WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.519 Hollo, I moalcan stories all the time, Glad you are here, 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:10.039 Let's get into it. 3 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:14.960 The storage room always smelled like chalk dust and mildewed cardboard, 4 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:18.160 the clowing tang of old paper adding a ghostly note 5 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:21.679 to the first week back. I liked it, the routine 6 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:25.600 of it, the feeling of tangibility amid lesson plans and emails. 7 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:29.120 This was my third August as a math teacher at 8 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.399 Renfield High, and I'd learned to see these supply runs 9 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:37.280 as a gentle opening to the semester. Practicing names out loud, 10 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:41.679 stacking algebra and geometry textbooks by the door, piecing together 11 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:45.359 who'd asked to help Clara this year gave summer its 12 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:49.439 clothes and the school its pulse. That morning, I was alone, 13 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:52.159 the building as empty and echoing as it ever got. 14 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:55.880 I hauled a cart loaded with the battered purple geometry books, 15 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:59.159 trying to winnow out the worst for recycling. The covers 16 00:00:59.200 --> 00:01:02.960 sported a fade did compass design, but inside each bore 17 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:07.760 a different student's handwriting, doodles, elaborate equations explained to no one, 18 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.959 even song lyrics in the margins. It felt almost intrusive. 19 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:18.439 Flipping through them, but practical necessity overruled sensitivity. Sorting for damage. 20 00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:21.920 I started skimming the books in quick succession, a habitual 21 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.519 check for missing sections. I'd long ago learned to expect 22 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:30.040 absent pages, torn scribbled lost to time by over zealous 23 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:33.879 note taking or nervous test takers. But something odd caught 24 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:39.120 my eye. No, genuinely strange, because it kept happening book 25 00:01:39.159 --> 00:01:42.079 after book. The numbering leapt from page forty six to 26 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:45.920 forty eight. The content followed suit a proof about a 27 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:50.040 parallelogram on page forty six, an exercise about circle tangents 28 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:53.560 on forty eight, nothing in between. It wasn't a tear 29 00:01:53.879 --> 00:01:57.200 or a page folded in on itself. I checked, pinching 30 00:01:57.239 --> 00:01:59.920 the gap with my thumb, running my finger along the 31 00:01:59.879 --> 00:02:04.799 faintly frayed edges. There was simply nothing In another I 32 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:08.520 traced the page numbers along the bottom corner. The sequence 33 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:11.919 was neat and formal, but the forty seven had vanished, 34 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:15.439 as if skipped by the printer itself or erased by 35 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:19.400 some silent editor. I fished out an algebra text at 36 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:22.199 random from another pile and opened to the problem set 37 00:02:22.199 --> 00:02:25.680 at the back. A hundred problems numbered in tight columns, 38 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:29.960 neatly blandly one to forty six. The next line forty eight. 39 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.159 No explanation, not even a misaligned number. I scanned the rest. 40 00:02:34.400 --> 00:02:37.599 Was it tucked at the end? Rewritten as a bonus problem? 41 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:41.080 It was nowhere. It felt almost comical, But my amusement 42 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:46.840 faltered as I checked others, different years, different textbooks, even publishers. 43 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:50.719 Each one leapt over forty seven without hesitation, making me 44 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:53.159 wonder if I'd simply missed a memo, or if some 45 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.919 mysterious page culling policy was at work in textbook production. 46 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:01.039 Could it be a prank, a local tradition, a superstition. 47 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:05.000 One or two is a coincidence, sure, but every text 48 00:03:05.039 --> 00:03:09.000 in every stack. The school's custodian Mark poked his head 49 00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:11.479 in to remind me which crates went to which class rooms. 50 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:14.360 His face wore the unfazed patience of some one used 51 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:17.280 to frantic teachers. I nearly asked him. I think I 52 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:20.439 even opened my mouth, but stopped myself. Who stops to 53 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.759 talk about missing page numbers? Maybe? I reasoned it was 54 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:26.080 a batch miss print, and I just hadn't noticed in 55 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:29.599 prior years. Still, as I packed the neat stacks onto 56 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:34.120 the trolley. A small, persistent itch remained, Why page forty seven? 57 00:03:35.159 --> 00:03:38.400 Had any student ever asked about it? Had I myself 58 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:41.719 ever wondered until now? I told myself I'd bring it 59 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:46.080 up when some one else noticed if they did. Before leaving, 60 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:49.560 I thumbed open my pocket notebook and wrote page forty seven, 61 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:53.000 missing the question mark seemed necessary, but so did the 62 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:56.240 double underling. I felt a gentle oddness settle over me, 63 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:59.199 as if the absence itself were already carrying more weight 64 00:03:59.280 --> 00:04:02.319 than it ought. It was almost wistful, that sense of 65 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:06.000 something overlooked. Quietly, I shut the cabinet and went a 66 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:08.680 prep for the next task. But the question sat with 67 00:04:08.759 --> 00:04:11.639 me all day, laced into the air like chalk dust. 68 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:16.160 Renfield High School sits on the unassuming curve of Main Street, 69 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:20.040 the town's only real thoroughfare. The school is an odd 70 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:23.839 patchwork red brick from the fifties, giving way to a pale, 71 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:27.639 glassy annex built on a modest budget three years before 72 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:31.240 I arrived. I'd grown up in a city, so the 73 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:36.319 abundance of small, interconnected spaces, the trophy cases, the glass 74 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:40.560 doored side offices, the banners over every entryway struck me 75 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:43.800 as faintly enchanted, as if every part of the school 76 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:47.839 remembered every face that had ever passed through. People in 77 00:04:47.920 --> 00:04:50.759 Renfield loved their past. You could pick up the faint 78 00:04:50.800 --> 00:04:53.319 flavor of it, even in the staff lounge, with its 79 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:56.560 old linoleum and the battered microwave someone had draped in 80 00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:01.120 wild Cat's pride stickers. The display of state champion photos 81 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:04.040 wound its way along the main hall, looping back half 82 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:07.680 a century. Principal Sanders made it his mission that every 83 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:11.319 returning teacher got a Renfield Year one voter with a faculty, 84 00:05:11.720 --> 00:05:16.160 a tradition that now included me three years running. I 85 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:20.120 always felt like the tentative outsider, my city vowels still 86 00:05:20.160 --> 00:05:23.480 peeking out sometimes, but I was getting better at reading 87 00:05:23.519 --> 00:05:28.040 the local codes. Class prep days blurred together, a medley 88 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:32.800 of unlocking cabinets, organizing seating charts, and reviewing lesson plans, 89 00:05:33.120 --> 00:05:37.360 sometimes obsessively. The high school wasn't huge, and a four 90 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:41.040 hundred students a staff that felt more like extended family 91 00:05:41.120 --> 00:05:44.720 than colleagues. The same names showed up on locker assignments 92 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:47.800 and new club sign up sheets year after year, just 93 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:51.639 with different spellings. Or hair cuts. I'd been warned by 94 00:05:51.639 --> 00:05:55.199 more than one teacher not to reinvent the assigned locker system, 95 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:00.079 use both odds and evens, but checked the master list twice. 96 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:03.199 No one explained why, but they looked amused as they 97 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:06.959 said it. My closest friend at school was mister Holloway, 98 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.920 the history teacher, the sort who might break up a 99 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.720 staff meeting with a folk story or a quote no 100 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:16.480 one quite remembered. He showed a fearless affection for old 101 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:19.759 books and small oddities, and had an almost impish way 102 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:23.680 of pushing conversation into strange territory, but always with a 103 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:28.160 gentle smile. And then there was Principal Sanders, whose laugh 104 00:06:28.199 --> 00:06:31.560 seemed to settle disputes long before they began. And Clara, 105 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:36.439 newly minted senior, self proclaimed math nerd and my student 106 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:40.439 assistant for all things logistical. Clara had a habit of 107 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:43.720 noticing tiny details, of making me see the place in 108 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:47.879 sharper relief. I'd gotten into the practice of jotting oddities, 109 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:51.600 math quirks, back of the envelope ideas in a slim 110 00:06:51.639 --> 00:06:54.399 note book I kept zipped in my jacket. Some never 111 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:58.519 made it past a line zero's weird status neither negative 112 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.160 nor positive. Any ways, can one arrange a set of keys? 113 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:06.560 Sometimes between the lesson plans and supply orders. It felt 114 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:10.480 like the only space that was truly mine that evening, 115 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:13.040 with most prep done and the halls empty save for 116 00:07:13.079 --> 00:07:15.720 the echo of a few janitors, I noticed something else. 117 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.040 The school's address, both the main building and the annex 118 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:22.639 listed forty six Main Street. The next property on the street, 119 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:26.120 the fire station, was forty eight Main. I could see 120 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.360 it on the faded mail box numbers as I left. 121 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:31.199 There was no sign of a missing lot or collapsed 122 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:34.920 property between them, just an invisible gap, like a quiet 123 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:38.920 breath held mid sentence. It probably seems strange that all 124 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:41.399 this didn't strike me as more than a mild curiosity 125 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:45.879 at first. In places like Renfield, tradition hides everywhere in 126 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:48.639 how you say good morning, in which lockers get which numbers, 127 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:52.000 in the arrangement of yearbook photos. I'd come to expect 128 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:55.920 arbitrary little blips folded into the fabric of things. Still, 129 00:07:56.040 --> 00:07:58.600 I made a quick note in my book forty six 130 00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:02.879 right arrow forty eight may nothing in between locker assignments 131 00:08:03.199 --> 00:08:08.439 run checks versus master list. My handwriting felt uncertain even 132 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:11.079 as I wrote it, as if the gaps carried their 133 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:16.319 own silence. The routine swept me along, prepping the welcomes slide, show, 134 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:20.959 printing rosters, labeling text books for class room distribution. The 135 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.759 anomaly nagged at me, but it was easy in the 136 00:08:23.800 --> 00:08:26.920 swirl of preparations to set aside the question of a 137 00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:31.839 skipped number. Children, after all, took comfort in consistent patterns. 138 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:35.799 Traditions of omission weren't out of the ordinary, just unremarked. 139 00:08:36.840 --> 00:08:39.759 The first day of class dawned with warehouse gray skies 140 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:43.840 and croaking lawns sprinklers. I carried the newly sortied books 141 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.720 into Freshman Geometry, enjoying the noise and small chaos of 142 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:51.919 opening moments. There was chatter about coarse schedules, about which 143 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:55.799 teachers gave too much homework, and discussion over which elective 144 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:59.440 classes held the most promise of air conditioning and snacks. 145 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:03.559 Clara had already claimed her seat by my filing cabinet, 146 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:06.000 grinning at me over the top of the text book 147 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:10.639 stack she helped distribute. I went through my standard introduction 148 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:14.240 few rules, a loosely delivered outline of what we'd cover 149 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:19.000 this year, hinting, possibly untruthfully, that Euclidean proofs could be fun. 150 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:23.720 The morning lesson was basic types of triangles, how to 151 00:09:23.799 --> 00:09:27.480 measure angles, the predictability of theorems as a comfort, not 152 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.200 a threat. When it was time to assign reading, I 153 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.879 thumbed open my instructor's text and called out, please read 154 00:09:34.919 --> 00:09:37.639 the first section on page forty seven to night and 155 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:42.919 do problems seven through twelve. I expected the usual quiet groan, 156 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.399 the ritual complaint about home work, but instead there was 157 00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:51.120 only bafflement and a slow rustling of paper miss read. 158 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:55.000 A lanky boy up front Ethan raised his hand, holding 159 00:09:55.039 --> 00:09:58.879 out his book and blinking. I stepped over, thinking it'd 160 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:01.000 be a simple matter of point nting out the page. 161 00:10:01.360 --> 00:10:03.679 But as I flipped through his book I realized he 162 00:10:03.799 --> 00:10:08.480 was right. Page forty seven simply wasn't there. Exasperation flared, 163 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:11.320 did every book have a misprinted spine? But as I 164 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:14.639 checked two more than three, then four, the truth refused 165 00:10:14.639 --> 00:10:18.399 to budge. Each volume skipped right from forty six to 166 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:21.399 forty eight, no missing sheets, just a clean leap, as 167 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:24.919 if the number had never existed. A low ripple of 168 00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:28.799 interest moved through the class Clara, always quick, took out 169 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:32.919 her own well thumbed copy checked, then announced mine skips two. 170 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:36.240 Did we get a bad batch or she trailed off, 171 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:40.639 her skeptical face softened by amusement. I told the class 172 00:10:40.679 --> 00:10:42.919 we postponed the reading and tried to make a joke 173 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.879 of it. Well, looks like forty seven is on vacation. 174 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.000 But the strangeness hung in the air, as if the 175 00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:52.960 room itself paused the rest of class. I assigned page 176 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:57.000 forty six instead and made a mental note ask Sanders 177 00:10:57.080 --> 00:11:00.000 ask someone get a new set of textbooks if needed. 178 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:03.559 After the bell, I went directly to the main office 179 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:06.399 to check the master locker assignment sheet, since a few 180 00:11:06.440 --> 00:11:10.360 returning students had requested changes. The list, hand typed and 181 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:13.480 yellowed by decades in a frame on Sanders's wall, ran 182 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:17.679 in ascending order locker forty four, forty five, forty six, 183 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:21.039 forty eight, forty nine, where forty seven ought to have been. 184 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:24.360 A faint crease in the paper suggested something was once there, 185 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:28.399 or perhaps folded over long ago. I asked Sanders about 186 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:31.559 it as neutrally as I could. He looked up from 187 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:35.720 his laptop, brushing a crumb from his tie locker forty seven. 188 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:38.399 And that's just how it's always been. Feels like the 189 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:42.720 even ones go up one side, odds on the other. Well, except, ah, damn, 190 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:46.000 I guess we skip forty seven. Funny, isn't it? He 191 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:49.559 offered a well practiced half smile. Never thought much about it, 192 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:53.240 No one as ever wanted it. There was a moment 193 00:11:53.279 --> 00:11:56.840 of hesitation before I pressed further. Was there ever a 194 00:11:56.840 --> 00:12:00.399 locker forty seven? Did we remove one? Reb builled the 195 00:12:00.440 --> 00:12:06.679 hallway renumber after renovations? He shrugged, already distracted, not that 196 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:09.879 I know of. I'll ask Mark, but that's just the system. 197 00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:14.120 Don't lose sleep over it. Sometimes things stick for no reason. 198 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:17.440 He moved on to another tab on his computer screen, 199 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:22.200 dismissing my question as minor static. I found excuses the 200 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:24.080 rest of the day to look for the missing number. 201 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:26.679 Passing by the gym on the way to my car, 202 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:30.200 I stopped at the team photo board featuring decades of 203 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:35.639 Renfield Wildcats. Every picture every season, jerseys celebrated numbers in 204 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:39.120 gleaming white, from one to fifty. There was number forty six. 205 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:42.639 Knees flung wide, number forty eight with a knowing grin. 206 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.639 Team mates crowding the sidelines in a riot of posed exuberance. 207 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:50.559 But nowhere in the past half century of winning teams 208 00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:54.559 did any one boast the number forty seven. No one 209 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:58.120 marked the omission, no winks, no comments in the captions. 210 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.639 I waited, expecting my eyes to play tricks, but it 211 00:13:01.720 --> 00:13:04.720 remained a blank space among a riot of easy order. 212 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:09.360 I felt almost silly, but also stubbornly delighted. Here was 213 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:13.080 a puzzle I hadn't spotted before, blending invisibly into the 214 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:17.399 fabric of routine. Later in the faculty lounge, I off 215 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.320 handedly mentioned my findings to mister Holloway, expecting a story 216 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:25.759 or theory. Instead, he just laughed, numbers are arbitrary. Read 217 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:28.840 maybe the custodians had a run in with locker forty 218 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:32.559 seven and decided not to risk it. His grin softened 219 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:36.240 the possible jab. Back in the forties, Renfield used to 220 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:39.559 have a post office box numbered. That's the real scandal. 221 00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:42.879 He had a way of bringing each conversation back to 222 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:48.240 a place both playful and evasive, an expert in redirecting curiosity. 223 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:52.960 The day wound down with its usual rituals department meetings, 224 00:13:53.159 --> 00:13:56.679 A busque of seniors returning for staff orientation, and a 225 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:00.159 stream of good natured teasing over lesson plan quirks. But 226 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:03.200 the question of forty seven seated itself in my thoughts. 227 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:06.039 By the time I was packing up. I resolved for 228 00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.080 the first time to track it with more than my 229 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:12.200 note book. Something I told myself would explain the phenomenon 230 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:19.039 printing error, eccentric tradition, a forgotten renovation. Patterns always pointed somewhere, 231 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:23.320 even if only to accidental history. And yet no matter 232 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:26.279 where I looked in the school text books, lockers, team 233 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:30.600 photos lists, the number stayed absent. Its non existence so 234 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:35.120 routinized that even the practical people dismissed its absence as uninteresting. 235 00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:38.480 For a town so anchored in its own memory, there 236 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:43.159 wasn't even a shared story. My curiosity wasn't satisfied. It 237 00:14:43.240 --> 00:14:46.759 was just taking route. I spent that night tracking the 238 00:14:46.840 --> 00:14:51.080 days observations into neat columns in my notebook, as methodical 239 00:14:51.120 --> 00:14:53.799 as I could be. It started as a list of 240 00:14:53.919 --> 00:15:00.360 riddles and reasons. Textbooks all no page forty seven. Locker 241 00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:05.120 assignments skip from forty six to forty eight. Football and 242 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:11.080 basketball jerseys forty six forty eight never forty seven, school 243 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:16.039 address forty six, mainsent fire house forty eight. No one 244 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.960 seems to remember why. By morning, the list had grown. 245 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:23.080 I'd called up my freshman geometry lesson plans from the 246 00:15:23.159 --> 00:15:26.600 year before, scrolling for any mention of problem forty seven. 247 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:31.919 But everywhere I checked, files, sample quizzes, even handwritten notes, 248 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:35.559 I'd never used that number. My class examples jumped from 249 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:38.799 forty six to forty eight, as if I'd unconsciously followed 250 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:42.600 the same pattern without noticing. I found this both embarrassing 251 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:46.279 and weirdly funny. Could I too have been quietly groomed 252 00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:47.080 into the omission? 253 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:48.600 That day? 254 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:51.919 I resolved to test the boundaries During fourth period, I 255 00:15:51.960 --> 00:15:54.080 asked the class to play a simple number game on 256 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:58.120 the whiteboard, a chain response round robin, writing each number 257 00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:01.639 in sequence between forty and fifty. I moved with deliberate 258 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.919 care as I wrote forty four, forty five, forty six, 259 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:07.879 and then my marker dried half way through the loop 260 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.240 in the seven. I shook it, tried once more, a 261 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:15.960 broken line trailed off to nothing. Clara called out, misreed, 262 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:19.320 the marker's dead. She laughed at my face, then waved 263 00:16:19.320 --> 00:16:22.559 a back up in the air, I switched colors, but now, 264 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.120 in my mild distraction, i'd moved ahead forty eight forty 265 00:16:26.200 --> 00:16:31.639 nine onward. I felt frustrated, then slightly ridiculous. Later at 266 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:35.600 the chalkboard, I attempted again, more covertly, but my hands 267 00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:38.200 were powdery, and the chalk snapped in two. At the 268 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.600 tail of the four. The intercom buzzed for a fire drill, 269 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:44.919 just as I was about to try again. Each interruption 270 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:49.519 was small, perfectly plausible as coincidence, but together they felt 271 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:53.600 like layers in a joke only I noticed. During club hour, 272 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:56.399 I asked Clara to color deck of numbered flash cards 273 00:16:56.679 --> 00:16:59.919 one through one hundred to check for missing or duplicate cards. 274 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:03.519 She sorted in patient silence, finally tapping the sequence with 275 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:06.920 her finger. A forty sevens not here deck must have 276 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:10.000 been misprinted. Should I sharpy one up? The matter seemed 277 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:14.519 close to her. Ethan hovering near by shrugged. Manufacturing error 278 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:18.960 probably happens in card lots. No one else noticed or cared. 279 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:21.960 It was tempting to view the pattern as a trick 280 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:26.039 of selection bias, but my search acquired momentum. In the 281 00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:29.400 main office, I picked up the school's foone directory sheet, 282 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:34.200 the four digit extensions ran up neatly forty four, forty five, 283 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:38.519 forty six, forty eight, forty nine, no. Forty seven. The 284 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:42.880 mail room bins followed the same order. Even in the library, 285 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.200 browsing the dewy decimal breakdowns, the catalog cards leapt over 286 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.920 call number forty seven, with spine labels reflecting the same 287 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:56.319 leap psalm books, biographies, math texts always forty six, forty eight. 288 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.680 I made my way into the drowsy corner of the library, 289 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.400 where mister Holloway had staked out the arm chair. When 290 00:18:02.440 --> 00:18:05.200 I floated my question to him again, the peculiar gap, 291 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:08.960 the lack of explanation, he offered a breezy quip, Well, 292 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:12.640 you know, every institution has its quirks. Some old janetor 293 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:15.559 probably lost the stencil in seventy eight and it stuck. 294 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.519 I pressed gently, but he simply shook his head. There's 295 00:18:19.559 --> 00:18:22.359 always a first for everything. But I don't recall any 296 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:26.559 one here losing sleep over a number. That evening, bracing 297 00:18:26.599 --> 00:18:29.119 after a long day, I took a walking tour of 298 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:33.519 Main Street, my mind idly registering mailbox addresses and painted 299 00:18:33.559 --> 00:18:37.359 street numbers on curbs. The sequence ran up as before 300 00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:41.759 forty four, forty five, forty six, and two short driveways 301 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:46.519 later forty eight forty nine. Between forty six and forty eight, 302 00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.440 just a pea gravel path leading nowhere in particular, not 303 00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:53.759 a vacant lot, not the ghost of a foundation, Just 304 00:18:53.799 --> 00:18:57.400 a dogwood tree and some roving hydranger, as if nothing 305 00:18:57.440 --> 00:19:00.920 had ever been there at all. I stopped an elderly 306 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:04.000 neighbor watering his lawn in front of number forty six 307 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:07.839 and introduced myself. Has there ever been a forty seven 308 00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:11.599 on this street? I asked lightly. He blinked at me, 309 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:13.920 then wiped his brow with the back of his hand. 310 00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:17.000 Not since I can remember, and I've lived here my 311 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:20.160 whole life. Closest thing might have been an old chicken 312 00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:23.519 coop about where that Forsythia is, back in the forties. 313 00:19:23.799 --> 00:19:26.400 But it didn't have a number. He waved away the 314 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:29.440 question as if it were an idle insect. There's only 315 00:19:29.480 --> 00:19:32.079 so much you can do with numbers, he said, and 316 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:36.680 sometimes you just do what works. The answer seemed so ordinary, 317 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:39.839 so blandly practical, it was hard to know how to press. 318 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:43.160 I thanked him, made a note local memory. Never a 319 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:46.079 forty seven on Maine. I thought of the near by 320 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:49.920 township whose football teams we played every season. I'd never 321 00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:52.839 heard any one talk about their numbers, but I remembered 322 00:19:52.880 --> 00:19:56.440 now seeing a wide, comfortable forty seven stamped on their 323 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:01.119 away jerseys. There the number was just a number. Back home, 324 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.319 I started a digital record, making a spreadsheet to log 325 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:07.759 each physical instance where forty seven was missing, and every 326 00:20:07.799 --> 00:20:12.119 attempted explanation. Oddly, the oddest thing happened each time I 327 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:16.319 saved the file. Something glitched, an error message, a corrupted cell, 328 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:20.279 a blank line. Once the file vanished altogether after a 329 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:23.720 system update, I tried again, this time saving to a 330 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:27.119 flash drive. The entries for forty seven would appear as 331 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:31.400 symbols or gibberish. When I reopened it at school that night, 332 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.640 closing my note book, a small gasp of wonder overtook 333 00:20:34.680 --> 00:20:38.039 my frustration. This was no longer a simple error or 334 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:42.440 forgetful town superstition. It was something larger. Wherever I looked, 335 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:46.799 forty seven wasn't just missing. It was systemically, almost invisibly, 336 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:50.079 absented from every layer of life at Renfield High and 337 00:20:50.160 --> 00:20:53.599 maybe in the town at large. The next day, instead 338 00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:56.680 of lesson planning, I resolved to trace the gap formerly 339 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.480 to see where boundary ended. An explanation might possibly begin. 340 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:04.960 At this point, my thinking shifted. The theory of bad 341 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:08.359 batches and misprints failed to explain the sheer ubiquity of 342 00:21:08.359 --> 00:21:12.279 the gap. The town, the school, These people. I couldn't 343 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:15.599 imagine they'd co ordinate such a seamless omission for so long, 344 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.759 Nor could I find evidence of a single event or 345 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:21.880 superstition that might support the pattern. It was more like 346 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:26.079 a mild blindness, something embedded so deeply in daily life 347 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:30.799 that it simply didn't register unless explicitly pointed out. My 348 00:21:30.880 --> 00:21:34.680 next test was impulsive. In a teacher's meeting, I stood 349 00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:37.640 next to Principal Sanders by the coffee urn and asked, 350 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:40.599 as casually as I could, could you help me with 351 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:43.680 a counting game for my geometry kids. Call out the 352 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:48.519 numbers between forty five and forty nine slowly. He obliged 353 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:52.960 with amused patience. Forty five, forty six, forty eight, forty nine. 354 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.039 I let the mistakes settle, offered only a raised eyebrow. 355 00:21:58.039 --> 00:22:01.680 He frowned, then laughed, as if catching himself. Oh did 356 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:04.759 I miss one? Sorry, I guess my mind skipped ahead. 357 00:22:05.319 --> 00:22:08.960 He added nothing further, returning to his clipboard. Convinced of 358 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:13.359 no deeper pattern, I doubled down on my experiment at 359 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:16.400 the copier. I created a math test featuring a problem 360 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:21.000 forty seven, a simple problem, nothing unusual. Every time I 361 00:22:21.079 --> 00:22:24.640 tried to print, the printer jammed on that page, producing 362 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:27.720 a clean print for every other problem with forty seven 363 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:30.880 absent or the page blank. It grew harder to see 364 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:34.359 this as accident. There was reluctance even from the machines. 365 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.839 That afternoon, in a rare moment between classes, I sat 366 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:41.319 in the sunlit alcove off Sea Hall to prepare to 367 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:45.640 morrow's lesson. Clara, dropping off extra markers, caught sight of 368 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:48.480 my scatter of papers. Why do you care so much 369 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.519 about that number is read? She asked, direct As ever, 370 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:56.720 it's just a glitch everywhere you look, right, I hesitated, 371 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.559 then set down my pen. It's odd, isn't it. In 372 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:04.000 the next town, forty seven's just another number. But here 373 00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:07.039 no one uses it, not in books, not in lockers, 374 00:23:07.079 --> 00:23:10.920 not on the street. It's like there's a hole, she shrugged. 375 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:15.200 Maybe it's like other towns skipping thirteen. You know, tall buildings, 376 00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:19.680 elevator buttons, or people avoiding certain seat numbers. Except we're 377 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:23.839 not superstitious. No one treats forty seven as unlucky. She 378 00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:27.480 brightened her voice, practical. You could make up something fun 379 00:23:27.519 --> 00:23:31.240 with it, like a riddle, except no one remembers when 380 00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:34.920 or why. There's no story, no superstition, not even an 381 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.400 urban legend. My own voice sounded more puzzled now than persistent. 382 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:44.559 It's like deletion by consensus. But who started it? She 383 00:23:44.680 --> 00:23:48.279 cocked her head. Maybe nobody did. Maybe the town just 384 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:52.920 ran with a gap once and kept going. It struck me, then, suddenly, 385 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:55.240 and with force, that I'd never heard any one in 386 00:23:55.319 --> 00:23:59.799 Renfield name forty seven as unlucky. Ask about unlucky numbers, 387 00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:04.000 and thirteen came back, instantly, repeated by every student and 388 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:08.000 teacher alike. But forty seven not a word. It was 389 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:10.839 more deeply absent than even a taboo. It was as 390 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:15.640 if the number itself had been excised memory and all suppose. 391 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:19.160 I asked Clara quietly, that the real question is why 392 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:23.359 is it only here? What makes us different? She glanced 393 00:24:23.400 --> 00:24:26.799 at me with a mixture of curiosity and gentle mischief. 394 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:30.599 You'll be the first to find out. I bet that night. 395 00:24:30.720 --> 00:24:33.599 Turning the problem over, I realized that my efforts to 396 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:37.599 pin the phenomenon on error, misprint or standard superstition were 397 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:42.240 falling apart. There wasn't fear or ritual avoidance, No don't 398 00:24:42.240 --> 00:24:45.559 walk under a ladder story passed down from grandmother's, no 399 00:24:45.759 --> 00:24:50.240 caution in tone. People simply didn't notice, and when pressed 400 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:54.640 they dismissed the slip without concern. A sense of fascination 401 00:24:54.839 --> 00:24:57.480