WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.199 In retirement, a person's sense of time shifts. Days are 2 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:10.880 both longer and quicker than the years of work. I'm 3 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:12.720 not the saw two pines from my rud all angers 4 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:15.119 of our old Enian newsletters, but I do find comfort 5 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:16.879 and routine the way the city opens up with every 6 00:00:16.879 --> 00:00:19.839 familiar step. Thirty one years behind a wheel mint, I 7 00:00:19.879 --> 00:00:22.239 knew both the mapped arteries and the odd little capillaries 8 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:24.960 of our coastal streets. So when I say I know 9 00:00:25.079 --> 00:00:27.679 this patch of turn a quiltrok of salt wash, victorians 10 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:29.600 of button crack concrete walkups, I mean it with an 11 00:00:29.640 --> 00:00:34.039 affection nearly anatomical. I'd always considered myself hard surprise, especially 12 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:36.799 by the city itself. That's why the morning in question 13 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:40.079 stands out. Sunlight, slanting shop off dam, bassfot, gulls riding 14 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:42.200 some gusts behind the roofs, the taste of better drip 15 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.960 coffee still on my tongue. I set out as usual, 16 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:47.520 cutting east along Woodmey Avenue, then coming down the line 17 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.640 of rowhouses toward Haskell Street. My mind was on the 18 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:52.640 blue mail books that used to stand outside the old 19 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:55.560 laundrom at, a landmark now replaced by aggressive landscaping and 20 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:58.719 a community run little free library. That's how I nearly 21 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:02.079 missed it. I squinting across the street, considering whether to 22 00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:04.120 go another block for a real cinnamon band, when a 23 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.040 flash of color caught at the edge of my vision. 24 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:09.040 A sliver between two buildings, an alley so tight that 25 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:11.560 sunlight faded half way down, daubed at the entrance with 26 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:14.680 a panel of fresh mural and explosion of bread rolls, warmokers, 27 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.480 and roads, as if graffiti had collaborated with a hungry baker. 28 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:21.079 It wasn't one of the map cut throughs narrow enough 29 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.920 for a push out, but barely. I paused, listening to 30 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:27.400 the hush inside it not silence, more sound, damp and stillness, 31 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:30.519 like stepping into side room during a party. I could 32 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:33.120 smell yeas fresh and sweet, although the only baker I 33 00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:36.239 knew had been torn down in nineteen ninety eight. Still, 34 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:39.560 the mural's joke was resistible. I slept down the alley, 35 00:01:39.719 --> 00:01:42.280 running a hand along brickwick that felt just faintless decay, 36 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:44.280 as if some one had spilled soda and half washed 37 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:48.439 it impossible. Geometry happens sometimes in cities. A street that narrows, 38 00:01:48.439 --> 00:01:50.760 thin broadens a gap that makes no sense until you're 39 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:53.239 in it. I dismissed those in my days on the route, 40 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:56.879 explaining them with block angles and foreshortening. This alley, though, 41 00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:59.079 felt like a crease in the neighborhood, slightly bent inward, 42 00:01:59.120 --> 00:02:01.920 the sense of distance from holding down at the far end. 43 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:04.560 I merged not onto the noisy expanse of Clifton Boulevard, 44 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:06.840 as I'd expect, but on to the quieter stretch of 45 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:09.800 Timber Line, a two minute deter at best usually. But 46 00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:12.080 when I glanced at my watch, I covered what should 47 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:14.680 have been a twenty minute walkin under five. The digital 48 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:18.879 numbers glowed cheerfully. I stood, blinking hot, suddenly faster, half 49 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:21.840 convinced I'd misfread something or ridiculous, thought it dozed off midwalk. 50 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:25.080 I checked for landmarks that battered via hydrant painted purple 51 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:28.280 by the local preschool Mss Chance Flowers shop with its autorariums, 52 00:02:28.280 --> 00:02:30.919 the bent street signed for Elm Circle. Everything as it 53 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:34.879 should be, perfectly ordinary. Yet time had hiccupped. My legs 54 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.560 told me I had strolled, not rushed. I searched for 55 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:40.000 an explanation. Perhaps a block was shorter than I remembered 56 00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:42.560 perhaps my watch was off, but there was no denying 57 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:45.479 peculiarticle at the edge of my mind. For once the 58 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:47.439 city had at maneuvered me, And in the quiet after 59 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:50.680 that walk, I found myself wanting not cinnamon ban but answers. 60 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:53.759 There is a particular satisfaction in thinking ye know a place, 61 00:02:53.800 --> 00:02:56.280 an entire system of landmarks and shortcuts that feels as 62 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:57.919 much a part of you as a pattern of veints 63 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.919 on your hand. I have claimed that satus faction for decades, 64 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:03.520 long after my driver's badge stopped getting me free coffee 65 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:05.919 in most places, and long after the city swapped out 66 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:09.479 our favorite model buses for sleeker, colder machines. Back at 67 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:12.240 my apartment, the afternoon sunlight was already toting gold across 68 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.319 my tiny collection of route memorabilia, all transit passes for 69 00:03:15.439 --> 00:03:18.439 driver's cat, the first city map I'd ever collected. My 70 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:20.879 apartment is small enough for a person to circum navigate 71 00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:23.080 before their tea boils, but it holds more stories than 72 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.360 square footage. There's a warm path from kitchen to living room, 73 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:28.520 the sun warm spot on the faded sofa, the wall 74 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.479 of photos clipped behind a souvenir bus stop sign. I 75 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.280 paused wallet and fawn on the counter and tried to 76 00:03:34.280 --> 00:03:36.840 replay my walk in my mind. Could I have skipped 77 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:39.960 a block, taken a short cut without realizing? There's little 78 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.199 mental scouries people make when they are distracted, and maybe 79 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:45.479 this was just memories trick. My neighborhood is a stopcat place, 80 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.000 anchored by allstos like myself, in a constant shurn of 81 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:51.120 newcomers trying to land in the city's heart. Every morning, 82 00:03:51.319 --> 00:03:53.439 I take the familiar loop through the misake of stoops 83 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:56.240 on withodmere, past the uneven flagstones of Cali's Row, and, 84 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:59.360 depending on the mood, into Massess Porter's corner shop, for 85 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:02.599 which she claims is the city's strongest ginger candy. Missess 86 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:05.080 Porter herself is a keeper of both facts and fables. 87 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:07.960 She knows which stoops to avoid during winter ice, in 88 00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:11.080 which tenants water their tomatoes with dark beer. Only she 89 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:13.120 could detail both the birth of the annual block fare 90 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:17.079 and its various ancient disputes. This morning, as always, she 91 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.480 greeted me with the same cheerful skepticism she reserved for 92 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:22.600 those who shop before noon. Early Joe, you are either 93 00:04:22.680 --> 00:04:26.360 up to something or avoiding Old Marvin's chess invitations, broutine, 94 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:29.560 missess porter, or what passes for it. She slid a 95 00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:32.000 package of biscuits across the counter and cut an eyebrow. 96 00:04:32.600 --> 00:04:34.959 I saw old Ken waiting outside the coffee shop. If 97 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:36.680 you ask me, he's got a new theory about the 98 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:40.160 best crossand rat grows more competitive each year. Ken is 99 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:42.680 more my nemesis than my friend, if such things are possible. 100 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:46.120 Late in life, he claimed special authority over the city's bones, 101 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:48.560 a phrase he likes to repeat whenever he manages to 102 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:51.439 shave off a minute from our usual walks. I admit 103 00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:53.720 his sense of direction is sharp, but he's a stickler 104 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:57.000 for official routs. When mind driving days were about improvisation 105 00:04:57.079 --> 00:04:59.439 in the face of construction, sudden parades, or a flock 106 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:03.079 of ducks. Ken worship's printed schedules. The morning routine is 107 00:05:03.079 --> 00:05:06.759 an unspoken choreography. I buy my groceries, then wander to 108 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:09.079 the coffee shop, a narrow fronted place where the barriston 109 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:12.360 knows more about cities owning than about making cappucciner. Ken 110 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:14.839 sits by the winter, already making marks on his little 111 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:17.959 weather bus map. Cut through on Brook Street, he asks 112 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:21.959 without preamble blocked off some utility digging had to wiggle 113 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:25.680 around by evergreen ha that lab. Minutes he sat triumphant. 114 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:29.319 We went back and forth as usual. Nobody beats ken 115 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:31.759 at predicting official time. But my pride was never in 116 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:35.600 published numbers. I deal in Goughfiel, inside streets, in knowing 117 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:38.279 exactly when mister Andreotti's bakery opens, and were touvoid to 118 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:41.639 middle school exodus. I nearly mentioned the alley, but maybe 119 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:44.120 out of pride, maybe because I hadn't quite decided if 120 00:05:44.120 --> 00:05:45.399 it was an 'er. It stayed on the tip of 121 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:48.240 my tongue. Missess Porto, when she popped in later with 122 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:50.839 the delivery for the coffee shop, lolled. Another mystery, my way, 123 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:54.040 did you ever hear about the city? Historian Ferris giving 124 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:56.600 a public lecture to Night at the Hall Invisible Connections, 125 00:05:56.600 --> 00:05:59.160 Secret histories of urban space could be your thing, Joe 126 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:02.680 I grain and pocketing her card. A lecture sounded more 127 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:04.480 like a lock than an answer, But you never know 128 00:06:04.519 --> 00:06:07.160 what old bones the city might turn up. Where most 129 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.319 people see the city as a static backdrop, I can 130 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:11.759 only think of it as perpetually alive shape shifting under 131 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:14.000 a new bus schedule here, and new condos spreading there. 132 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:16.480 Even the flavor of their change is the salt tang 133 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:18.680 near the old ocks, the metal bye after rain, the 134 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:21.240 odd bakeries, and at for some reason, lingered in my 135 00:06:21.279 --> 00:06:24.040 mind all afternoon. Back at my table, I traced a 136 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:26.079 finger across my old bus map rat's color coated in 137 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:28.360 marker key cut through his double circled, and annotated in 138 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:31.439 my tidy, blocky handwriting, the city's streets to sit out 139 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:34.560 like veins. But that alley wasn't there. Neither was the mural, 140 00:06:34.680 --> 00:06:37.759 nor any notation of a fast path between Woodmere and Timberline. 141 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:40.079 But wasn't that always the way in a city like this, 142 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:44.240 connections matt others lost in memory or repaved into obscurity. 143 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:46.639 I stood for a long moment, watching the way the 144 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:49.480 afternoon let up the alley. In my mind, cities are 145 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:53.360 routines and interruptions, memory layered over change. Maybe I had 146 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:56.480 missed something, or just maybe the city had decided to 147 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.120 show me a short cut of its own choosing. Maps 148 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:00.959 do not lie, but they also do not care much 149 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:04.079 for the details of living. The next morning, curiosity at 150 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:06.079 full boil, I shuffled the old bus map onto my 151 00:07:06.160 --> 00:07:09.319 kitchen table, a paper testimony to decades of detos and truncasions. 152 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.000 My plan was simple, were trace yesterday's steps on paper, then, 153 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.319 with phone in hand, with the clarity of proper preparation, 154 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:19.040 walk the shortcut again. First the map woomir ran east 155 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:23.120 west Timberline parallel, but never perfectly. The physical city pooks 156 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:25.199 one at perfect geometry, Streets that dick were they ought 157 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:27.759 to zag, blocks that shrink or swell with little warning. 158 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:30.680 In the decades old paper map, the alley between the 159 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:33.000 two avenues was enough to thought a faint gray stop, 160 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.319 neither named nor marked for traversal. The online map app, 161 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:39.160 which cleans live updates and never sleeps, showed the alley 162 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.720 as a dead end, not connecting to timber Line at all. Impossible. 163 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:46.079 I had walked it plainly the day before, as quinted 164 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.959 cross referencing, then reached for the old schedule sheets as 165 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:52.560 familiar as poetry, listing transfer times and estimated walks between stops. 166 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:55.839 Even in a most optimistic version, no route shaved more 167 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.199 than five minutes from the traverse between those two streets. 168 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:01.199 The short cut, as I experience, inst it simply didn't exist, 169 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.759 not according to the city, the map or the schedules 170 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:07.079 that paid my salary. I decided to turn to human memory, 171 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:09.879 where the real city is stored. After all. Kin was 172 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:12.199 out front of the coffee shop again, nose in the paper, 173 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:15.360 feet propped on a rickety outdoor table. Kin, you ever 174 00:08:15.399 --> 00:08:17.879 cut through that back alley between Woodmere and Timberline. Not 175 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:19.639 the one by the hardware store, the one after the 176 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:23.480 old mail books, he snorted. Not a short cut, Joe. 177 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:25.360 That Alice's blocked up at the far end or was 178 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:27.399 last time I jacked? Think they chained it up after 179 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:30.079 the fire wherein he's still working. Then there's a mural 180 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:33.559 now open as anything, He shrugged, the universal sign of 181 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:36.039 a man who hasn't reconsidered a low back pain in years. 182 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:38.960 If it's open, it doesn't go through. Never got your 183 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.120 cross faster than taking Haskell anyway, He pointed at his 184 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:44.080 with a map as of challenging me to a duel 185 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:46.919 magazine in hand. I strolled to missus Porter as to 186 00:08:46.960 --> 00:08:49.879 quizz her before she ducked out for afternoon errands. She 187 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:53.120 frowned at my question. That alley I barely remember it 188 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:55.360 had a big blue mail box. Didn't I think they 189 00:08:55.399 --> 00:08:57.279 tore that out the year they closed the bickery, or 190 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:00.279 maybe it just disappeared. She pressed her fingers to her temple, 191 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.200 sprinting in the way people do when excavating memory. I 192 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:05.000 used to let the kid run through it when you 193 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:06.879 could still see daylight from one end to the other. 194 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.440 Felt like a shortcut then, but I remember they complained 195 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.879 about it being a dead end. Her past and Ken's 196 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:14.279 memories did not match mine, and neither matched the map. 197 00:09:14.759 --> 00:09:17.080 This left me floating between three versions of a city 198 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:19.639 I thought I knew as well as anything. I resolved 199 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:22.559 to try the short cut again. If I was misremembering, 200 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:25.519 i'd know. If not, well, that's a kind of mystery. 201 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.399 Retirement gives you the luxury to chase on the next walk. 202 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:30.840 Intent on precision, I checked and reset my watch before 203 00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:34.399 leaving dusk, this time a gentle coller settling over the city, 204 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:36.559 making the alley seem like the inside of a corn shell. 205 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.679 The mural had changed subtly. The bread loaves ranged into 206 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:42.600 a crescent, a new streak of blue paint glunting. Each 207 00:09:42.600 --> 00:09:45.960 step was careful and deliberate. Halfway through the air changed 208 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:48.600 wherey yesterday there was bakery scent to day. It was 209 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:51.240 a whiff of perfume, something citrusy and light, not clawing 210 00:09:51.399 --> 00:09:53.440 on a breeze that shouldn't have penetrated the alice tite 211 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:56.919 stone jaws. The sound, too was off a faint bell somewhere, 212 00:09:56.919 --> 00:09:59.639 a score or a trolley I couldn't tell. Against the 213 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:02.799 wall a scattered cluster of bicculls with dusty seats, none 214 00:10:02.840 --> 00:10:05.759 of which I recalled from before. I slowed, trying to 215 00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:08.759 memorize every patch of light and shadow. Near the far end. 216 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:11.399 I stopped again, reassured myself at the ticking of my watch. 217 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:15.080 Five minutes. Ten steps out onto timber line, the familiar 218 00:10:15.080 --> 00:10:17.279 batter fire hydrant winked at me, but the trash bin 219 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:19.799 to its left gleaned freshly cleaned, as if readied for 220 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:24.159 an inspection. My cheeks tingled. No other pedestrian, no hint 221 00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:26.919 at anyone else used the alley in anything approaching regularity. 222 00:10:27.480 --> 00:10:30.200 The clock confirmed I'd crossed an impossible span of city 223 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:32.360 blocks in less time than ever take to tie my shoes. 224 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:36.159 I paced off the distance, careful for accuracy. It didn't 225 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:38.559 matter how thoroughly I walked, or how hard I concentrated. 226 00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:41.120 The short cut was a fact unto itself. I began 227 00:10:41.200 --> 00:10:44.279 to test it in small ways. Returning two days later, 228 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:46.799 I started from a different corner, one block up, approaching 229 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:49.720 the alley from the focide. This time I emerged not 230 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:52.360 quite on timber Line, but a block earlier than expected, 231 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:55.000 Having bypassed an entire intersection ron for the direction, I 232 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:58.159 had entered the familiar Linemark's Flowers shop VI. A hydrant 233 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:00.639 felt slightly off, as if repainted in a Sutler key. 234 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.559 What I noticed, too, was the changeability of the as 235 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:07.039 tiny features. A staircase at one entrance that didn't exist 236 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:09.879 in previous walks. The echo of a song war was 237 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:12.600 at a radio, drifting from no work on as soon 238 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:15.960 as I tried to place it, and always the unkenny quiet, 239 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:18.720 not desolate, but eleven its own way. It was never 240 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:21.320 the same place twice, and yet always deposited me when 241 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:23.399 approached from my usual re precisely at the heart of 242 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.679 where I wanted to be in suspiciously little time. Frustrated 243 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:30.399 by memory slabrinus, I attempted documentation. Back at home. I 244 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:32.600 found my stubby colored pencils and drew the short cut 245 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.399 as I recalled it, overlaying my old bus map. The 246 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:37.960 path laid out a straight line, but when I tried 247 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:39.840 to trace it against an online map print out, the 248 00:11:39.879 --> 00:11:42.360 alignment veered off, as if the alley balls sighed ways 249 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:45.679 halfway through. Approached from my kitchen table, the short cut's 250 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:48.360 orientation changed in ways. The physical streets simply do not 251 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:51.480 need a matching grid. Noorgut one day away laid our 252 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:55.840 neighborhood post all worker Sam, just outside missus Porter's. Sam, 253 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:57.919 you ever cut through that alley, the one with the 254 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:01.600 bread mural, He glimpsed up from his bag. Don't know what. 255 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:04.039 There's an alley near that at Dumpsey, by the train tracks, 256 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:05.879 but you can't get a cat through. I just take 257 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:08.840 the long way around. He shook his head, already sorting 258 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:12.080 letters for the next block. That alley, by every person's 259 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:15.480 account existed in fragments. For Ken, it didn't count as 260 00:12:15.480 --> 00:12:17.440 a path from a cess porter. It led to a 261 00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:19.840 mail box gone for decades. For Sam, it spotted out 262 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:23.639 somewhere near the train lines of geographical impossibility. Each investigation 263 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:26.159 brought a new contradiction, but none threatened me or made 264 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:29.480 me worried. If anything, I grew more delighted nipping at 265 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:31.480 the edges of some quiet urban magic, as if the 266 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:33.720 city were playing a game. Only I remembered the rules. 267 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:37.519 For now I started playing more actively. On different mornings, 268 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:40.480 I made deliberate variations, timing the walk, noting the weather, 269 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:43.480 or trying to spot any other shortcut seekers. The alley 270 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:46.159 shifted under different lights, some mornings wider, other day's joke 271 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:49.720 with puddles were strange echoes. Once I noted a newspaper 272 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:52.039 on the ground to day's date, then another walk the 273 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:55.120 same addition, but unstained by rain, as if coppered. Of 274 00:12:55.200 --> 00:12:58.440 all the changes, one remained constant. My passage drew always 275 00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:01.600 brought me to Timberline impossibly quick. No one else seemed 276 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.480 to use it. By now, my ordinary walks had taken 277 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.639 on an edge of anticipation. Habit had become experiment. I 278 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:11.240 waited for an explanation to crystallize. My bus driver's mind, 279 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:13.919 well trained to spot the variances that cause a late arrival, 280 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:17.399 wanted reasons pedestrian only, mapping, subtle urban design, or perhaps 281 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:19.919 my own sense of time tell by retirement. But each 282 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:23.399 point of reference only pulled me deeper. The city, once familiar, 283 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:26.600 felt more elastic than i'd ever guessed memory and plays 284 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:29.559 I began to suspect were mixing in ways I hadn't understood. 285 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:33.720 The real pivot came quietly, as such things do. One morning, 286 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.759 after yet another shortcut success, I descended into her different 287 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:39.799 sort of experiment. By this point, I was convinced it 288 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:42.840 couldn't solely be a matter of distance. The map didn't 289 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:46.279 allow it. Yet my experience was a refutable I asked myself, 290 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:48.879 what if it wasn't about the al's physicality, but about 291 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:50.919 how I walked the whole pattern of routine before it. 292 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:54.200 That morning, I left her earlier than usual, purposefully breaking 293 00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.200 the rhythm. No cup of trick coffee, no visit to 294 00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:59.240 missus Porter, straight to the ELL's math. The short cut 295 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:02.279 didn't work. I emerged after what felt like a normal, 296 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:05.080 if pleasant stroll with nothing remarkable about The duration turned 297 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:07.519 out to twenty minutes, just as the map would suggest. 298 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:10.720 For plexed, I altered my experiment, returned to my established 299 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:13.159 routine the next day, greeting Missess Porter, collecting a bag 300 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:15.759 of groceries, sipping coffee with Ken, keeping Mum about my 301 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:17.639 experiment as he laughed me right out of the shop, 302 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:20.799 Tracing my habitual route vial Woodmere. When I took the alley, 303 00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:23.159 this time it folded for me again, distance complain, a 304 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:25.519 turn or two, snapping away, and I popped onto timberline 305 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:28.080 after what felt like no time at all. My watch 306 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:32.320 corroborated the story. I tested variations, approaching from different angles, 307 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:34.799 starting the daud of order, sometimes forcing a jog or 308 00:14:34.799 --> 00:14:37.840 pausing for a phone call. Whenever my routine was skewed, 309 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:41.559 the shortcut refused to appear as anything but a regular alley, damp, narrow, 310 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:44.399 nothing unusual at all. It became clear that my old 311 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:47.000 city routine, and grained by decades of the same streets 312 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:50.200 and turning points, was an integral part of the shortcuss existence, 313 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.399 like the city was rewarding me for honoring its pathways, 314 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:55.200 a private thank you for a year spent reading a 315 00:14:55.240 --> 00:14:58.399 hidden rhythms of routes and blockages as adele. Further, I 316 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:00.960 dredged up about a chief of busquedgele from decades ago, 317 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:04.120 unnurt from a shub box of memorabilia. One folded page 318 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:06.600 listed proposed cut throughs for future routes, which full lines 319 00:15:06.600 --> 00:15:09.879 scrawled in pencil, many abandoned to the city's bureaucratic indifference. 320 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:13.159 There in ters print was an entry for Woomer timber 321 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.240 Line proposed ali cut abandoned due to ongoing boundary confusion. 322 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:20.159 The phrase lingered even on paper. The alley had insisted 323 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:23.039 on ambiguity. I began to feel that what I was 324 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:25.360 experiencing was less a quirk of the city's design and 325 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:27.720 more a mirroring of some larger truth away. Our habits, 326 00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:30.600 our histories, and our own roles in the city's machinery 327 00:15:30.600 --> 00:15:32.679 bent its shape to fit us, if only for a moment. 328 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:37.039 But the contradiction ran deeper. Yet all my experiments depended 329 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:38.759 on me alone. I'd never tried to bring some one 330 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:41.240 else into the short cut. Would the city reveal it 331 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:43.679 quiet magic if I shared it? Oh? Was this a 332 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:47.200 private arrangement? It hasid agreement between retiree and urban grid. 333 00:15:47.799 --> 00:15:50.000 That's when I decided to test the short cut's bundaries 334 00:15:50.039 --> 00:15:52.919 with another person, brain Ken, half outraged by my secrecy 335 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:54.919 and half tempted by my curiosity to see if the 336 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:57.720 city would band for us both. He was suspicious in 337 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.200 a way only the perpetchale best it can be. So 338 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:03.080 this is your big reveal some alleys he beats the schedule. 339 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:06.639 Walk it with me, I said, let the city prove itself. 340 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:09.799 We started together from the shop, Me with my habitual 341 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:12.440 bag and coffee, Ken with his skepticis and folded tide. 342 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.120 Every step was familiar, so much so that I found 343 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:17.519 myself reciting old bus shifts in my mind, the rats 344 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:19.960 that used to be second nature. At the mouth of 345 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.919 the alley, Kens quinted at the mural, I never saw 346 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:26.600 this before, must be new. We stepped in together. This 347 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:30.840 time everything changed. Ken grumbled about the incline, muttering that 348 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:33.559 it was muddier than he recalled. He moves lower than me, 349 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:36.200 stopping to complain about an abandoned bicycle blocking the way. 350 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:41.320 When we reached Timberline, he declared himself unimpressed. Long way round, Joe, 351 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:43.440 if you want to cut time, take haskell Ye. City 352 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:46.679 boys get too attached to old habits. He pointedly checked 353 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:49.639 his watch, grimacing at the wasted minutes. I felt a 354 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:52.759 strange fiss inside my skull. My experience of the walk 355 00:16:52.759 --> 00:16:55.200 had been different. Times slept away, whole moments skipped, and 356 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:57.200 I felt as if the alley had swallowed a handful 357 00:16:57.240 --> 00:17:00.120 of minutes at least. Yet we'd started together and did 358 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:04.920 it together and had opposite experiences. After Ken departed, still muttering, 359 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:07.319 I began approaching more people with the story, careful not 360 00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:10.440 to sound like a crank. Neighbors blinked, some saying they 361 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.680 sort of remembered using the alley in their youth, but 362 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:15.400 couldn't recall how it connected now. One made a half 363 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:17.480 joke about ending up on the wrong block by accident. 364 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.359 Another claimed to have come out by the ice cream 365 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:21.880 shop a full half mile away from any possible connection. 366 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:25.559 Another shyly mentioned getting turned around and finding a newspaper 367 00:17:25.559 --> 00:17:28.000 on the ground with the rong date. With each account, 368 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:31.240 the alley's reality grew more slippery. Some had new matches 369 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:34.400 to my experience, but all had subtle contradictions of detail misplace, 370 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:36.960 a time of day, rom a feature missing or multiplied. 371 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:39.799 Whenever I asked someone to join me to replicate my 372 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:43.200 habitual walk, the result was always unsatisfying, either lost time 373 00:17:43.279 --> 00:17:45.920 or long deader, sometimes a moment of confusion, but never 374 00:17:45.960 --> 00:17:48.960 mind folded saving shortcut. It was as if the pathway 375 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:50.599 my shortcut, was not a feature of the city, but 376 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:52.960 a feature born of my decades of pacing its bones. 377 00:17:53.200 --> 00:17:56.400 My own internalis grew pressing up against the worlds. I 378 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:59.119 bought a notebook and kept the log times walked notes 379 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:01.880 on whether since details of what felt different, records of 380 00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:05.559 Ken's and others attempts. I drew maps aligning my afternoon 381 00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:09.799 shortcut against my mourning routines. Each overlay shifted, twisted, like 382 00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:13.640 a kaleidoscope of possibility embedded in the ordinary. The realization 383 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:15.880 landed with a peculiar comfort. The short cut was not 384 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.680 a static place. It existed for me because it I 385 00:18:18.680 --> 00:18:21.720 could my rhythms, old muscle memory from years of securitous turns, 386 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.880 block watching at the wheel. For others, it meant nothing 387 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:28.079 or meant something else. Entirely, the city's logic was both 388 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:31.839 shared and astonishingly personal. Night settled through my window outside 389 00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:33.839 a cat wound and twin circles under the street lamp. 390 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:37.720 In that shining dusk, the line between routine and possibility blurred, 391 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:40.640 and I understood that my curiosity had shifted. I no 392 00:18:40.759 --> 00:18:43.240 longer wanted to prove the shortcuts reality. I wanted to 393 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:45.039 understand what it meant to live in a city that 394 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:49.039 folded so intimately to fit our invisible individual geographies. I 395 00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:51.160 slept with the shortcut sketched and pencil on the table 396 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:53.279 by my bedside, the city keeping its secrets for now, 397 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:55.200 but knowing as I did that I was not quite 398 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.079 the only cartographer here. The pencil map on my nights 399 00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:00.480 and led a smudge into the page, city blocks dissolving 400 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:02.839 into a pale fog. With a short cut. My shortcut 401 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:06.079