WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.119 Hullo. I'm welcomed stories all the time. The lad you 2 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:11.359 are here, Let's get into it. The last shift never 3 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:14.199 really belonged to any one. When my name reappeared on 4 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:16.239 the schedule, just a fat plack take of mya's new 5 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.760 online rote, I almost laughed another just one night favor. 6 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:21.800 Though I dozed in the same batter chair, WoT the 7 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:24.239 same shifting planks so many times. It was as close 8 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.960 to home as any place left to me. Retirement isn't 9 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:28.920 what I thought. It's not a shutting of doors. It's 10 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.160 the steadying hush of already knowing every draft for every 11 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:34.119 shadow's intention. As the well pulls hider around you. On 12 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:37.119 the first floor, the museum's silence settles thick, layered with 13 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:40.119 decades of oil, salt and chichirin public budgets. But I 14 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:42.920 enjoy its honest gloom. The ocean out the window is 15 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:46.000 a living, endless breath. My rounds begin as always dead, 16 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:48.399 bolting the north stairs, pausing on the landing to listen 17 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:50.240 to the sea, making my hands busy where the cant 18 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:53.560 grew board. The bulk of the lighthouses masonry presses steady 19 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:56.799 against the bay wind. If anything happened here, no one 20 00:00:56.799 --> 00:01:00.320 would hear it. I finished the main gallery last. There's 21 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:02.920 a click. My heels echo offer store tiles. The brush 22 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:05.799 of cordage displays hung neatly overhead, the blue green flicker 23 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:08.000 of some motion since a night light already half dismissing 24 00:01:08.040 --> 00:01:11.840 the hour. Here old trunks, navigation tools, and glass models 25 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:15.000 of lost ships, each still hinting at secret ambitions. It 26 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:18.599 feels private after visiting hours. Even the air salted edge 27 00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:21.959 belongs to me. Without thinking, my circuit ends beside the 28 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.400 brass and mahogany ship's clock set central in the back 29 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:28.280 at case I've walked about a hundred times to night. 30 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:30.439 The gold of its arms shivers dimly behind the bout 31 00:01:30.439 --> 00:01:33.439 of face. It's a showpiece, glosser than it ought to be, 32 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:35.920 but neither precious nor explained, not like the lunar map 33 00:01:35.959 --> 00:01:38.400 or whale bon quadrant near by, both earned by name 34 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:41.439 and paper trail. I lean in elbows on the vitrine's 35 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.040 edge and listen. The measured tick is so crisp, but 36 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:47.400 almost sounds recent, despite the age. Most of these clocks 37 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.120 die dry and far before their time. I watch the 38 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:53.760 second hand wanders lazy, mechanical yawn, forward, forward, forward, as 39 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:57.040 I stand, half lulled by routine, until between one breath 40 00:01:57.040 --> 00:02:00.120 and the next, the second hand stadters, not the ami 41 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:03.159 drunken wobble of a loose gear, not a sticky spring 42 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.239 or a skip beat. There is a pause, deliberate, tiny, 43 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:10.360 then shamelessly it ticks backward just two seconds them resumes 44 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:14.719 forward again, hesitant yet certain, as quint frown, glance away, 45 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:18.000 and back again. My own reflection warps in the curved glass. 46 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.960 The hand is proceeding as if nothing's happened, and soul 47 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:24.360 might I suppose It's easy to blame exhaustion after midnight, 48 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:27.080 maybe a blink, a trick of dim light. I tell 49 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:29.199 myself the tick was just that, an error in my eyes, 50 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:32.120 not the clock. But even as I stepped back, pocket 51 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.439 my key and finish my circuit, my mind repeats the 52 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:36.439 image the backwards that made real by the certainty I 53 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:39.879 can't shake. I don't open the case, I don't even 54 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:42.800 touch the glass. The clock is old, polished at its 55 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.800 edges that would dark where hundreds of hands have grazed it. 56 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.719 It's bolts, sure, no marks of battery packs or digital updates, 57 00:02:49.319 --> 00:02:52.919 as conventional as an anchor, as unfathomable as a headwind. Still, 58 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:55.120 that moment sits with me, more vivid the longer I 59 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:58.240 carry it, I let it linger reel, though nothing requires 60 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.080 me to believe it. The lighthouse is more itself at night, 61 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:03.919 ring windows, a hush where the sea comes up through 62 00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:06.599 four boards scard by a hundred wet boots. It's a 63 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:10.080 place built for witnesses, keepers, radio men, generations of lives 64 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:12.919 who counted their waking hours by fog and tide. I 65 00:03:12.960 --> 00:03:15.319 was fifty seven, my first season here, counting pills in 66 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:17.919 a pharmacy back in town, watching the summer crowds, and 67 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:20.159 thinking maybe an extra job would break up the airlessness 68 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.879 of routine. Just a few overnights to help, I promise 69 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.879 my wife. Now she's gone, but the lighthouse remains. She 70 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:28.680 always did say that all places keep steady company than people. 71 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:31.759 Eventually my started putting me on the schedule even after 72 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:35.000 I retired. A joke, but everyone keeps smiling about it. 73 00:03:35.599 --> 00:03:39.560 The museum reopening broad changes twenty years ago smelled of 74 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:42.280 moppele supply, with hard candy left and drawers new has 75 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:45.159 been sound blusted into public affection. There are other week 76 00:03:45.199 --> 00:03:48.639 day skull fild trips mainland tourists, the occasional maritime history 77 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:50.800 lecture when someone from Boston arrives to point at the 78 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.840 Brixham Marvel that anyone still cares. Daytimes, bustle and polite 79 00:03:54.879 --> 00:03:58.319 gossip radiate outward from the exhibits. Maya, the new curator, 80 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:01.000 brings a kind of practical diversion, Always a nopad in 81 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.280 hand her here for ever, tucking itself behind one ear 82 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:06.719 as she reviews archival suggestions or budgets. She doesn't trust 83 00:04:06.759 --> 00:04:09.800 any catalog entry without checking herself. Fresh out of the 84 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.039 city job, she walks through the local politics with a 85 00:04:12.039 --> 00:04:15.000 careful tread. The museum is her first peak stewd chip, 86 00:04:15.080 --> 00:04:18.319 and she guards it gently. This stef still finishing her degree, 87 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:21.759 who handles the collections tedious bits, numbering, relabeling, and more 88 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:25.800 scowning into wretchedly complex databases than anyone deserves. She makes 89 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:28.959 less better than most, and whenever she reorganizes the display, 90 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:31.759 labels return cleaner, but never quite in the order I expect. 91 00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:34.600 At first I wondered if she moved things for her 92 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:38.079 own amusement, but she's too straightforward for clever tricks. And 93 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:42.519 then there's mister Cobb always missed her, never Stanley, even 94 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:45.079 after tea or sheard sandwich. Though I know he once 95 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.879 taught secondary school and now volunteers two full days a 96 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:51.920 week Raino Shine. His memory is a force. Any misplaced 97 00:04:51.920 --> 00:04:54.480 relic odd latter a questionable donor he can cross for 98 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:57.959 reference without looking it up. The archivist of not only facts, 99 00:04:58.120 --> 00:05:01.000 but a story isn't told by the formal guides. Cobb 100 00:05:01.079 --> 00:05:03.839 is cheerful about human errors, grim above decisions made above 101 00:05:03.879 --> 00:05:06.560 his head, and has no patience for anything called paranormal. 102 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:09.000 When I first suggested and as place compass could be 103 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:11.240 something more interesting, he grunted and offered a list of 104 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:14.720 reasons for shelf slip, building, drift vibrations, humidity and push 105 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.800 sharving pick one. The routine itself is ceremonial if you 106 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:20.079 view it with affection. Unlocking side doors to let in 107 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:22.959 the cleaner at dawn, checking every display for tampering or hazard, 108 00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:25.560 signing both the paper log and digital time stamp for 109 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.800 redundancy in the preservation of common sense. As Cobb likes 110 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:31.639 to say, my circuit start with a lobby glass which 111 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:33.839 no one wiped properly up the stairs passed the first 112 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:36.959 light lens through the model ships, with Demeticus rocking last 113 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:39.079 at the main gallery, with the ship's clock standing pride 114 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:40.920 of place but oddly out of tune with the others. 115 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:43.879 Most exhibits have some pro sae comb Shibrick finds from 116 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.839 the nearby shoals, regional cartography, and Marino's chest full of 117 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:50.720 sun faded papers. The clock is different. It doesn't match 118 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:54.000 the labeling standards us sit comfortably in any document at Manifest. 119 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:57.240 Even mya says it's handsome, but it never quite fits. 120 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.720 The rest may be borrowed, maybe an anonymous donation. It 121 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.600 happens pob one stroked. It appeared the same way a 122 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:04.600 cat turns up by a warm fire. But if there's 123 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:06.800 an origin story, it's lost to time or at least 124 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:10.399 the previous director's hasty files. In truth, none of us 125 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:12.560 have paid it much attention, except to keep it dusted 126 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:14.959 when thanks to Cobb's reluctance to trust the mechanism to 127 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.560 modern fools and centered. But I'd rather spend my hours 128 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:20.319 with things that make sense. Call it the comfort of 129 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:23.360 old gods or the practical reliability of things left unchanged. 130 00:06:24.120 --> 00:06:25.879 Maybe that's why I couldn't quite let go of what 131 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:27.879 I'd seen with the clock. The slight logic break in 132 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:30.800 the middle of my routine night alone in the lighthouse 133 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:33.879 is never fearful, just endless and dignified in its solitude. 134 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:36.680 I move from artifact to art fact, the familiar shush 135 00:06:36.680 --> 00:06:38.560 of the ocean ending each separ rhythm, a light in 136 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:41.000 my palm flat and white dust motes visible in its beam. 137 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.839 Each door checked, displays, reviewed, cases secure. The room with 138 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:46.720 the clock is the last stop, the place where my 139 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:50.000 circuit closes, and the night finally feels complete. On my 140 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:52.759 second night back after that odd backward tick, something else 141 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:55.639 nagst at me as I enter the Transatlantic exhibit. It's 142 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:57.240 not the light of faint blue wash from the hallway. 143 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.680 The window's coldly mirrored. It's detailed. A light blue envelope 144 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:02.879 folded with a brittle wax seal, tucked into a display 145 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:07.720 beside a manifest of Irish passenger names. I looked twice yesterday. 146 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:10.560 The envelope sat perfectly squired, the red wax seal intact. 147 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:13.800 I remember because I straightened it, then checked the glass case. 148 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:15.720 It was locked. The log initial with the correct time 149 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:18.600 to night. The flap rides up the wax seal bailey, 150 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:20.639 clinging as if something or someone tried to open it, 151 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:24.319 then set it back imperfectly. The glass, as always, seems untouched. 152 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.959 It's not a major theft, still out of habit. I 153 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:30.680 checked the access for records and the digital lock. No 154 00:07:30.800 --> 00:07:33.720 staff of noted moving or cleaning the display. The last 155 00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:38.480 night's log, written by me describes the envelope explicitly, perfectly sealed, undisturbed, 156 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:42.680 Wat's crest intact. Nothing is changed on paper, despite a 157 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:45.759 kind of rising embarrassment. I checked the security footage, skipping 158 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.279 through the hours, where only the dark and shifting reflections mow, 159 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:52.519 looking for as uncleaning cards, visitors, errant hands. It's still 160 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:55.560 even in grainy black, and why no one enters the 161 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:59.079 exhibition gallery. Nothing stirs by the case. The alarm log 162 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.040 is undisturbed, as is a pressure pad in front of 163 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:04.519 the display. I pause, replace quint, and finally look again 164 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:08.319 at the case. The envelope is undeniably altered. The wax 165 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:11.120 seal is not broken exactly, but it isn't what I remember. 166 00:08:11.720 --> 00:08:13.600 There's a sense of violation in the smallness of it, 167 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.040 a change too precise to Treville for theft too real 168 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:18.879 to be my invention. My first instinct, trained by a 169 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.639 hundred minor transgression's kids scull in on the model ships 170 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:23.879 and intend pocketing and old coin by accident, is that 171 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:26.319 I must have missed something. But my own handd and 172 00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:28.800 lob damns me. There is detail, the brittle red wax, 173 00:08:28.920 --> 00:08:32.399 even the feign embossing more exact than usual. I'm forced 174 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:35.120 to admit my memory is not a fought. The only 175 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:37.240 thing nereby it, as ever, is the clock take talking 176 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:40.200 in the background, indifferent as always, I glance at it 177 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.360 as if bracing for a confession, and something in me 178 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:45.879 sharpens from trouble to simply pointedly curious. That night, I 179 00:08:45.960 --> 00:08:48.320 linger longer near the clock, tracing it to bast room 180 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:50.000 of my eyes, holding my key in my pomise if 181 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.679 I could unlock more than a glass case. I don't 182 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:56.559 touch the clock, I don't breathe on the envelope. Nothing happens, 183 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:59.240 at least nothing I can see. But I write in 184 00:08:59.240 --> 00:09:01.799 my note book, and feeling grows. Things here change in 185 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.679 ways too subtly persistent to leave alone. Some mysteries reward patience, 186 00:09:05.799 --> 00:09:09.440 others force your hand. I decide quite without any real 187 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:12.279 plan to test my own perception the next week. I 188 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:14.320 arrived from my shift early and with intent, an old 189 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:16.799 cameraphone in my pocket, a notebook, and a handful of 190 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:19.440 colored posts to mark and document the tiny, living state 191 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:22.600 of things. I begin with the clock, several close up 192 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:25.120 photos the time, the tarnish on its screws, the faint 193 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:27.559 nick at the edge of its case. Then a slow 194 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:30.120 sweep of the objects near by, every inch, the envelope, 195 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:32.679 now slightly curled at one corner, the old silver sextant 196 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.159 in its felder cradle, Steff's neat artifact tag stated in 197 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:38.240 green ink. I jot down any small detail that might slip, 198 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:40.559 a smudge or rip corner a faded signature, then leave 199 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:42.960 the exhibit for the night, careful not to disturb anything. 200 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:46.080 The following night, returning to the same case, I brace 201 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.159 for disappointment. It all looks ordinary until I slide my 202 00:09:49.200 --> 00:09:51.559 phone from my pocket and compare its images side by 203 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.320 side with the gallery in front of me. My eyes 204 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:56.480 catch on a portrait to day greatap set two frames 205 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:58.679 over from the clock, or worn lightness of a child 206 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.600 in her dock. It seems moodier, almost as if someone 207 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:04.600 deepened the shadows overnight. A coffee bronze stain in the 208 00:10:04.639 --> 00:10:07.240 lower right. A mark a photograph is clearly presented, is 209 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:10.480 now absent. I cross referenced the photo. The mark is 210 00:10:10.519 --> 00:10:13.879 plainly visible. Yesterday gone to day. I try every trick, 211 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:16.759 shifting the light, moving my angle, blaming a change in reflections. 212 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:21.399 The difference is genuine. One stain has unexisted itself, more 213 00:10:21.480 --> 00:10:23.600 unsettled than I choose to admit. I find Steph the 214 00:10:23.639 --> 00:10:25.919 next morning in the back office, hunched over a box 215 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:29.519 of old membership cards. Did you reshoot the North Gallery portraits? 216 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:33.360 I ask, as neutrally as possible. She blinks, pulls her 217 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:36.960 erbers out. No, I haven't touched them since last Friday. 218 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:40.240 Why I show her the photo of the detail. She 219 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.360 leans close, squints, frowns. You should talk to my as, 220 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.399 she says, But I swear I haven't done anything except 221 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:48.600 update the tags. That's all I touched was the ticket 222 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:51.480 stud and the Atlantic Register. Everything else was set up 223 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:54.200 last week. Want to see the scan lock We pull 224 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:56.960 it up. Steph clicking through digitized records to prove her point. 225 00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:01.960 No updates, no cleaning schedules. Laughing, She smiles, but with 226 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:05.519 an edge, curiosity beginning to flicker despite herself. Maybe the 227 00:11:05.559 --> 00:11:08.720 photo reacts to the room's humidity, she suggests, Or it 228 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:11.759 just faded. I mean they do that sometimes, don't they. 229 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:14.639 I can't help but share a little of my own amusement, 230 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:19.960 usually in only one corner overnight, she shrugs. I guess na. 231 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:22.720 But hey, now you're making me want to check every picture. 232 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:25.120 Let me know if you find more. Maybe a poltergeist. 233 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:28.000 I half laugh, because that seems easier to believe than 234 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:30.240 anything else, but I commit not to joke too quickly. 235 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.480 Later in the reading alcove beside the archive, I mentioned 236 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:36.440 the discrepancies to call whose gaze is part kind parts sly. 237 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:40.679 Things move around here, he pronounces, Or maybe our memories 238 00:11:40.759 --> 00:11:43.360 do all places like this. Sometimes the story's changed before 239 00:11:43.399 --> 00:11:46.000 your eyes, for as it does changing. He sets aside 240 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:47.840 his files with the air of a man uninterested in 241 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:50.679 imaginary patterns. But I'll keep a look at you run 242 00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:53.720 into real trouble. Don't throw out the sensible explanations too soon. 243 00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:56.639 Even as I thank him, I see he's already moved 244 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:58.840 on in his mind. But he does dropped down a 245 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:01.480 north gallery stain and the small bookie keeps a courtesy, 246 00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:04.200 if not in endorsement, just as I am about to 247 00:12:04.200 --> 00:12:06.759 set aside my investigation is a peculiar waste of time. 248 00:12:06.919 --> 00:12:10.240 Another inconsistency nags at me the very next week, as 249 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:12.279 I shack the child's tickets stop collection. There is a 250 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.960 label I distinctly remember, Artifactash two hundred eighty two April eighteen, 251 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:19.559 eighteen forty one s S. Nightingale third class. I know 252 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:22.639 the handwriting staff's leopy and rush in the right green 253 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:25.320 ink to night though the date is March twenty three, 254 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:27.480 and her Hannah shakier, a lighter shade, as if faded 255 00:12:27.519 --> 00:12:31.159 by time. I ask steph again. She shakes her head. 256 00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:35.000 I updated all those last week, she insists, should be 257 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:37.559 a polatin everywhere. Want to see the original tags? I 258 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:39.720 kept the edits in the catalog app just in case. 259 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:43.240 Sure enough, her digital records show apoll eating a date 260 00:12:43.279 --> 00:12:45.840 of change a full week prior. But here on the 261 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:47.600 case in front of me, the tag reads as if 262 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.559 her update never happened. By now, doubt is not enough. 263 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:55.080 I establish a protocol together. After hours, Stephen are reprinted 264 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.080 bash of labels. She signs each one with the flourish 265 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.480 and affected little s For good measure. We replace the tags, 266 00:13:01.559 --> 00:13:03.320 then lock the lod book and the master list in 267 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:05.799 my locker, not to be accessed by any one but us. 268 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:09.559 Each night I check the tax, the nearby saxon the envelope. 269 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:14.600 My notebook accumulates a curious inventory. One the envelope sometimes sealed, 270 00:13:14.720 --> 00:13:18.039 sometimes a little less, never open, never a missing, But 271 00:13:18.080 --> 00:13:21.000 subtly wereset to the portrait's then reappearing, then gone in 272 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:24.559 alternating days. Three are brass sects and slightly more polished 273 00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:27.039 than before. One sposts stubbornly repellent to dust, as if 274 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:30.159 the last cleaning was done. Four ticket tags reverting to 275 00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:33.120 older date, then a day later restored to the latest. 276 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.240 Five wants. I witness a crayon mark on a Victorian 277 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.960 ride stub fate, then re emerge faintly the next morning. Crucially, 278 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.519 every change is contained within the same space inside the 279 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.559 main gallery room. Never have I caught the phenomena elsewhere 280 00:13:45.600 --> 00:13:47.039 in the museum, No due I see it on my 281 00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:50.080 own possessions or in no related rooms. I try leaving 282 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:52.759 a sticky note outside the gallery. It never shifts or resulted. 283 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:56.240 Only here only when the clock's mechanical heart keeps time 284 00:13:56.279 --> 00:14:00.799 in its heavy, dignified case. The reasonable explanations whither humidity, cleaning, 285 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:04.759 digital database errors, someone pranking us. Steph can't fake what 286 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:07.679 I see on the still locked out of fact cases maya. 287 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:10.559 When I eventually broach the subject, torchord worried, I sound 288 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:13.559 like a forgetfuld and raises an eyebrow, smiles and confesses, 289 00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:15.720 it really is only this room, isn't it. I've seen 290 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.120 text change colors more than once. I always blame the 291 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:23.879 labeling system, but you're sure. We resolve to track every detail, logging, photographing, initialing, texts, storing, 292 00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:28.320 and touch duplicates elsewhere's controls. The pattern persists objects or 293 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:30.600 records near the ship's clock to fight the ordinary rules 294 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.159 of decay and accidents. Sliding quietly between one's state and 295 00:14:33.200 --> 00:14:35.720 the next. It becomes a game trying to catch the 296 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:38.200 clock in the act. But the mechanism itself never wavers, 297 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:42.240 only the world around it. Subtly does. I start measuring 298 00:14:42.279 --> 00:14:44.720 the gallery with a tailor's tape, pacing neat circles out 299 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:48.080 from the case's pedestal. My lug grows more quantitative. The 300 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:50.720 reversals never extend more than three and a half meters 301 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:54.240 from the clock center. Closer the anomalies intent fire, miss 302 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:58.919 polish or restored label. Farther out, nothing happens, entirely ordinary 303 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:01.519 wear in passage. When I move a tag ticket just 304 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:04.639 past the threshold, it ceases to rewind once twice. Repeated 305 00:15:05.240 --> 00:15:08.000 testing with artifacts as well, I find the same. Only 306 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:10.720 those inside the messa diameter are touched by whatever lingers. 307 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.360 I plot the area with loops of color tape, which 308 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:17.320 incidentally remain unaltered. Apparently the clock likes things old. I 309 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:20.480 turn to Mire again, ludbook in hand, explaining the boundaries. 310 00:15:21.080 --> 00:15:23.960 We have to try something on us. I suggest move 311 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:26.080 the clock itself, see if it takes the pattern with it. 312 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:30.240 She's cautious. It's a risk. It's still a delicate art act. 313 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:32.600 But if there is a phenomenon, it ought to follow 314 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:35.559 the instrument, shouldn't it Once she agrees it is, with 315 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:39.720 both nervous resignation in her own stubborn professionalism for a trial, 316 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:42.399 we move the clock gingerly with gloves laid atop a 317 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:44.759 foam pad into the storage section, near wracks of box 318 00:15:44.799 --> 00:15:47.919 newsletters and a half clapsed lighthouse lamp. Then we close 319 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:50.759 the main gallery for a night. Next day, Stephen I 320 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:53.879 observe the clock is ticking in storage, and now, for 321 00:15:53.919 --> 00:15:56.320 the first time, the usual anomalies appear among the storage 322 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.080 boxes and old lobbocks. Building has retreated over night. A 323 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:01.600 torn envelope again sealed add on a visit pass altered 324 00:16:01.639 --> 00:16:04.639 back by a day to its previous riding. Meanwhile, in 325 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:07.960 the gallery, no more shifting stains, no odd of repolishing 326 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:12.639 on displays. Photographs remain stubbornly unchanged, steadfast in their current state. 327 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:15.679 We run the experiments read more time, shifting the clock 328 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:18.600 from storage to office, from gallery to lobby, each time 329 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:22.200 mapping the radius and finding each reversal repeats circumscribed around 330 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:24.919 the clock's new location. There is no question now the 331 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:27.639 phenomenon is not random, nor a trick of memory, nor 332 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:31.159 confined to old objects or brittle photos. It is entirely, 333 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:35.440 almost mathematically linked to wherever the clock resides. At this stage, 334 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:38.879 the problem ceases to seem merely accidental. Our watch cub 335 00:16:38.919 --> 00:16:42.320 grow quietly uncomfortable as represent our logs and photos. He 336 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:45.000 taps one thick finger against the desk, then nods as 337 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:47.440 if conceding a point in chess he never wanted to finish. 338 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:49.879 It's a what would you call it? Bi own effect, 339 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:53.240 he says, reluctantly. Can't see the harm in it, though, 340 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:56.399 unless you start reversing real people. Steph chokes that shall 341 00:16:56.440 --> 00:16:59.159 never take a nap near it again. My rational and 342 00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:01.799 Grave insists we document everything, even if she finds the 343 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:04.720 idea less than plausible. It must be affluke, something in 344 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:07.599 the materials, or a magnetic effect or humidity. Still, the 345 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:09.680 effect moves when you move the clock. That can't be 346 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:13.000 anything natural. But now I see the museum differently, not 347 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.240 as a securely cataloged place, but as something dynamic, a 348 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:18.839 system mapped by a quiet, invisible reset of days and 349 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:22.599 labels inside a slow moving circumference. One evening, after we'd 350 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:25.319 spend a day shifting the clock, staff stays late, spread 351 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:27.799 across the reference to able with her laptop, cross checking 352 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.039 the catalog in search of some arcovel slip. She asks, 353 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:32.799 do you think it's like a safe point in a 354 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:34.680 game or a what do you call it? A checkpoint? 355 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:36.880 Maybe it only and as stuff people don't mean to change. 356 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:39.279 Could be why it never forgets anything outside the circle. 357 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:42.200 Cup Grumballs is not a fairy tale. Maybe it's got 358 00:17:42.200 --> 00:17:45.079 a simple explanation. We just haven't read the right maintenance record. 359 00:17:45.680 --> 00:17:48.680 But my Lin's four brought furrowed and certain but open. 360 00:17:49.319 --> 00:17:51.960 Maybe it's not a mistake, though maybe someone wanted it 361 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:55.000 this way. That lodge is a fresh curiosity. What is 362 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:58.000 the clock's origin? And if it's a fact follows how 363 00:17:58.039 --> 00:17:59.720 did it come to rest here in our museum? A 364 00:17:59.720 --> 00:18:03.279 device whose identity is as slippery as its effect determined? 365 00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:05.519 And now, with Maya's partial blessing, I dig into the 366 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:09.720 dry stack of old acquisition locks, storage receipts, and transport manifests. 367 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:12.759 Occupying the curators are Kevin endless coding and date stamps. 368 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:16.759 The museum's collection is chronicled with obsession. Nearly every art 369 00:18:16.759 --> 00:18:19.519 of actors approvements and name a chain of signatures. Except 370 00:18:19.720 --> 00:18:22.799 it turns out the ship's clock, its presence in the inventory, 371 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:26.039 appears only ten years prior, inserted between accession numbers with 372 00:18:26.119 --> 00:18:30.160 a penciled anonymous ownation and careful unfamiliar script no name, 373 00:18:30.240 --> 00:18:33.799 no initial, no dress. Something is off about the log entry. 374 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:37.000 The handwriting doesn't match any staff from the period. Maya 375 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:40.440 verifies with the predecessor's files, and even carb degrees not 376 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:43.319 mister Beale's, not miscess of Palby's. Whoever wrote this. They 377 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:47.000 want staff, probably not local. Alarmingly, there is no shipping 378 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:49.440 record in nothing from the usual contracted art movers, no 379 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:53.559 insurance certificate, no receiving dark entry, just an inclusion, as 380 00:18:53.599 --> 00:18:55.880 if the clock simply arrived appearing in the store in 381 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:58.480 one foggy morning is a phata company. I bring this 382 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:03.319 sensibility to Kop expected skepticism. Instead, he smirks over his spectacles. 383 00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:06.240 There was a rumor I suppose that at Washington, after 384 00:19:06.279 --> 00:19:08.400 that big no Easter a decade ago, folks found half 385 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:11.079 a crate on the beach. No sender. Nobody believed it, 386 00:19:11.119 --> 00:19:13.559 of course, but he shrugs, unwilling to say he buys 387 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:16.960 into fishermen's tales. I press him due any public records 388 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:20.359 or Oruckshire manifest match or clock. Cobb checks the regional 389 00:19:20.359 --> 00:19:22.839 maritime registries, and I spend a few hours in the 390 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:27.319 public sales databases. Nothing, no photographs, no matching description, no 391 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:31.119 trace of manufacture date, cereal or builder's mark. Only the 392 00:19:31.200 --> 00:19:34.240 museum record bears a low tide out of ideas. I 393 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.359 try asking outside the building an errand I dread for 394 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:39.359 the intrusion. It takes some effort to be taken seriously, 395 00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:42.319 but eventually missus Marian Talcott, well into her nineties but 396 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:45.640 sharp as a whaling hook, remembers something her father, a 397 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:47.720 dock worker, to book of a special ship's clock called 398 00:19:47.720 --> 00:19:50.519 the Inventor's Clock, long before it appeared in the museum collection. 399 00:19:51.160 --> 00:19:53.880 She fixes me with a look halfway between suspicion and amusement. 400 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:56.759 It's the one with the son and anchor Carvin underneath. 401 00:19:56.759 --> 00:19:58.720