WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.519 Spring's first honest warmth had pried winter from the park's 2 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:11.839 tangled borders, and the noon sun was stretching itself over 3 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:15.439 the brown fields and the pale glisten of re emerging grass. 4 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:20.000 Fat robins swaggered near puddles in the paved paths, and workers, 5 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:25.280 some new, some veterans, dragged battered hoses, rakes, and spools 6 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.239 of yellow incaution tape out from the tool shed. The 7 00:00:29.239 --> 00:00:32.759 old oaks still clung to their mottled bark, gray green 8 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:35.920 with lichen and thick veins that seemed too heavy for 9 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:39.399 their own limbs. But it was underneath one such sentinel 10 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:43.479 that the real story of this year began. I'd been 11 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:46.600 with parks for nineteen seasons, now my first job, though 12 00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:50.000 my only job then, I suppose my calling. They called 13 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.000 me the senior groundskeeper, which mostly meant I could argue 14 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.600 with city contractors and not get written up for it. 15 00:00:56.200 --> 00:00:59.479 My weeks were measured by mulch and mower maintenance, roots 16 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:03.079 and rust, the slow bureaucratic wrestling match with city hall, 17 00:01:03.479 --> 00:01:07.000 and those occasional moments when children's laughter cut through the 18 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:10.159 drone of equipment. There was a kind of honest pride 19 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:14.799 to it. But there were also policies, always policies, especially 20 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:19.680 ones forbidding carvings in living trees, graffiti initials, crude hearts, 21 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.560 the marks left by passing hands or bored teenagers. The 22 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:26.760 rule came from respect, but also, if I'm honest, from 23 00:01:26.760 --> 00:01:30.879 a sense of heart break. Each inscribed wound slowly strangled 24 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:33.400 a branch or opened the way for rot, and the 25 00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:37.120 oldest trees, more than any monument, deserved to be protected. 26 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:41.280 Near the park's northwest edge, pressed up against the old 27 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:44.159 fence that ran slack and wavy from years of frost, 28 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:50.840 heave was a copse I rarely visited unless clearing windfall branches, lonely, unkempt, 29 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:54.519 better known to squirrels than to city joggers. It wasn't 30 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:58.319 on any main walking loop, just barely sign posted, as 31 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:01.560 if even the city's planners had for gotten it. But 32 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:05.079 that day, while checking the ground after a fallen limb report, 33 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:08.800 I wandered off the paved path, boots sinking into the 34 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:11.960 thaw's muck, and found myself staring at a tree I 35 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:15.280 must have passed a hundred times, yet had never really 36 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:20.360 seen this oak, immense furrowed wild as an ancestor. Its 37 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:23.680 base was shaggy with emerald moss, and its roots bulged 38 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:26.840 like a whale's back, lacing into the earth. Beneath old leaves, 39 00:02:27.319 --> 00:02:30.120 I could see from a distance the familiar teasing gleam 40 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.759 of scratch bark. I almost turned away, ready to document 41 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:37.960 another minor infraction teens, I thought, early spring bravado. But 42 00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:41.560 something about the density of the marks rose, crowded together 43 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.639 as if someone had filled a wall, pulled me closer. 44 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:48.919 There were carvings, yes, and of all sorts, names first 45 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:53.319 and last, sometimes initials, sometimes just a nickname. Dates too, 46 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:55.560 and not just one or two, but a flurry of them, 47 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:59.039 spanning what looked like decades. Some were shallow and blurring 48 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:01.520 at the edges, folds of skin in the bark, nearly 49 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:06.960 knitting shut around the fading lines. Others jarringly looked recent, clear, bold, 50 00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:09.199 the kind where you'd expect to find a scattering of 51 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:11.719 pale bark dust at the root, or at least a 52 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:16.240 sour whiff of sap. Yet the ground was undisturbed, soft 53 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:20.159 with last autumn's leaves. And then I saw my own name, 54 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:24.120 not just my first name, not a passing similarity full 55 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:27.639 Martin GID S, I, l VA, all three in the 56 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:30.319 hand of someone who knew them well. Below the name 57 00:03:30.439 --> 00:03:34.000 my actual date of birth, cut in a firm, deliberate hand. 58 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:37.240 The bark had a subtle shine, as if oiled, the 59 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:41.039 letters deeply inked in shadow by the noon sun. I 60 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.240 rocked back onto my heels. Part of me expected laughter 61 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:47.159 to ring from behind a nearby bush. Perhaps the new 62 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:50.360 Hires were playing a joke, some elaborate hazing right for 63 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:53.560 the lifer, but the mark felt wrong, or at least 64 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:58.759 uncannily specific. Officially, nobody, even among our ranks, joked about 65 00:03:58.840 --> 00:04:02.240 carving in park tree, and certainly not with such detail 66 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:06.560 time and secrecy. I bent to examine it. There was 67 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.879 no sign of disturbance in the moist earth, no footprints, 68 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:13.439 no chips of bark clinging to moss or leaf, just 69 00:04:13.479 --> 00:04:16.839 the faint smell of rising sap, and beneath it something 70 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:22.000 fainter old perfume, old paper, old memory. If I squinted, 71 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:24.839 I could pick out the hidden palimpsest of stories around 72 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:27.439 my own dozens more than I would have guessed fit 73 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.800 A Susan three two forty three, almost swallowed by new bark, 74 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:34.879 A polyplus tom with an arrow, and the year seventy 75 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:39.199 six initials looped into a crude infinity and overlapping. Somehow 76 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:43.199 were these newest cuts Silver mg one dash eighteen dash 77 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:47.439 eighty three, so fresh, the wood still shone. I reached 78 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:51.240 out improbably tempted to touch it, but pulled my hand back. 79 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:55.360 Defacement was still defacement, even when it wore your face. 80 00:04:56.399 --> 00:05:00.439 A twisting sense of fascination, mingled with something almost s acred, 81 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:04.040 woke up inside me. Who would do this? And why here? 82 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:08.800 Why now? After so long? I stepped away, glancing back, 83 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:11.519 as if half expecting the oak to rebuke me for staring. 84 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.279 The tree seemed bigger than before, heavy limbed, as if 85 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:19.160 absorbing every glance, rooted not just in soil, but in 86 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:22.759 some unspeakable way, in the coded presence of those who'd 87 00:05:22.759 --> 00:05:26.439 come before. That night, I went home and lay awake, 88 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:30.040 the name Martin Silver pressed into the soft bark of 89 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:35.120 my mind. Impossible to unsea. Our park is old, something 90 00:05:35.160 --> 00:05:38.600 most city residents forget, as the fresh slice chains and 91 00:05:38.680 --> 00:05:41.560 corner Wi Fi spots have crept ever closer to its 92 00:05:41.560 --> 00:05:47.120 thresholds established in eighteen o six, Planted and replanted, clipped 93 00:05:47.319 --> 00:05:51.040 and encroached upon for generations. It threads a green web 94 00:05:51.120 --> 00:05:54.120 through a city that can hardly believe in anything lasting 95 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:59.639 longer than council terms. Its oaks and sycamores heritage trees now, 96 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:03.680 though the specifics are always under debate. Host not only birds, 97 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:07.480 but the thin, flickering echoes of every personality that's passed 98 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:12.920 its trails. Joggers in neon, dogs in handmade sweaters, toddlers 99 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:17.240 nose diving into dandelions, and seniors stubbornly walking laps even 100 00:06:17.279 --> 00:06:20.920 as the city's rhythms change around them. Me. I grew 101 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.800 up three blocks from the twenty sixth Street entrance. My 102 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:26.959 mother worked afternoons at the library branch just off Oakview, 103 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:30.079 and when she could would bring me peanut butter sandwiches 104 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:32.480 on a lunch to eat with her beneath the larger sycamore, 105 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:36.680 supposedly the oldest lady in the park. Dad worked transit 106 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:39.399 Sunday mornings. He'd take me to what he called the 107 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:42.879 out of sight corner, a place to sit in respectful 108 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:46.759 boredom while he napped and I threw sticks. That's how 109 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:49.480 I got to know the boring portions of the park best. 110 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:53.600 The brambled brinks, the paths with no name, the benches 111 00:06:53.639 --> 00:06:57.639 whose plaques had faded. My coworkers, too, were the sort 112 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:01.160 who knew all the quiet edges. For instance, is the 113 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:05.279 park's self appointed romantic, a landscape architect with wild hair 114 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:08.480 and a fondness for myths, always scribbling some theory or 115 00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:11.680 tracing law walks for newcomers. She keeps a collage of 116 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:14.839 flower stories on her phone, and, much to Byron's annoyance, 117 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:18.800 will slip ideas for fairy gardens and secret pathways into 118 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:23.240 every quarterly proposal. Byron, maintenance chief, is the day to 119 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:27.720 day muscle of the place. Blunt, resourceful, short on sentiment. 120 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:31.120 If you find a prank in the park, plastic flamingos 121 00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:34.720 in the monument's fountain, say Byron, either thinks of it 122 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:38.279 as a waste of taxpayer money, or, with a sly smile, 123 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:43.000 claims partial credit. My job is in effect a litany 124 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:45.800 of watching. Each week day, I pad through my assigned 125 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:50.240 zone before sunrise, clipboard in hand, waving at regulars. Mister 126 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:53.600 Hamide with his ancient labrador and patent leather shoes. Missus 127 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:56.480 Yanez in her magenta tracksuit, who still convinced I can 128 00:07:56.519 --> 00:07:58.959 fix the crooked drinking fountain if I just turn the 129 00:07:59.040 --> 00:08:02.439 knob harder once. Back in my early years, I would 130 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:04.879 have called it routine. I now know to look for 131 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:11.199 the subtle changes, a new bird call, a posted flier gone, missing, mushrooms, 132 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:15.319 and yes, vandalism. I have spent uncountable hours scraping gum, 133 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:19.240 buffing marker tags, noting reports of graffiti to the city's 134 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:24.959 digital complaint system. Our policy quick removal, zero tolerance, especially 135 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:28.680 for trees. If a heritageligible tree was defaced, we had 136 00:08:28.680 --> 00:08:32.879 to triage sometimes, I privately admitted to Leslie, I felt 137 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:35.960 less a custodian of nature, more a stubborn mourner for 138 00:08:36.039 --> 00:08:41.080 what could never be protected. For ever was this pattern, vigilant, skeptical, 139 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.320 even a little defensive, that shaped my first steps. After 140 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:47.279 discovering my own name carved where it should never have appeared, 141 00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:50.559 the tree stood, as ever, off any map, nearly forgotten. 142 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:54.960 But it wasn't forgotten. I found myself bending routine, rethreading 143 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.960 my early patrol to pass the old oak, shoes, slipping 144 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:01.039 twice in soft mud, my breathing in the cold morning. 145 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.960 At first, I looked for evidence of further activity, footprints, 146 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:09.639 new trash, scent of smoke, anything, nothing. Then I started 147 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:14.200 to document, sketching at first, then snapping furtive phone pictures. 148 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:19.559 Embarrassed by the almost clandestine shape of my curiosity. Byron, 149 00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:22.759 when asked, gave me one of his half laughs, probably 150 00:09:22.799 --> 00:09:26.159 a prank. Mart new Hire's betting how long it'll take 151 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:30.440 old guard to notice, but he showed only wry puzzlement 152 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:36.159 at the specificity. Leslie's response, in contrast, was a delighted gasp. 153 00:09:36.399 --> 00:09:38.960 Look I heard back at orientation that there was a 154 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.440 wishing tree somewhere out here. Oh you know, maybe it's 155 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:46.039 carrying on the legend. She pronounces legend like it's a 156 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:50.240 puzzle worth chewing over, not a relic of childish games. 157 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:54.200 I pushed back gently. Now it's not a legend. Some 158 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:57.279 one carved it. And as for names and dates, if 159 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:00.759 it were just that, fine, but look mine full name, 160 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:04.000 birth date, I never. I trailed off, not wishing to 161 00:10:04.039 --> 00:10:09.360 commit to unprovable details. Leslie's eyes danced. What if it's like, 162 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:13.000 what do you call it a memory marker? Maybe someone's 163 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:16.120 carving people's names for I don't know, luck, She grinned, 164 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:19.840 or for mischief. There are stories among the old timers, 165 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:24.480 tree spirits who remember everything. Maybe someone's keeping the tradition alive. 166 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:29.159 Byron rolled his eyes, already bored. I bet it's that 167 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.200 kid who left rubber ducks in the bird bath last month. 168 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:36.080 They got time for tricks anyhow. Policy still says we 169 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:41.919 buff out anything fresh, especially sentimental nonsense. But for days after, 170 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:45.360 I couldn't bring myself to remove, or even so much 171 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:48.919 as scar the deep line of my own name. That 172 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:52.840 was before Miss Domings emailed. She was a regular in 173 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:56.120 the way only teachers on tight schedules could be, always 174 00:10:56.120 --> 00:10:59.080 with a chunky stack of children's books under one arm, 175 00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:03.000 head wrapped in a floral scarf, humming gentle encouragements to 176 00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:06.120 whichever cluster of small faces followed her through the park's 177 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:09.840 garden path. But this time she'd sent a formal note 178 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:13.080 to park office. Thank you for marking my recent promotion 179 00:11:13.159 --> 00:11:16.000 at Oak School, the children told me, and I am 180 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:20.399 touched by the gesture. She attached a blurry selphon photo 181 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:25.519 her name Marisol Domings, with last Thursday's date one week ago, 182 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:30.120 carved neatly beneath it. I set out immediately, checking the 183 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:33.480 tree that same morning, sure enough, directly above a half 184 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:36.799 heeled pt plus j N forever there it was, and 185 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:38.519 may I so l d O A I g u 186 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:42.159 Z three nine twenty three, clear as anything fresh enough 187 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:44.879 for the bark edges still to be raised. Yet nowhere 188 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:49.440 was their evidence of intrusion. No torn leaves, no discarded penknife, 189 00:11:49.600 --> 00:11:53.960 no traces of resin I phone, Miss Doomings, Did you, 190 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:57.039 by any chance put your name there? Yourself? May be 191 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:02.399 a treat for the class? She laughed, light trill of disbelief. Goodness, No, 192 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.120 I've never even walked that side of the park. I 193 00:12:05.159 --> 00:12:07.519 only heard from the kids yesterday they found it when 194 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:09.600 playing hide and seek. Said it must have been the 195 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:13.440 park's department, or maybe some parent. She paused, And nobody 196 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:16.399 knew about my promotion. I hadn't told anyone, not even 197 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:20.320 my sister. The school only finalized it Monday. Her tone 198 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:24.200 turned almost despairing. Why would anyone carve that? It's a 199 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:29.879 lovely gesture, if mysterious, but it's not really public knowledge. 200 00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:32.799 I made my apologies, hung up and marched straight to 201 00:12:32.879 --> 00:12:36.000 Leslie and Byron. Byron didn't look up from his MOA. 202 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.919 Probably a prank. Some parents get the news, do something 203 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.360 cutesy for the teacher, or you missed a memo. But 204 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:46.919 there was skepticism too. He hated any suggestion that the 205 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:52.399 system or his vigilance had failed. Leslie was more animated Martin. 206 00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:55.559 There's something buzzing about this. I remember hearing when I 207 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:59.120 first joined from the Senior's Committee, something about a mysterious 208 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:02.559 old tree out here, one that remembers nobody could ever 209 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:05.600 say what it meant. Maybe we're witnessing the return of 210 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:08.919 oh what did missus Kravitz call it? The wish Keeper? 211 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:13.039 Something like that. Maybe it's a revival. She pressed for details, 212 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:17.399 then offered to quiz her archival contacts. Still, the logic 213 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:20.519 of the thing gnawed at me. Carvings kept appearing, and 214 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:24.240 nobody took credit. Always names I recognized from the regulars. 215 00:13:24.440 --> 00:13:27.000 A nurse who'd just been named employee of the month, 216 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:31.200 a local family newly arrived in town, their adopted daughter's 217 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:36.039 name and welcome carved emphatically beneath a leafy overhang, everyone 218 00:13:36.200 --> 00:13:39.679 in some way a happy milestone, Always something you'd expect 219 00:13:39.679 --> 00:13:43.159 to remain private, or at least unpublicized. Before the event, 220 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:47.559 I drifted into a state half way between suspicion and awe, 221 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:53.080 equal parts crime scene investigator and collector of minor miracles. 222 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:57.559 Within two weeks, I'd abandoned pretense. Each lunch breaks fifteen 223 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:00.600 minutes found me looping to the oak clipboard, hehidden beneath 224 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:03.960 my windbreaker, jotting every new mark. It took only a 225 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:08.720 day to realize. Fresh carvings emerged with odd irregularity, sometimes 226 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:11.480 two in the same week, then nothing for ten days, 227 00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:16.000 then another sudden cluster. Almost always, the names matched people 228 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:19.960 from our neighborhood, a delivery driver recently married, a city 229 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.480 youth councilor returned from her first overseas trip. I started 230 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:29.960 cross referencing every date newspapers, city newsletter blurbs, the ceaseless 231 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:35.320 vortex of neighborhood social feeds. A disturbing pattern unfolded. The 232 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:39.320 intervals didn't add up. Sometimes a name with its happy tag, 233 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:42.879 a birthday, a homecoming, a J. H and S B 234 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:47.639 adopted appeared a week before the event became public knowledge. 235 00:14:47.960 --> 00:14:50.879 Other Times, the carving matched the date so closely you 236 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:55.840 might think it commemorated a spontaneous celebration. Then, more troubling, 237 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:59.080 a neighbour's name paired with a moving day appeared two 238 00:14:59.080 --> 00:15:01.840 weeks prior to their se sudden house sail, before even 239 00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:05.480 their closest friends had been told. When I asked gently, 240 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:09.720 the husband shrugged, mystified, we always cut through Maine, never 241 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.840 the old tracks. Didn't even know there was a path here. 242 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.720 He seemed eager to dismiss it, and I did not press. 243 00:15:17.320 --> 00:15:22.200 I took photos, built a crude spreadsheet, and started testing explanations. 244 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:26.559 Was there a prankster among the regulars, some over zealous volunteer, 245 00:15:26.919 --> 00:15:30.759 quietly compiling happy news and striking in the night. Yet 246 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:34.440 the details were improbably precise, the span of knowledge and 247 00:15:34.480 --> 00:15:39.080 timing verging on impossible to fake at such scale. Leslie, 248 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:42.600 who bounced between hopeful and irreverent, threw herself into the 249 00:15:42.600 --> 00:15:47.480 deeper folklorox side. She referred me to missus Kravitz, retired 250 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:50.440 city historian who came in twice a week to sort 251 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:54.399 out notice board fliers and advise on Heritage Day events. 252 00:15:55.399 --> 00:16:00.440 Missus Kravitz laughed, robust and knowing when introduced to the subject. Ah, 253 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.120 the wish tree. Now, I remember being told as a girl, 254 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:05.519 this would have been in the fifties, that the old 255 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:08.039 oak over by the fence sometimes showed you a picture 256 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:10.720 of your happiest day if you stared long enough. Not 257 00:16:10.840 --> 00:16:15.039 a word about carving, mind you children's stories. She scoffed 258 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.519 at the notion of prophecy. People always want something magical 259 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:21.080 in a city, you know, even when the only magic 260 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:26.000 is neighbor talking to neighbor. Byron meanwhile, dismissed my mounting 261 00:16:26.080 --> 00:16:30.480 evidence as recent nostalgia dressed up in fairy tales. He 262 00:16:30.519 --> 00:16:33.559 suggested maybe the gardeners were using an event law gap 263 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:36.600 to co ordinate and then carving dates as a low 264 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:40.399 effort spark for morale. I gently pointed out that neither 265 00:16:40.440 --> 00:16:42.799 he nor I would break city law, and that our 266 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:48.159 maintenance team would never display such nerve. As the possibilities narrowed, 267 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:53.519 cartoonish prank, secret tradition revived mass delusion, My sense of 268 00:16:53.559 --> 00:16:58.559 the tree's importance its strangeness, only deepened. Then Leslie, in 269 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:02.720 a most theoretical mode, mused aloud, what if we're wrong 270 00:17:02.759 --> 00:17:05.359 about it being memory? What if it's not about the 271 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:09.640 past at all? I repressed a shiver there was. I 272 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:13.359 began to suspect a deeper link, a code or principle 273 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:16.559 by which these names and events were being inscribed, but 274 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:21.200 it wasn't memory or even nostalgia. What then was the 275 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:26.200 tree recording? Determined to understand, I started charting the process 276 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:29.759 more systematically, each new name or moment. As soon as 277 00:17:29.799 --> 00:17:33.640 I discovered it, I traced back event listing, social media, 278 00:17:33.839 --> 00:17:37.920 birth announcements, anything. Every person whose name appeared was at 279 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:40.960 some level known in the community, but not always known 280 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:44.920 to each other. The intervals too confused me. Not once 281 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:47.279 did I catch any one in the act, nor sea 282 00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:50.640 traces of a knife or tool near the bark. The 283 00:17:50.680 --> 00:17:54.319 ground showed no disturbance, and the trees healing around each 284 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:59.440 fresh cut was, if anything, unreasonably fast. Some marks faded 285 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:04.200 to a faint shadow within a month. Anomalies multiplied. The 286 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:08.319 dates at first seemed like happy coincidences. A teacher's name 287 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:11.680 with her promotion date, a cancer survivor's remission reported a 288 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:15.640 week after her name appears with twelve three scrawled beside it. 289 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.160 I started to ask questions with care, careful not to 290 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:23.519 imply trespass or accusation. More often than not, people claimed 291 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:25.720 they'd never so much as glanced at the old oak, 292 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:29.039 didn't know where it stood, had no idea their worlds 293 00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:34.440 intersected here at all. One family relocating to Montreal found 294 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.440 their youngest child's name and the move date carved in 295 00:18:37.519 --> 00:18:41.039 neat capitals three days before they signed a lease. It's 296 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:44.400 a little spooky, the mother admitted, but I like it, 297 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:48.119 like the park itself is wishing us luck. She snapped 298 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:52.279 a photo to show the grand parents. With each new discovery, 299 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:57.039 the gap between event and inscription resisted logic. Sometimes the 300 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:00.559 carving came before the person knew the event, sometimes times after, 301 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:05.240 but always before it had been broadcast or announced. No envy, 302 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:09.519 no sorrow, just joy, welcome, an intimation of futures only 303 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:14.759 newly or not yet imagined. Leslie spun out possibilities. Maybe 304 00:19:14.799 --> 00:19:18.519 it's a lost tradition, she said, quoting missus Kravitz. Maybe 305 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:21.440 people used to leave tokens or wishes instead of carving, 306 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:25.640 and that changed over time. Byron, though, pitched the matter 307 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:30.240 as technological mischief. Someone's tracking social feeds and making it happen. 308 00:19:30.519 --> 00:19:33.279 I'll bet if you dig deep enough, you can trace 309 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:37.000 everyone back to a couple bizzer bodies. But that left 310 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:40.440 too many holes there was It seemed a missing link. 311 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.880 What united these people, not just in timing, but in 312 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:46.720 the nature of the events. What was it about these 313 00:19:46.799 --> 00:19:49.960 moments that earned a place without their knowledge or action 314 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:54.920 on this living memorial. Six weeks into my unofficial investigation, 315 00:19:55.279 --> 00:19:58.680 I began noticing something subtler. It wasn't just big happy 316 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:02.160 moments or public celeb orations. The tree's marking seemed to 317 00:20:02.200 --> 00:20:06.519 cluster around the especially rare, unlikely milestones. A couple whose 318 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:09.400 engagement had been off again on again for a decade 319 00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:14.720 finally announced James plus Lee four eighteen. Their names and 320 00:20:14.799 --> 00:20:17.680 that date had been carved a full month earlier, though 321 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:22.119 they'd only told family two weeks prior. Families who'd suffered 322 00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:27.720 arguments or estrangements for years suddenly reunited Alvarez two twenty seven, 323 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:32.200 reconcil confirmed in private, not public, at dinner the night 324 00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:35.680 of that date. And then there were the outright oddities. 325 00:20:36.160 --> 00:20:38.599 A woman whose best friend had been missing for years 326 00:20:38.799 --> 00:20:42.160 sends a long shot letter, and three days later k 327 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:45.680 C plus JP found is etched into the tree, dated 328 00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:50.400 that coming Monday. Sure enough, the reply comes exactly on schedule. 329 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:54.519 For many, the carving seemed to arrive before even the 330 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.559 person themselves fully believed the event possible. A young couple 331 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:03.039 seeming ordinary, reported to Leslie that they'd glimpsed their own 332 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:06.119 names together on the tree, with a January date scrawled 333 00:21:06.119 --> 00:21:09.799 below ah Ay plus a sel one dash, fifteen weeks 334 00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:13.640 before I proposed. We laughed about it. Essel told me later, 335 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:16.039 thinking maybe one of our friends is trying to give 336 00:21:16.119 --> 00:21:18.720 Rich a nudge. But we never told any one, and 337 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:21.079 neither of us ever visited this side of the park. 338 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:24.920 The date, uncanny in its accuracy, ended up being the 339 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:27.960 night he popped the question. It caught up with me 340 00:21:28.039 --> 00:21:31.839 all at once. The tree wasn't simply recording what had happened, 341 00:21:31.960 --> 00:21:36.839 It was impossibly remembering a head. The events memorialized in 342 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:39.359 the bark were not just happy moments of the past 343 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:43.559 newly inscribed. Many were the happiest days of people's future 344 00:21:43.880 --> 00:21:47.799 yet to be realized or even decided. I dropped a 345 00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:51.440 note into Leslie's inbox outlining the pattern. She met me 346 00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:55.079 by the west fence that evening, nearly vibrating with excitement. 347 00:21:55.680 --> 00:21:58.079 What if it's not memory at all? What if the 348 00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:00.920 tree is a living record, one that keeps track of 349 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.720 potential instead of past, Like its archiving the city's happiest 350 00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:11.240 possibilities even before they exist Byron when told scoffed misdirection, 351 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:15.200 someone's feeding you staged news, or it's a convoluted prank. 352 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:18.720 Bar Bet gone wild, But his eyes lingered on the 353 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:22.920 photo print outs a moment longer than before. At that moment, 354 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:26.920 I felt a distinct shift inside myself, a passage from 355 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:31.559 skepticism to something far trickier. Not belief, but a kind 356 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:36.119 of reverence for questions that no ordinary explanation could shield against. 357 00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:40.160 I gave up any ambition to catch a culprit or 358 00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.160 solve the puzzle by surveillance. Instead, I took to documenting 359 00:22:44.200 --> 00:22:50.119 the impossibility itself, photographing, charting, inviting Leslie to speculate, pulling 360 00:22:50.119 --> 00:22:55.000 out half remembered folklore. At each discovery, my assumption buckled, 361 00:22:55.160 --> 00:23:00.240 revised itself, and reshaped anew. I found myself almost great, full, 362 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:05.359 stripped of certainty, rewarded by surprise. The oak, silent as ever, 363 00:23:05.680 --> 00:23:09.720 kept gathering stories in its skin. Leslie and I marched 364 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:12.000 into the city archives with a stack of old print 365 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.039 outs and a half muttered plan. If this wasn't a 366 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:18.079 new phenomenon, there should, by logic, be traces in the 367 00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:23.160 city's rambling record. Every serious park event, every dispute, every 368 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:26.119 fire or restoration program had been clipped and boxed away 369 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:30.200 by past directors. We dug through two afternoons worth of 370 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:35.759 yellowed minutes, brittle newsletters, carpenter's receipts, and city council transcriptions. 371 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:40.799 To my surprise, the scant references appeared, not grand headlines, 372 00:23:40.839 --> 00:23:44.400 but subtle as water marks in the margins. Whishkeeper oak 373 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:47.480 and w boundary advised to rope off for arbor day 374 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:51.079 games from the nineteen twenties, faded photos of a family 375 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:55.279 posed beside a vast oak, captioned leaving for California to morrow, 376 00:23:55.559 --> 00:23:58.960 names already on the tree. A columnist in nineteen fifty 377 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:02.880 seven referenced jokingly city children who trust the big oak 378 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:07.200 to mark their happiest year. In perhaps my favorite find, 379 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:10.759 a note from a nineteen seventy three meeting planner of 380 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:14.759 Viedo claims, if the Wishing tree ever records my lottery number, 381 00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:20.279 I'm retiring on the spot. Acrid sarcasm, but telling. Time 382 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:23.880 and again, the tree appeared and disappeared from city records. 383 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:27.680 There was never an official event, nor marker, nor public plaque, 384 00:24:27.920 --> 00:24:31.079 yet it threaded through minor features of public life, cropping 385 00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:34.440 up in half remembered stories, appearing for a decade or two, 386 00:24:34.599 --> 00:24:39.000 vanishing again, sometimes referenced as the tree that remembers, other 387 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:43.599 times wishkeeper oak, sometimes nameless but unmistakably placed at the 388 00:24:43.640 --> 00:24:48.960 same overgrown path beneath the bent fence, the oldest living residence. 389 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:52.839 When Leslie orchestrated a series of phone interviews, laughed at 390 00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:57.400 the idea of supernatural trees, but a handful recalled visiting 391 00:24:57.599 --> 00:25:01.799 as children a memory tree, though what exactly they did 392 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:05.720 there faded in the heat of the years. Clearly none 393 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:09.680 of this could explain spontaneous, accurate carvings appearing before the 394 00:25:09.720 --> 00:25:13.000 events they described. Yet what we saw proved one thing. 395 00:25:13.559 --> 00:25:16.400 Far from being a new trick or passing hoax. The 396 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:21.640 phenomenon was chronic, recurring, and somehow impossibly threaded through a 397 00:25:21.720 --> 00:25:25.599 century and a half of forgotten city life. As I 398 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:28.720 sat down that night at my kitchen table, spreadsheets and 399 00:25:28.759 --> 00:25:32.680 photo copies overlapping park blueprints curling at the edges, I 400 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:35.319 felt like a detective closing in not on a suspect, 401 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:38.720