Margen
Monday the 3rd. The altarpiece left on Friday for the restoration workshop in the provincial capital. I am Encarna Buey, room attendant at the diocesan museum of Villasbuenas, and this morning I clocked in at ten and took my chair in front of a four-metre wall with a nail in it and the label, the little card with the work on it, underneath.
Tuesday the 4th. Isidro Mellado, the curator, brought along a sign reading WORK UNDER RESTORATION and hung it from the nail. I asked him whether he could move me to the ivory room, which is the one with heating. He says the insurance policy requires an attendant in every room open to the public, and room three is open.
Wednesday the 5th. Thirty-one children from Year Six. The teacher asked me to explain the piece to them. I explained it: central panel with the Dormition, the passing of the Virgin, four scenes down the sides, the donor kneeling at the bottom left with his nose broken since the war. They settled down to draw it. Two of them drew it with the broken nose.
Thursday the 6th. A Dutch couple asked what used to be there. I told them slowly, with the sign as my witness. On the way out they said it was the best thing in the museum.
Friday the 7th. Somebody left a two-euro coin on the floor, under the nail. I did not touch it. By two o'clock there were three.
Monday the 10th. Isidro says I should stop telling people about the altarpiece, because they stop and a group forms, and a group in front of a wall draws more attention than the sign does. I asked him what I should do then. He says: keep guard.
Tuesday the 11th. The coins under the nail now come to fourteen, plus three buttons. Isidro collected them and dropped them in the chapel's offerings box, which has been stuck at nine euros all month.
Wednesday the 12th. The workshop rang: it arrives tomorrow at eight. Isidro came into the room and stood a while looking at the nail.
Thursday the 13th. At twenty past nine they hung it. The diocese came to take the photograph and Isidro asked me to stand beside it, so the size would show. Two weeks guarding the nail and today I am the tape measure.