Chairs 1–5 run from serving door to window. Service chime audible at 1 and 2. Centerpiece stands beside 3. End seats are 1 and 5. Useful drawing light reaches only 5. Draw five adjacent boxes before placing names. Try this: Build a physical constraint map; adjacent means consecutive chair numbers.
Ilen: please seat me where I hear the chime. Omi: beside Ilen, but away from the door chair. Nessa: at the drawing light. Daro: an end seat away from the centerpiece. Fifth name slip is blank except CREW. Try this: Place the name slips, then explain one person’s need at a time.
Prepare four invited guest bowls and one rotating delivery-crew bowl. Five settings authorized before invitations were returned. Crew members trade the fifth place between courses; keep it labelled CREW. Signed host and kitchen. Try this: Distinguish a planned shared place from an apparently forgotten guest.
18:02 jug spilled across runner. 18:03 all five place cards lifted into one stack, nearest hand first. Original left-to-right order not copied. 18:05 dry runner fitted. CREW card was already among the five before the spill. Try this: Order the physical preparation events and identify what the record cannot recover.