The Baskets at Dawn

At dawn, seven baskets waited beside the river ferry. Rain had blurred every paper label. Niko had to place each basket on the right village dock before the market opened.

He noticed different knots in the handle cords. Two baskets had one knot, three had two knots, and the last pair had three. The ferry pilot remembered that the docks also used one, two, or three white posts. Together, they matched the baskets to the stops.

Niko wrote the knot code on a dry board inside the cabin. At each dock, he checked the cord and the posts before unloading. Every basket reached its owner. The next morning, sellers brought wooden tags instead of paper ones. Niko kept the board anyway. A small record could help the next crew when rain returned.