WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.360 If there's a sound you could copyright for retirement, maybe 2 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.599 it's the muffled thunker for library. But being dropped into 3 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:12.560 the return shoot bore the quiet argument between two different 4 00:00:12.599 --> 00:00:14.519 dwart book carts bumping in a hallway with the four 5 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.480 that was never in a century quite level the library 6 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:19.920 where I started volunteering after my last day on Rat 7 00:00:19.960 --> 00:00:23.120 seventeen in Nelson Heights, branch red brick odd editions, a 8 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:25.359 whiff of wax polish, and the cardboard tan of years 9 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.600 of paper offered all of these in a single busy morning. 10 00:00:28.199 --> 00:00:30.239 My first shift was mainly meant to be a trial run, 11 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:33.439 just shelving and sorting, but the desk supervisor, Genine, greeted 12 00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:35.799 me with a rare opening the in tick desk single handed, 13 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:38.960 just for one hour to see your system attests. I 14 00:00:39.079 --> 00:00:40.920 was sure she had that fees for putting people through 15 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:43.640 minor gauntlets and seemed to relish finding out who could 16 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:47.520 think a round clatter. It suited me. After thirty five 17 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.439 years in a postal service, handling the unpredictable arrivals and 18 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:53.840 vanishments of paper, things seemed like home. There were returns 19 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.479 from every corner of the city, thick coled manuals, dog 20 00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:59.520 teed mysteries, slick as new cook books, and spiny children's 21 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:02.759 books with strange creatures on their hard covers. They came 22 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.239 in stacks, sometimes under trembling hands of seniors, or wedged 23 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:09.439 and folded arms by apparent wrangling a toddler. Some people 24 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:12.040 return their books with a grin, others with an apologetic 25 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:15.319 mumble about overjufines and lost slips. I took it all 26 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:17.560 with slow nod, marking things in by hand, then in 27 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:20.359 the art clunky tablets. The library had just started rolling 28 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:22.959 out half way through as I reached for the next 29 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:25.159 book from an unruly heap, a sweet looking picture book 30 00:01:25.159 --> 00:01:28.120 with cloud stitched sheep high glanced down the return slip 31 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:31.040 yellow increase at a corner was stamped clearly returned by 32 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:34.480 six March twenty twenty nine. I blinked, then actually double 33 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:39.120 checked the cover copyright twenty eighteen, fine stamp in blue striking, 34 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:41.680 the brisk not faded at all. The rest of the 35 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:44.879 card was filled with recent plausible dates. This is the 36 00:01:44.920 --> 00:01:46.920 first time I can remember being both amused and a 37 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:49.599 little disoriented by a date, which is saying something when 38 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:53.120 you've spent decades sorting holiday cards in October. I held 39 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:55.439 up the book for a second, looking around, and waved 40 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:57.599 the slip Apollo, who was passing by in the corridor, 41 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:00.519 A cheerful twenty something children's librarian with the Herbert's permanently 42 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:04.079 trailing her neck, paula quick opinion for a rookie. Did 43 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:06.840 I just time jump, she laughed, leaning in to check, 44 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:10.039 though the crazy returned slips again. Must have slipped through 45 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:12.199 from the South branch. They always mess up the dates, 46 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:14.960 or she shrugged, almost mischievously, Or it's just the kids 47 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:17.800 or something. One came back last month's stamped for twenty 48 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:20.479 seventy four. There was something in her tone, caught between 49 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:22.840 a joke and a brush off, that I noticed in 50 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:24.479 my work. You get a third deer for when someone 51 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.599 is stone moalling with Hima, or when a story hides 52 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:29.639 somewhere else. Entirely, I set the book aside to jaculator. 53 00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.599 If I noticed a pattern, maybe I'd give myself a 54 00:02:32.599 --> 00:02:35.120 prize for observation, or just file it away as one 55 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:38.319 of those institutional Quirk's libraries collect along with audible donors 56 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:41.120 and mysterious stains. But the next stack contained an old 57 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:43.840 dan or pin quart a paperback, the Hobboken Chicken Emergency. 58 00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:46.120 It spine cracked, but reparable would a pale slip stamp 59 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:48.960 returned sixteen April nineteen fifty seven on a book published 60 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:51.680 in nineteen eighty two. The stamp was black. The card 61 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:54.400 itself looked deliberately old, not weather by age, but with 62 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:56.400 a cream color and machine cut I'd only seen in 63 00:02:56.439 --> 00:02:59.280 my childhood libraries. The ink was sharp, as if it 64 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:02.240 had only just a memory of rubber and pressure. I 65 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:06.039 thumbed through the book, nothing out of place. I stacked 66 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.159 it in the questionable pile I was making uninstinct to 67 00:03:08.199 --> 00:03:10.759 two more children's books join it, both with odd slips, 68 00:03:11.080 --> 00:03:13.319 one stamped for in the future, another with the name 69 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:15.479 scrolled in a style that looked like the nineteen thirties, 70 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:19.719 Why Abbess Asal and a curly dipping hand. I leaned back, 71 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:22.080 fiding the urge to comment to a strange of five books, 72 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:24.599 four implausible dates, three different kinds of paper, and at 73 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:27.599 least two fake DearS. Who was trying to amuse themselves? 74 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:29.879 Some jokers shelving books with forgeries, or one of the 75 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:32.919 night's staff playing a prank. Maybe it was standard every 76 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:35.159 library's got something a bit bent about it, a note 77 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:37.919 that never quite matches the rest of the court. Jeanein 78 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.360 strove pass hair, short blue sweater, announcing a Davenport delivery, 79 00:03:41.400 --> 00:03:44.479 her mouth set for briskness. Janine questioned, for you, I 80 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:48.039 called waving the daynelpincutter with its nineteen fifty seven return slip. 81 00:03:48.599 --> 00:03:50.680 I tried for casual. Do we run a time travel 82 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.280 program here? She gave me the faint smile you give 83 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:55.159 to some one, return into a long, warm joke and 84 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.840 didn't slow down much. Other branches problem. Probably if it's 85 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:01.560 not on the digital log, just file it in tick anomalies. 86 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:04.879 But the book wasn't published. And told the eighties. She 87 00:04:04.919 --> 00:04:06.800 shrugged and nothing in her face gave way. But when 88 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:09.560 she replied, it was quicker and lighter than I expected. Well, 89 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:12.840 maybe the book got there early library time. Then she 90 00:04:12.919 --> 00:04:15.919 was gone. Conversation closed, but not before giving the slip 91 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.800 a second, very brief rown. I left my growing stack 92 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:20.839 of a question marks next to the desk cafel, not 93 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:23.480 to let them mix with reshelving. By the end of day, 94 00:04:23.639 --> 00:04:26.560 nobody had asked about them. As the lights flickered and 95 00:04:26.560 --> 00:04:28.720 the clatter faded, and I clocked out, I felt to 96 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:30.560 tickle deep in my chest, to quiet wad on earth 97 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.639 with just the right flavor of delight, no sign of trouble, 98 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:35.720 only the opening of a door into some gentle, slow, 99 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:38.839 unfolding mischief. My second week on intake routine made it 100 00:04:38.839 --> 00:04:41.600 easier to poke at the edges of oddity. The Nelson 101 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:44.279 Heights Library was neither big city grand nor rural crant 102 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:46.920 to building designed for a hundred years of temporary solutions. 103 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:49.759 Enter through the old brick arch, passed the scuffed blue 104 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:52.040 pillows from the nineteen sixties edition. I make it to 105 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:54.040 the staff office one minute to eight for sign engine, 106 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:57.040 never missed a late slip in the middle. Circulation ran 107 00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:59.920 like small streams into tributaries. Kit bounced into the staf 108 00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:02.800 for story time. Old whom men arrived in pairs for chess, 109 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:05.639 but the battered local newspapers, and a college girl Hannah 110 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:08.800 unfolded maps with the care you'd give anti glace. Here. 111 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:11.279 Tyan didn't move fast, except when people argued about who 112 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:13.040 had a hold on the only good sequel in town. 113 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.399 Jeanine ran things with a clipped efficiency, barely needing to 114 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:18.720 check the screen to remember a face or a book's 115 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:22.600 wandering habits. Mister Ray, the cataloger had an unpredictable supply 116 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:24.920 of dry, low volume puns and an endless affection for 117 00:05:24.959 --> 00:05:27.959 the old systems. He'd been there since Watergate by his 118 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:31.920 own math, and could smell a spurious barkoot four shelves away. Paula, 119 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:35.680 in comparison, was a comet, always fast, always cheery, speaking 120 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:38.240 in Bursa but newy, but providers but tolerating. The annal 121 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:41.279 of messes are part of the heritage. That first fortnight, 122 00:05:41.319 --> 00:05:44.000 I explored the stack spangled maze between my shelving shifts. 123 00:05:44.680 --> 00:05:47.160 The halls twisted, often literally near the old reference wing, 124 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:50.120 the wall's flash between decca white tile and poor gray concrete, 125 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:53.360 as EF decorators tried to outlast each other. Lighting changed 126 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:56.240 mid corridor from amber pulled to pale hospital glow. The 127 00:05:56.279 --> 00:05:59.759 back rooms, especially where old returns lingered awaiting decision, seemed 128 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:02.879 to her new doors. I found myself wheeling a card 129 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:05.120 on to a landing that, in theory was a dead end, 130 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:07.160 except there was a bathroom door sign that didn't match 131 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:10.120 the building's font. Nobody else seemed to find any of 132 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:13.879 this unusual. When started to mention another of these micromisteries. 133 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:17.920 Mister Ray only nodded quarks of the old system, he said, 134 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:20.279 as if that explained not only books but bricks themselves. 135 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:23.160 Bookcott came and when Paula claimed that some carts held 136 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:26.639 haunted returns, meaning books that no matter where Rochelle turned 137 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:28.680 up off by one row in six hours or less, 138 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:31.680 we traded bobs about whether the new barcoding tech could 139 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:35.319 utwhit cursed narrative drift. I discovered, with a slight catch 140 00:06:35.319 --> 00:06:37.600 in my breath, that one particular copy of the Joy 141 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.560 of Cooking appeared, unsuccessfully reshelved in different systems, three days 142 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:42.839 in a row, each time with the new return slip appended, 143 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.079 each with a date thirty years apart. The card catalog 144 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:48.879 in three half a symbol cabinets was tucked away under 145 00:06:48.879 --> 00:06:51.360 a do not move arco's pending sign. Half the drower's 146 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.680 boxed and rubber banded type just in case, Janine told 147 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:57.040 me when I half jokingly asked if anyone used it. 148 00:06:57.759 --> 00:06:59.519 By the sound of her voice, even a just in 149 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:01.959 case was who was drawn the world, it seemed now 150 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:04.600 belonged to the barcode. But even the newest off it 151 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:07.000 tags were no match for the circulation quirks. I began 152 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:09.800 to track, always around the process of return. I made 153 00:07:09.800 --> 00:07:12.319 a habit of reading each and ticks slip, partly from boredom, 154 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:15.600 hotly out of habit. By midweek I'd found five more 155 00:07:15.639 --> 00:07:19.439 examples odd ball dates, missing years, names that sounded faintly literary, 156 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:22.000 samped in fresh blue. Every time I mentioned it to 157 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:24.399 a staffer, the anterer fell between joking and a warning 158 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:27.040 not to take library life too seriously. It was on 159 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.920 my six shift, late Friday afternoon, rain barely tapping off 160 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:32.800 the aluminum frame library, nearly ready to close, coffee just 161 00:07:32.839 --> 00:07:34.920 cooling at my elbow, that I seriously considered I was 162 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:38.480 missing something. I had by then set aside a suspiciously 163 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:41.160 tidy half stack of books under the desk. There were 164 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:42.680 more of them than I could write off as one 165 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:46.199 night prank or date entry fumble. One book and unknown 166 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.879 poetry collection Boundaries of the Inn and Sea, stitched in 167 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:53.079 matt Navy, presented a particularly neat problem its returned slip overlapping. 168 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:55.439 Another was stamped with a return date from twenty forty 169 00:07:55.439 --> 00:07:57.959 three and signed in smooth leaping ink by Sea anglo 170 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.240 at supervisor. There was no such supervisor, and in twenty 171 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:03.639 forty three at Bee well either a hundred or a 172 00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:06.360 work of fiction. Yet the ink was real. My thumb 173 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:09.879 came away faintly blue. After closing, When Jeanne was filing 174 00:08:09.879 --> 00:08:12.120 the last box of repairs, I decided to stat my 175 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:14.560 strange slips in front of her with a flourish the 176 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:18.519 janine these days slok, they're getting creative, She glanced briefly 177 00:08:18.519 --> 00:08:21.959 brow raised. Sism was a mess before their renovation. You know, 178 00:08:22.040 --> 00:08:25.160 you get used to it eventually, she said, eventually, with 179 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:27.439 a particular energy, like it wasn't really a joke, but 180 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:30.399 coded for something you either ignore or accept. At that, 181 00:08:30.519 --> 00:08:32.279 her voice floated up from the read and corner the 182 00:08:32.279 --> 00:08:35.639 retired English teacher mister Anders, who'd started coming in after 183 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:38.879 his wife passed, mostly for conversation in Thinck Dickens's novels. 184 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:41.759 You think these are odd? I remember when everything was 185 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:44.320 by hand and the book sometimes went missing for decades. 186 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.159 They always turned up again. Eventually, nobody ever explained it. 187 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:50.440 I waited for more, but he only smiled ice far away. 188 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:52.799 I took it home that first month, like a puzzle 189 00:08:52.840 --> 00:08:54.720 bit in a folder. Slip after slip that made no 190 00:08:54.759 --> 00:08:57.240 internal sense, but all seemed to belong in some small 191 00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:00.159 way to the rhythm of the place. Most anomalies in 192 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.399 life shovel under the sun of attention, mill that's misroded, 193 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:06.080 a mislabeled box, a digit scaped. These I thought would 194 00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:09.120 be the same, Yet each time I checked, reality gave 195 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:11.720 me another tiny contradiction, like a spot that moved but 196 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:15.240 could never be entirely scrubbed away. One Saturday morning, I 197 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:17.679 decided to line up every odd slip. I'd collected a dozen, 198 00:09:17.799 --> 00:09:20.600 then a baker's dozen, now almost two file folders full. 199 00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:23.399 I'd color corded them by era or whatever they seemed 200 00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:26.320 to mimick. Faded gulls with fountain pen lines, bright purple 201 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:29.200 stamps with digital print hups beneath an aerial font. The 202 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:32.200 biggest defenders bore names like y Abs or aunt Kester, 203 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:34.200 neither of whom I could find on the staff roster, 204 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:37.440 old staff photos, or even Google. Down a coffee and 205 00:09:37.480 --> 00:09:40.000 a listless attempt at Sudoku, I let my former postman's 206 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:43.080 eye for patterns take over. I double checked the staff log. 207 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:45.840 No m Kester, not even a retired version, not even 208 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:47.799 in an early staff list that mister Ray Captain has 209 00:09:47.840 --> 00:09:50.919 batted Tan Binder. I scrolled back through the digital system 210 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.440 in nothing since at least the Midmanuts one thousand, nine 211 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:58.320 hundred eighties, not even an obituary who then was stamping books. 212 00:09:58.360 --> 00:10:01.240 As recently as last month, more than one book seemed 213 00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:03.399 to collect odd slips, especially the well loved ones that 214 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:08.120 cycle FASTUS thrillers, cook books, annotated city maps. Sometimes a 215 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:10.559 cookbook returned with a slip stamp nineteen twenty one, or 216 00:10:10.600 --> 00:10:13.759 called when it was published in nineteen eighty five and 217 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.360 in a neat leaping skirt to our Franklin sobed lib. 218 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.000 The more I compare it, the more names repeated, but 219 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:21.080 with no connection to any known person in or out 220 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:24.679 of the library community. Monday, in a law I asked Paula, 221 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:26.919 who was prepping the new story Time flyer, do these 222 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.279 make sense to you? She took a casual occur an, 223 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.279 so quick as always. Ah, the children's section gets a wallace, 224 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:34.720 returns old slips mixed in with new ones. But that's 225 00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:37.000 just little kids playing and make believe. If there are more, 226 00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:40.159 maybe blamed the dad's playing library at home that didn't 227 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.039 quite fit some slip names had a way of being 228 00:10:42.039 --> 00:10:44.600 too old fashioned or too early modern for any one 229 00:10:44.639 --> 00:10:47.279 to conjure. By accident, I took to checking the old 230 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:50.480 card catalog drawer by drawer when nobody else needed something 231 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:52.960 from under the sign in ther Sea drawer. As a 232 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.240 kind of experiment, I rifled through check out cards from 233 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:58.480 the sixties four In a volume of local bird guides, 234 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:00.360 I found the yellow and slip marked in aale blue 235 00:11:00.360 --> 00:11:03.080 borrow room says est to chew one hundred eighty eight 236 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:05.240 miles with a phone number too short to be modern, 237 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:08.200 stamped up behind in nineteen ninety one, two thousand nine, 238 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:12.080 and then oddly twenty twenty seven one hundred eighty eight 239 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:15.759 wells didn't exist in city directories before the seventies. Near 240 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:19.000 By another card boris surname that belonged unmistakably to a 241 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.960 famous but fictional film character, borrowed in nineteen eighty four 242 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:24.960 and again in twenty nineteen. There were cards with addresses 243 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:27.440 that came and went as houses did, sometimes jump into 244 00:11:27.559 --> 00:11:30.159 or three digits, as if the city itself were stuttling 245 00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:33.240 around the libraryes or a memory. Out of ply frustration, 246 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:36.240 I put the matter to Groupershell volunteers, the junior high 247 00:11:36.279 --> 00:11:38.480 kid helping for service credit, the grandparent who ran the 248 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:41.000 quiet reading hour, an accountant turned novelist who was prone 249 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:44.120 alarm pauses. Is there a secret to these lips? Or 250 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.840 am I missing? And in joke? The responses ranged from 251 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.679 shoulder shrugs, wow, they always had issues tracking the branches 252 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:51.639 after the merger, to more cryptic ones of Some books 253 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:54.360 get bored if left too long, said the novelist, entirely 254 00:11:54.399 --> 00:11:58.080 straight faced. But the contradiction refused to settle into something simple. 255 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:01.120 When I checked the physical copis of high circulation books, 256 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.000 I found that somewhere living documents. Each week, pencil notes 257 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:06.399 in the margins would change erased clean, only for new 258 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:09.440 ones to appear. In one case a paragraph about pancakes, 259 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:11.639 or place last week's comment about fried rice in the 260 00:12:11.639 --> 00:12:15.080 same wobb we hand, but but different advice. Sometimes a 261 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:18.159 returned slip would be pasted over another dates overlapping, as 262 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.519 if both histories wanted to be present. But light a paper. 263 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:24.120 That afternoon, mister Ray was in a catalog room fixing 264 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:27.000 a stuck drawer with a brass ruler. I asked half 265 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:29.080 as a joke, you ever seen a return slip that 266 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.200 didn't believe in time. He set the ruler down, adjusted 267 00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:34.720 his wire framed glasses at his beard, and said, some 268 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:37.200 books have a mind of their own. Back before the computers, 269 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:40.840 there were always wandering, reckless names, that drifted addresses nobody'd 270 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:42.759 heard of, saw a book returned before it was even 271 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:44.840 bought more than once. There is a reason we keep 272 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:48.240 the backup files. Don't you think it's odd? He smiled, 273 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.720 an old man's privilege to be amused rather than disturbed 274 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:53.799 by small violations of order. Worry about the ones that 275 00:12:53.919 --> 00:12:56.399 never come back. The rest, well, they find their place again, 276 00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:59.360 or you do after a while. There was something deeply 277 00:12:59.399 --> 00:13:02.720 comforting in and how nobody seemed particularly bothered. Maybe the 278 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:05.320 very point of a library wasn't just a fixed memory, 279 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:07.559 but to allow a little drift, a bit of shared myth. 280 00:13:08.080 --> 00:13:10.360 By the end of the month, my curiosity had gone 281 00:13:10.360 --> 00:13:13.360 from idle to methodical. I kept a special folder under 282 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:16.279 the intic desk, anomaly sit stone file, with every card 283 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:18.759 and oddity annotated, and pen a new kind of postal bag, 284 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.720 sorted by mystery. Rather than address. One rainy evening, walking 285 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:24.919 through the book repay room, I discovered the Boundaries of 286 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.600 the Inn Sea Poetry Mythology again. This time the final 287 00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:31.159 page which had been missing was back in place, complete 288 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.759 with a return slip from twenty thirty three Gluton sideways 289 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:37.080 on the in papers, some one had lightly penciled two verses, 290 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.399 only for them to vanish three days later, with new 291 00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:41.360 notes feathered in as if the book had been taken 292 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:44.840 apart under built. Every night I began systematic and persons. 293 00:13:45.559 --> 00:13:47.639 I'd pull the same book in two different branches, one 294 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:51.360 from children's, one from adult fiction, and the annotations sometimes matched, 295 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:54.279 sometimes didn't, but the slips always offer different names in 296 00:13:54.279 --> 00:13:57.960 impossible gaps in chronology. On one especially odd Monday, I 297 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:00.279 check out a children's biography that a co ding to 298 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:02.519 its return slip had been borrowed and brought back by 299 00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:05.279 the same tea Evans five times in nineteen sixty five, 300 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.960 nineteen seventy two, nineteen ninety eight, and twenty twenty four. 301 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:13.120 Each signature matched their tea with an exaggerated loop. I 302 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:15.600 was now sure these weren't isolated clerical fumbles or the 303 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:18.240 work of a single prankster. The error, if it was 304 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:20.919 an error, conducted itself like a slow moving river, always 305 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:24.799 rearranging its own banks, never bothering to apologize. But perhaps 306 00:14:24.840 --> 00:14:27.200 the biggest shift came in realizing that while the paper 307 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:30.320 told one story, the people told three or four. Whenever 308 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:32.919 I'd asked, Janine should say half the card catalog is 309 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:36.240 fiction anyway. Yet mister Ray would defend the book's provements, 310 00:14:36.279 --> 00:14:40.440 Paul would jerk about imagination. The only consistent thing was inconsistency. 311 00:14:41.080 --> 00:14:43.720 I decided to put it to the test. Whenever I 312 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:46.440 double checked the book's records covers of circulation logs from 313 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:50.519 the nineteen eighties onward, the difference is multiplied. Sometimes according 314 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:52.720 to the lock. The same individual borrowed a book every 315 00:14:52.720 --> 00:14:55.879 ten years, identical signature, never once in notice of a 316 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:59.799 deceased or moved away, in convenient as it was. Sometimes 317 00:14:59.799 --> 00:15:02.039 the the same title contained a history in flux, or 318 00:15:02.039 --> 00:15:04.879 a row of borrowings that disappeared, then returned, sometimes with 319 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:08.399 the dates reordered, sometimes with a retroactive overdue warning. If 320 00:15:08.440 --> 00:15:10.879 the physical prediction of reality was the paper slip, the 321 00:15:10.919 --> 00:15:13.440 reality in this building was a ghost humming through the wires, 322 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.919 the stacks, and the community memory. I think the turning 323 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:18.960 point for me was in a conversation with mister Ray. 324 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:22.399 Just before closing on a windy Thursday, we were inspecting 325 00:15:22.440 --> 00:15:25.000 a trolley full of recent returns and sharing stories over 326 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:28.559 instant coffee. I rituel now established between us. Maybe the 327 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:30.639 books don't care as much about what's true as we do. 328 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:34.159 I offered, it was only half a joke. He laughed, 329 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:37.279 slow and soft. Some books never quite decide who they've 330 00:15:37.320 --> 00:15:40.519 belonged to or when. Sometimes I think they are just 331 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:42.799 as careful as we are, writing themselves till they like 332 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:45.159 what they see. That stayed with me. I took to 333 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:47.840 watching each evening for changes that, though only appeared when 334 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:51.240 the building was full, busy readers, shifting groups, splacards rattling 335 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:54.759 like nervous ghosts. Occasionally a book there seen stubborn about 336 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:56.960 its slip or annetition, would revert to something I'd never 337 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.759 seen before, matching a story A just overheard from a patron, 338 00:15:59.799 --> 00:16:02.279 tall looking at a table. It was difficult not to 339 00:16:02.320 --> 00:16:05.240 wonder if we were all unconsciously tuning the record together, 340 00:16:05.360 --> 00:16:07.679 letting the facts float a little, shifting the stones. Because 341 00:16:07.720 --> 00:16:10.240 everyone remembered the river is a bit wider, or shallower, 342 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:14.279 or farther east. A possibility startled me. If what mattered 343 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:16.399 in a library was less what truly happened than what 344 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:19.639 was convincingly remembered, than even chaos had his place. The 345 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:22.080 contradiction was no longer just in the cards, but in 346 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:23.879 a kind of collective a need to come invention. No 347 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:26.279 single slip or nay more annotation could be counted unto 348 00:16:26.279 --> 00:16:29.440 stay the facts, and the librarians were always writing or 349 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:32.799 counted as a record. Late one afternoon, after a long 350 00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:35.840 shuffle reshelving biographies, mister Ray caught me eyeing the sub 351 00:16:35.879 --> 00:16:38.399 basement door, where old inventory was kept and rumors of 352 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.639 lost ledges abounded. If you really want to see library 353 00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:44.720 times behaving, he said, voice pitched for mischief, try the 354 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:47.840 basement archouve. Sometimes boxes will lie about what's inside. We 355 00:16:47.960 --> 00:16:50.720 keep a list just in case. With a wink, he 356 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:53.759 handed me a battered access key, metal scar from dozens 357 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:56.919 of hands invitation and dare in one. I waited until 358 00:16:56.960 --> 00:16:59.600 the next slow morning rain, feathering the glass, and asked 359 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:02.120 Janine if she needed anything brought up from below old reference. 360 00:17:02.200 --> 00:17:06.000 Perhaps she barely glanced up. If you find an original 361 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:09.000 French dictionary, that's mine. Otherwise, don't let the boxes multiply 362 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:11.960 on you. The basement was as I'd expected, pickled light, 363 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:14.319 aisles of label dust with the kush of things waiting 364 00:17:14.319 --> 00:17:18.400 for rediscovery. Boxes sat in pyramids, stacks organized by someone 365 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:20.519 whom we either trusted in chaos were no longer believed 366 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:24.519 in numbers at all. Newspapers half bound in twine microvumbriels, 367 00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:28.279 the odd vhsque set walls of abandoned computer pots. In 368 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:31.400 one corner, under a fireproof blanket was an unlabeled box 369 00:17:31.440 --> 00:17:35.279 marked in black pen do not shelve reference inside three books, 370 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:38.279 one children's at this cartoon style, a batter of French cookbook, 371 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:41.480 and an illustrated almanac, each with a touched and slit 372 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.839 each stamp for years far in the future twenty eighty 373 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:46.000 nine for the cookbok, full of recipes that, as far 374 00:17:46.039 --> 00:17:48.400 as I could tell, required ingredients not sold in any 375 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.759 market now twenty ninety six. For the almanac. The slup's 376 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:55.839 name knew never seen librarians s choudhurry a greeves with 377 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.519 initials typed and then crossed out, replaced by fresh call 378 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:01.720 on closer inspect small edits to These slips had a 379 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:03.960 paid since they were packed in an added return date, 380 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:07.200 a margin note about special shelving. Sequent I turned to 381 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:11.119 the books themselves. Their annotations didn't match the shelf coppers upstairs. 382 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:14.039 One outside notes in careful French. Another contained a recipe 383 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:16.960 for a nutritional gel Peelanto Bay Cp. Forty nine, which 384 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:20.160 did not exist in any other version. The Almanac included 385 00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:22.279 a description of a city festival that, as far as 386 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:24.960 I recall, was never held. I pulled my phone to 387 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:28.119 check nothing in city histories, not in mister rais carefully 388 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:30.759 and ex festival list. With a box in hand and 389 00:18:30.839 --> 00:18:33.839 a rising sense of gentle delighted disorientation, I brought it 390 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:36.960 upstairs for review. When I showed Janine and mister Ray, 391 00:18:37.079 --> 00:18:40.519 they shared a sharp look, more curious than alarmed. Together 392 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.319 we decided to test the special shelving secrets suggested by 393 00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:45.759 the slits shelving. The future dated cookook in different places 394 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.519 in the reference section, making notes as we went for 395 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:51.680 one brief hour. Nearby reference books began to update themselves. 396 00:18:51.759 --> 00:18:53.920 The City Almanac gained a brand new ol entry for 397 00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:56.759 a festival of adaptive lanterns, then reverted by closing time 398 00:18:56.759 --> 00:18:59.759 to a standard winter calendar. The French Cuok gained, then 399 00:18:59.799 --> 00:19:02.680 Lows lost a set of annotated vegan recipes twice over 400 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:06.039 depending on wharen When we shelved the anomaly book, it 401 00:19:06.079 --> 00:19:08.559