At nine, the doors to the registration floor opened inward and the people leaning against them had to step back.
I went in with the rest. The satchel was in my room, with the notebook and the archive papers. I had brought the wallet, my newcomer card and the folded examination form. I had checked for all three twice on the walk over.
Yesterday I had walked the route without the bag. That had been useful. Trying it a second time had not, and my legs remembered the stairs this morning.
Inside the doors, the crowd widened until it met the first table, then narrowed again. I stopped beside the person who had come in ahead of me and found that he was trying to go back out. We moved the same way twice before he slipped past.
I took the wallet out while there was room. The folded form had worked behind the card. Separating them with the glove on was harder than it had been in my room, where I could put everything down and start again.
"Your paper, please."
