The Auctioneer of Small Hours

What it looks like, and what it does

A man in a striped waistcoat at a lectern in a dark hall, before rows of sleeping figures in coats, each with a numbered paddle clasped in sleeping hands. A gavel with a muffled head. A clock with no hour hand.

Works between three and four in the morning. Chatters pleasantly. Never takes a bid from anyone awake.

What is known

Dream auctions have been reported in hostels, night-shift dormitories and all-night clinics. Occupants wake with a paddle in their hand and no memory of bidding.

Sellers are found to have lost the hour after the sale: late for work, a missed dose, a missed call. Buyers are found to be unusually productive. One sale record lists the lot as “one hour (clear),” hammer price “a good night's sleep.”

What it can do

• Sells the first waking hour of a sleeper to another sleeper
• Takes payment in sleep

Where it stops

• Cannot sell an hour from someone who is awake
• Cannot sell the same hour twice

An encounter

Ajayi counted nineteen guests asleep with paddles in their hands. He took one away to look at it. The number on it was in a currency he did not recognise. In the morning, nine of the guests had missed their shifts. He kept the paddle in the office drawer. It was still warm.

Femi Ajayi, hostel warden, Dormitory B, a hostel on Quay Street, 03:40, a winter night

What is established, and what is only said

• established: Fourteen sellers have logged a lost hour on the morning after a recorded sale; their timestamps agree.
• rumor: That the poorest sleepers are asked first.
• interpretation: Whatever he is, he runs a market. It is the market that is the horror.

Still unresolved

The catalogue numbers lots into the millions. Lot 1 reads “The first hour,” and is marked withdrawn.

Where it has been recorded

• The Salt Coast (reported) — Reported in hostel dormitories on the quays. Individual sites were not recorded.

Connected entities

• The Itemised Receipt — Both trade in costs that are not money. The Receipt records the bill. The Auctioneer collects it.
• The Appraiser — Both put a number on what a person is. The Appraiser names it. The Auctioneer sells it.