Chapter Five

Sayid withdrew the community record book from a shelf on the communal library. The survivors had recovered a stash of blank, wide-ruled composition notebooks from one of the hatches, and the community library now housed most of them. Only twenty-three blank books remained to be filled, and then the survivors would have to find a new source of paper.

In addition to the community record book, there was a financial record book, which listed personal property trades, fines paid for infractions against the community, and community service contributions, which were made in lieu of taxes. There was no clearly defined system of taxation, but the service hours were recorded to ensure that no one got away with depending too heavily upon the labor of others. One library volume contained an island history, which Sayid had taken upon himself to write by systematically and chronologically recording the events that had occurred since the plane crash, including details of each (now annual) council election. Another book housed a more mythological and legendary history of the island, and it had been compiled by Locke.

One of the volumes was a law book, which officially outlined the rules and punishments by which the survivors had agreed to govern themselves. It had begun with only a few pages, but it had grown considerably over the months and years, as laws inevitably will. Most of the books in the library, however, were poems, stories, novels, and plays written by the survivors themselves. Some were obviously more popular than others, and Sayid made it a habit to personally check out Hurley's "Captain Corpulent" comic book once a month, so that the young man would not see it resting on the shelf every time he visited the library.

Sayid now held the open record book in one hand, flipped through its pages with coarse fingertips, and then ran his index finger elegantly down one page until he had reached the date of Kate and Sawyer's marriage. He laid the book flat on the library table, held his finger on the date, and then turned the book to face the subjects in question. "Kate," he asked, "Do you agree to this divorce?"

"Yes," she answered, firmly and steadily.

"Sawyer, do you agree to this divorce?"

Sayid looked into his eyes; it was a habit of his to examine men's eyes, even when he did not particularly wish to see what they contained. Sawyer turned his gaze away from the Iraqi. The southerner's teeth clenched. "Hell yes," he murmured, the muffled curse rising up through a throat thick with some not-quite-suppressed emotion.

"Then the marriage is stricken from the record." Sayid took a pen and ran a thick, black line through the date and names. Underneath, he wrote two words: "divorce effective" and then the day's date.

Kate had turned and begun to walk away the moment his pen started to glide across the page, but Sawyer now still stood staring at the fresh page, at that one spot in particular, at the very end of the line, where Sayid had paused upon completion, and the ink had pooled into a small, sticky, black dot.

Sayid waited for Sawyer to turn away, to walk away decidedly as Kate had done. Sawyer, however, simply kept staring at the book. At last, Sayid lifted the black and white speckled cover and flipped the flimsy cardboard shut. His fingers pushed the cover down against the page, as though to hold it there by force, as though to keep it from bursting open of its own free will. When Sawyer still didn't move from his spot, Sayid picked the book up and slid it back onto its shelf.

"Wanna help chop wood?" Sawyer asked.

"Eko and I chopped this morning. There is enough for at least two days."

"We could always use more, eh, Mohammed?"

Sayid looked away. He wouldn't read Sawyer's eyes. Not this time. "I can't now. I promised to do something with Claire this afternoon. "

"Yeah, well, better get home to the Mrs. then, before that ball and chain starts slipping."

Sayid did not respond, and he waited until he sensed Sawyer walk away before looking up from the table he had been studying.