WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.279 On my third Tuesday as a volunteer at the town Museum, 2 00:00:08.599 --> 00:00:12.039 I found myself dusting glass cases in the horologist's corner, 3 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.720 a shaft of pale, uncertain light angling in from the 4 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.879 high windows, the usual hush broken only by my own 5 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:22.839 footsteps and the faint tick of borrowed clocks. I'd taken 6 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:25.359 a liking to this little slice of the museum. There 7 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:29.199 was something appealing about rows of complicated watch faces, the 8 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:32.719 shift in years marked by the hands on brass, nickel 9 00:00:32.840 --> 00:00:36.679 and baker like dials. The star of the corner, a 10 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:40.039 brass pocket watch, late Victorian, if the tag were to 11 00:00:40.079 --> 00:00:43.640 be believed, was a favorite of mine. I admired it 12 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:47.479 the week before for its blue enamel, hands ornately curled, 13 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:50.399 and the dent in its cover, a blemish that made 14 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:54.439 it seem, if not cherished, then certainly lived in. But 15 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:57.520 that morning, tucking my duster under my elbow and hunching 16 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.439 to get a better look, I almost knocked my glass off. 17 00:01:00.920 --> 00:01:04.719 The watch on display was similar. Yes, plain brass etched 18 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:08.920 initials barely visible under the patterner glass crystals slightly fogged, 19 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.079 but the oval dent near the winder was missing entirely 20 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:17.159 replaced by a flawless, unbroken arc. The hands were simple gold, 21 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:22.159 not blue at all. Object label brass pocket watch late 22 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:26.359 nineteenth century, donated by Arthur J. Penneman nineteen fifty two 23 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.840 remained unchanged, fixed with two rusty pins. I fished the 24 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:34.040 museum's index card key from my pocket and slipped into 25 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:38.200 the office, where the catalog boxes lurked in dense alphabetical rows. 26 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:41.879 I knew how to read a provenance note decades delivering 27 00:01:41.879 --> 00:01:45.079 the town's post. Keeping track of numbers and addresses and 28 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:48.319 quirks of handwriting had trained my mind to notice the 29 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:53.879 little consistencies. The card for Penneman aj pocket watch brass 30 00:01:54.040 --> 00:01:57.200 was there, yellowed and creased, with the same date and 31 00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:00.760 accession number, and no mention of the feature, I remembered. 32 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:04.239 I stood for a full minute, frowning at the watch 33 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:07.239 through the glass, half convinced I'd mixed it up with 34 00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:11.080 the railwayman's fob in the next case. Over inspecting both, 35 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:14.879 I realized the railwayman's was steel, and very much not 36 00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:18.800 the watch, I remembered. After a moment's staring, I said 37 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.039 to the empty room, that's new, more out of habit 38 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:24.960 than for company. But there was no one to challenge 39 00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.360 me to confirm or contradict the detail. My first thought, 40 00:02:29.719 --> 00:02:33.080 I'm slipping had a flicker of unease, which I quickly 41 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:37.520 disguised under my usual armor of curiosity. I'd prided myself 42 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.960 on precise memories, the old habit from my postal days. 43 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:43.800 When a mist number meant the difference between a child 44 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:47.680 receiving a birthday card and its slipping away lost in 45 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:52.560 piles of brown envelopes. Was it possible I'd simply misremembered? 46 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.159 That seemed the most sensible explanation. Still, I resolved to 47 00:02:57.240 --> 00:02:59.960 keep an eye on the case, allowing myself just enough 48 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:04.360 skepticism to breathe. Most of the time, in this little museum, 49 00:03:04.680 --> 00:03:07.639 you found that folk lore and fact dissolved into one 50 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:12.400 another so smoothly it hardly seemed worth worrying about. But 51 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:15.879 it was exactly these little inconsistencies that had drawn me 52 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:19.560 to volunteer in the first place, the odd flourishes of 53 00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:24.360 local legend mixed into the careful cataloging of inherited things. 54 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:27.639 I left the horologist's corner with its silent array of 55 00:03:27.719 --> 00:03:31.759 unmoving time pieces, scribbled a note to myself, check watch again. 56 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:35.000 Friday and retreated toward the clatter of activity near the 57 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.319 tea trolley, already puzzling over whether I was chasing nothing 58 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:41.639 but a memory error. But part of me like the uncertainty, 59 00:03:41.960 --> 00:03:45.800 the mystery, cozy rather than cold. I wondered, though, what 60 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:48.439 else I might have gotten wrong, or what else might 61 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:52.159 be right in ways I'd never thought to check. When 62 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:55.360 I first started at the town Museum, folks seemed mildly 63 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.759 amused by my postman's rigidity, my delight in lists and labels, 64 00:04:00.120 --> 00:04:03.599 my odd insistence that colored paper tags be sorted by 65 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:06.919 shade and decade. I see now it was my way 66 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:10.960 of navigating retirement, turning a world that had grown unstructured 67 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:15.479 into one that still had roots, routines, and familiar handles. 68 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:19.439 My morning walked to the museum mirrored the old postal round, 69 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:22.839 though now instead of clumps of damp letters, I carried 70 00:04:22.839 --> 00:04:27.360 a thermos and a biscuit for Tom. Tom, another volunteer 71 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:29.600 who made up for his lack of historical training with 72 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:32.639 a surplice of irreverence, had started on the same week 73 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:36.439 as me. He delighted in loosening the museum's tighter corners, 74 00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:39.839 blending fact and fib with such good nature that I'd 75 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:43.480 sometimes wonder where the display label ended. And a joke began. 76 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:46.519 If you can't find the truth, he said on my 77 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:50.879 first Monday, add in a little that sounds true. He'd 78 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.000 slapped the side of a display, as he said it, 79 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:56.560 never mind if it was Baltic birch or cheap formaka 80 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:00.680 under a cloth. Missus Fairley, our principal ca curator, was 81 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:05.639 the opposite, tidy gray curls, hawkish gaze from behind square spectacles, 82 00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:09.399 and absolute command of every labeled tag and accession number 83 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:13.399 in the building. Accuracy is a kindness, she explained when 84 00:05:13.399 --> 00:05:15.920 I misfiled a log book. But she had her playful 85 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:19.000 side too. During tea breaks, she tells stories of the 86 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:24.480 museum's founders, half town scandal, half gentle sermon. Then there 87 00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:28.560 was old Jack Jack Derney, fisherman, amateur historian, and a 88 00:05:28.600 --> 00:05:31.839 fixture on the museum's benches whenever the weather soured. He 89 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:35.399 knew every display's supposed back story, usually adding an extra 90 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:38.480 detail for effect. That hatness was on the older when 91 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:41.439 he fished the cutty wren. Well, that's what he claimed. 92 00:05:42.120 --> 00:05:45.000 Jack boasted a talent for teasing out the stories behind 93 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.600 the objects, especially as the afternoon lengthened and the scent 94 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:51.720 of linseed and brine wafted up from the basement archive. 95 00:05:52.759 --> 00:05:56.279 The museum itself was more labyrinth than temple. Once the 96 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:59.639 customs house on the harbor, it now sprawled over three floors, 97 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:04.199 corridors winding through rooms themed by century or vocation. The 98 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:07.639 Maritime Tales Room, my own favorite, smelled of rope and 99 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:11.600 ancient varnish, while the Domestic Curiosities Chamber was thick with 100 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:15.480 the perfume of old linen and slightly musty gingerbread. A 101 00:06:15.519 --> 00:06:19.160 rickety staircase led down to the basement archive, where salt 102 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:23.199 and oil paint leached into every scrap of paperwork. On 103 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:25.519 most days, the museum was a hub for the out 104 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:29.839 of work, the chatty, and the simply damp. Elderly townsfolk 105 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:34.000 swapped gossip by the Victorian biscuit tins. Families escaped the 106 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:38.720 drizzle in pursuit of the secret Napoleonic buttons. Tourists filed 107 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:43.079 through with barely concealed skepticism, pockets full of ticket stubs 108 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:46.920 and rain wet maps. Each object in the museum wore 109 00:06:46.959 --> 00:06:51.079 its origins with pride, though rumor and recollection inevitably layered 110 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:54.920 themselves atop the official stories. The cap Jack so loved, 111 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:58.480 first described as a memento from a trawler rescue, then 112 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:02.000 a present from a Swedish cousin, then my father's bless 113 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:05.279 Him was a well worn example. The tea cup with 114 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:09.680 the red tulip or was it arose the stories switched 115 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:13.199 depending on the day, was another favorite, rumored to have 116 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:16.720 survived two kitchen fires and a dropped shopping bag on 117 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:21.240 market day. A certain playfulness permeated the way history was 118 00:07:21.279 --> 00:07:25.759 handled here. Catalog accuracy is for the academics, Tom would grin, 119 00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:28.560 but a good story is gold on a rainy Wednesday. 120 00:07:29.120 --> 00:07:32.800 Even the objects themselves seemed complicit, eager to lend themselves 121 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.639 to whichever version of the tale needed telling. Item numbers 122 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:39.720 and donor names marched side by side in the files, 123 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:43.879 quietly ignoring the wild variety of memory that passed for 124 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:47.680 oral history. I carried a quiet list in my mind, 125 00:07:48.040 --> 00:07:51.759 objects whose provenance wobbled, whose stories seemed to accumulate as 126 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:55.879 each new visitor added or subtracted a detail. My favorite 127 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.319 catalog entry, which Missus Fairlie had pennied with both pride 128 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:04.680 and resignation. Read jar Glass believed haunted one thousand, eight 129 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:08.120 hundred and sixty two nineteen hundred and forty eight doubtful 130 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:13.480 See conflicting witness statements. After that morning, in the horologist's corner, 131 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:17.439 I found myself tuned to the museum's inconsistencies with new attention. 132 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:22.079 Not suspicion, exactly, but a heightened sense of curiosity. These 133 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:25.079 quirks made the work lively. If this pocket watch had 134 00:08:25.160 --> 00:08:27.720 changed more than I remembered, it would hardly be the 135 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:30.199 first time an object in the museum seemed to reveal 136 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.759 a new face. Still, I had the nagging sense, but 137 00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:36.960 just a sense, that this time might be different, not 138 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:41.639 more significant, perhaps, but deeper. Though I kept my observations 139 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:45.919 and unease quiet, I felt an odd anticipation, the way 140 00:08:45.919 --> 00:08:49.360 I sometimes did when walking the postal round and glimpsing 141 00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:53.480 a strange envelope. I couldn't identify, not fear, but the 142 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:58.159 faint thrill of discovery. Just shy of certainty. I might 143 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.080 have brushed the watch incident aside, if not for what 144 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:04.480 happened two days later. While helping Tom with the kitchenware 145 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:09.080 in Domestic Curiosities, he was stacking teapots while I methodically 146 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:12.440 matched pottery to their faded tags, Breathing in the must 147 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:17.320 of old porcelain and lavender dust saches, my hand paused 148 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:20.840 over the May Queen teacup, a peace ide admired since 149 00:09:20.879 --> 00:09:23.720 my first week, for the hairline crack bi secting its 150 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:27.720 delicate curved handle, and the faint but clearly red tulip 151 00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:32.200 that stood proud among a scatter of green leaves. Except 152 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:35.399 this time the handle was intact. There was no crack, 153 00:09:35.559 --> 00:09:38.879 no chip, the china unblemished and radiant as a single 154 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.320 ray of sun hit it even more peculiar. The tulip 155 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:45.759 was blue, not faded from age, but painted a strong, 156 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:49.679 pleasant shade, as if the artist had always favored blue pigment. 157 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:53.840 I cleared my throat, leaning slightly closer to the display. 158 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:58.360 The object's card had not changed. Teacup May Queen see 159 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:03.039 one eight eight zero unknown donor tulip motif. Its catalog 160 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:05.679 number was the same as I'd filed the week before, 161 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:10.679 Yet the cup before me was viscerally obviously different. Tom, 162 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:14.240 I said, expecting mischief. Did you swap out the tea cup? 163 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:18.600 Without looking up, he replied, na, Though I wish I'd 164 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:21.799 thought of it. I'm not allowed anywhere near ceramics since 165 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:26.000 the Staffordshire incident. He slid a tray of teaspoons closer. 166 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:29.200 It's always been the blue tulip, though, hasn't it, he grinned, 167 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:32.600 wiping his nose with a sleeve. My mum loved that cup, 168 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:34.759 said it looked like the may day Hatchie wore when 169 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:37.679 she was a girl. Blue tulips all round. She used 170 00:10:37.679 --> 00:10:40.159 to make the world's strongest tea and swear it de 171 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:43.360 taste better out of that very cup. I'd sneak SIPs 172 00:10:43.399 --> 00:10:46.679 before she noticed. There was a soft fondness in his tone, 173 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:49.080 one I'd never heard in the stories of his mum 174 00:10:49.159 --> 00:10:55.240 before I hesitated. Tom's recollection, vivid and immediate, didn't echo 175 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:58.399 anything I'd learned about the cup or his mother, who, 176 00:10:58.519 --> 00:11:02.519 by Tom's own previous account, preferred oatmeal with no frippery 177 00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:06.879 from prior chats. Are you sure it was blue? I pressed, 178 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.919 testing him playfully. Pretty certain I remember a red flower 179 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:15.600 on it, and wasn't the handle broken? He looked, genuinely puzzled, 180 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:20.000 pausing as if recalibrating an inner compass broken. Not since 181 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:22.159 I've known it. You must be mixing it up with 182 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:25.799 the chipped cream jug. He nudged the display door closed 183 00:11:25.840 --> 00:11:30.240 and shrugged funny thing memory. His certainty left me at 184 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:33.159 a loss. Had I been so wrong about the details, 185 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:36.240 or had Tom adopted this blue tulip version as a 186 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:41.080 sort of memory drift, blending stories as the years went by. Still, 187 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.919 his recollection was so vivid, so connected to the object's 188 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:48.200 present form, that for a moment I even doubted my 189 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:52.360 own version. On my way to the basement office that afternoon, 190 00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:58.720 I scanned the object catalog, hunting for inconsistencies, mislabeling, item swaps, 191 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:03.279 the subtle chaos of volunteer curation. But no, The slips 192 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:07.320 and cards recorded only what stood before me now, no reds, 193 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:10.399 no cracks, no hint that the cup or Tom's story 194 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:14.840 had ever been otherwise. By closing time, a quiet tension 195 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:18.159 had crept into my skin. Perhaps I thought I've been 196 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:22.120 so obsessed with spotting errors that I'd manufactured one. Maybe 197 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:25.600 I had folded local legend and daily routine so tightly 198 00:12:25.639 --> 00:12:30.360 together that the gentle drift of memory mine Tom's, any one's, 199 00:12:30.679 --> 00:12:33.919 could spin up a new reality without any sinister intent. 200 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:37.919 But even as I told myself this. I jotted doubts 201 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:41.039 into my note book, lines that chased my own logic. 202 00:12:42.039 --> 00:12:45.000 If the objects are changing, does any one else see? 203 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:49.080 Or only the memories? Was it ever just a tea 204 00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:51.720 cup with a blue tulip? And what if I asked 205 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:56.639 again to morrow, would Tom's story change? Would mine? Swept 206 00:12:56.639 --> 00:12:59.840 along by these questions? I decided to look for patterns, 207 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.960 for physical evidence. If I could find it, what was 208 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:06.080 a museum for if not the pursuit of small truths 209 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:09.799 hidden in plain sight. The next day, I said about 210 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.120 a kind of private sensus, one only the most stubborn 211 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:16.799 hobbyist would attempt. I strolled slowly through the rooms when 212 00:13:16.799 --> 00:13:20.159 the place was quiet. Clip board in hand, I de 213 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:23.440 borrowed the official one from the supply closet and looked 214 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:28.279 closely at every commonly remarked upon artifact. First stop was 215 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.480 the Maritime Tail's Room, a wonderland of nets, signal flags, 216 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:35.120 and model whalers. But I was headed for the lucky 217 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:38.519 fishing hat. It had long been part of local law. 218 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:42.480 A battered cap, its faded green fabric speckled with white 219 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.759 flecks of salt, The front peaks slumped and torn in 220 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.120 the manner of a hat too often yanked on with 221 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:52.399 wet hands. Except now before my eyes, it perched tidily 222 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:55.559 on its block, recently patched with fresh blue twill atop 223 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:59.799 the crown. Its color, while still dingy, leaned unmistakably blue, 224 00:13:59.840 --> 00:14:03.440 not green at all. The tag was unchanged. There was 225 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.440 even a new badge stitched into the front, a weathered 226 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:10.639 silver shield stamped Saint Mares Rescue nineteen hundred and thirty 227 00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:14.519 two that I could have sworn, wasn't there. Old Jack 228 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:19.600 materialized beside me, his boots squelching slightly, rain again, and 229 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:24.039 a battered umbrella propped just outside the door. Ah, there's 230 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:27.759 the old lucky blue, he crowed, cheerfully, slapping the display 231 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:30.480 glass with the palm of his hand. You know that 232 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:34.120 belonged to my grandad. Swore by it, he did, reckoned it, 233 00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:37.600 saw him through the big storm, oh twenty eight. Right there. 234 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:39.840 See you can still see the badge from the Saint 235 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:44.960 Maw's Rescue. I held back coaxing. Could have sworn asterisk. 236 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:48.279 It was green last time, and all frayed up the front, 237 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:50.879 didn't you used to say? Your father found it washed 238 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:55.080 up after that trawler wreck. Jack laughed a little wheeze. 239 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.279 Oh you mean the pike cap. No, it's always been 240 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:01.000 that blue. I remember he wore at the day they 241 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:03.799 brought in the last catch, sun glinting off the badge. 242 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.240 I have a photo somewhere. He peered at me suddenly. 243 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:11.440 Sharp memories are funny thing. Sometimes these old objects know 244 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:14.600 who's looking at them, you ask me. We shared a 245 00:15:14.600 --> 00:15:19.039 companionable silence. Jack, at least seemed totally at home with 246 00:15:19.159 --> 00:15:23.559 whatever new arrangement the museum served up. For good measure, 247 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:27.440 I checked the visitor log. No note of repairs, lost objects, 248 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:31.759 or unusual donations. The printed catalog in its spiral binder 249 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:36.679 matched the displayed details line for line, color, badge, donor, name, date, 250 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:41.000 not a single thread out of place. Later, over tea, 251 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.799 I felt bold enough to ask missus Fairley, deliberately vague, 252 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:47.720 not wanting to sound unhinged, if she noticed the hat 253 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:52.559 looking different recently. She squinted, her spoon, tapping thoughtfully against china. 254 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:56.120 Now it's always been blue, hasn't it, though sometimes Jack 255 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:59.279 says it had green trim. People remember what they want. 256 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.840 Some say the badge changed too, But that's the stories, 257 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:06.519 not the hat. You can't trust all these fishermen's yarns. 258 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:11.279 She winked at me, amused rather than troubled. On a whim, 259 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:14.639 I talked to Tom and another volunteer, Mabel, about the 260 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:17.879 teacup and the fishing hat, inviting memories with as little 261 00:16:17.919 --> 00:16:21.519 prompting as I could manage to each. The object before 262 00:16:21.559 --> 00:16:25.679 them seemed absolutely correct, inseparable from the stories they attached, 263 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:31.440 Tom's blue tulip teacup, Mabel's always mended hat. None shared 264 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:34.120 so much as a doubt that the past matched the present. 265 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:37.080 But what caught me most off guard was how the 266 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:41.120 stories themselves diverged with minimal prompting. Tell me about when 267 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:44.639 you first noticed the hat. Jack and Mabel offered recollections 268 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:48.320 nearly at odds. Jack always had that rescue badge if 269 00:16:48.360 --> 00:16:52.519 you look close. Mabel, no badge, just the stitches. My 270 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:55.279 cousin said they sewed those on after a near miss 271 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:59.399 with a crab pot in sixty four. Both stories wrapped 272 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:02.799 around the set object, as if the museum invited their 273 00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:07.880 differing versions and folded them quietly into its fabric. That evening, 274 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:10.160 I took out my old sketch book, the kind I 275 00:17:10.200 --> 00:17:13.039 had once used for quick landscapes, but now pressed into 276 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:17.119 service for museum duty. I made rough, deliberate sketches of 277 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:20.680 the cap teacup, and, after a furtive glance around the 278 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:24.279 pocket watch, noting every feature down to the pattern of where. 279 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:28.599 With each drawing, I carefully annotated the date, the story 280 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.000 as I last recalled it, and who had told me 281 00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:35.160 what my plan return in a week and compare the 282 00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:38.759 new state of each object. In the meantime, I begun 283 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:41.359 to suspect that the only way to catch whatever was 284 00:17:41.400 --> 00:17:44.799 happening was to create a record outside of the museum's 285 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:50.799 official files, a record too idiosyncratic to be rewritten. As 286 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.880 I kept up my sketching experiment, I noticed an odd 287 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:57.960 tension in myself, not fear, exactly, but a growing desire 288 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.640 to pimpunt the anomaly and probe its edges. I started 289 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:04.839 to believe, as the days slid by, that objects in 290 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:07.279 this museum could be one thing for me and quite 291 00:18:07.319 --> 00:18:10.839 another for someone else, not a matter of simple misnaming 292 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:14.880 or mistaken memory, but a kind of shifting communal agreement 293 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:19.640 about what was true at any particular moment. The strangest thing, though, 294 00:18:19.799 --> 00:18:23.000 was that the contradiction stopped feeling jarring, as if the 295 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:26.599 very walls of the museum, its all stained archive, its 296 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:30.880 drafty cases, were built for this gentle slipperiness. If objects 297 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.440 could change, or if our memories did instead, maybe the 298 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.119 two had learned to dance in step. There was a 299 00:18:37.119 --> 00:18:40.880 pattern somewhere, I felt certain, and perhaps even a purpose 300 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:45.079 to this exchange. About a week after my initial experiment, 301 00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:48.359 I found myself hovering in the corridor outside the elevator, 302 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:52.000 notebook clutched tightly, waiting for a group of regulars to 303 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:55.359 filter out of the tools of trade nook. I had 304 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:58.640 a plan. Ask each of them, not just staff, but 305 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:01.880 visitors old and new, for their version of the pocket 306 00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:06.319 knife on display. First came Dorries, thin and sharp eyed. 307 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:09.599 She peered at the knife with a fond grimace. My 308 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:12.960 father's that was, she announced, just loud enough for every 309 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.319 one near by. He carried it on railway jobs. See 310 00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:19.640 the notch at the hinge. He carved that sharpening apple pegs, 311 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.599 brought it here himself. I remember the day. Minutes later, Charlie, 312 00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:28.640 a retired signalman, wandered past. That's the one saw it 313 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:31.519 at the depot. When I started in sixty two, we 314 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.720 all wanted one, but only the gangers got them. No 315 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:39.160 notch back then, though, just a smooth bolster. I scribbled 316 00:19:39.160 --> 00:19:43.359 both stories down, one object, two histories, neither matching the label, 317 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:47.799 which blandly read pocket knife steel Sea nineteen ten found 318 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:53.079 in depot shed donor unknown. That evening, flicking through my sketches, 319 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:57.319 I caught something subtle. The fishing hat, redrawn three days 320 00:19:57.359 --> 00:19:59.960 in a row, now sported a badge I never recall 321 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:04.160 sketching a different shape and a faint blue outline. The 322 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:07.559 teacup's flower was a shade more violet than blue. Its 323 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:11.559 handles curve are touch sharper. If I hadn't been pursuing 324 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:15.359 these details so methodically, i'd never have caught them. Just 325 00:20:15.400 --> 00:20:18.960 as the ever shifting stories seemed to blend imperceptibly into 326 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:22.480 one another, so too did the objects change in increments 327 00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:25.920 too fine for the casual eye. I felt, for the 328 00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:28.759 first time a kernel of uncertainty in my own recall. 329 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:32.119 Was I annotating these details or inventing them? After the fact, 330 00:20:32.640 --> 00:20:35.200 I rang the daughter of the fishing hat's supposed donor, 331 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:39.079 hoping for an outside anchor over a crackly wireless connection. 332 00:20:39.240 --> 00:20:43.119 She chatted cheerfully yes, she remembered the hat, distinctly blue 333 00:20:43.200 --> 00:20:46.160 with a silver badge. Not a word about green, nor 334 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:49.559 about the repairs. You know, she said it was my 335 00:20:49.720 --> 00:20:52.680 grandfather s, and he rescued a fellow with it once. 336 00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:56.400 Never let me forget. I thanked her and hung up, 337 00:20:56.640 --> 00:21:01.200 feeling paradoxically less certain than before. Even those who'd contributed 338 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:05.200 the objects, whose families presumably would have a firm grip 339 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:08.440 on the facts, now recalled only the current version of 340 00:21:08.480 --> 00:21:12.839 the story, whatever the object or label showed. Today, every 341 00:21:12.880 --> 00:21:16.880 memory colluded silently with the latest material evidence, as if 342 00:21:16.880 --> 00:21:20.920 there had never been a previous version. Gathering my notes, 343 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:24.319 I cornered Missus Fairley in the record's office. Have you 344 00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:27.680 ever noticed things seemed to shift in the museum, not 345 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:30.680 just in how people remember them, but in the actual 346 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:35.079 objects themselves. Maybe the stories are changing and the objects 347 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:39.359 along with them. She arched, an eyebrow laughter in her voice. 348 00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:42.079 You're making the place sound like a store a book. 349 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:46.400 Objects don't change themselves, Dear, The past is slippery, but 350 00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:49.680 china and brass aren't. Maybe you're just too good at 351 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:55.519 hearing everyone's versions. Her lightness was real, not dismissive. Sometimes 352 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:58.200 you read so many tales you forget which belonged to who. 353 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:02.119 This museum's built as much on gossip as glass. That's 354 00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:04.839 the fun of it. Go on with your stories, add 355 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:08.039 a new layer if you like, but always remember, no 356 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:11.279 matter how the tale goes, the object stays the same 357 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:14.599 in the end. But I knew, or at least felt 358 00:22:14.599 --> 00:22:18.279 in my bones, a contradiction deeper than faulty cataloging or 359 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:21.960 wishful remembrance was at work. The difference between what was 360 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:26.640 remembered and what physically existed blurred too smoothly, seamlessly for 361 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.400 me to accept that it was all a volunteer's confusion. 362 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:33.319 My personal theory that I'd simply caught a long drift 363 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:37.640 of evolving oral history was no longer enough. By the 364 00:22:37.640 --> 00:22:41.240 time Inventory day rolled around, my desire for certainty had 365 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:46.359 turned from curiosity into a mild, stubborn obsession. Missus Fairley, ever, 366 00:22:46.440 --> 00:22:49.440 the commander of Chaos, handed me a clip board and 367 00:22:49.559 --> 00:22:53.680 asked if I'd mind reorganizing the archive basement, just in 368 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:56.400 case the grant committee stops in for a look, and 369 00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:01.039 don't get lost. Those racks have swallowed braver souls. The 370 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:04.359 archive was a warren of shadow and scent wheeled racks 371 00:23:04.359 --> 00:23:07.920 stacked with battered crates, ledges thick with smudged finger prints, 372 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:12.000 boxes of shipping manifests with ribbon like confetti. As I 373 00:23:12.079 --> 00:23:15.200 shifted a box of miscellaneous metal work to clear a 374 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:18.880 section of shelf, something wedged behind the manifests clattered to 375 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:23.480 the ground, narrowly missing my foot. A thick battered ledger, leather, 376 00:23:23.519 --> 00:23:27.880 peeling spine threatening to split. I flipped through it, thinking 377 00:23:27.920 --> 00:23:30.640 at first it was more donor paperwork, but the dusty 378 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:34.759 pages were covered in dense, looping script. Each entry arranged 379 00:23:34.759 --> 00:23:38.720 in pairs. Down one side the usual object name, a date, 380 00:23:39.039 --> 00:23:43.160 sometimes a place watch brass Pennimen eighteen ninety seven, Tidemouth. 381 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:46.759 But alongside these ran a secondary entry, often a foreign 382 00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:49.960 or unfamiliar name, paired with another town or year a 383 00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:54.799 Highland Maine nineteen twelve, or Taggutchy Sapporo nineteen thirty four. 384 00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:00.079 Every so often objects had annotations swapped nineteen fifty v 385 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:05.240 nine matched nineteen seventy three, provenance clarified overnight see also 386 00:24:05.640 --> 00:24:09.519 Falmouth nineteen o two. Here was a catalog where every 387 00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:12.160 item seemed to possess a partner, as if the true 388 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:15.960 story of each object existed in reflection with another far away. 389 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:19.119 I cross checked the ledger's entries with the current display 390 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:22.440 most matched, but the fishing hat now Saint Mare's rescue 391 00:24:22.440 --> 00:24:26.960 cap had a prior note Maine Portland badge Saint Agnes 392 00:24:27.039 --> 00:24:30.720 swapped nineteen eighty one, and in the comment column, memory 393 00:24:30.759 --> 00:24:35.279 match artifact converges. The more I read, the surer I 394 00:24:35.319 --> 00:24:39.200 felt that the stories told about our objects, sometimes overwritten, 395 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:43.720 now neatly aligned, had swapped places with those elsewhere. It 396 00:24:43.799 --> 00:24:46.440 was as if the museum was engaged in some quiet, 397 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:51.319 invisible commerce, trading not only the objects, but the memories attached, 398 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:55.720 swapping fragments of communal identity, as one might exchange rare 399 00:24:55.839 --> 00:24:59.319 coins or pressed flowers. At the back of the ledger, 400 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:03.200 pages grew more cryptic lines and arrows, suggesting a network 401 00:25:03.240 --> 00:25:07.079