WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:18.679 Us was to be hers the town clock. The clock 2 00:00:18.760 --> 00:00:22.239 tower stood at the center of the town square, a 3 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:27.039 stone structure with a pointed roof and four faces, one 4 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:30.679 in each direction, so that no matter where you stood 5 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:34.200 in the town, you could look up and see the time. 6 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:40.280 The clock was old, older than anyone currently alive could remember, 7 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:44.640 and it had been wound by hand every Thursday morning 8 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.320 for as long as anyone could remember, first by Horatio's father, 9 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:55.000 and then by Horatio himself, who had taken over the 10 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:58.240 task at the age of twenty three and had been 11 00:00:58.280 --> 00:01:04.000 climbing the spiral stairs every Thursday for forty one years. 12 00:01:04.040 --> 00:01:07.560 The stairs were narrow and made of stone, and they 13 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:10.560 turned in a tight circle as they rose through the 14 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:15.599 interior of the tower. There were one hundred and twelve steps. 15 00:01:16.519 --> 00:01:20.480 Horatio knew this because he had counted them once many 16 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:24.200 years ago, when he was young and had the breath 17 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:30.159 for such things. Now he did not count. He climbed slowly, 18 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:34.359 one hand on the iron railing, the other on the 19 00:01:34.439 --> 00:01:39.400 curved wall, his footsteps making a soft rhythmic sound on 20 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:44.040 the stone. The stairs were always cool, even in summer, 21 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:48.560 because the tower was thick walled, and the sun never 22 00:01:48.640 --> 00:01:53.959 reached the interior in winter. They were cold, and Horatio 23 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:57.400 wore gloves and a scarf and a hat that his 24 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.120 daughter had knitted for him, gray wool with a small 25 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:04.319 tassel on top. At the top of the stairs there 26 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:08.199 was a door. It was wooden and heavy, and it 27 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:12.719 opened into the clock room, where the mechanism lived. The 28 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:17.360 mechanism was a marvel of gears and springs and pendulums, 29 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:21.159 all made of brass and steel, all moving in a slow, 30 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.520 precise dance that had been going on without interruption for 31 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:29.879 longer than the town had existed. The gears turned, the 32 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:35.599 pendulum swung, the escapement dicked a steady, even beat that 33 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:39.400 was the heartbeat of the town, the rhythm by which 34 00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:44.080 everything else was measured. Horatio wound the clock by turning 35 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.080 a large crank that was attached to the main spring. 36 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:52.639 It took forty seven turns, and each turn required a firm, 37 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:57.520 steady pressure that used his arms and his shoulders and 38 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:00.520 the muscles of his back. He had tried to count 39 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:03.400 the turns exactly, but the crank I got away of 40 00:03:03.479 --> 00:03:07.800 slipping if he rushed, and so he went slowly, feeling 41 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:12.400 the spring tighten with each revolution. Feeling the resistance build 42 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:18.120 feeling the mechanism, storing his effort, his strength, his time, 43 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.479 converting it into motion, and then into the slow, measured 44 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:26.319 sweep of the clock hands. While he wound, he looked 45 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:31.039 out the windows. The clock room had four small windows, 46 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:35.360 one in each direction, and from them you could see 47 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:39.840 the whole town. To the north, the park with its 48 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:44.759 oak trees and its benches, and its fountain that had 49 00:03:44.800 --> 00:03:48.919 been dry for three years. To the east, the school, 50 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:53.840 a brick building with a flagpole and a playground where 51 00:03:53.919 --> 00:03:59.319 children ran in circles during recess. To the south, the canal, 52 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:04.039 narrow and slow moving, with its row of willow trees 53 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:08.080 that trailed their branches in the water like fingers. To 54 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:12.599 the west, the hill where the old cemetery sat among 55 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:18.279 the pines, quiet and green and very far away. Horatio 56 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:22.439 looked at all of this every Thursday, and every Thursday 57 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:27.480 he noticed something new. A tree had grown taller, a 58 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.399 house had been painted a different color, a new car 59 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:34.959 was parked in front of the hardware store. The town 60 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:39.759 changed in small ways, so slowly that it was almost 61 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:44.240 invisible from the ground, but from the clock tower, from 62 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:49.199 the top of the spiral stairs, the changes accumulated like snow, 63 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:54.160 layer by layer, until the town was different and no 64 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:59.439 one had noticed. He finished winding. The mainspring was tight, 65 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:04.959 and the mechanism hummed with a quiet energy, as if 66 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:08.240 it were pleased to be wound, as if it had 67 00:05:08.279 --> 00:05:11.839 been waiting for this, as if the act of being 68 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:15.399 wound were a kind of care, a kind of attention, 69 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:22.120 a kind of love. Horatio checked the hands. They were correct. 70 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:26.319 The clock was keeping time as it always did, as 71 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:31.639 it always had, steady and shore, marking the hours and 72 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:36.639 the minutes and the seconds, dividing the day into pieces 73 00:05:37.040 --> 00:05:41.680 that the town could hold and use and understand. He 74 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:45.000 stood in the clock room for a moment, listening to 75 00:05:45.079 --> 00:05:48.759 the tick. It was a sound he knew better than 76 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:52.519 any other sound in the world. It was the sound 77 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:58.759 of time itself, not the abstract philosophical kind, but the real, 78 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:03.639 physical kind, the kind that moved the hands and rang 79 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:08.040 the bells, and marked the difference between morning and afternoon, 80 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:13.480 between to day and tomorrow, between the moment before and 81 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:17.680 the moment after. He had spent so many hours in 82 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:22.040 this room listening to this sound that it had become 83 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:26.680 part of him, a rhythm inside his own body. A 84 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:31.560 second heart beat, slower and steadier than the first. He 85 00:06:31.639 --> 00:06:35.560 went back down the stairs, one hundred and twelve steps. 86 00:06:36.120 --> 00:06:38.720 He did not count them, but he felt each one 87 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:42.160 the way you feel the days of a long life, 88 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:45.959 not as separate events, but as a continuous descent, a 89 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:50.800 gradual lowering, a slow return to the ground. At the bottom, 90 00:06:51.120 --> 00:06:54.360 he stepped out into the town square. The clock face 91 00:06:54.360 --> 00:06:57.000 above him showed the time, and he looked up at 92 00:06:57.000 --> 00:06:59.879 it and saw that it was exactly what he expected, 93 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:03.680 because he had just round it, because it was his clock, 94 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:07.279 because he kept it true. The people in the square 95 00:07:07.360 --> 00:07:11.360 went about their business. A woman pushed a stroller, two 96 00:07:11.399 --> 00:07:14.839 men stood talking by the bench. A child ran across 97 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.879 the grass, chasing a ball that had gotten away from him. 98 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:21.399 No one looked up at the clock. No one needed to. 99 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.959 They trusted it. They had always trusted it because it 100 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:29.240 had always been there, because it had always been right. 101 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:34.000 Because Horatio climbed the stairs every Thursday and turned the 102 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:37.839 crank and kept it running, kept it true, kept the 103 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:43.000 town on time. Horatio walked home. His house was three 104 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:46.519 blocks from the square, a small stone cottage with a 105 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:49.519 garden in front and a chimney that smoked in winter. 106 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:54.839 He opened the gate, walked up the path, and went inside. 107 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:58.680 His daughter was there, sitting at the kitchen table reading 108 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:02.519 a letter. She looked up and said, did you wind it? 109 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:10.399 I did, Horatio said, forty seven turns forty seven. She smiled. 110 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:15.480 He smiled. He took off his hat, the gray one 111 00:08:15.560 --> 00:08:18.839 with the tassel, and hung it on the hook by 112 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:22.879 the door. He sat down in his chair by the window, 113 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:27.120 the one with the worn cushion and the arm rest 114 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:30.399 that was smooth from years of his hand. Resting there, 115 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:34.879 he looked out at the garden, at the roses that 116 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:40.120 his wife had planted before she died, still blooming, still red, 117 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:44.399 still reaching toward the light, with a persistence that he 118 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:49.600 found both beautiful and heart breaking. The clock struck noon. 119 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:54.759 He heard it from here, a deep, resonant chime that 120 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:59.240 rolled across the town like a wave, touching every house, 121 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:04.639 every street, every person who was awake and listening. It 122 00:09:04.759 --> 00:09:09.279 struck twelve times, once for each hour, and then it 123 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:13.519 was silent, and the town settled back into its quiet, 124 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:18.360 ordinary life, measured and marked and held by the clock 125 00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:24.159 that Horatio wound every Thursday, forty seven turns one hundred 126 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:28.759 and twelve steps, a lifetime of care, a heartbeat of 127 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:33.759 the world. He closed his eyes, the chair held him, 128 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:39.039 the house was warm. The clock ticked on, steady and sure, 129 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:44.120 counting the seconds until next Thursday, when he would climb 130 00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:48.759 the stairs again and wind the spring, and look out 131 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:53.039 the windows and see the town changing in its slow, 132 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:56.840 invisible way, and he would be there to witness it 133 00:09:57.600 --> 00:10:01.559 as he always had, as he all always would, as 134 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:04.440 long as the stairs held and the crank turned and 135 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:05.840 the clock kept time.