WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.519 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.759 Let's get into it. The drums of rain had already 3 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:13.320 claimed the day by the time I arrived at the 4 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:16.480 Cloverhead Hotel. I chosen the week expressly for the storm. 5 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:19.160 Early October always seemed to me the very edge of 6 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.359 warmth and wildness, the time when the Irish coast might 7 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:24.760 show you it's truest, loneliest face. I'd retired from the 8 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.120 post office and Augustin promised myself a sojourn in a 9 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:29.640 place that required nothing for me but my own quiet company. 10 00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:32.560 Driveway was a wild dock of gravel, rimmed and gorse, 11 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:35.880 stud with yellow even under the hammering skies. I paused 12 00:00:35.880 --> 00:00:38.880 in the rental car outside, watching when blast the stubborn hedges, 13 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.320 rain flickering through every current of air behind the Mister Winshield. 14 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:44.560 The hotel was a low slate roofs bowl, too humble 15 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:47.359 for grandeur, perched to respectful distance from the cliffs edge. 16 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:50.759 Missus Shaughnessy greeted me with a practice mile, short gray hair, 17 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:53.960 a thick blue jumper boots patched with sea tape. We're 18 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.280 almost empty this week, lucky for us. You don't mind 19 00:00:56.280 --> 00:00:59.039 the weather, dear. She pressed a proper brass key into 20 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:02.560 my palm soft at the room nine, at the right stairs, 21 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:05.120 quietest in the house, ce vu. I'd apologize for the 22 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:07.560 wind off the Atlantic, but frankly she never forgive me 23 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:10.719 for the slander. The place was smaller than the woodside photos, 24 00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:14.120 but more amiably worn. The scent was lavender and furniture 25 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.680 polish with rose. Something sweet drifting from a back corridor 26 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:20.159 on the stairs foond the resident nephew in jeans and 27 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:23.439 flufflecked navy hood. He passed me whistling something old and Irish, 28 00:01:23.480 --> 00:01:26.040 carrying a tray of empty MUCKs, and nodded good naturedly. 29 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:28.719 There was only one other visible guest in the hall, 30 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:31.120 a woman of a determinate age reading a battered paperback 31 00:01:31.159 --> 00:01:34.120 by the radiator, feet perched on a floral ottoman. She 32 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:36.719 didn't look up. Room nine was at the end of 33 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.840 the right corridor, beyond a series of increasingly nautical prints. 34 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:43.000 My bag thumped onto the old boards and I took 35 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:44.760 a long survey in the yellow white glow of the 36 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:47.959 ceiling lamp. The room was modest, small, double beded, a 37 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:50.920 desk with a water stained blot or, two chairs, wardrobe, 38 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:53.280 narrow bathroom and a window I supposed look toward the 39 00:01:53.319 --> 00:01:55.680 sea wind. The world wasn't a sheet of rain. The 40 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:58.280 wallpaper was faded blue with forget me not spriggs. The 41 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:00.599 carpet a deep green that bore both used and generosity 42 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:03.120 of scrubbing. I dropped my suit case and perched on 43 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:05.680 the bed's edge, letting my shoes dry. The sound of 44 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.199 the gale was all around to eat, constant shudder mixed 45 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:10.280 with the water, shrieks of wind finding its voice along 46 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:14.120 the gutters. I was unpacking books, slippers, striped pajamas when 47 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:16.879 I noticed it. It was nothing at first, My hands 48 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:19.400 rolling up my shirts seemed oddly comfortable for a damp, 49 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:22.520 irish afternoon, not merely not colder. There was a quiet 50 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:25.080 tea time warmth to the air, the kind that sits 51 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:27.800 heavy and golden along cottage walls in July. Late in 52 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.479 the afternoon, I frowned, set a mug on the desk, 53 00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:32.960 and walked to the window. The rain was blowing so 54 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:36.120 hard a streaked horizontally across the glass and insistent gray. 55 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:38.919 I heard the thunder of the surf. Angry and remote, 56 00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:42.840 I stood between the curtains peering out. The air on 57 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.120 the window side was brisk, brisk enough to draw up 58 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:48.159 goosebum saloon my wrist. But as I stepped back even 59 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:51.520 three feet, there was a palpable difference. A gentle, living warmth, 60 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.560 improbable but unmistakable, seemed to hover through the room, the 61 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:56.919 late afternoon light coming from behind me. It was golden 62 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.080 enough to cast a faint shadow across the pale beds 63 00:02:59.080 --> 00:03:02.120 burd Yet the sky outside was one solid wash, not 64 00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:05.240 a stray beam leaking through my cup of tea cooling 65 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:07.080 since breakfast at the rest stop on the way still 66 00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:09.759 felt almost hot. There was an undertone, and the air 67 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:13.319 fresh grass, maybe a wild foes trampled under sun. I 68 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:15.840 looked up, expecting perhaps an neerrant ceiling bulb or POLYI 69 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:19.879 installed radiator. Instead, the radiator was off, stone cold, and 70 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:22.240 the central lamp glood no brighter than a gentle suggestion. 71 00:03:22.840 --> 00:03:24.680 I could still hear the scrape and roar of wind 72 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:28.199 outside a distant three double glazed glass. But here, in 73 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:30.479 this one inside world, EIR felt as though some one 74 00:03:30.520 --> 00:03:33.159 had slept a July noon into an October squall. I 75 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:35.840 brushed my hands together, laughed, under my breath and fetched 76 00:03:35.879 --> 00:03:38.800 my battered notebook from my back. On the second page, 77 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:40.960 between a quarte about breasting and a list of novels, 78 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:43.840 I had considered a scribbled room nine, warmth in a storm, 79 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.919 sunlight with no sores must be magic tea, I added, 80 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.120 a smiling face, like I was humoring myself. The note 81 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:52.680 was more for private amusement than posterity, barely worth a 82 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:55.840 second look. But as I returned to my unpacking, feeling 83 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:57.879 the sunlight that wasn't this settle on my arms? I 84 00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:01.479 caught myself pausing. Searching. I found nothing, no explanation, no 85 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.120 trick of lighting, no machinery, not even a faint hum 86 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:07.400 from beneath the foreboards, only the impossible sense that winter 87 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:11.199 was waiting everywhere except just here. Such things, I thought, Oh, 88 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:13.439 what happened when you finally give yourself time to notice 89 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:17.120 the world? The next morning coughed up more rain, gray 90 00:04:17.160 --> 00:04:19.120 against the windows, the sword of morning that makes you 91 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:22.399 grateful for the smallest routine. The clover had woke gently 92 00:04:22.439 --> 00:04:24.920 somewhere of breakfast. Radio murmured about rising water on the 93 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.279 River Shannon, and the smell of fry bread drifted up 94 00:04:27.319 --> 00:04:30.160 the stairs. I'd always been an early rise of forty 95 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:32.759 years of sorting letters and crisp dawns across Dublin south 96 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:34.519 side train a body to waking while the rest of 97 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:37.720 the world still dreams accrosses the clock. I stretched what 98 00:04:37.800 --> 00:04:40.199 it must I shoulder the joint had pested me since Christmas. 99 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:42.480 The sword of Aki learned to ignore. Padded barefoot to 100 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:45.800 the window. It resisted opening, swollen with last night's stamp, 101 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:48.319 but a thin blade of air snake through the outside. 102 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:50.360 Was a painting and grazed sea, pitched like a cauldron 103 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:53.360 foam leaping skyward, sky boiled down to one unwavering cloud. 104 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.000 Still the room was no different than the evening before. 105 00:04:56.639 --> 00:04:58.720 There was a subdued gold lurking along the desk and 106 00:04:58.759 --> 00:05:01.199 at the hem of the drapes. Ascent inside and outside 107 00:05:01.199 --> 00:05:04.439 belonged to different seasons. My skin carry the aft taste 108 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:07.399 of summer. I dressed slowly, no hurry, nowhere to be, 109 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:09.360 and wanted down to the breakfast room, a bigger barn 110 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:11.240 of a space with one wall of windows, trying to 111 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:14.319 convince the Atlantic to behave to table nearest the glass 112 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:16.720 was set freight. The bowl of fruit was mostly apples, 113 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:18.360 with a single lunge that looked like it had been 114 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:21.360 rolling around for a week. Three other guests, two women 115 00:05:21.399 --> 00:05:23.920 clearly traveling together in a soft spoken gentleman who never 116 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:26.000 quite met anyone's I, were already picking a toast as 117 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:28.720 mister Shaughnessy bustled in. Were filling teapots and recounting the 118 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.000 latest guests. We get the wild, but I prefer our, 119 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.240 while to Dublin's mild, she declared over the wink, there's 120 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:37.839 honesty to a storm. We discussed the weather as if 121 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:40.319 it were a fifth member of the household. Fian Re 122 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:43.120 appeared in a cracked blue apron, dolling out scrambled eggs. 123 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:47.079 Give it another day, maybe two, he said. By Thursday, 124 00:05:47.160 --> 00:05:49.240 it'll be nothing but a breeze. We'll have forgotten the 125 00:05:49.279 --> 00:05:52.160 rain soon as the sun bite's back. S chuckle some 126 00:05:52.279 --> 00:05:55.319 with the weariness of every other September of visitor. Someone 127 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.560 joked about the radiator's miss O'shrenessy promised extra blankets should 128 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:01.639 the Atlantic sneaking past the plast. Jan offered to produce 129 00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:03.839 a portable heater for anyone at the back of the house. 130 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:06.079 One of the women muttered that her room was so 131 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:08.680 cold her slippers had given up. There's a rhythm in 132 00:06:08.720 --> 00:06:11.600 such places. Someone forgets a jam across the room, another 133 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:14.560 recounts a memory of worse storms. Another tops upper cup 134 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:17.120 and bidden. By the second morning, the routines of the 135 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:20.360 place became gently clear. The mail, my sacred richell still 136 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:22.720 arrived daily, delivered by an elderly man in a battered 137 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:25.360 anaak with the quick efficient steps of a career walker. 138 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:27.839 The kettle in the lounge seemed never to cool. Fresh 139 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.120 cuts cones materializing at the hour of greatest need. Mister 140 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:33.759 shawn Essy clipped crosswood pages to pinboard bout of stairs, 141 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:35.959 and Fiorn whistled as he buffed the brass and the doors, 142 00:06:35.959 --> 00:06:38.279 and flicked dust from the framed certificates near the lobby. 143 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:41.079 The two women took great interest in the crosswood answers, 144 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.120 and even more in which biscuits were missing. At tea 145 00:06:43.639 --> 00:06:46.120 there was a small private pride in keeping routines alive, 146 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:48.160 as the gale did its best to muscle them aside. 147 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:50.800 When I returned to Rumaine, the warmth welcomed me all 148 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.319 out of keeping with the weather. My wardrobe of mostly 149 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:56.199 wool and navy cotton still damp around the cuffs when 150 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:58.120 I had slipped in the last night, now felt dry 151 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:02.040 and almost fragrant, the same subtle, clean sand. The air 152 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:03.959 was both lighter and easier to breathe, a thing you 153 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:07.079 only noticed by its absence, and a light even as 154 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:09.439 morning sank into an early dusk, was more buoint in 155 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:11.800 doors than out. I could see now that the other 156 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:14.920 room's moss seven nine eight to my left drew half 157 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.000 open doors, and a guest parlor at the end of 158 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.560 the corridor had no such change in brightness or temperature. 159 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:22.839 The window glass sweated with chill as it showed. I 160 00:07:22.879 --> 00:07:25.480 pressed fingers to the wall call, but just inside the 161 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:28.720 doorway warmth again touched my skin with soft surprise. I 162 00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:31.360 ran a discreet finger along the paint work. Nothing special, 163 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:33.720 nothing new or old, except that mild scent of lavender, 164 00:07:34.279 --> 00:07:37.879 the faintest creek across the floorboards. It was, if anything, 165 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:40.600 exactly as bland as every hotel corridor I'd ever known, 166 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:45.120 but rumnine itself, some small, impossible comfort persisted. I'm mid day. 167 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:47.680 The sky showed no mercy. I'd meant to walk the 168 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.079 cliffed up path into the village, but surrendered to the wind, 169 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:52.759 choosing instead to read by the window. I kept the 170 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:55.600 drapes half closed, watching how the daylight bent and pulled. 171 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.759 My capperteine, now fresh, sat within arm's reached for nearly 172 00:07:58.800 --> 00:08:00.639 an hour at the steam drifting line wouldly as if 173 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.279 some one did not begrudge its persons. I did not 174 00:08:03.319 --> 00:08:07.240 mention my observation to anyone at breakfast. Now quite it 175 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.439 felt almost too small, too easily hand waved as a 176 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:11.959 draft a lucky patch of sun. But as I pulled 177 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.079 out my notebook that evening, I drew a little grid 178 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.000 on a page titled clover Head Oddities, promise myself, smiling 179 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:20.040 that I keep track, and wrote day two sunlight brecis 180 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:23.199 whether wildly out of rhythm, feel oddly rested? Already I 181 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:24.959 would have left it there, short up to the gentle 182 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.639 magic that arrives when we're finally allowed to drift and watch, 183 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:30.720 if not for how impossible the next days began to feel. 184 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:34.200 The third morning, the wind tested the shutters with the 185 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:36.919 gleeful malice of a child. As I slid from the 186 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:39.519 warmth of sleep toward waking, I have expected the illusion 187 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:42.720 to be gone, But no sunlight dance strong as any midsommer. 188 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:45.519 I sat up quickly, testing whether this was the tail 189 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.399 end of a bright dream. The sky outside remained iron 190 00:08:48.440 --> 00:08:52.360 and unyielding, rain gouging lines across the glass. Still, the 191 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:54.799 air on my arms was soft, nearly sweet, a living 192 00:08:54.840 --> 00:08:58.200 contradiction to the October chill at breakfast radio has claimed 193 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.679 and puff fruitlessly. Miss Slangly, whom I'd met on the stairs, 194 00:09:01.720 --> 00:09:04.120 declared she'd slept in woolen socks, and her last bit 195 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.840 of dignity, fion teasing, proclaimed that only the birds relished 196 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:10.080 such wither, and snook a bigger portion of marmalade onto 197 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:13.159 her plate. No mention of heat anywhere, except in jest. 198 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:15.960 The fire in the sitting room fizzed low, a mild 199 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:19.399 apology for the persistent cold. The two women travelers replaced 200 00:09:19.480 --> 00:09:22.000 draft with fridges and commiserated with the new arrival, a 201 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:24.679 thin German architect who brought slip as packed specifically for 202 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:28.279 old Irish houses with bones. I sipped coffee, said nothing. 203 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:32.080 Then curiosity, flickering brighter than embarrassment, drove me to a 204 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:35.799 quiet experiment. Back upstairs. I opened the room door, propped 205 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:37.559 it with my shoe, and stood half way in half 206 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:40.799 way out in the corridor. The air was cheerless, exactly 207 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.799 as you'd expect for sea facing hotel in full storm. 208 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:45.919 My hand outstretched to the right, felt the necessary chill 209 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:48.080 to the left, just inside the trailing jam, the pocket 210 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:51.600 of gentleness radiated. I stepped back and forth three times, grinning. 211 00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:54.919 Now my left hand, when held inside, tingled as if 212 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:56.840 just released from a glove. My right out in the 213 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:01.120 corridor instantly cool. I ducked next door Missess Langley, whom 214 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:03.200 I'd known in Dublin from mutual friends. Somehow the well 215 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:05.559 drinks at the ages cracked the door open at my knock. 216 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:08.240 Her cheeks were ruddy unto her scarf as she was 217 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:11.279 wrapping another blanket around the foot of the bed. Sorry 218 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:14.200 to bother you, Ruth, I said, but out of curiosity, 219 00:10:14.279 --> 00:10:16.960 is your room unusually warm? She gave me a look 220 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:20.679 somewhere between surprise and suspicion. Warm this place, I wish 221 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:22.840 it's chilly as a stone krypton here, even have a 222 00:10:22.919 --> 00:10:24.919 draft up from the floor boards, I think, I keep 223 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:26.639 telling them I don't mind a bit of weather, but 224 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:31.360 I expect some insulation, I smiled, Thanks, odd mind seems cozy. 225 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:34.039 Lock of a drawer. She shook her head and touseled 226 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.279 her scarf. If your heating's working, complain for the rest 227 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:40.480 of us. Maybe they'll fix mine next. Back in room nine, 228 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:43.000 my phone in hand, I resolved to capture the odd light. 229 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:45.960 The photo showed a rumor indered flat and gray, everything 230 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:49.559 washed in the usual storm day twilight. Staring at the screen, 231 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:51.799 I found no trace of the butterery golden weight I 232 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:54.679 could see in the moment. I even took a second image, 233 00:10:54.679 --> 00:10:56.559 this time with the drates half open to catch the 234 00:10:56.559 --> 00:11:00.879 sun's imagined angle on the wall. Nothing differed Online. My 235 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:03.080 finger poised over a search bar. I tried half a 236 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:05.720 dozen phrases hotel room warm, impossible out of season, a 237 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:08.879 room warmer than weather, strange sunlight and doors, even warm 238 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:12.039 microclim at Irish Coast. The explanations that appeared were all 239 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:16.159 tidily practical, leaky steam pipes, defective thermostats, tricks of humidity. 240 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:20.440 Not one offered anything subtly miraculous. That afternoon, I loved 241 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:22.799 the temperature, with the old posty sense of diligence. Hand 242 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:24.879 on the window frame, then the wardrobe, then the edge 243 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:27.840 of my shirt. I wrote down times compared the clock 244 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.360 to my memory, then drew a silly cartoon, sunbeams invading 245 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:33.879 amid gray clouds. I began again feeling in fingers after 246 00:11:33.919 --> 00:11:37.039 a walk, cold feeling after crossing fresh old warmth, and 247 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:40.720 palms spreading up forearm. I wasn't expecting to become a scientist, 248 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:43.039 not in retirement, but the world had decided to offer 249 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.440 a small experiment, and it would have felt rude to refuse. 250 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:48.399 When evening closed in early and the storms snatched at 251 00:11:48.440 --> 00:11:50.399 the walls, I settled by the bed with a sense 252 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:53.039 of anticipation. The air's comfort had tricked me into a 253 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:55.639 longer nap than usual, leaving my mind both softer and 254 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:58.679 Brightercome tea if the room remained impossible, At least I 255 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:02.600 had company in myself if no one else. Over the 256 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:05.200 next two days, the anomaly spread from pleasant oddness to 257 00:12:05.240 --> 00:12:08.600 something richer, more insistent. It was not just the quality 258 00:12:08.600 --> 00:12:11.399 of sunlight or the miraculous dryness of clothing. The tea 259 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:13.320 I brewed in Room nine, using the same mug the 260 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:15.679 same standard isshy kettle. As the lounge refused to call, 261 00:12:16.200 --> 00:12:18.080 I said an alarm, left the mug on the desk 262 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:21.960 and returned an hour later, expecting at least a tepid mouthful, warm, 263 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:25.559 almost as if newly poured. In the corridor of the lounge, 264 00:12:25.639 --> 00:12:28.399 I tried the same test there. The liquid surrendered its 265 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:30.440 heat to the world as quickly as logic would demand. 266 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.559 In Room nine, heating seemed not an event, but a 267 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.879 fact immutable. A day of rain urges you to laundry, 268 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:40.120 so helm one of my sock's cotton white run out 269 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:42.200 after a clift up's blush inside the warder, But nine 270 00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:45.200 in the morning by lunch, to my honest surprise, it 271 00:12:45.240 --> 00:12:47.440 was dry as a July day, softer even than when 272 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.759 pressed by radiator heat. I placed another sock at twin 273 00:12:50.840 --> 00:12:53.759 in the gas parlor three hours later. Retrieved from the 274 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:55.799 low wind buffeted window sill, it was much as I 275 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:58.480 had left it, limp, damp, and deeply offended at existing 276 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.960 in late autumn island. Emboldened, I plugged my aging smartphone 277 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:05.120 into the outlet by the desk. The green battery icon, 278 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:08.159 usually sluggish on trips, flickered to full within forty minutes, 279 00:13:08.240 --> 00:13:10.960 less than half its usual time. I carried the fund 280 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:13.320 to the corridor for RANTU. Charged in the lounge, the 281 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:15.559 device took twice as long to reach the same level. 282 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:18.360 I recorded all this sketching a primitive table in my 283 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:21.360 note book room tea temp after one her sock dry 284 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:27.559 phone charge corridor called still damp ninety min Room nine warm, dry, 285 00:13:27.639 --> 00:13:30.840 forty men, the meticulous gull suits something deep inside me. 286 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:34.840 I'd always trusted in routine, the world of letters registers lists. 287 00:13:35.440 --> 00:13:38.559 But here was a routine that stubbornly uperformed itself. I 288 00:13:38.639 --> 00:13:41.799 tried the only other obvious intervention. Window opened, then close. 289 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.639 No change. The err inside remained, as it was impossible 290 00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:47.919 regardless of what the hotel or the ocean chose to do. 291 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:51.080 There was a scent again, something settled in the room, 292 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:53.399 at first, like wild force crushed under foot, now with 293 00:13:53.440 --> 00:13:56.159 a note of ozen, fresh and light and inexplicably hopeful. 294 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:58.960 Not the forced, sickly sweetness of air freshener, but the 295 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.200 genuine promise of a new I tried, holding my face 296 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.919 to the wardrobe's open door, breathing carefully. It was deeper 297 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.360 by the bed most intents. As I lay back, as 298 00:14:07.399 --> 00:14:11.639 closed and hands limp at dinner, rose pork, red cabbage, petitious, 299 00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:14.200 crisped in a way only perfected by remote hospitality, I 300 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:17.000 asked miss O'Shaughnessy, as casually as I could manage. Does 301 00:14:17.080 --> 00:14:19.000 Rum nine ever get? I don't know a bit of 302 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.639 extra warmth nearer the seat and all that. She poured 303 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:24.039 me another cup and prompted out boughs, briefly knitting together 304 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.200 her Perumnine's always been a favorite. But if there's more warmth, 305 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:28.919 it's just a fluke. All the walls here are the 306 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:31.320 same stone and fiance wears. None of the pipes run 307 00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:33.679 behind it cozy by luck, if you ask me, Most 308 00:14:33.720 --> 00:14:36.320 folks like it for the view beyond passing with a 309 00:14:36.360 --> 00:14:39.600 tray of condiments joined in. People fight over the seaview, Angila. 310 00:14:39.639 --> 00:14:41.879 They are always asking for that n room lucky like, 311 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:44.559 she says a bit quieter, that's all. He winked at me, 312 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:47.519 maybe sensing the faintest with of eccentricity and enjoying it 313 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:51.440 a press further, gently, do people request room nine every year? 314 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:55.080 Missus Shaughnessy shrugged, then smiled, as if betraying a secret. 315 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:58.480 There are old regulars who've come forever, But honestly, there's 316 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:00.679 nothing in it besides chance. Some times a room just 317 00:15:00.679 --> 00:15:03.759 suits a person. Later among the other guests scrounging for 318 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:06.240 scones and hunted over last week's crossward, and nudged the 319 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.720 conversation toward room comfort. The German architect sniffed and set 320 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.679 his radiator, histed uselessly all night, leaving his foreign battery 321 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:15.320 dead by morning. One of the traveling women claimed she 322 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:17.720 wore three layers and a scarf indoors, more out of 323 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:21.600 spite than personal comfort. Nothing in his house's was but stubborness, 324 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:25.159 She declared. No one volunteered a compliment for warmth, saan 325 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:28.879 or anything beyond fian scones. Back in my room, noting 326 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:31.120 each tiny oddity was carving out a shape in my mind, 327 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:35.399 the phenomenon was persistent, stubborn and saddle, never ostentatious enough 328 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:39.159 to be easily spotted, but impossible once scrutinized. Still there 329 00:15:39.159 --> 00:15:41.799 was more to tease out. I wondered about the boundaries 330 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:44.480 if it could be caught at all times. That night, 331 00:15:44.600 --> 00:15:47.480 I pay close attention as I slipped towards sleep, resting 332 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:49.519 on my side amid sheets that smelled of lilies and 333 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:53.120 faintly improbably with some lawns, near the edge of dreams. 334 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:56.039 Just before surrendering to the tide. I sensed the warmth thinning, 335 00:15:56.080 --> 00:15:59.799 the room, gradually losing its golden glow, trending ordinary waking 336 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:02.639 in the middle of the night, half aware, shadows pulled heavily, 337 00:16:02.679 --> 00:16:05.600 and the sense of exception faded entirely. Each time I 338 00:16:05.639 --> 00:16:09.240 started fully awake, yawning, it arrived again within minutes, as 339 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:11.960 if my presence, my active wondering attention were what called 340 00:16:11.960 --> 00:16:14.600 it forth. I set my watch tobus everywhere across a 341 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:17.559 single night, three a m plain chilled the creak of 342 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:20.720 russus wood and wind. At six thirty, as dawn threatened, 343 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:23.480 the air brightened, light seemingly boiling up from the mattress 344 00:16:23.559 --> 00:16:26.600 rather than streaming from outside. I measured, at best I 345 00:16:26.639 --> 00:16:29.159 could the temperaturity each alert hand inside the covers, upon 346 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:31.840 pressed to the desk. At no hour did the usual 347 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:34.399 chill persist for long, except in those borderlands, at the 348 00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:40.960 very threshold of sleep, perception, imagination, it resisted dismissal. I 349 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:43.320 knew enough of tricks of mind, how loneliness of comfort 350 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:45.840 can shape a place, But compared to the facts of 351 00:16:45.879 --> 00:16:48.039 drying laundry, the mug that refused to call it, the 352 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:50.960 phone brightening itself on half the usual charge, imagination ran 353 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:53.600 up against a hard limit. I logged the next day's 354 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:56.600 observations with particular care, including the hour spend in the lounge, 355 00:16:56.600 --> 00:16:58.360 where the only warmth came from the direction of the 356 00:16:58.399 --> 00:17:01.480 crack fireplace. I I added a note, Room nine seems 357 00:17:01.519 --> 00:17:04.359 affected by activity strongest when awake. We can new of sleep, 358 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:06.960 but always returns. Is it me or the place itself? 359 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:09.519 My own small bodily aches, the crick of my wrist 360 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:12.000 accrued through decades of parcels and pens at ease by 361 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.680 the fourth dawn, lessened absence, then on unnoticed comfort, subtle 362 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:19.039 restoration that felt both utterly natural and faiintly miraculous. My sleep, 363 00:17:19.079 --> 00:17:21.799 too was vivid, one memory, in particular of the golden field, 364 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:23.960 the sun upon my hair, the world at distance so 365 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:27.039 safe as to be impervious. Something about the room, or 366 00:17:27.079 --> 00:17:29.160 what pulled within it had begun to repair, not just 367 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:32.200 whither but mind. I stood that day between the rain 368 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:34.799 last window and the gentle lamp, considering this, How many 369 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:37.440 years had the room held secrets like these? Was it 370 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:41.000 mere accident or something layered by time by intention? Nearly 371 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:43.559 a week in I found myself wondering perhaps my little 372 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.640 science was too narrower. This was not merely weather, nor 373 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.720 the odd benevolence of insulation and hot tea. Room nine 374 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:52.039 was behaving as though the ordinary rules of space, time 375 00:17:52.119 --> 00:17:54.880 and body flexed in its walls. There was comfort in 376 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:57.599 my bones, yes, but also a clarity. The presence my 377 00:17:57.640 --> 00:18:00.480 days felt lengthened, my thoughts lighter, or restored well being 378 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:03.160 that went further than insolation or routine? Was I alone 379 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:06.599 in this? Did other guests before me notice? If so, 380 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.319 why did no one ever speak of it plainly? And 381 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:11.839 what truly must have happened for a modest room up 382 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.119 of gray cliffs to quietly contradict the entire season? Somewhere, 383 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:17.720 I thought a reason waited. All I had was the 384 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:20.920 sensation that in the ordinary trappings of tea, slippers and 385 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:23.160 quiet days, a secret lived, one that might be better 386 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:26.240 for not resisting discovery, but for seeking it fully. A 387 00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:28.319 knock at the door of firm consider it tap, rather 388 00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:30.119 than the anxious rattle of some one of the problem, 389 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:33.200 pulled me from the middle of these thoughts. Miss O'Shaughnessy 390 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:35.640 poked her head around with the friendly impersonality of someone 391 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.319 who'd run a dozen busy guest houses, bearing a small 392 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:41.839 tray stat with fresh towels and biscuits. Perhaps she suspected 393 00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:44.240 I was flagging. Guests, after all, tend not to linger 394 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:46.880 so long in their rooms unless defeated by weather. Nursing 395 00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:49.559 something private. She set the tray on the desk and 396 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:52.480 began fussing with the layered towels in the old way 397 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:55.480 of Irish hospitality. Her voice was gentle, but never quite prying. 398 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:59.039 I couldn't help myself. You must get tired of the wind, 399 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:01.640 I said, my tone as breezy as I could manage. 400 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:05.640 She laughed, setting the biscuits just so, it keeps the air. Honest, 401 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:07.480