The committee had five members: himself at nine, at sixteen, at twenty-two, at thirty-one, and at thirty-seven. Major decisions required a majority. Most of Osel's life had been run this way and the system mostly worked. What it produced was not always what he would have chosen alone, but he had learned early that what he would have chosen alone had not always been right either.
The current vote was a job offer. Good salary, different city, work he was qualified for and would probably be good at. He had tallied the votes twice to confirm: age thirty-seven, yes. Age twenty-two, yes. Current self, yes. Age thirty-one, no, on the grounds that the city wasn't where he had expected to end up. Age sixteen, no, on grounds that age sixteen had always been suspicious of professional opportunity and hadn't changed.
Three to two. He needed a fourth yes or a conversion. Age nine had abstained, citing insufficient information, which was age nine's position on most things.
He went to see Teln, who facilitated committee deadlocks. Teln was sixty-one and had been doing this for thirty years. Her office had eight chairs because some of her clients had larger committees.
Teln asked about the conversion prospects. Osel said age thirty-one might be persuadable but age sixteen had not moved on a vote in twenty-six years. Teln asked about the abstention. Osel said age nine was firm.
Teln said: and what does your body say?
Osel said: the body doesn't vote.
Teln said: that's correct. That's the convention. But you might ask anyway.
Osel sat with this. What did his body say? His body had thoughts about the job. It said: the city has a different climate, which would take adjustment. It said: you have been sitting at the same desk for eight years. It said: I am tired in a way that is not about this decision specifically. And it said something else that Osel didn't have a word for, which was a kind of lean, a direction it wanted to go that it had been registering for some time without Osel having asked.
He said to Teln: that's not a vote.
Teln said: no. What would you do if it were?
Osel sat with this for a long time. Walking home he still had not decided about the job. But he was thinking about how many decisions had been made by majority vote over the years, and how many of those votes the body had been present for, watching from somewhere outside the room, and what it would have said if anyone had thought to ask.