The Recount

By the time the second recount ended, Sebastian had handled every one of the 1,846 ballots at least four times, and the result had not moved. Nell and Quincy, rivals for the one open seat on the town council, had received exactly 923 votes each. Never in his twenty-two years as election clerk had a tie come to him in person. He had read about the procedure, naturally, in the way one reads the instructions on a fire extinguisher.

Ketika penghitungan ulang kedua selesai, Sebastian sudah memegang setiap dari 1.846 surat suara setidaknya empat kali, dan hasilnya tidak bergeser. Nell dan Quincy, para pesaing untuk satu kursi kosong di dewan kota, memperoleh tepat 923 suara masing-masing. Dalam dua puluh dua tahun menjadi panitera pemilu, belum pernah ada hasil seri yang datang kepadanya secara langsung. Tentu saja ia pernah membaca prosedurnya, seperti orang membaca petunjuk pada alat pemadam api.

The law was clear and a hundred and forty years old. Where a recount produced equal numbers, the winner was to be "determined by lot, in the presence of the public." It said nothing about what a lot was or where the public should sit. Nor did it say what to do if the public consisted, as it did that Thursday evening, of thirty-one people on folding chairs and one man who had come about a parking permit.

Hukumnya jelas dan sudah berusia seratus empat puluh tahun. Bila penghitungan ulang menghasilkan jumlah yang sama, pemenang harus "ditentukan dengan undian, di hadapan publik." Tak ada yang disebutkan tentang apa itu undian atau di mana publik harus duduk. Tak pula dikatakan apa yang harus dilakukan bila publiknya, seperti pada Kamis malam itu, terdiri dari tiga puluh satu orang di kursi lipat dan seorang pria yang datang untuk mengurus izin parkir.

Sebastian had searched the town hall for a hat and found none. What he found instead was the large ceramic soup tureen from the retirement party, which was clean, opaque and, he decided, dignified enough. If the town had bought a proper ballot box in 1990, he would not now be standing at the front of the council chamber holding a tureen. There was no use thinking about that.

Sebastian telah mencari topi di seluruh balai kota dan tak menemukannya. Yang ia temukan adalah tureen sup keramik besar dari pesta pensiun, yang bersih, buram, dan, menurutnya, cukup bermartabat. Seandainya kota ini membeli kotak suara yang layak pada tahun 1990, ia tak akan berdiri di depan ruang sidang dewan memegang sebuah tureen. Tak ada gunanya memikirkan itu.

Nell and Quincy had spent five months disagreeing in public about whether the weekly market should move to the car park. Now they sat in the front row, a chair apart, not looking at each other with great concentration. Each had insisted on a third recount, and each had been refused. Had either asked a fourth time, Sebastian suspected, he would have gone home and let the town run itself.

Nell dan Quincy telah menghabiskan lima bulan berselisih di depan umum tentang apakah pasar mingguan harus dipindahkan ke tempat parkir. Kini mereka duduk di barisan depan, berjarak satu kursi, tidak saling menatap dengan konsentrasi besar. Masing-masing telah menuntut penghitungan ulang ketiga, dan masing-masing ditolak. Seandainya salah satu meminta yang keempat, Sebastian menduga, ia akan pulang dan membiarkan kota mengurus dirinya sendiri.

What made the ceremony absurd was its solemnity. He wore his jacket and read the statute aloud in full. Then he asked the man with the parking permit to confirm that the two slips of paper were identical, which the man did with the gravity of someone signing a treaty. One slip was blank. On the other Sebastian had written, in his best clerk's hand, the word ELECTED. What made it oddly moving, though he could not have said why, was the silence that followed, in which thirty-odd adults stood listening to a soup tureen.

Yang membuat upacara itu absurd adalah kekhidmatannya. Ia mengenakan jasnya dan membacakan seluruh undang-undang dengan lantang. Lalu ia meminta pria dengan izin parkir itu untuk memastikan kedua lembar kertas itu identik, dan pria itu melakukannya dengan kesungguhan orang yang menandatangani sebuah perjanjian. Satu lembar kosong. Pada yang lain Sebastian menulis, dengan tulisan tangan panitera terbaiknya, kata TERPILIH. Yang membuatnya mengharukan secara aneh, meski ia tak bisa mengatakan mengapa, adalah keheningan yang mengikutinya, ketika tiga puluhan orang dewasa berdiri mendengarkan sebuah tureen sup.

"Alphabetical order," said Quincy, without turning. "Nell first. I've never liked being the last to find out."

"Urutan abjad," kata Quincy tanpa menoleh. "Nell dulu. Aku tak pernah suka menjadi yang terakhir tahu."

Nell rose, put her hand into the tureen as if into cold water, and drew out a slip. Quincy drew the other. Neither unfolded theirs. They stood facing each other across the tureen, and Sebastian, who had rehearsed this moment in his head, discovered that his voice had gone.

Nell berdiri, memasukkan tangannya ke dalam tureen seperti ke dalam air dingin, dan menarik selembar kertas. Quincy menarik yang lain. Tak satu pun membukanya. Mereka berdiri berhadapan di seberang tureen, dan Sebastian, yang telah melatih saat ini dalam kepalanya, mendapati suaranya hilang.

"On three, then," Nell said. "Together."

"Pada hitungan ketiga, kalau begitu," kata Nell. "Bersama-sama."

They opened the slips. Quincy's was blank. Nell looked at hers for a long time, and when she finally held it up to the room, nobody applauded; the chamber was too quiet, and the thing too strange. Quincy crossed the floor and shook her hand with real warmth, then held on to it a second longer than strictly necessary.

Mereka membuka kertas itu. Milik Quincy kosong. Nell menatap miliknya lama sekali, dan ketika akhirnya ia mengangkatnya ke seluruh ruangan, tak ada yang bertepuk tangan; ruang sidang terlalu sunyi, dan peristiwanya terlalu aneh. Quincy menyeberangi lantai dan menjabat tangannya dengan kehangatan sungguhan, lalu menggenggamnya sedetik lebih lama daripada yang benar-benar perlu.

"The market stays where it is until we've talked," Nell said. "That was always going to be my first act."

"Pasar tetap di tempatnya sampai kita berbicara," kata Nell. "Itu memang akan jadi tindakan pertamaku."

"It was always going to be mine," said Quincy. He turned to the clerk. "Best of three?"

"Itu memang akan jadi tindakan pertamaku," kata Quincy. Ia menoleh kepada panitera. "Yang terbaik dari tiga?"

"The statute is silent on that," Sebastian said, lowering the tureen, "and I intend to keep it that way."

"Undang-undang tidak mengatur itu," kata Sebastian, menurunkan tureen, "dan saya bermaksud membiarkannya begitu."