{"title":"Second Census Collection","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eOffice of the Second Census\u003c\/strong\u003e follows the people responsible for deaths that refuse to remain administratively complete: extra passengers, duplicate corpses, forgotten jurisdictions, ancient claims, returning husbands, disputed boundaries and the occasional dead person who would like to appeal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChoose a city. The count is already wrong.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"belgrade","title":"Belgrade","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe train enters the tunnel with 312 passengers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIt comes out with 313.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eNobody notices until the extra man tries to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eHe steps onto the platform at Vukov Spomenik, falls dead, opens his eyes and grabs the nearest employee by the collar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e“Is the siege over?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census arrives nineteen minutes later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe passenger is already buried.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe problem is not resurrection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThat would be easier.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBelgrade\u003c\/strong\u003e has accumulated too many deaths under too many governments, too many borders and too many unfinished versions of itself. The same city keeps producing people whose deaths were completed historically but not administratively.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Second Census has a status for this:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eINCOMPLETE.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon the trains are carrying more than passengers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office begins discovering that a city can inherit unfinished dead the way a family inherits furniture: badly, repeatedly, and with nobody entirely sure who first agreed to keep it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 105%; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, where the trains usually contain the number of passengers listed on the form.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990601064632,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Belgrade_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807444"},{"product_id":"boston","title":"Boston","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBoston\u003c\/strong\u003e has a problem with its dead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSpecifically, it has more of them than it admits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census has spent centuries counting death through hospitals, churches, courts, cemeteries and governments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen another jurisdiction appears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eLindall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIt counts through witnesses.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eWidows. Nurses. Children. Friends. Anyone who remembers somebody the city does not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis is administratively horrifying.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon seven hundred and nine death notices arrive, all signed by the deceased. One belongs to a man who is still alive and mildly annoyed that the Office has called before breakfast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen the count gets larger.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eMuch larger.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBoston has spent centuries putting inconvenient people somewhere else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eUnfortunately, somewhere else has kept excellent records.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office eventually encounters the most dangerous possible thing in bureaucracy:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eanother office with jurisdiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIt has a complaint.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eFrom Boston.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBoston has been waiting a very long time to be heard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, where the municipal problems are less dead but not necessarily easier.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990601719992,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Boston_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807444"},{"product_id":"buenosaires","title":"Buenos Aires","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe dead man made coffee for two.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eDetective Lucía Ferreyra notices that before she notices the blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eOne cup has been rinsed and put away. The other is still cooling on the table. The victim lies beside it with the left side of his skull opened by a bronze horse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe apartment was locked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe killer was invited.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThat would be a normal murder problem.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen Lucía discovers that the dead man has already died before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census arrives carrying a black card and an explanation nobody asked for: the Office records the dead, verifies passage and prevents unlawful return.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eLucía has questions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSo does the corpse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon \u003cstrong\u003eBuenos Aires\u003c\/strong\u003e is dealing with deaths that repeat, identities that refuse to remain singular, and an institution whose oldest law sounds suspiciously like a preference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe dead begin remembering the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe city begins remembering them back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eAnd beneath Buenos Aires, something answers with the sound of a train moving under streets where no tracks have ever been laid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, where repeat customers are discouraged for different reasons.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990602113208,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Buenos_Aires_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807444"},{"product_id":"cairo","title":"Cairo","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe old man repairs tombs that nobody remembers are broken.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eHe knows they are broken because the walls complain.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eMostly about the living.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis is not considered especially remarkable in \u003cstrong\u003eCairo\u003c\/strong\u003e's City of the Dead, where children play football between mausoleums, laundry hangs from carved stone, mechanics argue with engines, families argue about tomatoes, and death has had enough time to become less of an event than a neighbor.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen the repairs stop being ordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census discovers that Cairo has not simply been living beside its dead. It has been maintaining agreements, roads and boundaries older than the paperwork meant to describe them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSome roads are for people who are leaving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSome are for people who are waiting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSome are apparently still under review.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office would like a clean distinction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCairo has several thousand years of evidence against this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon the question is not whether the dead belong in the city.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIt is whether the Office ever understood what belonging meant in the first place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, where the walls generally complain through the appropriate municipal channel.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990602866872,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Cairo_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807448"},{"product_id":"calgary","title":"Calgary","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe dead man's head is in \u003cstrong\u003eCalgary.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe rest of him is in Rocky View County.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eA yellow municipal boundary line runs beneath his shoulders with bureaucratic precision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCalgary police stand on one side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCounty officers stand on the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eNobody has touched him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis is how the Office of the Second Census gets involved.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe death itself is ordinary: cardiac arrest, witnessed, resuscitation ended, family identified.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe location is not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eOnce the Office starts asking which jurisdiction owns the dead, the boundary begins producing answers nobody requested.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBodies appear where legal lines cross physical ones. Death certificates disagree with maps. Roads, counties and cities begin behaving as though jurisdiction is something the dead can feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Second Census likes boundaries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBoundaries are the reason the Office exists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCalgary is about what happens when the boundary notices the Office back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, where municipal lines are generally content to stay painted on the road.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990603063480,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Calgary_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807447"},{"product_id":"istanbul","title":"Istanbul","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eDeath has an administrative problem in \u003cstrong\u003eIstanbul.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eNobody currently appears to be in charge of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eRome claims authority.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe municipality has paperwork.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census has a black case saying its own authority has lapsed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eAnd the dead, who have spent much of the day being governed by people unable to identify who appointed them, are beginning to enjoy themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eA voice finally asks the obvious question:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eWho presently administers death in Istanbul?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e“No one.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eANSWER ACCEPTED.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eUnfortunately, an answer creates a vacancy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe vacancy requires an appointment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe first claimant is Fatma Kaya.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eFatma is dead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eFatma declines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe system notes that refusal requires recognized authority.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office has had better afternoons.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, whose personnel remain mostly alive and therefore have fewer excuses.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990606733496,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Istanbul_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807449"},{"product_id":"kyoto","title":"Kyoto","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKyoto\u003c\/strong\u003e has been keeping a promise for twelve centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eNobody currently working for the Office remembers making it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis is usually how the expensive problems begin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBeneath the city waits something that was there before the city was finished: an absence that received everything Kyoto excluded, forgot, displaced or declined to recognize.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eOver centuries, the absence acquired a name.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen a claim.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen company.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office would strongly prefer to classify the matter as historical.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eHistory objects.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon forms made of ash, clay, water, road dust and broken roof tile begin climbing out beneath the city because the Office requires claimants to possess bodies and the claimants, being diligent, have complied.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe sensible solution is obvious.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCount them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office explains that this would create twelve centuries of direct responsibility.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eYes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThat is what everybody is upset about.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free: \u003c\/strong\u003ea complete Reality Services story, where the liabilities are younger but the meetings are somehow longer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990606831800,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Kyoto_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807446"},{"product_id":"mexicocity","title":"Mexico City","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMexico City\u003c\/strong\u003e has never believed the dead should be left alone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office has learned to live with this.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eEvery autumn the city feeds its dead, cleans their photographs, remembers their favorite drinks, apologizes for old arguments and issues several million invitations without realizing that a sufficiently sincere invitation can acquire legal force.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen every telephone in the Office rings at once.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eA woman reports that her husband is eating breakfast.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eHe died in 1989.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon the dead are returning through memories, murals, shrines, graffiti, family stories and neighborhoods that technically no longer exist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office has procedures for dead people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eIt has fewer procedures for a city remembering people the Office forgot to count.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eEventually the Return Desk requires three signs:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eLIVING.\u003cbr\u003eDEAD.\u003cbr\u003eOTHER.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe line for OTHER is longest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eCentral considers this disorder.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eMexico City considers it Tuesday.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, featuring living people who have somehow managed to make their paperwork almost as complicated.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990606995640,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Mexico_CIty_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807448"},{"product_id":"prague","title":"Prague","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eMarek Havel falls from a third-floor window.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eWitnesses agree on three things.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eHe did not scream.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eHe was pushed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eNobody touched him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen another Marek Havel steps through the broken window and looks down at his own body.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen the body looks up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e“That,” the dead Marek says through broken teeth, “is a matter under appeal.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eWelcome to Prague.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census is built for death, not litigation conducted simultaneously by two versions of the same man.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePrague\u003c\/strong\u003e considers this a distinction without much practical value.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eSoon the Office is dealing with old seals, older authority, duplicated claimants and the possibility that history is not a settled record but a stack of rulings nobody has had standing to challenge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe city has always closed cases with a final answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis time, Prague refuses one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free:\u003c\/strong\u003e a complete Reality Services story, where appeals are normally filed by one person at a time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990608076984,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Prague_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807449"},{"product_id":"vienna","title":"Vienna","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVienna\u003c\/strong\u003e has always taken hospitality seriously.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office of the Second Census eventually discovers that hospitality can take Vienna seriously in return.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eA House appears with rooms, meals, guests, obligations and an extremely old understanding of what it means to welcome someone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe dead arrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe forgotten arrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003ePeople who may never have properly left arrive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe House keeps making places for them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen it offers the Director a place too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003ePermanent duty. No more decisions. No more failures. A chair waiting forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eShe responds by picking up the chair and beating the door down with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThis works better than several earlier procedures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eBriefly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThen Vienna moves one inch away from the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eTelephone calls arrive as applause. Traffic lights turn white. The Danube becomes uncertain about direction. Aircraft can see the runway but cannot quite reach it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eThe Office would like everyone to remain calm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003eVienna would like to know who is hosting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free: \u003c\/strong\u003ea complete Reality Services story, where buildings generally stay in the same reality but management makes no promises.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53990610141368,"sku":null,"price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/Vienna_1500x1200T.png?v=1787807448"},{"product_id":"completesecondcensus","title":"Entire Second Census collection","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first census counts the living.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eSecond Census\u003c\/strong\u003e handles the paperwork afterward.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis would be considerably easier if the dead would remain where they were entered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey do not.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcross the world, the Office of the Second Census investigates deaths that have become administratively difficult: a train enters a tunnel with 312 passengers and emerges with 313. Seven hundred and nine death notices arrive signed by the deceased. A dead man makes coffee for two. A corpse lands on the pavement while another version of the same man watches from the window above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are rules for these situations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome of the rules are extremely old.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeveral are currently under appeal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach \u003cstrong\u003eSecond Census\u003c\/strong\u003e book follows a different city and a different collision between death, memory, history and the institution charged with keeping the count straight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn Boston, another office has been counting people the government forgot. In Mexico City, the dead begin accepting their annual invitations home rather more literally than intended. Istanbul discovers that nobody currently administers death. Prague has two versions of the same claimant and neither is willing to concede that the other one has standing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBelgrade would simply like to know why the extra passenger on the train is already buried.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Office would also like to know.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt has brought forms.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIncluded free: \u003c\/strong\u003ea complete Reality Services story, where buildings generally stay in the same reality but management makes no promises.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/realityservicesoffice.com\/collections\/secondcensus\" title=\"Second Census book series\"\u003eSee all Second Census books\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Reality Services Office","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53992130085048,"sku":null,"price":49.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/files\/SC_all_10_ebooks_1500x1200T.png?v=1787810197"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0978\/4459\/2824\/collections\/icon_Second_Census_SPINE_EDIT_NO_CIRCLE.jpg?v=1787787961","url":"https:\/\/realityservicesoffice.com\/collections\/secondcensus.oembed","provider":"Reality Services Office","version":"1.0","type":"link"}