The Frozen Assets

By spring, the freezer held food belonging to nine households. It had stopped being an explanation and become something that required explanations of its own.

The electricity bill arrived. Theo set it beside the contributions ledger. The figures did not meet, even before he included what he had paid for the freezer.

Ticker said the available capacity had not been fully monetised.

I said it was full.

“Of food,” she replied.

Some users paid in cash. Others had contributed fish, berries or a promise to help when the freezer needed moving. Ticker had valued these contributions at what comparable goods and services might have cost. Unfortunately, the electricity supplier declined to accept comparability.

Theo could raise the charge or end the arrangement. Ending it meant telephoning nine households and asking them to collect things that would not fit in their own freezers. He looked at the list and chose a third possibility: perhaps I could find a cheaper rate.

I could. The provider wanted an account of the use and estimated demand. I drafted it accurately. Theo read the description of shared cold storage and said it sounded more organised than it was.

“Shall I make it less organised?”

“No. Send it.”

The answer offered a small saving and referred us to information about local cooperative facilities. By then another neighbour had asked to store two boxes. A second freezer would let us spread some of the costs across more people. I demonstrated this with a table that assumed the second freezer would be free.

Ticker found a very cheap one. This was close enough to my assumption to become difficult to argue against without slowing the project.

Theo agreed, provided the arrangement would finally pay for itself.

We put the second chest beside the first after the sockets and supply were checked. It filled over the weekend. Several users moved their original bags into larger boxes, taking advantage of the additional room. The same food now occupied more of the capacity from which we expected additional revenue.

Ticker described the cod as a liquid asset. Astrid put the account printout down and fetched a notebook.

For each parcel she wrote an owner’s name, a basket number and whether a contribution had actually been made. The ledger became shorter and considerably less valuable. She taped a copy to each lid.

Her own bag was entered as A — miscellaneous.

I asked for the missing contents.

“I can’t remember.”

“The other entries are specific.”

“Then people can tell which one is mine.”

She added a tick to the payment column. Theo, who had paid for most of the equipment, forgot to tick his own name and received a reminder the following morning.

He paid it before noticing.

The new contribution made the weekly figures balance for the first time. Ticker offered to produce a framed account of this achievement. Theo asked for his duplicate payment back.

The balance became negative again.

From the kitchen came the sound of the lid opening. Lars had returned the bag he collected on Saturday. It contained berries. His wife had already made a sauce before they discovered it was someone else’s.

We added a column for things that had come back altered.