Quote 'Wars begin in the minds of men' on forearm

The lorry from Arrowbrook came through again on Tuesday, and the driver had the same argument with Mr Haddow at the petrol hut that he had last month, only louder. Both of them wanted the last of the shade under the water tower. I sat on the step with the children's slates and pretended to count letters while they shouted. Nobody was hit. That is the most I can tell you about the week.

Mr Haddow found me afterwards and asked whether I had a sentence he could paint on the hut wall, something the drivers would have to read while they waited for their diesel. I said I had a line from the old book the schoolmaster used, and I wrote it on the back of a receipt for him. He read it twice, folded the paper into his shirt pocket and said, "That's a dangerous thing to put where a man can see it while he's thirsty." Then he went off to fetch his brush.

Yesterday I walked out past the grader on the Crane Road with the water jug, and I saw that someone had already painted the words on the tin sign by the cattle grid, in careful black letters that wobbled at the tails. The driver was sitting on his bumper reading it, his lips moving. He did not look up when I passed.

Write me back and tell me what the city is like. Tell me whether anyone there is reading anything at all.

Love, Nell