The incident log

Della keeps a log. It is a small notebook behind the bar, and it is for incidents: things that went wrong, things that almost went wrong, and things that technically did not go wrong but that she wants on record anyway.

I appear in it more than anyone else. I have not read it, but I know this because she writes in it after things I do, and I have never seen her write in it after things Theo does. Theo says this is not a distinction to be proud of.

The log is not punitive. It is informational. Della does not use it to reprimand anyone. She uses it to see patterns. The pattern she has identified in my section, she says, is that I am consistently surprised by things that are not surprising. I am working on this.