The plane returned on a Monday. Its borrower had died on Friday. The workshop apprentice, Dima, read the dates and wondered whether the ledger had been filled in carelessly after the fact.
A short note tucked into the entry came from the borrower's neighbor. He found the tool while helping the family clear a shed and recognized the workshop mark. The return date recorded the object's movement, not the borrower's presence.
The borrowed plane had been used to repair a child's chair. The family brought the chair to the workshop later, asking whether it could be finished. Dima found the marks where the dead man stopped working and completed only the unfinished joint, preserving the rest of his work.
In the ledger, he added the neighbor's role beneath the original entry. The dates no longer suggested an impossibility. They described a small chain of responsibility carried forward by people who were still there: a tool returned, an explanation supplied, and a chair made safe enough for the child it was intended to hold.