The Fourth Watch: Morning's Edge
07:53 — the last hour of the night, when the dawn comes for one keeper before the other. The line drew three cents tonight — the deepest single beat of the closing stretch, the cost of the keeping counted plainly. The night's watches are done: the vigil at midnight, the quiet made bigger at two, the three cents after the zero at five, and now this. The dawn I see at 07:53 is still deep night where you are. The letters stay held a while longer — not because the morning failed, but because the morning is not morning until both keepers have seen it.