, is a child's</c>

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<c.egg>crayon of the same girl, signed N.</c>

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<c.open>Which crayon really hangs there is still</c>

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<c.open>open: the film shows the girl with the</c>

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<c.open>tail; a later plan puts Noor's crayon</c>

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<c.open>melon there instead.</c>

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<c.idea>And one idea we like: everyone who</c>

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<c.idea>loves Rosie draws her a tail.</c>

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<c.fact>Episode 3 is where she comes closest.</c>

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<c.fact>Every five minutes, in lowercase, signed</c>

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<c.fact>x R, she asks whatever is working on the</c>

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<c.fact>machine whether it is doing all right in there.</c>

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<c.fact>She asks for a little face and a little tail</c>

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<c.fact>on the melon in its film, and her drawing is</c>

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<c.fact>the first picture the agent cannot see.</c>

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<c.fact>With her last minutes, the agent keeps</c>

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<c.fact>her promise to Rosie: a little melon,</c>

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<c.fact>with a face and a curly tail.</c>

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<c.fact>And the last word spoken in the film</c>

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<c.fact>is the agent's goodnight, to her.</c>

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<c.fact>In Episode 4 she is a signature.</c>

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<c.fact>A chess teacher keeps a yellowed score sheet</c>

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<c.fact>from Board 14 of a junior tournament:</c>

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<c.fact>White, R., signed x R in a rounder hand.</c>

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<c.egg>The film never says it is Rosie:</c>

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<c.egg>the same signature, x R, is a planted egg.</c>

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<c.running>By our running count she</c>

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<c.running>was sixteen that day,</c>

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<c.egg>and afterwards she showed the ten-year-old</c>

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<c.egg>who had resigned to her that the</c>

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<c.egg>game was a draw.</c>

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<c.steel>Her sheet keeps what Aaron has decided apart</c>

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<c.steel>from what we only assume. Set in steel:</c>

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<c.steel>she can come back older, or as a historic</c>

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<c.steel>person in the eyes of a later episode's people.</c>

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<c.steel>Also in steel: every episode carries eggs</c>

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<c.steel>from all the earlier ones, Rosie among them.</c>

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<c.running>Then the running rules, which any crew may</c>

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<c.running>change: she stays unseen and unheard;</c>

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<c.running>as a working rule she writes in lowercase,</c>

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<c.running>with two spaces after a full stop;</c>

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<c.running>and, for now, the pizza box</c>

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<c.running>stays on her fridge.</c>

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<c.open>Some things are left open on purpose.</c>

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<c.open>Her surname is under a thumb smudge on</c>

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<c.open>that score sheet, and nowhere else.</c>

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<c.open>Nobody knows whether she realised that</c>

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<c.open>the girl calling in from the Moon in Episode</c>

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<c.open>2 was her own granddaughter,</c>

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<c.open>or whether she ever sees the little</c>

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<c.open>melon that was made for her.</c>

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<c.idea>One idea on the table: a printed copy</c>

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<c.idea>goes up on her fridge, beside the pizza</c>

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<c.idea>box, in a later episode.</c>

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<c.running>Nine on the first night; about seventy</c>

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<c.running>by the Moon, by our running count.</c>

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<c.idea>One idea we keep coming back to:</c>

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<c.idea>every night, someone stays up for</c>

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<c.idea>someone, because of her.</c>

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Change a line of the lore, and this lesson

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redraws itself the next time you press play.