WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:06.799 If he'd been with me on the bridge that morning, 2 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:09.199 I think he would have noticed it too. The air 3 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:11.839 had that fair clarity sometimes get in small river towns 4 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:14.320 at dawn, when every drop of dew refracts and exact 5 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:17.199 quiet world. It was a kind of morning people spend 6 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:19.480 their whole lives trying to describe in Poem's brisk but 7 00:00:19.559 --> 00:00:22.039 not cold, the grass of the river bank gleaming a shadeless, 8 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:25.120 impossible green. I paused with my hand on the worn 9 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.120 iron railing, thumb pressed into the same dent I had 10 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.079 always found, and for a moment I let the world 11 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.240 assemble itself around me. A single brown maple lee throp 12 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:34.439 from the overhanging limb up stream, pusting lazily on the 13 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:37.079 gentle current, as if placed by a careful hand. I 14 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:40.399 heard Helen's voice float behind me, calling for her dog, Jasper, 15 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:43.399 never quite dry, always quivering with morning excess. And before 16 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.719 I could step forward, Jaspers paused that it against the 17 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:47.759 planks and brushed against my uncle. The faintest took on 18 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:51.039 near my sock. From somewhere downstream, the church bell sang 19 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.799 out to a round, elderly sound, not trying hard, just 20 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:57.240 declaring its presence. At a distance. A cyclist rolled pass, 21 00:00:57.479 --> 00:00:59.719 nodding with a practiced smile, his front wheel letting out 22 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:03.280 a scene high pitched squeak. I caught the almost spicy, 23 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.200 slightly sweet smell that rises from the river banks some mornings, 24 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:08.959 just after it rains, or sometimes for no clear reason. 25 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:11.359 I could have sworn I'd crossed this bridge a thousand 26 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:14.200 times before, and maybe I had, But this, this was 27 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:18.159 more than memory. Every detail shivered into place. The light 28 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:20.159 through the tree tops lay in the shallow river exactly 29 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:22.400 as I recalled from a morning years ago, picking out 30 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:25.159 the same ople pattern of ripples, the same oldly green shimmer, 31 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.239 with the river split around the flat faced boulder near 32 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:30.159 the far end. The blue jay cooled from above, and 33 00:01:30.239 --> 00:01:31.760 I didn't even need to look to know it was 34 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:33.840 perched on the highest lamp post. He canted as if 35 00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:36.920 listening to the bell. Two early rises stood halfway down 36 00:01:36.959 --> 00:01:39.239 the footpath, and precisely the spot I remembered. A man 37 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:41.760 tilting his face up Binoculo's raised for a glimpse of 38 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:44.400 sparrow that, of course wasn't rare at all, but he 39 00:01:44.519 --> 00:01:48.120 drew his attention anyway, Even the scraps of conversation frown 40 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:50.840 over shoulders or mumbled under breaths, rode the morning air 41 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:53.400 with the same intonations, the same punctuation of laughter and 42 00:01:53.439 --> 00:01:56.799 soft size, at once overheard years back, and the river. 43 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:58.879 The river moved not just with the same rhythm, but 44 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.480 the same choreography. It split around the central rock, the 45 00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:04.280 bobbing leaf spiraling toward the new embankment, and a swell 46 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:07.400 near the bridgish shaded edge, perfect as a repeated musical phrase. 47 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:11.360 There was nothing alarming about this. It felt at first 48 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:13.479 like an absurd luxury that life might offer or trick 49 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:16.840 me with such unbroken symmetry. Yet I lingered and settled, 50 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:18.599 held in place by a sense that this was not 51 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.319 just familiar but exact, as if the bridge were staging 52 00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:24.319 a play whose words and gestures already knew. That same 53 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:26.520 brown leaf would drop, the same dog would dart just so, 54 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:28.639 the same belt would bloom, and the air itself seen 55 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:32.120 flavored with anticipation. Standing there, breath missing in the light. 56 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:35.800 I didn't search for explanations. I simply wanted to understand why, 57 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:38.319 of all routines in the world, this one, this precise crossing, 58 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:40.759 at this precise moment, felt so utterly rehearsed that I could, 59 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:44.000 with a small shouder pre write every step. The morning 60 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:46.479 felt perfect, but a perfection that nudged at the edges 61 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:48.639 of sense, making me impatient for an answer I couldn't 62 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:52.240 yet articulate. I moved on, but the question lingered, moving 63 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.280 with me, stubborn as the leaf still swirling in the 64 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:57.400 water's lazy grip. I'm no stranger to patterns, not in 65 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:00.199 a town like this. My name is Victor's nick, just 66 00:03:00.199 --> 00:03:03.039 thick for most here. I work for thirty nine years 67 00:03:03.039 --> 00:03:06.240 for the town municipal engineer, road and bridge maintenance, a 68 00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:08.840 little of everything, but mostly tending the arteries and VENs 69 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.960 that let places like us keep their gentle pulse. I'd 70 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:14.680 signed retirement papers the autumn before, swapped out blueprints on 71 00:03:14.759 --> 00:03:18.240 ledges for more open ended pursuits, walks, coffee, the luxury 72 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:21.039 to examine every small elecentricity that decades of tight schedules 73 00:03:21.080 --> 00:03:24.280 had forced into my peripheral vision. You learn things repairing 74 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.520 a place from the inside out. This town, Raventon, population 75 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:30.280 barely three thousand in summer, a couple hundred fewer in winter, 76 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:32.719 is perched between two gentle hills and leaned into a slow, 77 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:35.439 broad river called the Milne. If you draw a map, 78 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:38.479 every migration winds up converging at that bridge sooner or later. 79 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:41.599 Not the car bridge four lanes forgettable, but the old one, 80 00:03:41.639 --> 00:03:43.960 the footbridge, as we call it, though it's real title, 81 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:46.520 Anchor Crossing, is now just something printed on a rusting 82 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:51.159 cast iron back on paper. Anchor Crossing isn't remarkable. Eighty 83 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:53.400 four meters long, a wooden deck over a narrow steel 84 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:56.000 frame with two arches and a peculiar system of counterweights 85 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:59.199 that occasionally startle new walkers when the windload shift. The 86 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:01.919 bridge predates more. Most of the town's electricity cobbled together 87 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:04.879 by a stubborn contingent of local laborers and a traveling clockmaker. 88 00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:06.759 In the age when men and women still believe that 89 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.759 a bridge should both endure and entertain. It's always been 90 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.639 I think the town's chosen adeosyncrasy, the one old thing 91 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:15.360 nobody suggests tearing down, even when the mayor's cousin needs 92 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:17.519 a contract, even when the slats grown hard enough that 93 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:20.920 newcomers worry about the drop. Raventon as a rule, gets up. 94 00:04:20.920 --> 00:04:23.639 Early venders set up tables on the green square by 95 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:25.800 six the good coffee shop and locks its doors with 96 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:28.160 the sunrise, and the commute, such as it is, ripples 97 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:30.000 out from the footbridge at all hours of the morning. 98 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:32.879 You learn faces Helen and Jasper dog walker in an 99 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:36.680 official town Morayle officer, mister Curran, retired biology teacher, lynchpin 100 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:39.360 of the local bird watching society, Tom mail carrier who 101 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.279 always wears a hat but never the same color. Two 102 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:43.680 days running a handful of students than late shift workers 103 00:04:43.720 --> 00:04:46.399 who cut through with urbuds. In my own new retirement 104 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.839 routine had quickly congealed. Rise before seven, coffee in hand, 105 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:51.920 by enough time to stroll the bridge and watch the 106 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:55.319 town shake off its night silence. Sometimes I'd stop at 107 00:04:55.319 --> 00:04:57.399 the far bank to examine the stone mark, at other 108 00:04:57.439 --> 00:04:59.720 times linger near the midpoint where the river's current seems 109 00:04:59.720 --> 00:05:02.639 to order hesitate. If you walk the bridge daily, you 110 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:04.920 start to appreciate its meets the day phil spring. It 111 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:07.319 is different to mornings, when each step drags are reluctant. 112 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:10.040 Crone the subtle irregularities that as an engineer, which at 113 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:12.839 the age of satisfaction, the rest of town is friendly, 114 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:15.519 even clinging in its familiarity, But those mornings on the 115 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:17.759 bridge always felt slightly walled off, a pause before the 116 00:05:17.800 --> 00:05:19.879 market's noise, a chance to see people write as they 117 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:23.240 slipped from private habit into public performance. I suppose I 118 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:25.920 carried a little pride, maybe even a streak of possessiveness, 119 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:28.000 in my bridge, its flocks and creeks, the way it 120 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:29.879 held the community together for a moment, and route to 121 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:32.680 everywhere else. But it never occurred to me to think 122 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:34.639 of the bridge as more than an antique tilody, a 123 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:37.639 chunk of history and sentiment. Until there's mornings when patterns 124 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:40.439 became too exact, too unexplainably fixed for even my best 125 00:05:40.439 --> 00:05:43.360 mental calibis to measure. I had spent my working life 126 00:05:43.399 --> 00:05:46.399 spotting what repeated, anne more importantly, what failed to do 127 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:50.959 so I prided myself on disassembling anything that looked mysterious. This, 128 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.439 this creeping sense of stagy craft of dejoh Vus, made 129 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:55.720 physicals the first time I suspected the routines of place 130 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:58.399 might be playing me, not the other way around. It 131 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:02.240 happened again two days later, at exactly seven sixteen a m. 132 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:04.040 I stepped on to the anchor crossing to find the 133 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:06.160 river splitting crespy around the same rock surf a s 134 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:08.600 glimmering in a familiar cold oval, and that same bram 135 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:10.560 maple leaf for its twin beginning its descend at the 136 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:14.399 same ankle, Almost as if following a silent signal, Jasper, 137 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:18.120 Helen's terrier turned companion, repeated his breathless dash, drawing from 138 00:06:18.120 --> 00:06:20.879 Helen the same gentle knot Now Jasper at the halfway market, 139 00:06:20.920 --> 00:06:23.480 delivered with the same lolt and timing as before the 140 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:25.879 cyclists bren A cancel on the sun approached from the 141 00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:27.800 far side, docked at the same plank to avoid the 142 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:29.959 low sweep of the birch branch, his wheel stuttering for 143 00:06:30.040 --> 00:06:33.319 a familiar squeak. Even the sun not yet fully above 144 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:35.560 the east hills, found the identical notch in the tree 145 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:38.480 line outlining the bridge's westouch in a soft stage glow. 146 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.920 I took a deliberate glance at my phone seven sixteen 147 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:45.120 and a handful of seconds. The forecast was for rain 148 00:06:45.160 --> 00:06:48.600 cloud's dune just before eight if he believed the app instead, 149 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:50.959 light scattered as it had on Monday, identical to the 150 00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:52.920 first day. I had noticed white down to the tone 151 00:06:52.959 --> 00:06:55.879 and shape of the clouds. Trying to upace, the feeling 152 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:59.120 I slow, expecting the chain to break, Agnete almost invisibly, 153 00:06:59.240 --> 00:07:02.079 Jasper nearly t me, nudging me ahead exactly as before. 154 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:05.079 Helen's sorry Vic chimed, just as a jace coal landed 155 00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:08.360 above us. The whole sequence not only repeated, it corrected 156 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.560 for my hesitation, a pattern so precise that even my 157 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.360 deliberate odding was absorbed, remodeled to fit the same instant. 158 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.199 For a long minute after I crossed, I just stirred 159 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:19.120 on the bank. Something about the morning nodded in my chest, 160 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:21.920 neither dread nor delight, but an aggravated curiosity. How could 161 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:24.959 the same moment reassemble itself so fully across weather, mood, 162 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:27.959 and conscious well? I carried my question into the Cafe 163 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:30.160 o Main, where Tom was already sinking into a cinnamon 164 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:33.079 wall at the counter. Tom, you everget the feeling this 165 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:37.000 town just repeats itself, he grinned, without looking up. Beck. 166 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:39.680 You mean dejavus or just that's what happens when you 167 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:44.160 retire syndrome. I tried to articulate it. No, not just familiar. 168 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.120 I mean the bridge at seven sixteen, the way things 169 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:48.879 happen then, Helen's dog that cyclist the birds almost like 170 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:51.079 you see the same act beat for beat every day. 171 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:55.040 He grinned again, sounds like someone needs a hobby. I 172 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:57.319 managed to laugh with him, but the pressure didn't ease. 173 00:07:58.120 --> 00:07:59.839 Was it no style to strik or was something some 174 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:02.759 and how forcing the performance regardless of weather, mood or 175 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:06.319 conscious attempt to disrupt. I finished my coffee, thinking, not 176 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:11.800 dejavus confirmation, A glitch maybe, but a real one. I 177 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:14.759 couldn't let it slye. I started small and next morning, 178 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:17.879 juggling a bastard notebook in my phone. If the repetition 179 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.360 was as perfect as it felt, I'd record it then compare. 180 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:24.079 I was looking for errors, proof of ordinary variation. I 181 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:26.079 told myself that if I saw even a smage of 182 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.759 difference helen hand the different tune bren war a mismatched up, 183 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:30.480 that the river snagged its leaf on a stone at 184 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:32.279 a different second, it would break the spell and free 185 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:35.360 me for better uses of my retirement. I began jotting 186 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:38.679 the details at each crossing time seven sixteen zero phone 187 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:41.720 sink to satellite, whether people present, the specific notes of birds, 188 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:44.039 and as close as I could manage, even the subtle 189 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:46.399 topography of the river surface traced by sun on ripple. 190 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:50.679 Each time a near perfect vacsimile appeared. Monday, the brown 191 00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:54.080 leaf hits at the twelfth plank, Jasper bolts, Brend's wheel, squeaks, 192 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:57.120 mister Curran, always halfway across from the east point suddenly skyward. 193 00:08:57.759 --> 00:09:00.399 Even on days when Helen started the crossing a lit late, 194 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.080 I'd see her pick up pace, hurrying unconsciously, until just 195 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.080 as I reached the mid Prince, Jasper would streak out, 196 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:08.679 brushing my ankle. Not satisfied, I tried shifting my own actions. 197 00:09:09.399 --> 00:09:12.200 One morning, I sawed as much as possible, Peering over 198 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:15.000 the edge at the muddy riverbed half way cross. My 199 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:16.879 toe caught against a ward of al cheering gum in 200 00:09:16.919 --> 00:09:19.759 the deck, nudging me to just the needed stridas without fail, 201 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:22.840 Helen's sorry vic pipe from behind and Jasper dotted head. 202 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:27.399 I took photos, stacking tie semp shots, dog cyclists, leaf 203 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:30.679 bell all ding true. The weather it grew apparent was 204 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.919 sometimes at odds with prediction, but at seven sixteen, whatever 205 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:36.480 had been in the sky before miss drizzle, even frost 206 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:39.120 clinging to the railing wood for those sixty second blow 207 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.440 away beneath an uncanny saneness. A thrushturled from the hill. 208 00:09:42.480 --> 00:09:44.679 A dog bought exactly as ms she tapped the midpoint. 209 00:09:44.759 --> 00:09:47.120 A woman on a bench started to laugh, clipped and cheerful, 210 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:49.960 always an answer to an unheard joke. It was the 211 00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:51.919 only minute of the day so far as I could tell, 212 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.399 where nothing, absolutely nothing dubed to deviate. Trying to force 213 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:58.039 the issue, I crossed early one morning, seven ten. The 214 00:09:58.080 --> 00:10:00.279 bridge was all chill and gray, no sign of Helen 215 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.440 Obreno flitting shadows, just the usual batch of cross golding 216 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.919 at a gull. Crossed again at seven twenty two and 217 00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:08.279 found only mister Curran, frowning at a tangle in his 218 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:12.600 binuculous strap and uttering about effect of manufacturing mondane. Unremarkable, 219 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:16.759 pleasantly random. But seven sixteen the cycle we set, same faces, 220 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:19.840 same gestures, the air thickening with that oddly comforting Fadi 221 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.960 medicinal sweet scent. I began to suspect the bridge itself, 222 00:10:23.039 --> 00:10:25.480 the wooden rooms and cables was joining in, and on 223 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:28.240 a hunch, I began holding my phone's audio recorder low 224 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:31.320 as I walked, listening to playbock. Later I caught feigned 225 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:34.039 regular rhythm in the bridges creaks, not random, but resolving 226 00:10:34.039 --> 00:10:36.600 into a pattern whose beats seemed to sink impossibly with 227 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:39.360 the main scene. The dog steps, Bren's wheel squeak, the 228 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:42.440 water's chur as of rocks, bliss the current. Another morning, 229 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.519 determined to break the pattern, I asked Tom to change something, anything, 230 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:48.960 just for me. Tom wearrier red hat tomorrow, not the blue. 231 00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:53.639 Let's see what happens. He blinked, uncertain. All right, blue red, 232 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:55.679 Who cares if it gets you back to sleep? Vic, 233 00:10:56.279 --> 00:10:58.240 he promised, swore he'd set it out the night before. 234 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.240 The Next morning, at seven sixteen, Tom passed across the 235 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:03.840 bridge with his usual blue cap, catching my quizzical glance 236 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:06.960 but not pausing. Vic, you look like you've seen a ghost, 237 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.720 he called, sounding off script for the first three syllables, 238 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:12.960 then snapping right back into his usual stride. I began 239 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:14.840 to feel my own attempts to shape the moment's slip 240 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:17.120 and reform, as if the bridge or the morning were 241 00:11:17.159 --> 00:11:20.720 both would tolerate nudge but not intent. At first, I 242 00:11:20.759 --> 00:11:23.279 thought this unsettling, uniformed you might be collective habit the 243 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:25.799 slur and seeing choreography of small towns by the bridge. 244 00:11:25.799 --> 00:11:28.879 At other times played no such games only at seven 245 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:31.879 sixteen only. Then one evening I brought it up with 246 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:34.679 my next door neighbor, missstos Ilva, who was braver than 247 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:38.240 most about my art tangents. After some small talk about tomato, 248 00:11:38.279 --> 00:11:40.840 blight arisked it. Gloria, have you ever heard anything odd 249 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:44.320 about the footbridge patterns, routines, anything strange about a particular time? 250 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:48.080 She tapped her finger on her wine glass. Vic. Ye 251 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:50.080 know bridges and the ghosts better than I do, But 252 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:52.600 there's a story. Check the town records. That bridge is old, 253 00:11:52.639 --> 00:11:55.200 but maybe do something there. Blueprints, the old council minutes, 254 00:11:55.240 --> 00:11:57.440 those men who built it. They were a superstitious bunch, 255 00:11:57.639 --> 00:11:59.799 always had rituals. My father once said, you could set 256 00:11:59.799 --> 00:12:02.080 your calender by Anko's Bridge when the sun hit it 257 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:05.320 just right. Whether look if you're bored or haunted, haunted 258 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:07.960 not in the ghost story sense. I wasn't keen for 259 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.480 a midnight scare, but the world lingered as I fell asleep, 260 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:13.720 notebook at my bedside. Was I haunted by routine? Or 261 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:17.240 was the routine itself pushing back? Hungry for attention. I 262 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:19.080 needed to test the limits, carve a notch, and the 263 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:22.080 patterbroad enough to see what would slip. The next day, 264 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:24.000 I swapped my usual pocket changed for a ring of 265 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:26.559 house keys, preparing at the halfway mark to drop them 266 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:28.960 on the far side of the bridge, not in any 267 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.399 dramatic way, just enough to see if the chain could break. 268 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:36.399 Seven sixteen arrived. The bridge shivered underfoot. As I reached 269 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:40.000 the midpoint, Helen's dog bounded ahead. I tried to fumble 270 00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:42.840 from my keys, but Jasper thatched himself between my knees, 271 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:44.879 jolt in my arm so that the keying spun from 272 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:46.600 my hand and landed with a clack on the worn 273 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:48.759 spot in the rail, exactly where my loose coins fell 274 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:52.799 every other morning. Sorry Beck, Helen, call for I still 275 00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:54.960 pitched to comfort Jasper, but it reached me just on 276 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.440 the beat, and not a second before or after. I 277 00:12:57.519 --> 00:13:00.080 tried to step aside to force Jasper round me, but 278 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.639 he wriggled as a freedom my thoughts, spinning in a quick, 279 00:13:02.679 --> 00:13:05.200 familiar zigs ag and dancing around my legs until I 280 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:09.240 fell reluctantly into the habitual stride. Determined asked Tom that 281 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.000 they to arrive in full work regalia, minus supposal back 282 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:15.879 just the jacket. Tom nothing else, no hat please. The 283 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.360 next morning, at seven sixteen, Tom marched past in his 284 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:21.240 blue cap and post bag, muttering, can't forget the bag? 285 00:13:21.320 --> 00:13:23.879 Thick ye know me? By now my sense of unknees 286 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:26.440 had a volved. It wasn't fear, not even frustration, but 287 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:29.159 a kind of a lace with embarrassment, as though I 288 00:13:29.159 --> 00:13:30.600 had wanted on to a set for a play that 289 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:33.799 wasn't meant to be interrupted. I theorized about subconscious habit, 290 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.960 about social scripts so worn they became physical law. Yet 291 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.840 that didn't explain the weather, or the river's matching signature, 292 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.360 or the odd synchronous music. The bridge's creaks played into 293 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:45.799 my ears. Then one Friday, with frost still clinging to 294 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.120 the window panes, I tried to cross at seven sixteen 295 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:50.879 in a light drizzle. The sun, by rights, should have 296 00:13:50.879 --> 00:13:53.200 been cloaked in steel shaded clouds, and the bridge slick 297 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.840 was silent due as I stepped out, the air thin 298 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.279 and clay, just soil, tints of gold bancing where they shouldn't, 299 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:00.480 and the usual tableau found its light the same way 300 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:04.039 a well rehearsed orchestra finds its cue. I found myself fixated, 301 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:06.399 then not on my memories, failings, but on the bridges 302 00:14:06.399 --> 00:14:09.879 and wavering will. If social choreography couldn't explain the repetition, 303 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.480 perhaps the bridge was doing something directly more than movement, 304 00:14:12.519 --> 00:14:15.639 perhaps routine itself. On the hunch, I reached out to 305 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.000 a few local contacts, those who rarely crossed but knew 306 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:20.879 the old stories. It didn't that bridge used to have belled. 307 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:23.399 My grandmother claimed you could smell lilies whenever you walked 308 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:25.679 across in May, whether they were blooming or not. Bold 309 00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:28.519 anchor was not about harmony. Ining fork's clocks ye name. 310 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:30.240 It said he could bind a day together if he 311 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:32.840 got the ratio's right. The more I listened, the more 312 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:34.720 the bridge seemed less a piece of public works and 313 00:14:34.759 --> 00:14:37.360 more a mechanism had been half forgotten its purpose. Shifting 314 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:40.279 between myth and oversight, I determined to find out what 315 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:42.360 it wanted, if a thing like a bridge could want 316 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.639 anything at all. Taking Gloria's advice, I set up shop 317 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:48.080 at the Municipal Archives downs on the converted library, with 318 00:14:48.120 --> 00:14:50.960 an echo problem and a delight in clatter. Any one 319 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:53.679 with public maintenance clearance could access the blueprints. So I 320 00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:56.200 slaid my old badge over scanner feeling a flicker of 321 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:59.639 my former authority. Anchor Crossing's record were stuffed into three 322 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:03.240 batteries boxes, maintenance locks, a handful of faded blueprints, and 323 00:15:03.279 --> 00:15:06.000 the original contract signed by Jacobe f Anker, who listed 324 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:10.120 his professionist clockmaker, engineer, and horological artists in among the 325 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:13.080 knee pencil lines and cepe pages, notes and incos, careful 326 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:15.960 labrary town leapt up. To fix a day is to 327 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.879 fix us all all routines harmonized at the crossing. Never 328 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:23.360 forget the measure summarized plus seventy six. I flipped through 329 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:26.600 the blueprints. The bridge was over engineer for its size, 330 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:29.080 girded by a system of weights and gears, and familiar 331 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:32.600 to modern spans of this sort. Diagrams of mysterious pullies 332 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:35.679 in the enned housings, not reference in modern repair manuals, 333 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.279 showed out what my rusty paper arithmetic told me. Time 334 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:41.240 in schemes designed to shift with the seasons. A few 335 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.559 council minutes from nineteen o eight recorded mister Anchor requests 336 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:47.639 belchimes beset to sun precisely at seven sixteen a m 337 00:15:47.679 --> 00:15:51.240 according to his calculated chart for the year. Later notations 338 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.480 public finds late morning harmonies soothed by crossing to report 339 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:57.480 strange coincidence of events time to bridge crossing attributed to 340 00:15:57.519 --> 00:16:00.679 early morning superstitions. I held the joy page up to 341 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:03.320 the tiny slit of winter sunlight and deciphered the smudge notation. 342 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:07.840 Sunrise plus seventy six allows for annual drift and public misadjustment. 343 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:10.840 Time re sets of routine remains unbroken patterns to each patient. 344 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:15.039 That was it the missing arithmetic seven sixteen was in 345 00:16:15.120 --> 00:16:18.440 most seasons sunrise plus seventy six minutes give or take 346 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:22.120 leap yeers and local idiots and couscy. But why what 347 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:24.480 engineer chooses an odd minutes so carefully in the anti 348 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:28.320 civic routine to it more margin notes dancing between instruction 349 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:32.559 and poetry. Harmonics must settle Bell River feat else the 350 00:16:32.600 --> 00:16:35.559 bridge will forget a day for repetition anchors the living, 351 00:16:35.639 --> 00:16:38.480 keep the old songs playing wrestling with my own sense 352 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.480 of disbelief. Imine I've signed off on stormwater grades, not 353 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:44.000 time loops. I scoured through clippings from the town's early 354 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:48.840 twentieth century. One faded headline miraculous coincident of footbridge tansfolk 355 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:52.519 report echov a perfect day another anchor size bridge rehearses, harmony, 356 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:55.840 public laughs, only rumor. Then the rest of the articles 357 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.960 regressed into committee meeting tedium. But the idea of flicker 358 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:01.919 the bridge was more than air. It was an experiment. 359 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:05.880 I took my findings to missus Angeles, or unofficial town historian. 360 00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:09.000 She wore glasses half slid down her nose, a cardigan 361 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:11.160 with more stories than I could catalog, and a deep 362 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:14.799 fondness for tea with orange peel. Oh anchor's hour, you mean, 363 00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:17.880 she offered, after I poured out my observations. He was 364 00:17:17.880 --> 00:17:20.079 obsessed with the idea that structures could shape time as 365 00:17:20.119 --> 00:17:23.799 well as space. She chuckled, eyes bright. Don't give him 366 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:25.720 too much credit. Of course, he was a mystic as 367 00:17:25.720 --> 00:17:27.519 well as a tinkerer. But there was a period when 368 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:30.359 the town went straight from sunrise services to communal walks, 369 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:32.960 all timed by the bell. Odd things happened on that bridge, 370 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:35.960 people always meeting by accident, bird's clustering, even the river's 371 00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:39.759 flow said to follow certain, wrote, she shrugged. No one 372 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:41.839 took him seriously, or if they did, they learned not 373 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:45.279 to tell the papers. I pressed her. But the bridge 374 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:49.279 mechanically structurally It's doing something, isn't it, She sipped her tea. 375 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:52.519 Maybe maybe not. All I know is the benches on 376 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:54.519 the bank used to be called the listening seats, and 377 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:57.359 for one minute every morning, nobody was late or early. 378 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:00.079 Every one was exactly what they needed to be. On 379 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:02.799 the next page of Anchor's ledgers, crull memory is the 380 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:05.759 oldest mechanism. When the routine and keep it running forget 381 00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:08.880 and time scatters for remembered, and the day repeats. I 382 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.640 found skmatics for concealed geret beneath the planks, with a 383 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:14.000 complex patter of weights designed to reset every day at 384 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:18.279 sunrise according to calculations annotated by hand. Some weights were 385 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:21.839 labeled ritual only, never remove others. A key to harmonic 386 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:25.759 return was Anchor's bridge, more than an architectural flourish, a 387 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:28.920 physical mnemonic device designed to urge tansfolk into lockstat to 388 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:32.720 encode certain routines physically beyond memory's churchery, I sketched the 389 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:36.359 basic sequence bell dog leaf, cycus, burkele, overlaying it with 390 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:38.960 the bridge's pulse the mesa creek of weight shifting planks 391 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:41.720 vexing in a refrain that seemed designed to synchronous bodies, 392 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:45.920 mines and river alike. The evidence piled up unreasonably neat 393 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:50.119 blueprints aligned with stories, morning routines with notations, civic ritual, 394 00:18:50.119 --> 00:18:53.599 with personal loss and comfort structure of choreography. I began 395 00:18:53.640 --> 00:18:56.400 to realize this wasn't a matter of my memories, failings, 396 00:18:56.519 --> 00:18:59.480 or even social mimicry. The bridge was, in the most 397 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.880 literal of sen senses, constructed by intention, ritual, and generational 398 00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:05.000 echo to generate a fixed point in time, one that 399 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:08.519 included me, Helen, bren Tom, and perhaps anyone with a 400 00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:12.000 role to play. The question was no longer am I misremembering? 401 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:15.759