The shift starts at six. 'Ana gets there at ten to six and puts the corridor lights on in sections: first the stretch in front of the cells, then the stretch by the desk, last the yard.

She sets up the intake desk. The register on the left, open at the free line. The stamp on top of the register. The drawer with the bags on the right, shut.

The Vava'u prison has thirty-two places and tonight twenty-six of them are taken.

The shift supervisor comes out of the office with the transfer sheet in his hand. He says one is coming in from Neiafu at nine, and that he is one of their own.

'Ana asks him to say the name again.

The shift supervisor says it again.

'Ana looks at the sheet, then lays it on the desk to the right of the register. She opens the drawer, takes out a bag and leaves it there, folded in three the way it was. The fold stands up on its own.

The crate had come in on the third of January, from the United States, at the port of Neiafu. Inside were one thousand six hundred and fifty-five twenty-two calibre rounds, a rifle of the same calibre and two boxes of fireworks. No licence. No declaration.

The dog unit inspects twice a week and that day was one of them. The dog sat down in front of the crate. That is the procedure: the dog sits, the handler touches nothing, he calls it in.

At the prison everyone knows and no one says it out loud.

'Ana learned the intake procedure in her first year, and he was the one who taught it to her. There are nine steps. First you check the transfer sheet against the document. Then you have the belt and the laces taken off. Then you call out the effects while they go into the bag. Then you close the bag with a double knot. Then you have it signed. Last you write the time.

The lists are said out loud, he had told her, so that the man coming in hears that there is a rule above the one searching him.

At five to nine the van comes into the yard and stops with its nose to the wall. Two officers get out at the front. They open the back.

Vili steps down with his hands free. He has the uniform trousers on and he does not have the uniform shirt. The shoes are his own.

He walks to the desk and stops at the right distance, which is a step and a half.

The shift supervisor comes over from the office. He lays one open hand on the register, keeps it there, and with the other he points to the back room.

At the far end of the corridor the line for coming back in from the yard starts to form.

'Ana opens the drawer under the desk. She takes a bag. She opens it with her thumb and forefinger. The rustle carries to the end of the corridor.

The shift supervisor moves over one step. He puts himself between the desk and the line, his back to her, wide, his arms down at his sides.

"It's quicker through there," he says.

'Ana holds the bag open on the desk with her left hand. Then she starts.

She says: belt.

Vili pulls the belt out of the loops. He rolls it in three turns. He puts it in.

She says: laces.

Vili bends down. He unties the first. He unties the second. He pulls the laces out of the eyelets, one at a time, and lays them on the desk folded in two. 'Ana takes them and lets them down into the bag.

She says: watch. She says it louder than she said belt.

At the far end of the corridor the line for coming back in from the yard has stopped. There are three men. They stand at the glass door and look at the desk.

Vili opens the buckle. He takes the watch off. He holds it a moment in his closed palm, then he lays it on the desk.

She says: cash.

Sixteen pa'anga in notes and one fifty-seniti coin. 'Ana counts them out on the desk out loud, one by one, and puts them in.

She says: ring.

Vili turns the ring twice before it comes off. He hands it over. 'Ana takes it between her thumb and forefinger and holds it in the air above the opening. The bag is full now and stands up on its own.

She says again: ring. Then she lets it drop in.

The shift supervisor does not turn round.

Vili signs where 'Ana points. The signature is short and he makes it without resting his wrist.

'Ana turns the register towards herself. She checks the line. She writes the time: nine twelve.

The two officers take him by an arm each. There is no need. Vili walks on his own and he knows the floor, he knows where the floor rises near the glass door and he lifts his foot before it.

The line starts moving again. The three men come back in from the yard and pass the desk one at a time. No one looks any more.

The shift supervisor goes past 'Ana. He says nothing to her. He takes the register, closes it, puts it in the box and goes off towards the office.

'Ana stays at the desk. She pulls the two edges of the bag. She crosses them. She makes the knot, and she pulls it tight a second time because the first turn stays loose.

Then she sets it on the desk, in front of her, and she does not put it in the box.

The bag stands up. On the bottom you can still see the fold from the drawer, the old one, and it does not go away.