Vat Five, First Drawing

The first cloth taken out of vat five, ten days after it was set and about an hour after Bahri decided the vat had come alive.

A new vat is unpredictable in its opening week. The reduction is not yet stable, the take is patchy, and the blue arrives with a greenish cast that disappears within a fortnight and does not come back. Bahri dyes one piece at this stage every time she starts a vat, and keeps it regardless of the result.

Drawing in the title refers to the act of drawing cloth from a vat, which is the trade term, and to nothing else.