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<v Speaker 1>Hollo, I moalcan stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's get into it.

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<v Speaker 2>If it weren't for Maureen's postcard, her brisk, impatience script

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<v Speaker 2>hauling me out of retirement, I'd never have come to

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<v Speaker 2>her village on this blustery thumb of Cornish coast. But

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<v Speaker 2>she'd written bring your walking boots and that nosy brain.

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<v Speaker 2>You'll need both, then signed off with her usual flourish,

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<v Speaker 2>a doodle of a half feet and biscuit. It was enough.

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<v Speaker 2>I packed my small rucksack, slept fitfully, and set off

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<v Speaker 2>through the long green heart of the country, trading trains

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<v Speaker 2>for buses. As the roads grew narrower, the mist thicker,

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<v Speaker 2>the world slipping quietly out from under its city skin.

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<v Speaker 2>The last stretch, I drove Maureen's borrowed hatchback down, a

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<v Speaker 2>single car wide lane, coiling like a string beside low

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<v Speaker 2>stone walls. Fog pressed in, beating the windshields so densely

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<v Speaker 2>that I saw the world only in flickers, bramble stands,

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<v Speaker 2>a sheep veiled in silver, the shape of the road

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<v Speaker 2>always one curve ahead of certainty. I kept the window cracked,

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<v Speaker 2>letting the air's sultaness claim the inside of the car

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<v Speaker 2>until the radio faded into faint white noise. By the

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<v Speaker 2>time the first huddled cottages appeared, no house numbers, just

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<v Speaker 2>carved names. I could hear the seas slow breathing behind

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<v Speaker 2>it all. I was honestly unsure whether I'd crossed into

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<v Speaker 2>a different year, let alone a different county. Maureen's bungalow

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<v Speaker 2>squatted at the far edge of the lane, garden sodden

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<v Speaker 2>but bursting chives, runner beans, nasturtiums. She opened the door

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<v Speaker 2>with her hands in the flower, wiping them on her apron.

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<v Speaker 2>You're early by at least twenty minutes, she announced, as

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<v Speaker 2>if this was a character flow. Then she grinned, pulled

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<v Speaker 2>me into her kitchen and set the kettle on home

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<v Speaker 2>exhaled into the room, bread cooling on a wire rack,

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<v Speaker 2>a radio tuned low to brass band music, and the

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<v Speaker 2>comforting rattle of her ancient wall clock. I set my

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<v Speaker 2>bag down on a chair and caught my breath for

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<v Speaker 2>a moment, then noticed the calendar above the sideboard, nailed

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<v Speaker 2>with miniature wooden pegs, hung a kitchen calendar with water

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<v Speaker 2>color boats. The dates swung easily pushed into place by

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<v Speaker 2>a small magnetic strip Friday two July, which was unmistakably yesterday.

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<v Speaker 2>I double checked my phone. Its battery still clung to life,

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<v Speaker 2>in spite of the patchy signal and long journey there.

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<v Speaker 2>It was Saturday, three July zero eight thirty two. Maureen,

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<v Speaker 2>I ventured trying to be casual. Your calendar's a day

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<v Speaker 2>behind old habit, year's sorting post, a lifetime watching numbers, stamps, schedules,

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<v Speaker 2>time tables. Er was my instinctive prey. She glanced over

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<v Speaker 2>her shoulder with a flowery smile. Well, it's always yesterday here,

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<v Speaker 2>isn't it. I waited for the wink or the shared joke.

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<v Speaker 2>It didn't come. She buttered me a slab of home

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<v Speaker 2>made bread and pressed a mug of tea into my hand.

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<v Speaker 2>Eat that before it goes dry. Breakfast down at the

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<v Speaker 2>Harbor Cafe. You'll love their kippers. Oh, don't let on

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<v Speaker 2>about your posh phone signals hopeless and nobody cares. It

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<v Speaker 2>was easier to let it go just then. Anyway. The

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<v Speaker 2>kitchen window steamed up as we talked about our old lives.

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<v Speaker 2>I described early retirement, too many empty afternoons, the peculiar

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<v Speaker 2>ache of no longer being needed to know every post

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<v Speaker 2>code by heart. Maureen slid packets of yeast across the

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<v Speaker 2>table and told me about village life, her return after

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<v Speaker 2>city years, the bruised hills, the relentless fog. Only after

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<v Speaker 2>our conversation wandered through bread weather and the misadventures of

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<v Speaker 2>the local fox, did my gaze find the calendar again.

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<v Speaker 2>The date hung insistently behind her. Friday, two July. We

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<v Speaker 2>wrapped up in scarves and wind breakers for the short

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<v Speaker 2>walk to the cafe. The mist had thickened and the

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<v Speaker 2>sea moved in slow pewter waves below the harbor wall.

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<v Speaker 2>The village clustered around the curve of the bay like

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<v Speaker 2>a child's drawing. The cafe was already filling with the

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<v Speaker 2>morning crowd. Blackboards outside promised yesterday's catch, fresh on the

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<v Speaker 2>griddle in bold chalk, salt, and new sprint hung in

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<v Speaker 2>the air. A woman with coppery hair, Kirsten, Maureen's friend,

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<v Speaker 2>served us without fuss. She handed me a till receipt

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<v Speaker 2>for two breakfasts, kippers for me and poached eggs for Maureen.

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<v Speaker 2>I looked down, almost laughing. Two July twenty twenty one,

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<v Speaker 2>printed clearly yesterday again. Forgive me, I said, hearing how

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<v Speaker 2>prim it sounded. This says yesterday's date. Is that I

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<v Speaker 2>trailed off, not wanting to seem fussy, especially so soon.

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<v Speaker 2>Kurston just shrugged, unconcerned. That's right. Breakfast es always better.

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<v Speaker 2>The day after, she flashed a smile and swept another

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<v Speaker 2>receipt from the machine, but stamping it and passing it

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<v Speaker 2>to the next table. The local newspaper in the rack,

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<v Speaker 2>a four pager titled The Echo, was headlined high winds

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<v Speaker 2>predicted for yesterday. Its content the school's summer play staged yesterday.

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<v Speaker 2>The calendar of events all finished as of yesterday. A

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<v Speaker 2>recipe for leftover mackerel, good luck next time, Rowland with

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<v Speaker 2>a photograph of a beaming fisherman clutching a lifeless dogfish

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<v Speaker 2>caught yesterday morning. I blinked, feeling as if I'd missed

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<v Speaker 2>the rehearsal for a joke. But everyone else seemed at home.

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<v Speaker 2>The children outside played hopscotch, chanting indistinct skip rope rhymes

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<v Speaker 2>that always seemed to end with like yesterday. The cafe

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<v Speaker 2>regulars haggled over football scores. That was yesterday, wasn't it? Arthur.

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<v Speaker 2>All the best matches always yesterday, if you ask me.

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<v Speaker 2>The post office stood a few paces from the water,

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<v Speaker 2>wedged between an ice cream hatch and the pub. At

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<v Speaker 2>Maureen's urging, I wrote a postcard to my niece, noting

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<v Speaker 2>my safe arrival and more Maureen's enduring refusal to sugar

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<v Speaker 2>her tea missus jedge. The postmistress pressed the card onto

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<v Speaker 2>her battered rubber mat, inking it with a cheerful whack

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<v Speaker 2>two Jul twenty one. She nodded, approvingly, smashing handwriting neat

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<v Speaker 2>as they come, no hint that anything was a miss.

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<v Speaker 2>On our way back after breakfast, every window box and

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<v Speaker 2>signs seemed both ordinary and untouchable, as if protected by

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<v Speaker 2>some invisible bubble. A girl outside the bakery scrawled her

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<v Speaker 2>name in pink chalk across the pavement. Her friend corrected her,

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<v Speaker 2>you forgot it's yesterday. The girl giggled, erased the date,

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<v Speaker 2>and scrawled two July beside her lopsided signature. As the

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<v Speaker 2>day let up, Maureen steered me through looping lanes along

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<v Speaker 2>the harbour. The fog never lifted, just changed character, sometimes

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<v Speaker 2>pearled and soft, sometimes as dense as cotton. Batting. I

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<v Speaker 2>watched three men men's nets by a lobster boat, their

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<v Speaker 2>laughter carrying up to where cormorants stretched their wings. All

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<v Speaker 2>the while a gentle confusion prickled at me, settling just

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<v Speaker 2>out of reach. It wasn't misunderstanding, not quite. It was

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<v Speaker 2>as if the village had collectively agreed to live on

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<v Speaker 2>yesterday and everyone else had forgotten to catch up. Later,

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<v Speaker 2>as we returned for tea, I asked Maureen whether anyone

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<v Speaker 2>ever got mixed up by all this. She was already

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<v Speaker 2>in the doorway, unwinding her scarf. Mixed up, she called,

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<v Speaker 2>it's just how we do things. You'll get used to

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<v Speaker 2>it soon enough, same as everyone. So I left it

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<v Speaker 2>for the moment, pretending badly to let my curiosity lie.

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<v Speaker 2>But that night, as the lamps winked along the harbor

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<v Speaker 2>wall and the fog tightened its grip, I couldn't shake

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<v Speaker 2>the thought was it really just custom? Or had I

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<v Speaker 2>stumbled on the enduring shadow of some older, deeper thing.

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<v Speaker 2>By the time I tucked myself into Maureen's spare bed,

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<v Speaker 2>her neighbor's dog barking somewhere in the haze, my last

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<v Speaker 2>thought was, what if here to day is truly impossible.

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<v Speaker 2>Morning in Moureen's house was always blessedly the same. I

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<v Speaker 2>found comfort in that, at least at first, the kettle,

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<v Speaker 2>the serial bowls stacked like coins, the veined hands that

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<v Speaker 2>knew the local forecast by the color of the dew.

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<v Speaker 2>The second day, though already I was uneasy with day,

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<v Speaker 2>as the word seemed to slip, I wove myself into

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<v Speaker 2>Maureen's routines. Laun died yesterday's socks, planned to walk the

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<v Speaker 2>headland if the fog didn't choke it. Rowland arrived just

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<v Speaker 2>after breakfast, with a battered wool cap in hand and

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<v Speaker 2>cheeks burnished by the wind. He greeted me as though

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<v Speaker 2>he'd only just remembered who I was, Maureen's city friend.

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<v Speaker 2>You got caught in the tide, then, did you. His

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<v Speaker 2>laughter made the mugs rattle. Maureen rolled her eyes, giving

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<v Speaker 2>her the scare stories. Already, row they're true, he insisted,

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<v Speaker 2>eyes bright. The village'll keep you busy. What you don't

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<v Speaker 2>lose track of yourself is all. The morning went by

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<v Speaker 2>a mother errands. Maureen delivered rolls of twine and checked

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<v Speaker 2>in on missus Jeedge at the post office, who was

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<v Speaker 2>embroiled in a logic puzzle with an elderly fisherman named Davy.

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<v Speaker 2>Their banter was affectionate and sharper than the salt air.

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<v Speaker 2>Davy tried to send a birthday card with no stamp. Again,

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<v Speaker 2>Maureen explained quietly. He's terrible about it. But Missus Jedgell

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<v Speaker 2>pretended slipped through. She always does. Missus jedge herself was

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<v Speaker 2>a study and cheerful contradiction, white hair woven in a

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<v Speaker 2>tight coil, eyes that missed little we get by, she

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<v Speaker 2>told me after I tried to help with the puzzle.

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<v Speaker 2>Folk have their habits you as well. I shouldn't wonder.

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<v Speaker 2>Mine's a hot water bottle every day, even when it's

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<v Speaker 2>warm outside. The children's skipping games circled through the winding lanes,

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<v Speaker 2>their rhyme, dancing between sense and nonsense. Yesterday yesterday round

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<v Speaker 2>and around Yesterday lost and yesterday found. The bakery smelling

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<v Speaker 2>of caramelized sugar and seaweed loaves, had piles of burnt

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<v Speaker 2>buns at the counter that nobody claimed fresh batch for tomorrow.

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<v Speaker 2>If you're keen, the baker called, as if the idea

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<v Speaker 2>itself was a fresh baked treat lunch was a communal

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<v Speaker 2>affair at the sole pub, the sailor's knot hard by

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<v Speaker 2>the sea wall. Benches pressed together as locals brought out

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<v Speaker 2>whatever they'd caught or baked. Crab sandwiches dripping past these

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<v Speaker 2>bowls of chowder dolled up with dock leaves. A chalkboard

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<v Speaker 2>menu leaned at a dangerous angle behind the bar Rowland

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<v Speaker 2>was telling a story about a lobster with the face

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<v Speaker 2>of a priest when the vicar appeared in the doorway, hatless,

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<v Speaker 2>spectacles fogged. Reverend Carmichael was younger than I'd expected, gentle faced,

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<v Speaker 2>uncertain in his steps. He greeted everyone by name and

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<v Speaker 2>sat for a soft pint. Someone called out, is tomorrow's service,

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<v Speaker 2>the charity lunch or the washed out cricket match. The

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<v Speaker 2>vicar gave a gentle bank shrug. We'll see what yesterday

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<v Speaker 2>had to say about that. I've learned not to schedule

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<v Speaker 2>too much ahead. Everyone laughed, some with more feeling than others.

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<v Speaker 2>As the plates cleared, Maureen turned to me, you get

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<v Speaker 2>used to the way we do things, don't worry. Folk

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<v Speaker 2>are odd everywhere. Yet during the brief hush that followed,

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<v Speaker 2>I felt myself outside something tender and intricate, a fabric

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<v Speaker 2>I wasn't woven into, not yet. On errands with Missus

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<v Speaker 2>Jedge that afternoon, I watched her perform what was clearly

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<v Speaker 2>a ritual, sorting incoming mail and stamping each piece, the

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<v Speaker 2>numbers crisply inking yesterday's date. The stacks rose and shifted,

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<v Speaker 2>but the rhythm held steady. I've tried to change it

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<v Speaker 2>for outsiders, she said, when I peeked over her shoulder,

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<v Speaker 2>but somehow it always comes back right, don't you miss

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<v Speaker 2>making the rounds? Her voice softened. She glanced at her

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<v Speaker 2>battered stamp, then at me. Never mind, you'll see evening

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<v Speaker 2>descended in pearled layers. The children's laughter faded, replaced by

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<v Speaker 2>the shanty voices of fishermen making their last rounds. A

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<v Speaker 2>group played darts outside the pub. Another gathered with battered

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<v Speaker 2>radios to listen for the weather, always yesterday's, of course.

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<v Speaker 2>Maureen and I ate a second supper by the window,

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<v Speaker 2>the fog pressing gentle against the glass. I pulled out

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<v Speaker 2>a paperback and tried to lose myself, but found the

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<v Speaker 2>words slipping sideways. At some point, as the flame of

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<v Speaker 2>the lone candle wavered, the clock ticked past a time

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<v Speaker 2>that didn't feel like to day at all. I put

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<v Speaker 2>the book aside, overcome by a peculiar pleasant sadness, like

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<v Speaker 2>missing a train you d already decided not to catch. Still,

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<v Speaker 2>the odd hitch persisted. Every time I glanced at a

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<v Speaker 2>clock or calendar or label or sign. It was yesterday's day.

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<v Speaker 2>Not simply carelessness, something more enveloping, as though the village's

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<v Speaker 2>logic wrapped tightly around itself. The routines and the people

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<v Speaker 2>gave nothing away, And if the matter of time ever

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<v Speaker 2>hinted at contradiction, it swept the blush away with an

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<v Speaker 2>easy joke. It was on the third evening, my sense

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<v Speaker 2>of days already unspooling, that things shifted. The sailor's knot

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00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:16.080
<v Speaker 2>was strung with colored bunting for weekend quiz night. I

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<v Speaker 2>relished the chance to wet my bureaucratic instincts, facts, figures, teams, stakes,

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<v Speaker 2>as innocent as a free dessert. Locals clustered around plank

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<v Speaker 2>tables under dim pressed glass lamps. Roland ran the questions,

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<v Speaker 2>his voice echoing through the beams. At our table, the

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<v Speaker 2>usual jostle of pencils and squabbling over which king built

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<v Speaker 2>what The mood was raucous elbows everywhere, buttered crumbs cascading

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<v Speaker 2>from the battle for crisps. At one point, a mild

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<v Speaker 2>dispute arose, which day did the railway close back in

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<v Speaker 2>the seventies? Yesterday, crowed Arthur, a round cheeked man with

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<v Speaker 2>more belly than memory. It was Tuesday or Wednesday? His

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<v Speaker 2>wife insisted, I'd had enough after so many receipts ink

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<v Speaker 2>to skew. It was reflex to reach for my phone,

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<v Speaker 2>tucked now in my jacket, in defiance of Maureen's warnings.

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<v Speaker 2>No service, as ever, But the locks screen calmly displayed

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<v Speaker 2>its verdict, Saturday, three July to day's date, at least

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<v Speaker 2>outside these walls. To settle the argument, I read the

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<v Speaker 2>date aloud, Saturday, third of July to day. For a beat.

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<v Speaker 2>That word echoed in the smoky hush. Arthur shrugged, unconcerned

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<v Speaker 2>if you say so. But it'll be yesterday soon enough,

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<v Speaker 2>won't it. Norah? Everyone laughed. Behind the bar, the chalkboard

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<v Speaker 2>listed Sunday roast served yesterday, try again to morrow. To

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<v Speaker 2>the right a sign promised specials from last night, and

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<v Speaker 2>in the far corner, a woman celebrated her birthday paper

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<v Speaker 2>hatter skew cake, bearing a stubby candle. Happy birthday yesterday,

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<v Speaker 2>my brow knitted. Doesn't anyone get confused? Used? I asked

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<v Speaker 2>mareing quietly as the quiz wound up, our team decisively

236
00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:10.200
<v Speaker 2>fifth place. She hesitated a fraction too long. What's to confuse?

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<v Speaker 2>It's always yesterday, isn't it the same everywhere? Her voice

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<v Speaker 2>was mild, but clipped, humorless. For once, she looked away,

239
00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:21.799
<v Speaker 2>busied herself wiping a stray crumb from the table. I

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<v Speaker 2>sat for a while in the gentle swirl of laughter

241
00:15:24.279 --> 00:15:28.399
<v Speaker 2>and clinking glasses, the ordinary warmth of village camaraderie humming

242
00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:32.240
<v Speaker 2>around me, and felt the contradiction settle. This wasn't backwardness

243
00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:36.360
<v Speaker 2>or parochial sloth. It was an unyielding communal logic, so persistent,

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<v Speaker 2>so complete, it had erased the possibility of to day.

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<v Speaker 2>Even when I pressed, even when I challenged, the answer

246
00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:47.480
<v Speaker 2>always the same, rippled back like the tide. Here there

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00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:51.679
<v Speaker 2>was only ever yesterday. And with that my curiosity cooled

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00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:56.200
<v Speaker 2>into a stubborn, growing flame. How could this be linguistic quirk,

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00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:00.480
<v Speaker 2>A secret joke kept alive out of principle or fast stranger,

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00:16:00.759 --> 00:16:04.200
<v Speaker 2>a tight communal turning away from time itself, I found

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<v Speaker 2>I wanted to test the fabric, to push against the

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<v Speaker 2>village's boundaries, not out of disbelief, but because something inside

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00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:13.919
<v Speaker 2>me thrilled at the quiet, persistent impossibility of it. All

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<v Speaker 2>the next several days, or more precisely, what felt like days,

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00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:23.159
<v Speaker 2>I pressed further, the fog barely thinned. I made a

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<v Speaker 2>habit of walking, not necessarily anywhere, but from Landmark to

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<v Speaker 2>Landmark Harbor, the battered fish market, the muddy crescent of

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<v Speaker 2>the town square, ringed by undaunted petunias. Each corner had

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00:16:35.679 --> 00:16:39.480
<v Speaker 2>its own minor rituals. At the bakery, I waited in

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00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:43.720
<v Speaker 2>line as missus penherligen, hands dusted white, presided over a

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00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:48.879
<v Speaker 2>string of apologies for burnt crusts. That batch always yesterday's mishap.

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<v Speaker 2>You know how it is, she said, each time, winking

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<v Speaker 2>at her customers, who nodded as though the event were

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00:16:54.960 --> 00:16:59.159
<v Speaker 2>breaking news. The grosser, mister Haw, a string bean of

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00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:02.519
<v Speaker 2>a man with hands permanently inked by soil, welcomed me

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00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:05.839
<v Speaker 2>in crates of root vege glistened in the misty light,

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00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:10.519
<v Speaker 2>fresh delivery from yesterday, as usual, he said, stacking new

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<v Speaker 2>turnips atop old. No one batted an eyelid. Inside the church,

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00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:19.319
<v Speaker 2>the bulletin board, adorned with thumb tacks and curling fliers,

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00:17:19.359 --> 00:17:23.480
<v Speaker 2>listed the coming week's service seven thirty p m. The

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00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:27.720
<v Speaker 2>parable of the sewer yesterday's reading. I ran my finger

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<v Speaker 2>down the list. Not a single Tomorrow, not a single

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00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:35.400
<v Speaker 2>to day, just a gentle waterfall of yesterday's. I tried

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<v Speaker 2>to arrange coffee with Kurston at the cafe, asking are

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<v Speaker 2>you free to morrow morning? She blinked at me briefly baffled, Oh,

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<v Speaker 2>just drop by, you know, like you did yesterday. I smiled,

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00:17:47.279 --> 00:17:51.119
<v Speaker 2>though something in me tightened. That afternoon, I lingered in

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00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:54.759
<v Speaker 2>the post office, watching missus Jedge process a queue. Every

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00:17:54.799 --> 00:17:57.720
<v Speaker 2>single envelope, every stub of a receipt carried the same

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<v Speaker 2>date to j u l twenty one, though by my

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00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:03.920
<v Speaker 2>watch that date lay farther and farther behind the chalk

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00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.519
<v Speaker 2>board propped outside confirmed tea cakes fresh batch yesterday. My

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00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:12.519
<v Speaker 2>discomfort sharpened quietly. When the street was empty, I rubbed

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00:18:12.519 --> 00:18:14.519
<v Speaker 2>off the date with the side of my coat sleeve

285
00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:18.880
<v Speaker 2>and chalked into days bold and blocky. The next morning,

286
00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:23.160
<v Speaker 2>hurrying back despite Maureen's caution, you'll catch her chill, I

287
00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:26.720
<v Speaker 2>found the board freshly raised two July written in the

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00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:31.000
<v Speaker 2>looping hand I'd seen everywhere. The street itself seemed unchanged,

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00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:33.960
<v Speaker 2>perhaps a bit emptier, or perhaps that was only the

290
00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:38.839
<v Speaker 2>mist thickening Again. Looking for firmer evidence, I questioned people

291
00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:43.279
<v Speaker 2>more directly. Missus Jedge, unfazed, told me the same anecdote

292
00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.559
<v Speaker 2>twice on consecutive days, the time her cat got into

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00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:50.599
<v Speaker 2>the village Fate's cream. The punch line always just yesterday,

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00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:56.319
<v Speaker 2>mind you. The details shifted a little, but never the timing. Outside,

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00:18:56.359 --> 00:18:59.039
<v Speaker 2>a trio of children bounced on the stoop with balloon

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00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:03.079
<v Speaker 2>animals and hats still glued to their hair. Did you

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00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:08.079
<v Speaker 2>just have a party? I asked brightly. Yesterday was my birthday.

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<v Speaker 2>One girl piped up, But there's still cake and hats.

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<v Speaker 2>When's the next party? Another child frowned. Suppose it was yesterday,

300
00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.319
<v Speaker 2>wasn't it? They eyed me as if searching for a

301
00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:24.319
<v Speaker 2>riddle's answer. Late that afternoon, I tried to tally my

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00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:28.359
<v Speaker 2>own stay. How many nights now? Three? Four? I opened

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00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.680
<v Speaker 2>my battered travel diary to check My entries were neat enough,

304
00:19:31.720 --> 00:19:34.720
<v Speaker 2>but every single one it must have been a mechanical error.

305
00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:39.960
<v Speaker 2>Began yesterday, my handwriting my ink, But a single relentless word.

306
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<v Speaker 2>Anything I wrote about a walk along the fog or

307
00:19:42.759 --> 00:19:45.440
<v Speaker 2>the taste of Maureen's chowder could have been any yesterday

308
00:19:45.480 --> 00:19:49.000
<v Speaker 2>at all. The Inn's guest Book, which I leaped through

309
00:19:49.039 --> 00:19:51.599
<v Speaker 2>one morning while pretending to search for a lost earring,

310
00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:58.119
<v Speaker 2>showed each hand carefully inscribing arrived yesterday, different writers, subtle

311
00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:01.960
<v Speaker 2>variations in accent or free raising, and always the repetition.

312
00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:06.799
<v Speaker 2>Village life never seemed to change. Gears only shifted gently

313
00:20:06.839 --> 00:20:11.039
<v Speaker 2>back and forth between familiar rituals. Each evening I watched

314
00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:15.039
<v Speaker 2>the fisherman's lanterns bloom along the quay. Each morning, Maureen

315
00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:18.599
<v Speaker 2>pulled bakestone crumpets and blue eggs from a wire basket,

316
00:20:18.920 --> 00:20:22.160
<v Speaker 2>as if serving me for the first time, and yet

317
00:20:22.240 --> 00:20:27.160
<v Speaker 2>underneath the surface rippled. Sometimes small details of yesterday were different.

318
00:20:27.559 --> 00:20:31.200
<v Speaker 2>The bread's crust burned in a fresh accidental spiral. The

319
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:34.519
<v Speaker 2>children's game coming up with new rhymes, the quiz night

320
00:20:34.599 --> 00:20:39.759
<v Speaker 2>winner changing name, sometimes Arthur, sometimes Joan, but always celebrating

321
00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.319
<v Speaker 2>yesterday's win. It dawned on me. This was no mere oversight,

322
00:20:44.839 --> 00:20:50.279
<v Speaker 2>no accidental error, no sly wink. Something about the village, socially, behaviorally,

323
00:20:50.519 --> 00:20:55.799
<v Speaker 2>even physically, was composed entirely around yesterday. Communal and private

324
00:20:55.880 --> 00:21:00.200
<v Speaker 2>memory bent itself into that shape. Public records, receipts, and

325
00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:04.920
<v Speaker 2>seemingly even objects gravitated there of their own accord. For

326
00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:07.960
<v Speaker 2>the first time, I wondered if it was possible to escape.

327
00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:12.160
<v Speaker 2>Was there a trick, some social dare or taboo I'd missed?

328
00:21:13.160 --> 00:21:17.839
<v Speaker 2>After another silent afternoon, fog always fog, as if the

329
00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:20.559
<v Speaker 2>sea itself had decided to squat on the roof tiles,

330
00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:24.000
<v Speaker 2>I put the question directly to Maureen, as we sat

331
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<v Speaker 2>sorting runner beans in her kitchen. Didn't you ever want

332
00:21:27.799 --> 00:21:30.680
<v Speaker 2>to live somewhere you could plan for to morrow or

333
00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:32.920
<v Speaker 2>just wake up and no it was a new day.

334
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:36.799
<v Speaker 2>She looked at me flatly. It's always been this way.

335
00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.559
<v Speaker 2>You get used to it. She looked out the window,

336
00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:42.759
<v Speaker 2>then back. I suppose you get to choose what suits

337
00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:46.279
<v Speaker 2>you in the end, don't you. Rowland popped in later,

338
00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:49.839
<v Speaker 2>brined through with the smell of fish and ailskins, arms

339
00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:52.720
<v Speaker 2>full of crab pots. I caught him before he hustled

340
00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:56.839
<v Speaker 2>away Rowland. Growing up, did you ever talk about to morrow?

341
00:21:57.200 --> 00:22:01.240
<v Speaker 2>Was it ever different? He pondered. Mum say there'll be

342
00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:04.160
<v Speaker 2>a storm to morrow, so stay in to day. But

343
00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:07.160
<v Speaker 2>it never came, not that I remember. After a while,

344
00:22:07.200 --> 00:22:10.920
<v Speaker 2>it was just best keep yesterday safer that way, he

345
00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:14.519
<v Speaker 2>shrugged folk from outside talk about next week, But none

346
00:22:14.519 --> 00:22:18.359
<v Speaker 2>of it makes much difference in the end. Testing myself,

347
00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:21.440
<v Speaker 2>I set my digital watch to Greenwich time, wound my

348
00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:24.559
<v Speaker 2>old postal stopwatch, and set an alarm on my phone

349
00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:28.000
<v Speaker 2>for eight am to day. That night, I left sticky

350
00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:31.319
<v Speaker 2>notes scattered on my book jacket, the mirror, the fridge

351
00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:35.640
<v Speaker 2>to day Sunday, July four. I woke to faint sunlight

352
00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:38.240
<v Speaker 2>across my bed, the faint hiss of the tide out

353
00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:41.440
<v Speaker 2>beyond the glass. The alarm was ringing, but the watch

354
00:22:41.480 --> 00:22:45.359
<v Speaker 2>stubbornly displayed Saturday, too July, and the sticky notes, though

355
00:22:45.400 --> 00:22:48.599
<v Speaker 2>clearly written by my hand, now bore yesterday too July.

356
00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:52.759
<v Speaker 2>I felt a pulse of triumph. The experiment had proven something,

357
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:56.000
<v Speaker 2>even if I couldn't say what, but also a strange shiver.

358
00:22:56.519 --> 00:22:59.839
<v Speaker 2>Whatever the explanation, it ran deeper than a lazy joke.

359
00:23:00.839 --> 00:23:03.680
<v Speaker 2>Breakfast with Maureen was a mirror of every day before.

360
00:23:04.279 --> 00:23:08.240
<v Speaker 2>Toast raspberry jam TEA feel like I'm serving you for

361
00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:12.279
<v Speaker 2>the first time, eh, she winked. We shared out kitchen

362
00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:15.960
<v Speaker 2>talk when you went away before, Maureen, was it strange

363
00:23:16.079 --> 00:23:21.359
<v Speaker 2>coming back? She considered, London was different but lonely in ways.

364
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<v Speaker 2>Folk here can't imagine time gets away from you. Here,

365
00:23:25.319 --> 00:23:28.839
<v Speaker 2>at least you know where you stand. I sat quietly

366
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<v Speaker 2>my old life, a world of post marks, departure times,

367
00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:37.039
<v Speaker 2>neat color coded calendars had once felt rooted. Now it felt,

368
00:23:37.079 --> 00:23:40.440
<v Speaker 2>in its own way, artificial boxes to hold nothing but

369
00:23:40.599 --> 00:23:45.759
<v Speaker 2>forward motion. But here yesterday was a walled garden. Days

370
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:50.680
<v Speaker 2>trickled onward and perhaps backward. My phones messages stopped coming

371
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<v Speaker 2>in entirely. The outside world began to feel as distant

372
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<v Speaker 2>as a half remembered film. It was only when I

373
00:23:57.960 --> 00:24:01.279
<v Speaker 2>found myself standing one fog afternoon at the end of

374
00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:04.880
<v Speaker 2>the pier, where red paint faded in curling scales and

375
00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:08.160
<v Speaker 2>salt air buzzed against my skin, that I felt the

376
00:24:08.160 --> 00:24:12.079
<v Speaker 2>first tremor of unease, Not fear, but an ache for context.

377
00:24:12.680 --> 00:24:15.160
<v Speaker 2>I was part of this pattern now, whether I wanted

378
00:24:15.160 --> 00:24:18.680
<v Speaker 2>it or not. Trying to shake the static from my brain,

379
00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:22.119
<v Speaker 2>I prowled the edges of the town square. There, near

380
00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:25.759
<v Speaker 2>the derelict end of the row stood the village library doors,

381
00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:29.799
<v Speaker 2>chained windows, clouded over by decades of dust and warped glass,

382
00:24:30.359 --> 00:24:35.160
<v Speaker 2>a sign half lost to time read closed for inventory yesterday.

383
00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:39.720
<v Speaker 2>I rounded up Maureen, who produced a large, jangling ring

384
00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:43.519
<v Speaker 2>of keys that would have survived the blitz. It's nothing special.

385
00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:47.960
<v Speaker 2>Stopped using it after the council cuts. But there's books, ledgers,

386
00:24:48.119 --> 00:24:51.400
<v Speaker 2>tatty cards, roch used to keep the good biscuits in there,

387
00:24:51.720 --> 00:24:55.200
<v Speaker 2>she said, rattling the key in the stiff lock. The

388
00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:59.240
<v Speaker 2>door protested but yielded, swinging open just far enough for

389
00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:02.000
<v Speaker 2>the two of us to set slip inside. The smell

390
00:25:02.039 --> 00:25:06.200
<v Speaker 2>of mildew was less oppressive than I expected. Books, after all,

391
00:25:06.480 --> 00:25:09.480
<v Speaker 2>made decent air filters if you gave them enough time.

392
00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.640
<v Speaker 2>Inside the floor was lined with ledger boxes, stacking shelves,

393
00:25:14.680 --> 00:25:19.119
<v Speaker 2>warping under the weight of parish histories, school registers, account books,

394
00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:23.160
<v Speaker 2>and dog eared catalogs. Dust fell like soft snow as

395
00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:27.240
<v Speaker 2>Maureen flicked on a corroded lamp. Near the window were

396
00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:30.799
<v Speaker 2>two battered boxes labeled visitors I drew one toward me.

397
00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:33.359
<v Speaker 2>The top was filled with signing in books for a

398
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:38.279
<v Speaker 2>half century visited July one, two thousand three, arrived yesterday,

399
00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:44.319
<v Speaker 2>left blank dozens of hands. Every decade, every script arrived yesterday,

400
00:25:45.400 --> 00:25:50.079
<v Speaker 2>I opened school registers, students listed for yesterday's session, attendants

401
00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:54.839
<v Speaker 2>always meticulous, never extending forward. In the parish accounting books,

402
00:25:55.079 --> 00:25:58.440
<v Speaker 2>church festivals, regattas, and baptisms, all zipped up in a

403
00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:02.440
<v Speaker 2>collar of yesterday's. Even the very old, brittle papers kept

404
00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:06.680
<v Speaker 2>to the ritual. The only blank spaces tomorrow's crossed out,

405
00:26:06.759 --> 00:26:11.799
<v Speaker 2>sodden with correction fluid. On one low shelf, children's coloring

406
00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:16.440
<v Speaker 2>books were stacked every drawing dated yesterday. I ran my

407
00:26:16.559 --> 00:26:20.160
<v Speaker 2>thumb along the crayon petals, feeling the stubbornness in the paper.

408
00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:24.599
<v Speaker 2>In the back, a battered photograph album held curled images

409
00:26:24.960 --> 00:26:30.319
<v Speaker 2>crowds waving flags emblazoned Yesterday's festival and the Great Carnival

410
00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:34.799
<v Speaker 2>of Yesterday, each year, the same title, new faces grinning

411
00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:39.119
<v Speaker 2>uncertainly at the lens. The penny dropped. It wasn't that

412
00:26:39.160 --> 00:26:41.920
<v Speaker 2>the village had simply lost track of days. It had

413
00:26:41.960 --> 00:26:46.119
<v Speaker 2>collectively chosen, or perhaps been compelled to fix every public

414
00:26:46.160 --> 00:26:50.119
<v Speaker 2>and private moment to the anchor of yesterday. No record

415
00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:54.640
<v Speaker 2>pushed forward, no document permitted a tomorrow. I moved into

416
00:26:54.680 --> 00:26:59.920
<v Speaker 2>the next room, Maureen trailing behind. Look at this, I said, quietly,

417
00:27:00.119 --> 00:27:02.880
<v Speaker 2>holding up a faded envelope. It was addressed to the

418
00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:05.839
<v Speaker 2>post office in the next village, dated in a careful,

419
00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:10.279
<v Speaker 2>old fashioned hand yesterday, decades ago. The bundle had yellowed

420
00:27:10.279 --> 00:27:13.599
<v Speaker 2>and never been posted. Shelves upon shelves were stacked with

421
00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:18.559
<v Speaker 2>similar letters, birth announcements, change of addressed cards, invitations, each

422
00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:23.079
<v Speaker 2>bearing the unmoving postmark of yesterday. Even more peculiarly, the

423
00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:25.680
<v Speaker 2>ink and stamps felt fresh, as if they had been

424
00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:29.279
<v Speaker 2>added only that morning. I sought it through a handful

425
00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:32.880
<v Speaker 2>until my fingers shook. At the back, a small stack

426
00:27:32.920 --> 00:27:36.599
<v Speaker 2>of undelivered letters was bound with elastic. One bore my

427
00:27:36.680 --> 00:27:40.519
<v Speaker 2>own handwriting yesterday's date. Though I had posted it only

428
00:27:40.599 --> 00:27:45.640
<v Speaker 2>a day ago. All it seemed never truly left, Maureen.

429
00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:49.359
<v Speaker 2>Do you think I started? Then paused, turning a postcard

430
00:27:49.400 --> 00:27:52.680
<v Speaker 2>over in my hands. The postmark in Missus Jedge's quick

431
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:56.839
<v Speaker 2>arched script marked T j U L twenty one, exactly

432
00:27:56.920 --> 00:28:01.400
<v Speaker 2>matching every other record, No matter the day, Maureen considered.

433
00:28:01.799 --> 00:28:03.599
<v Speaker 2>If it were up to me, I'd say it was

434
00:28:03.720 --> 00:28:06.279
<v Speaker 2>just habit or an old joke. But you see how

435
00:28:06.279 --> 00:28:09.799
<v Speaker 2>the stamp never sticks, don't you never folds forward into

436
00:28:09.799 --> 00:28:13.359
<v Speaker 2>the next day. She looked tired, as if the admission

437
00:28:13.359 --> 00:28:16.559
<v Speaker 2>had cost her. In the far back, I found a

438
00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:21.400
<v Speaker 2>faded black and white photograph edges curled under. My heart stuttered.

439
00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:24.480
<v Speaker 2>It was a younger version of Peter, an old sorting

440
00:28:24.519 --> 00:28:28.559
<v Speaker 2>office colleague, his shock of wild hair unmistakable even through

441
00:28:28.599 --> 00:28:33.799
<v Speaker 2>the years, visited yesterday, noted underneath in his handwriting a

442
00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:37.799
<v Speaker 2>date from nineteen seventy two. Is he did he come here?

443
00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:43.440
<v Speaker 2>I asked softly. Maureen glanced at the picture. Peter, Oh, yes,

444
00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:48.160
<v Speaker 2>funny sort always carried two watches, complained about radio signals,

445
00:28:48.519 --> 00:28:52.319
<v Speaker 2>left his note book behind. I think she shrugged. I

446
00:28:52.400 --> 00:28:55.200
<v Speaker 2>slumped onto a crate of pamphlets, feeling the logic of

447
00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:59.319
<v Speaker 2>my old world crumple, replaced by something more persistent, and somehow,

448
00:28:59.599 --> 00:29:02.920
<v Speaker 2>though it defied every habit of a life spent chasing punctuality,

449
00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:07.279
<v Speaker 2>almost soothing, in this archive, whole lives unfurled and folded

450
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:13.319
<v Speaker 2>up again, pinned forever to yesterday, every piece of evidence, ledgers, photographs, posts,

451
00:29:13.480 --> 00:29:17.839
<v Speaker 2>memories pivoted not on secrecy or rural sloppiness, but a shared,

452
00:29:18.039 --> 00:29:22.519
<v Speaker 2>robust truth. That evening, walking back through a village shrouded

453
00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:25.920
<v Speaker 2>in sea mist, I felt my purpose changing shape. I

454
00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:28.319
<v Speaker 2>was no longer here to marvel at a local oddity

455
00:29:28.640 --> 00:29:32.119
<v Speaker 2>or correct a communal lapse. The yesterday of this place

456
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:36.720
<v Speaker 2>was a living thing, occupied, shaped and preserved across centuries

457
00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:40.039
<v Speaker 2>and generations by people I now cared for, and by

458
00:29:40.039 --> 00:29:42.640
<v Speaker 2>a pattern that lured me even as I resisted it.

459
00:29:43.640 --> 00:29:46.839
<v Speaker 2>I'd always believed I could file, sort, and stamp the

460
00:29:46.920 --> 00:29:50.599
<v Speaker 2>universe into neat lines. Here, none of my tools fit.

461
00:29:51.160 --> 00:29:54.759
<v Speaker 2>This was not carelessness or tradition or accident. It was

462
00:29:54.839 --> 00:29:59.160
<v Speaker 2>a fact, as real and operative as the tide. Abruptly,

463
00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:02.119
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to know what anchored yesterday to this village.

464
00:30:02.640 --> 00:30:06.119
<v Speaker 2>Was there an origin, story, a bargain, a curse? Did

465
00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:09.359
<v Speaker 2>it have limits? Or was I simply witnessing a reality

466
00:30:09.440 --> 00:30:13.640
<v Speaker 2>that quietly overturned everything I had ever trusted about clocks, labels,

467
00:30:13.920 --> 00:30:18.599
<v Speaker 2>the soft machinery of days. The library door shut behind us,

468
00:30:19.039 --> 00:30:22.039
<v Speaker 2>Maureen and I stepped out into the growing dusk. I

469
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:24.240
<v Speaker 2>turned on the path and gazed back at the sign

470
00:30:24.359 --> 00:30:30.200
<v Speaker 2>above closed for inventory yesterday. Somewhere inside me, deep and

471
00:30:30.279 --> 00:30:34.279
<v Speaker 2>not unpleasant curiosity surged up, alongside a kind of wild,

472
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:38.720
<v Speaker 2>skeptical thrill. Tomorrow, if it came here, would be the

473
00:30:38.759 --> 00:30:42.319
<v Speaker 2>first in a very long time. We walked home from

474
00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:44.960
<v Speaker 2>the library, with the sea fog still pressing in faintly

475
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:48.319
<v Speaker 2>phosphorescent along the lanes, the lamp at the corner blurring

476
00:30:48.359 --> 00:30:51.920
<v Speaker 2>into a watery bloom. Maureen didn't talk much, but neither

477
00:30:51.960 --> 00:30:54.279
<v Speaker 2>did she hurry, and I found I was grateful for

478
00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:58.240
<v Speaker 2>her presence, grounding as sturdy as her gait. The door

479
00:30:58.279 --> 00:31:01.279
<v Speaker 2>to her house squawked as we went in, and warmth

480
00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:04.359
<v Speaker 2>gathered us up, the slow tick of her kitchen clock,

481
00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:08.400
<v Speaker 2>the rumble of the kettle once more. That night passed

482
00:31:08.400 --> 00:31:12.160
<v Speaker 2>in restlessness. Sleep, when it came was thin, pocked with

483
00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:16.400
<v Speaker 2>half remembered conversations and a persistent undertow of calender pages

484
00:31:16.599 --> 00:31:20.519
<v Speaker 2>fluttering endlessly back over older dates. When the sun managed

485
00:31:20.519 --> 00:31:22.839
<v Speaker 2>to burn through a slice of fog the next morning,

486
00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:25.960
<v Speaker 2>I slid from my borrowed bed, determined in a way

487
00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:28.799
<v Speaker 2>I had not felt before, if the answer was going

488
00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:31.799
<v Speaker 2>to show itself, I had to prod the boundaries. I

489
00:31:31.839 --> 00:31:35.759
<v Speaker 2>would not merely drift in the tide. I wanted needed

490
00:31:36.039 --> 00:31:39.240
<v Speaker 2>to know what sustained yesterday, and whether I or any

491
00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:43.599
<v Speaker 2>one could loosen its anchor over porridge. I nudged Maureen,

492
00:31:44.160 --> 00:31:47.000
<v Speaker 2>who in the village has lived here the longest, not

493
00:31:47.279 --> 00:31:50.799
<v Speaker 2>just in years, some one who remembers old ways, stories,

494
00:31:51.079 --> 00:31:55.000
<v Speaker 2>things from long before your time or mine. She worked

495
00:31:55.039 --> 00:31:58.759
<v Speaker 2>sugar into her own bowl. Considered tams In blight up

496
00:31:58.799 --> 00:32:01.680
<v Speaker 2>by the headland, last cottage before the cliff's let out.

497
00:32:02.079 --> 00:32:05.359
<v Speaker 2>She's been here longer than any one alive. Bit prickly.

498
00:32:05.519 --> 00:32:08.200
<v Speaker 2>But if it's stories you want, she'll have them, she

499
00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:10.920
<v Speaker 2>looked straight at me. Just don't get your hopes up

500
00:32:10.960 --> 00:32:16.599
<v Speaker 2>about well satisfying explanations. I found Tamsin's cottage cowering at

501
00:32:16.599 --> 00:32:20.160
<v Speaker 2>the edge of land, thumped by wind and years. Its

502
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:23.599
<v Speaker 2>painted gait was hung with cow parsley and bells of foxglove,

503
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:27.440
<v Speaker 2>both rattling cheerfully in a salty gust. The air up

504
00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.279
<v Speaker 2>there thinned as it met the first hard edge of sky.

505
00:32:31.440 --> 00:32:34.119
<v Speaker 2>Tams In herself opened the door after my third knock,

506
00:32:34.440 --> 00:32:37.720
<v Speaker 2>thin as driftwood, wrapped in three jumpers and an old

507
00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:41.519
<v Speaker 2>lace curtain knotted for a scarf. Her eyes were the pale,

508
00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:48.079
<v Speaker 2>unblinking blue of whelk shells. Oh, she said softly, yesterday's postmaster,

509
00:32:48.519 --> 00:32:50.799
<v Speaker 2>come to see if an old woman can remember to day.

510
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:55.680
<v Speaker 2>I suppressed my embarrassment and greeted her carefully, explaining that

511
00:32:55.759 --> 00:32:59.559
<v Speaker 2>I was a friend of Maureen's, interested in stories about

512
00:32:59.640 --> 00:33:02.599
<v Speaker 2>storm and calenders and how things came to be as

513
00:33:02.640 --> 00:33:06.480
<v Speaker 2>they were in the village. She laughed, not unkindly, and

514
00:33:06.599 --> 00:33:11.319
<v Speaker 2>waved me inside. Her rooms held the faded clutter of decades,

515
00:33:11.720 --> 00:33:15.400
<v Speaker 2>photos on tented edges, pieces of driftwood, a mug painted

516
00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:20.039
<v Speaker 2>in childish hand, best gran yesterday. The hearth sagged with

517
00:33:20.119 --> 00:33:23.160
<v Speaker 2>the lateness of unburnt peat. She brewed us a pot

518
00:33:23.160 --> 00:33:27.440
<v Speaker 2>of drastically strong tea, spooned over with thick, unctuous cream,

519
00:33:27.759 --> 00:33:31.440
<v Speaker 2>and watched me over the rim. I'll answer what I can,

520
00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:34.440
<v Speaker 2>she said, but you'll find some things are just the

521
00:33:34.519 --> 00:33:39.319
<v Speaker 2>air you breathe. I never knew it any different, I asked, directly.

522
00:33:39.799 --> 00:33:43.240
<v Speaker 2>Has it always been yesterday here? Did anyone ever try

523
00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:47.440
<v Speaker 2>to keep a calender straight? She smiled, her tongue flicking

524
00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:50.240
<v Speaker 2>between her teeth. When I was a slip of a girl,

525
00:33:50.359 --> 00:33:53.200
<v Speaker 2>my mother used to say, it's always easier to remember

526
00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:56.960
<v Speaker 2>what's past than what's to come. Her mother, same tale,

527
00:33:57.319 --> 00:34:00.400
<v Speaker 2>and so on, back and back. Folk round here don't

528
00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:04.480
<v Speaker 2>let go of old habits lightly. But why I pressed

529
00:34:04.640 --> 00:34:09.400
<v Speaker 2>gentler than before? Was there ever a reason? Tamsin's eyes

530
00:34:09.440 --> 00:34:12.559
<v Speaker 2>glazed with memory, or perhaps with a natural resistance to

531
00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:16.000
<v Speaker 2>being pried open. Suppose you've heard the old story. Then,

532
00:34:16.440 --> 00:34:19.480
<v Speaker 2>when the storm came, a roaring, killing wind, with the

533
00:34:19.480 --> 00:34:22.159
<v Speaker 2>sea on its shoulders, folk in the village, or so

534
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.199
<v Speaker 2>they say, made a bargain with whatever keeps us anchored,

535
00:34:25.679 --> 00:34:28.880
<v Speaker 2>gave away to morrow for everlasting calm. So the boats

536
00:34:28.920 --> 00:34:33.199
<v Speaker 2>always came home. Storm never quite landed, except beyond the head,

537
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:36.960
<v Speaker 2>where the rocks eat what walks too close. She fell

538
00:34:37.039 --> 00:34:40.280
<v Speaker 2>silent for so long I thought she'd finished, staring at

539
00:34:40.280 --> 00:34:43.079
<v Speaker 2>her hearth, as if reading a water mark in the soot,

540
00:34:44.159 --> 00:34:47.159
<v Speaker 2>you know, she added, finally, it's not the losing of

541
00:34:47.199 --> 00:34:51.000
<v Speaker 2>to morrow that stings, not unless you've something worth hurrying toward.

542
00:34:51.480 --> 00:34:54.480
<v Speaker 2>We always had what we needed enough for every yesterday.

543
00:34:54.960 --> 00:34:58.360
<v Speaker 2>After a while, you learn it's enough. Storms stayed in

544
00:34:58.440 --> 00:35:02.440
<v Speaker 2>some one else's sky. We drank for a while in silence,

545
00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:06.440
<v Speaker 2>the wind pressed on the window, carrying the gull's complaints,

546
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:09.880
<v Speaker 2>I realized she was not only unconcerned by the loss

547
00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:13.239
<v Speaker 2>of to morrow, but almost protective of it. Bemused at

548
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:18.400
<v Speaker 2>my insistence, I tried another tack the fog. I've noticed

549
00:35:18.440 --> 00:35:21.559
<v Speaker 2>it never clears completely. Has any one ever seen out

550
00:35:21.639 --> 00:35:25.320
<v Speaker 2>past it? Left for a day and returned? Why do

551
00:35:25.360 --> 00:35:28.280
<v Speaker 2>you want to go past the fog? She counted, eyebrow sharp.

552
00:35:28.679 --> 00:35:31.880
<v Speaker 2>What's so fine about to morrow? Anyway? Folk try always

553
00:35:31.880 --> 00:35:35.039
<v Speaker 2>find themselves back at the quay, boots damp, memory, soft

554
00:35:35.079 --> 00:35:38.760
<v Speaker 2>as a bruise. Maybe that's the bargain. Maybe not for

555
00:35:38.840 --> 00:35:41.760
<v Speaker 2>a moment, her lips quivered with a smile. If you

556
00:35:41.800 --> 00:35:44.280
<v Speaker 2>can see through the fog, maybe you'll catch a glimpse

557
00:35:44.280 --> 00:35:47.320
<v Speaker 2>of to morrow. But no one here ever has not truly.

558
00:35:48.400 --> 00:35:51.199
<v Speaker 2>She rummaged for biscuits and pressed them into my palm,

559
00:35:51.519 --> 00:35:57.079
<v Speaker 2>and the conversation drifted into kinder topics, weather and recalcitrant hens. Still,

560
00:35:57.440 --> 00:36:00.039
<v Speaker 2>I left the cottage with her last questions stuck to

561
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:03.559
<v Speaker 2>me like sea weed. Why is tomorrow so important to you?

562
00:36:04.679 --> 00:36:07.519
<v Speaker 2>Fog accompanied me half way back, and I turned over

563
00:36:07.559 --> 00:36:10.880
<v Speaker 2>her words while clouds rolled low and pulled threads of

564
00:36:10.920 --> 00:36:14.519
<v Speaker 2>old anxiety. Was I chasing some hope of escape? Or

565
00:36:14.519 --> 00:36:19.400
<v Speaker 2>did all my old boundaries, dates, clocks, stamps suddenly seemed

566
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:23.639
<v Speaker 2>pale in the face of such contented stasis that restless

567
00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:26.800
<v Speaker 2>energy broke out. When I found Maureen prepping a batch

568
00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:30.679
<v Speaker 2>of batter for the weekly market, I pulled her aside, breathless,

569
00:36:31.159 --> 00:36:35.039
<v Speaker 2>Will you help me try something? She eyed me with suspicion,

570
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:40.000
<v Speaker 2>but nodded, depends on what we make it. Everything everywhere,

571
00:36:40.039 --> 00:36:43.320
<v Speaker 2>say to day or even to morrow, for once, change

572
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:47.199
<v Speaker 2>every sign, the menu, the pub board, the church, everything,

573
00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:50.920
<v Speaker 2>See if it sticks. She called for Rowland, and he

574
00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:54.199
<v Speaker 2>gamely joined us with only the smallest display of skepticism.

575
00:36:54.679 --> 00:36:58.039
<v Speaker 2>Three hands, a bucket of chalk, a pocket full of sharpies,

576
00:36:58.079 --> 00:37:01.679
<v Speaker 2>and more brio than sense. We swept through the village quietly,

577
00:37:01.719 --> 00:37:05.239
<v Speaker 2>erasing and rewriting blackboards at the bakery to day's bread,

578
00:37:05.639 --> 00:37:09.880
<v Speaker 2>grocer's window, fresh produce harvested to day. The chalkboard outside

579
00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:14.079
<v Speaker 2>the sailors not proclaiming to night quiz night grand prizes

580
00:37:14.159 --> 00:37:18.679
<v Speaker 2>forward to tomorrow. Even the post offices stamp we adjusted,

581
00:37:19.039 --> 00:37:23.039
<v Speaker 2>switching the dye to display the right date. Missus Jedge

582
00:37:23.079 --> 00:37:25.559
<v Speaker 2>saw us at the table. Pursed her lips, but on

583
00:37:25.639 --> 00:37:29.239
<v Speaker 2>seeing Maureen's set jaw, allowed it. If it'll end your

584
00:37:29.280 --> 00:37:33.679
<v Speaker 2>pestering just this. Once Rowland went to the church, changed

585
00:37:33.719 --> 00:37:36.400
<v Speaker 2>the date on the service board. I stuck paper over

586
00:37:36.519 --> 00:37:40.320
<v Speaker 2>village notices for one needy moment. I felt elated. As

587
00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:44.320
<v Speaker 2>dusk gathered, we declared a tomorrow meal, Maureen's best casseroles

588
00:37:44.400 --> 00:37:47.199
<v Speaker 2>dressed up as a celebratory feast. The three of us,

589
00:37:47.320 --> 00:37:50.920
<v Speaker 2>Rowland's daughters and Kurston from the cafe, squeezed round the table.

590
00:37:51.320 --> 00:37:54.920
<v Speaker 2>We toasted to day at last and crafted imprompt you

591
00:37:55.239 --> 00:37:59.480
<v Speaker 2>Tomorrow bunting from old newspaper. The others joined in with

592
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:03.800
<v Speaker 2>increasing cheerfulness, laughter running higher than usual, as if delighting

593
00:38:03.840 --> 00:38:06.800
<v Speaker 2>in the novelty and maybe the faint tremor of subversion.

594
00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:10.360
<v Speaker 2>Rowland insisted we parade to the key and announced the

595
00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:14.440
<v Speaker 2>arrival of Tomorrow. We did, waving napkins and off key singing,

596
00:38:14.639 --> 00:38:17.719
<v Speaker 2>and a few neighbors came to their doors, mildly bemused,

597
00:38:17.760 --> 00:38:21.480
<v Speaker 2>but joining in for the first time. A faint, improbable

598
00:38:21.480 --> 00:38:23.800
<v Speaker 2>seed of hope stirred in me. If we could pull

599
00:38:23.920 --> 00:38:26.719
<v Speaker 2>to Day into the world by insistence, would the village

600
00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:31.639
<v Speaker 2>let it root. Exhausted, we returned home, light headed and

601
00:38:31.800 --> 00:38:35.440
<v Speaker 2>washed out by the optimism. Morning, I woke to the

602
00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:39.000
<v Speaker 2>usual gray slice of light, stumbled out into chill air,

603
00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:43.000
<v Speaker 2>and set out to see if the impossible had held Back.

604
00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.599
<v Speaker 2>At the bakery, the blackboard was scuffed, but the looping

605
00:38:45.679 --> 00:38:51.039
<v Speaker 2>script read yesterday fresh loaf, the grocer's sign, delivery yesterday

606
00:38:51.280 --> 00:38:55.920
<v Speaker 2>outside the pub, quiz night, yesterday's winner. The service bored

607
00:38:55.920 --> 00:39:00.320
<v Speaker 2>at the church bore yesterday, the prodigal sun in side

608
00:39:00.360 --> 00:39:03.920
<v Speaker 2>the post office. Missus Jedge offered up an apologetic frown.

609
00:39:04.519 --> 00:39:07.480
<v Speaker 2>Wouldn't let me keep the new dye? Dear settled back

610
00:39:07.519 --> 00:39:11.480
<v Speaker 2>as it was? Can't quite say how even the bunting

611
00:39:11.480 --> 00:39:15.079
<v Speaker 2>from last night had been taken down. Rowland's Girl's munching

612
00:39:15.159 --> 00:39:19.519
<v Speaker 2>leftovers in the kitchen, Indeterminate about the reason, wasn't that

613
00:39:19.679 --> 00:39:24.400
<v Speaker 2>yesterday's party? Maureen shrugged, not unkindly and checked the weather

614
00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:28.719
<v Speaker 2>radio for yesterday's forecast. It was as if the evening's

615
00:39:28.719 --> 00:39:32.840
<v Speaker 2>commotion had been a peculiar pageantry, memorable in feeling, but

616
00:39:32.920 --> 00:39:37.480
<v Speaker 2>already part of the same old Yesterday. I walked alone

617
00:39:37.519 --> 00:39:40.320
<v Speaker 2>to the village boundary, determined to see if something would

618
00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:43.800
<v Speaker 2>meet me from outside. The mist here thickened, drawing close

619
00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:47.440
<v Speaker 2>as a blindfold, the path twisted between bracken and stone,

620
00:39:47.800 --> 00:39:51.480
<v Speaker 2>the seas hushing louder. Now I pressed on, determined to

621
00:39:51.559 --> 00:39:55.519
<v Speaker 2>keep walking. Steps counted, pace measured, even as the trees

622
00:39:55.559 --> 00:39:58.760
<v Speaker 2>along the path seemed to repeat the third lichen blotched

623
00:39:58.840 --> 00:40:03.000
<v Speaker 2>gait by my left hand again and again. I thought,

624
00:40:03.119 --> 00:40:07.920
<v Speaker 2>absurdly of those old stories lost travelers rounding circles forever

625
00:40:08.000 --> 00:40:11.760
<v Speaker 2>in fairy woods. And then suddenly I was back at

626
00:40:11.800 --> 00:40:15.440
<v Speaker 2>the familiar junction by the square, the bakery to one side,

627
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:19.400
<v Speaker 2>the pub to another. Kirston called after me, out for

628
00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:23.440
<v Speaker 2>a walk again? Are you just like yesterday? It wasn't

629
00:40:23.480 --> 00:40:27.559
<v Speaker 2>a threat or a warning, just gentle acknowledgment, a tide

630
00:40:27.559 --> 00:40:30.679
<v Speaker 2>one could not press against, no matter how one flailed.

631
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:35.159
<v Speaker 2>At midday, frustrated but not defeated, I went to see

632
00:40:35.199 --> 00:40:38.920
<v Speaker 2>Reverend Carmichael the vicarage. Crouched beneath a pair of wind

633
00:40:38.920 --> 00:40:44.480
<v Speaker 2>scissored sycamores, humble book lined oddly comforting, he welcomed me in,

634
00:40:44.800 --> 00:40:48.360
<v Speaker 2>producing a battered box of parish registers and offering weekly

635
00:40:48.400 --> 00:40:51.320
<v Speaker 2>brewed coffee in a cup that read Vicar of yesterday.

636
00:40:51.480 --> 00:40:55.920
<v Speaker 2>In a faded script, I explained my discovery in the library,

637
00:40:56.119 --> 00:41:00.519
<v Speaker 2>the changing chalkboards, the failed experiment, my sense that whatever

638
00:41:00.599 --> 00:41:04.000
<v Speaker 2>shaped yesterday here, it was not only a matter of habit,

639
00:41:04.239 --> 00:41:10.039
<v Speaker 2>but something deeper, older communal. He listened gravely. My understanding,

640
00:41:10.280 --> 00:41:13.119
<v Speaker 2>he said, after a thoughtful interval, is that every generation

641
00:41:13.239 --> 00:41:16.840
<v Speaker 2>finds its own story for the same shore. When I arrived,

642
00:41:16.880 --> 00:41:19.880
<v Speaker 2>ten years passed. Now I thought it a charming quirk.

643
00:41:20.239 --> 00:41:23.760
<v Speaker 2>Then it became a provocation, even a spiritual puzzle fell

644
00:41:23.800 --> 00:41:26.719
<v Speaker 2>into the old records. Some blame the storm, some a

645
00:41:26.760 --> 00:41:29.840
<v Speaker 2>lost child, or a vanished army, or a fisher king

646
00:41:29.880 --> 00:41:33.000
<v Speaker 2>who never returned. Each story is a kind of net

647
00:41:33.079 --> 00:41:36.400
<v Speaker 2>cast over what we dare not name. He laid out

648
00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:39.599
<v Speaker 2>a series of register books, rolls, and records, not so

649
00:41:39.719 --> 00:41:43.039
<v Speaker 2>different than those I'd seen in the library, except annotated

650
00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:46.840
<v Speaker 2>in his own gentle hand. Every entry, birth, marriage, a

651
00:41:46.880 --> 00:41:50.599
<v Speaker 2>dispute about the garden wall, all marked for yesterday, none

652
00:41:50.679 --> 00:41:53.320
<v Speaker 2>for to day, never for tomorrow. It doesn't matter if

653
00:41:53.320 --> 00:41:57.320
<v Speaker 2>I intend otherwise. The habit unravels my intention every time

654
00:41:57.880 --> 00:42:02.000
<v Speaker 2>parishioners mention anniversaries and sermons as if they've just transpired

655
00:42:02.119 --> 00:42:07.159
<v Speaker 2>or might still but always yesterday. It's not carelessness, more

656
00:42:07.239 --> 00:42:11.599
<v Speaker 2>like an intention pressed in all directions, an endless, low tide.

657
00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:15.760
<v Speaker 2>I poured us both more coffee. Emboldened by his candor,

658
00:42:16.360 --> 00:42:19.400
<v Speaker 2>Has any one ever tried to leave or to challenge it?

659
00:42:20.440 --> 00:42:24.440
<v Speaker 2>He smiled, with something between pride and resignation. A few

660
00:42:25.039 --> 00:42:28.800
<v Speaker 2>young folk sometimes make fun, paint out the dates, plant

661
00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:31.920
<v Speaker 2>future trees on the green, that sort of thing. The

662
00:42:32.039 --> 00:42:36.000
<v Speaker 2>changes rarely last. The old notion returns as surely as

663
00:42:36.039 --> 00:42:39.480
<v Speaker 2>the mist. He drew out a unique looking diary the

664
00:42:39.639 --> 00:42:44.320
<v Speaker 2>archivists above mentioned diary of debates, its cover padded, edges, worn, ink,

665
00:42:44.360 --> 00:42:47.280
<v Speaker 2>faded to violet. There's a passage here if you like,

666
00:42:47.719 --> 00:42:50.599
<v Speaker 2>he read, voice low and clear. Are we trapped? Or

667
00:42:50.639 --> 00:42:53.480
<v Speaker 2>have we chosen? Does yesterday keep us safe from the

668
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:56.320
<v Speaker 2>loss of old faces, old homes? Or does it fret

669
00:42:56.400 --> 00:42:59.519
<v Speaker 2>us into smaller and smaller circles? When did it begin?

670
00:43:00.079 --> 00:43:04.639
<v Speaker 2>Was it always so? A pause? But look here? He

671
00:43:04.679 --> 00:43:07.719
<v Speaker 2>turned the page, each entry, no matter the question is

672
00:43:07.760 --> 00:43:13.480
<v Speaker 2>signed off written yesterday. I considered what that meant. Not evasion,

673
00:43:13.760 --> 00:43:17.719
<v Speaker 2>but perhaps a profound, even protective need, a desire to

674
00:43:17.760 --> 00:43:20.400
<v Speaker 2>never move past loss, to never risk what could be

675
00:43:20.440 --> 00:43:24.480
<v Speaker 2>swept away by storm or progress. My old habits, the

676
00:43:24.519 --> 00:43:27.880
<v Speaker 2>world kept straight by order and deadlines began to seem

677
00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:33.519
<v Speaker 2>as idiosyncratic, as collectively willed as anything here. As I left,

678
00:43:33.559 --> 00:43:35.960
<v Speaker 2>Missus Jedge waved me down from her post at the counter,

679
00:43:36.320 --> 00:43:39.480
<v Speaker 2>post bags slung over her elbow. Her smile was knowing

680
00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:42.960
<v Speaker 2>you're like this, she said, laying out a battered notebook

681
00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:46.199
<v Speaker 2>in which she'd tallied odd observations. No local can recall

682
00:43:46.280 --> 00:43:49.519
<v Speaker 2>to morrow, not ever, not once. Yet we never forget either.

683
00:43:49.880 --> 00:43:53.199
<v Speaker 2>It's safer that way. Don't risk disappointment, don't invite the

684
00:43:53.239 --> 00:43:57.039
<v Speaker 2>sea's teeth. I write birthday reminders, market lists always set

685
00:43:57.039 --> 00:44:01.960
<v Speaker 2>for yesterday, never run late, never run early. Naturally. She

686
00:44:02.039 --> 00:44:05.000
<v Speaker 2>flipped through the pages, then produced the latest edition of

687
00:44:05.039 --> 00:44:09.239
<v Speaker 2>the Echo, headline storm averted Yesterday once again, she laughed.

688
00:44:09.760 --> 00:44:12.599
<v Speaker 2>You see there's comfort. Never quite have to let go

689
00:44:12.719 --> 00:44:15.280
<v Speaker 2>of what you liked, No need to mourn, no need

690
00:44:15.320 --> 00:44:18.599
<v Speaker 2>to trudge forward. Ask the children, even they'll tell you

691
00:44:18.840 --> 00:44:24.039
<v Speaker 2>Birthday yesterday. Cake never spoiled, gifts never gone. I glanced

692
00:44:24.039 --> 00:44:26.960
<v Speaker 2>at the visitor's book again, flipping to the back. Among

693
00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:31.000
<v Speaker 2>the careful, sometimes puzzled hands of guests was message after message,

694
00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:35.519
<v Speaker 2>I was here yesterday, a French family, a touring Canadian couple.

695
00:44:35.960 --> 00:44:40.599
<v Speaker 2>We came and yesterday greeted us. Strangeness, yes, Confusion, certainly,

696
00:44:40.960 --> 00:44:44.800
<v Speaker 2>but never fear, never panic. More often a shy contentment,

697
00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:47.480
<v Speaker 2>a sense that even the unsettling had been handled with

698
00:44:47.519 --> 00:44:51.760
<v Speaker 2>a soft glove. Later that afternoon, over a cup at

699
00:44:51.800 --> 00:44:55.000
<v Speaker 2>the cafe, I tried to posit the psychological angle to

700
00:44:55.079 --> 00:44:59.599
<v Speaker 2>Maureen and Rowland. Maybe it's survival. The world outside brings

701
00:44:59.679 --> 00:45:04.199
<v Speaker 2>up here evils, war, weather, migrations. Maybe the only safe

702
00:45:04.199 --> 00:45:06.719
<v Speaker 2>way to stay whole was to give up ever reckoning

703
00:45:06.760 --> 00:45:11.400
<v Speaker 2>with the future. Rowland shrugged could be, or just that

704
00:45:11.519 --> 00:45:15.320
<v Speaker 2>nobody much liked change. We're not like you post office folk,

705
00:45:15.320 --> 00:45:20.199
<v Speaker 2>needing everything just so. Maureen always brisk tapped the table.

706
00:45:20.800 --> 00:45:24.880
<v Speaker 2>Suppose it's more if you call everything yesterday, nothing ever

707
00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:27.760
<v Speaker 2>really leaves. You don't have to say good bye, You

708
00:45:27.800 --> 00:45:31.639
<v Speaker 2>don't have to lose what you can't hold. As evening thickened,

709
00:45:31.800 --> 00:45:34.159
<v Speaker 2>I sat in the square with my own battered watch.

710
00:45:34.719 --> 00:45:38.000
<v Speaker 2>This time I tried a technical test, sink two digital

711
00:45:38.039 --> 00:45:41.119
<v Speaker 2>watches to the outside world, one left with missus Judge

712
00:45:41.119 --> 00:45:44.360
<v Speaker 2>in the post office, one in my own pocket. At

713
00:45:44.360 --> 00:45:47.440
<v Speaker 2>the start of yesterday. They showed the same hour, minute,

714
00:45:47.559 --> 00:45:50.800
<v Speaker 2>even the blinking second. I walked clear to the headland,

715
00:45:51.039 --> 00:45:54.000
<v Speaker 2>peered into the thickening night, let the sea mist graze

716
00:45:54.000 --> 00:45:58.199
<v Speaker 2>my cheeks. An hour or two later, hard to judge

717
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:02.840
<v Speaker 2>despite my old skills, I returned, nerves tickling with anticipation.

718
00:46:03.559 --> 00:46:07.400
<v Speaker 2>Missus Jedge slid my spare watch across the table. The

719
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:12.159
<v Speaker 2>displays matched stolidly. Seconds had passed as expected, but the

720
00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:16.199
<v Speaker 2>date stubbornly read to July, matching neither the clocks I

721
00:46:16.239 --> 00:46:18.639
<v Speaker 2>had left at home, nor those I'd seen in service

722
00:46:18.719 --> 00:46:21.239
<v Speaker 2>rooms up and down the length of England. But ticking

723
00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:26.239
<v Speaker 2>along with yesterday. Here, Missus Jeedge grinned, delighted. What did

724
00:46:26.280 --> 00:46:30.639
<v Speaker 2>you expect? Time runs on yesterday's tide? By now the

725
00:46:30.719 --> 00:46:36.400
<v Speaker 2>question had outgrown mere classification, habit, tradition, routine into something

726
00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:43.519
<v Speaker 2>wholly alive, peculiar, a self maintaining truth. It cohered through story, custom, myth, and, perhaps,

727
00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:46.960
<v Speaker 2>though I couldn't begin to understand it, something elemental in

728
00:46:47.039 --> 00:46:49.480
<v Speaker 2>the air, the fog, or the chalked bones of the

729
00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:53.880
<v Speaker 2>headland itself. It was easy, having found so much to

730
00:46:53.920 --> 00:46:57.840
<v Speaker 2>be seduced by the surface oddity and stopped there. After all,

731
00:46:58.119 --> 00:47:00.800
<v Speaker 2>my entire life had been about pinning down the days,

732
00:47:01.199 --> 00:47:05.000
<v Speaker 2>moving forward by increments charted with stamps and date pads

733
00:47:05.039 --> 00:47:08.599
<v Speaker 2>and alarms that, without ever meaning it wrote the world

734
00:47:08.639 --> 00:47:13.760
<v Speaker 2>into ordered grids. But now, after walking days, no, not days,

735
00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:17.800
<v Speaker 2>Yesterday's within the village, the deeper realization tugged at me.

736
00:47:18.400 --> 00:47:20.480
<v Speaker 2>It was not just that time here had been bent

737
00:47:20.599 --> 00:47:24.920
<v Speaker 2>by unexamined tradition, but that tradition itself had become the environment.

738
00:47:25.639 --> 00:47:29.480
<v Speaker 2>Yesterday itself was the water, the very air, a shield

739
00:47:29.480 --> 00:47:33.400
<v Speaker 2>against loss and a balm for wounds. Refusing the possibility

740
00:47:33.440 --> 00:47:38.159
<v Speaker 2>of regret or change. Over supper, Maureen saw my pensiveness.

741
00:47:38.559 --> 00:47:41.400
<v Speaker 2>Did you get what you came for? She asked, voice

742
00:47:41.400 --> 00:47:45.800
<v Speaker 2>softer now. I shook my head, then nodded, unsure. I

743
00:47:45.840 --> 00:47:48.239
<v Speaker 2>don't think i'll ever fully know how it started, but

744
00:47:48.320 --> 00:47:50.840
<v Speaker 2>I think I understand why it matters. You will get

745
00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:53.559
<v Speaker 2>to keep all at once, everything you've ever cared for.

746
00:47:54.039 --> 00:47:57.360
<v Speaker 2>In yesterday. There's no loss, no to morrow to threaten.

747
00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:00.920
<v Speaker 2>What's safe. It's not my world, but it's I trailed off,

748
00:48:01.239 --> 00:48:04.559
<v Speaker 2>unable to name the exact combination of comfort and unease,

749
00:48:05.679 --> 00:48:08.880
<v Speaker 2>She squeezed my hand across the table, her thumb warm

750
00:48:09.360 --> 00:48:11.760
<v Speaker 2>and gave me a look that said I'd risen, perhaps

751
00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:14.800
<v Speaker 2>to the edge of the map. I think you found

752
00:48:14.800 --> 00:48:18.079
<v Speaker 2>the only answer there is. She murmured, don't make it

753
00:48:18.119 --> 00:48:22.159
<v Speaker 2>more complicated than it's glad to be. The fog thickened

754
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:24.679
<v Speaker 2>around the window, and for the first time I let

755
00:48:24.679 --> 00:48:29.920
<v Speaker 2>myself accept, maybe even admire, the peculiar harmony this place

756
00:48:29.920 --> 00:48:33.199
<v Speaker 2>had not broken time, it had folded it endlessly on

757
00:48:33.239 --> 00:48:37.519
<v Speaker 2>to a safe, softer shelf. On my last morning, the

758
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:40.360
<v Speaker 2>fog lay in only a low shroud, and the sea

759
00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:45.079
<v Speaker 2>was visible, pewter and wild beyond the headland, bags packed,

760
00:48:45.320 --> 00:48:48.239
<v Speaker 2>I paused at the doorway, feeling unmoored in a way

761
00:48:48.280 --> 00:48:52.199
<v Speaker 2>that was neither lonely nor afraid. Rowland met me by

762
00:48:52.199 --> 00:48:56.000
<v Speaker 2>the lane, arms folded tight against the wind. If you

763
00:48:56.039 --> 00:48:59.639
<v Speaker 2>want to come back, just knock. Doors always open yesterday

764
00:48:59.719 --> 00:49:02.880
<v Speaker 2>or not. And if you solve it, really solve it.

765
00:49:03.239 --> 00:49:07.119
<v Speaker 2>Perhaps let us know just after it's all done. Maureen

766
00:49:07.239 --> 00:49:10.679
<v Speaker 2>hugged me with her arms and her voice briskness melting away.

767
00:49:11.320 --> 00:49:15.360
<v Speaker 2>Don't wait too long. We'll see you well yesterday, she laughed,

768
00:49:15.599 --> 00:49:19.559
<v Speaker 2>almost like an apology, and benediction. Both. I set out

769
00:49:19.559 --> 00:49:22.280
<v Speaker 2>on the damp gravel lane, the world a little clearer,

770
00:49:22.559 --> 00:49:25.719
<v Speaker 2>the air sharp with brine and old violets. As I

771
00:49:25.760 --> 00:49:28.199
<v Speaker 2>reached the crest of the valley, the village behind me,

772
00:49:28.519 --> 00:49:31.079
<v Speaker 2>I looked back once to watch the sun finally pick

773
00:49:31.119 --> 00:49:34.440
<v Speaker 2>its way through the fog. It made towers of golden air,

774
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:37.880
<v Speaker 2>lighting the windows and the curling lanes. I could just

775
00:49:37.920 --> 00:49:43.840
<v Speaker 2>make out the children's voices, the distant hammer on boat wood, familiar, continuous, peaceful.

776
00:49:44.800 --> 00:49:47.480
<v Speaker 2>The further I walked, the more I wondered if time

777
00:49:47.559 --> 00:49:51.199
<v Speaker 2>outside would snap forward or simply accept me, return me

778
00:49:51.280 --> 00:49:54.519
<v Speaker 2>to clocks and headlines and the long, cool tick of

779
00:49:54.679 --> 00:49:58.719
<v Speaker 2>ordinary days. When I reached my home days later, or

780
00:49:58.760 --> 00:50:03.320
<v Speaker 2>so it seemed, it was a small stack of letters, waiting, bills, notices,

781
00:50:03.360 --> 00:50:07.039
<v Speaker 2>and on top a faded envelope postmarked in Maureen's brisk,

782
00:50:07.400 --> 00:50:12.480
<v Speaker 2>unmistakable hand to j U l twenty one, yesterday again,

783
00:50:12.679 --> 00:50:15.519
<v Speaker 2>no matter when it had left her. I sat at

784
00:50:15.559 --> 00:50:18.360
<v Speaker 2>my kitchen table, the city returning in the tap and

785
00:50:18.400 --> 00:50:22.400
<v Speaker 2>shuffle of passing buses, and flipped through my diary. Every

786
00:50:22.440 --> 00:50:26.639
<v Speaker 2>page from the village began yesterday. Details blurred the harbor,

787
00:50:26.719 --> 00:50:29.880
<v Speaker 2>the smell of fog and mackerel, the shape of Maureen's smile,

788
00:50:30.199 --> 00:50:34.119
<v Speaker 2>the taste of bread and strong tea. Each memory was immediate,

789
00:50:34.440 --> 00:50:38.719
<v Speaker 2>Each memory was yesterday. Perhaps I wrote in that same

790
00:50:38.760 --> 00:50:42.960
<v Speaker 2>book somewhere yesterday has never ended. Perhaps we all carry

791
00:50:42.960 --> 00:50:46.320
<v Speaker 2>a small part of it tucked in paper, memory, or

792
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:48.840
<v Speaker 2>in the ways we refuse to grieve or let go.

793
00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:52.760
<v Speaker 2>I cut the envelope in my palm, held a little

794
00:50:52.760 --> 00:50:56.519
<v Speaker 2>longer than needed, and let the mystery remain, not unsettled,

795
00:50:56.760 --> 00:51:01.280
<v Speaker 2>but gently cradled. Because for that VI, and maybe for

796
00:51:01.360 --> 00:51:04.760
<v Speaker 2>more of us than we'd care to admit, yesterday is

797
00:51:04.920 --> 00:51:06.920
<v Speaker 2>just the name we give a place the world has

798
00:51:07.000 --> 00:51:08.159
<v Speaker 2>never quite let go.

799
00:51:10.760 --> 00:51:13.239
<v Speaker 1>And that is the end. Thank you for listening, and

800
00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:17.320
<v Speaker 1>I will see you in the next one.