WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:08.119 There is a rhythm to a railway town, even once 2 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:11.519 the trains have left. Twenty seven strides from my garden 3 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:14.160 gate to the bakery, thirteen more to where the old 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:17.640 station platform peaks behind the hedges, though these days the 5 00:00:17.679 --> 00:00:21.640 platform serves only pigeons and stray cats. My walks form 6 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:26.640 their own timetable up Hillcrest, down Church Lane, then Main Street, 7 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:30.920 running parallel to the vanished tracks. I follow this winding 8 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:34.200 route most mornings, my silver pocket watch ticking in its 9 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:37.920 felt lined pouch, a relic from forty years spent minding 10 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.840 trains retired. Now my days keep the shape of old 11 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:46.200 rail schedules, only softer and quieter. It was on one 12 00:00:46.200 --> 00:00:49.560 of these nearly thoughtless walks a Tuesday in early spring, 13 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:52.399 when the daffodils knotted gold along the curb, that I 14 00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:55.399 glanced up at the clock tower beside the station, not 15 00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:59.039 out of any true expectation habit, more like it. The 16 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:02.679 clock tower is the town supposed crown slate, roofed and 17 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:05.959 chiseled with the date eighteen eighty seven. Its hands were 18 00:01:05.959 --> 00:01:09.920 always frozen at odd, useless angles. For decades. Every one 19 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:12.439 said it had never worked, or at least never kept 20 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:16.640 faith with the real time. The council couldn't afford repairs. 21 00:01:16.920 --> 00:01:20.640 Eventually no one cared, so I'd look, smile rly and 22 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:25.159 reach for the pocket watch. Ritual except that Tuesday, the 23 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.879 clock face high above me, read nine zero one. I 24 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:33.519 checked my watch, Yes, nine zero one, exactly, the second hand, 25 00:01:33.599 --> 00:01:37.480 tidily vertical. A chime came faintly from my little radio 26 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:41.079 tucked in my jacket. The local hour signal right on queue. 27 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:46.599 Three ways to know the time, three independent confirmations. Still 28 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:49.040 the clock had always been dead. I stood on the 29 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:54.280 empty station forecourt, considering the hands, broad black, tarnished at 30 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:57.040 the tips, looked as fixed as ever, but the time 31 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:00.239 was no longer random. The odd shape of the moment 32 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:04.560 amused me all the same. I waited. My walk became 33 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:08.479 a loiter five minutes drifted by. The hands did not budge. 34 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:12.439 A few crows scavenged breakfast from the gutter. The wind 35 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:15.560 jostled the limp bunting left over from some winter event. 36 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 The minute hand, thick and dignified, stood unmoved. Perhaps someone 37 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.240 had wound the mechanism, timed it right, set it running 38 00:02:24.280 --> 00:02:27.319 for a brief spell, even then for it to match 39 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:32.840 so perfectly, an impressive coincidence. An hour later, after looping 40 00:02:32.840 --> 00:02:35.280 through the bakery and a few other errands, I turned 41 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:38.800 back onto Main Street habit again. My eyes went up. 42 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:42.879 The clock face now read ten zero one, perfect again, 43 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:45.719 matching my watch and the ticking from the radio. But 44 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.560 the air carried a certain dustiness, the sense that no 45 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:51.560 one had tended that tower in months. Certainly I had 46 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:55.080 not seen anyone come or go. The windows remained laced 47 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:58.520 with cobwebs, and the rusty, unused door below the clock 48 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:03.599 was padlocked. As always. I walked home that morning, unusually distracted, 49 00:03:03.879 --> 00:03:06.879 my steps soft on the gravel, mined, occupied not by 50 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:10.319 aches or errands, but by the absurd steadiness of that clock. 51 00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:13.159 The more I thought about it, the less it fit. 52 00:03:13.719 --> 00:03:18.000 In all my years servicing schedules, punctuality was precious. The 53 00:03:18.080 --> 00:03:20.960 unreliability of that clock was one of the few constants 54 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:25.080 across two generations of conductors and porters. Yet there it was, 55 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:29.759 as right as rain and silent as ever. By supper time, 56 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:33.280 I'd resolved to pay more attention. Some one was making 57 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:36.319 a lire of the town's oldest myth, or else I 58 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:39.599 thought something stranger was at play, though I could not 59 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:42.840 begin to say. What if you've never lived in a 60 00:03:42.919 --> 00:03:45.960 railway town that's outlived its own railway, you might not 61 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:49.599 catch the shape of its silences. Our station sits shuttered, 62 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:52.159 a shell on the edge of everything, with tracks pried 63 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.319 up and wild fennel growing where the express once thundered through. 64 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:59.039 But in layout, the station still commands the town's axis. 65 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:02.520 Main street curves to kiss its front steps. The shops 66 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.240 press close as if hoping for a last ticket, and 67 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:09.400 the clock tower leans quietly but with authority over it all. 68 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:14.120 The cafe stands right beneath its shadow. That's where Arthur 69 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:18.279 Singh pauses famous stovetop coffee, describes each pastry with a 70 00:04:18.279 --> 00:04:22.079 proud wave, and listens with enviable patients to complaints about 71 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:27.360 the buses that now rule the roads. He's a natural collector, tales, mementos, 72 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:32.079 faded posters from long lost train holidays. Most folks call 73 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:36.560 his place the Lost Property Office for conversation. On the 74 00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:40.000 next corner lives missus Rosslyn Vickery, my neighbor and the 75 00:04:40.040 --> 00:04:43.439 nearest thing we've got to a living encyclopedia. She taught 76 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.160 history at the school for thirty years and conducts her 77 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:50.120 own little expeditions into our town, stories who built which wall, 78 00:04:50.399 --> 00:04:53.720 which family owned, the maidenhair ferns below the park, even 79 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:58.079 a recurrent theory about Roman coins occasionally found at market. 80 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:02.120 She calls herself an amateur horologist, but a true gift 81 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:06.639 is keeping old things remembered. Then there's Frankie Bell, who's 82 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:10.600 only sixteen but already serves as the town's unofficial photographer, 83 00:05:11.079 --> 00:05:14.560 always dashing between the general store and wherever light looks 84 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:19.560 most interesting. Frankie documents family arguments and potholes with equal care. 85 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.439 And I've lost count of the time she's darted ahead 86 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:27.120 of me, proclaiming, hold still, mister Harper, this'll look dramatic 87 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:31.600 in black and white. People often say our town runs slow, 88 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:34.920 even for rural England, and it's true in some sense. 89 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:38.279 The markets unravel at their leisure, the pub opens and 90 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:41.439 closes with no published hour, and the only school bell 91 00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:46.040 left is a recording piped through cracked speakers. But for decades, everything, 92 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:50.519 absolutely everything, once synchronized to the clock tower. Even as 93 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.800 its hands stalled, time itself flowed around the myth of 94 00:05:53.839 --> 00:05:58.480 its old precision school term announced from the steps. Once 95 00:05:58.519 --> 00:06:01.600 the clock counted down, the final minutes of summer. The 96 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:04.920 post always sorted on the hour, with the hour dictated 97 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:08.120 by whichever side of the face faced the post office window. 98 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:12.480 Best my own trains departed with the station mistress consulting 99 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:16.240 her little schedule book, which always began as per clock 100 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:21.120 tower time allow margin. No one believed in the mechanism, 101 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:25.279 but everyone abided its authority. Ask any old timer where 102 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:29.480 to stand, and they'll point by the clock. Town meetings, 103 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.680 nativity plays, even the annual pancake race we time them 104 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:37.839 to that stubborn, mostly mute dial. Yet ask a dozen 105 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:41.120 residents how the clock kept or failed to keep time, 106 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.399 and you'll get stories spun from memory, longing and a 107 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:48.319 bit of weary resignation. Never worked, but always told us 108 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:52.079 what we needed. Arthur would joke. Good for nothing but pigeons, 109 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:55.920 replied the late Missus Bardsley, peering over her pruning shears. 110 00:06:56.360 --> 00:06:59.000 Yet not a day passed without someone glancing up at 111 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:03.759 the tower measure their progress against its stilled verdict. Lately, 112 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:06.560 though I find the clock's odd presence hard to dismiss. 113 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:10.319 It is not simply derelict steel and faded numerals, but 114 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:13.639 some pulse embedded in the bone of things. You can't 115 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:16.000 make a schedule in this town that isn't, in some 116 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:19.959 small way an echo of the tower's authority. Even the 117 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:23.800 new bus drivers squint at it unconsciously, confident that it 118 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:28.160 stands for something certain. All these routines acquire a new 119 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:31.639 edge after my Tuesday discovery. If the clock is suddenly 120 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:35.600 impossibly correct, what does that make of all our settled rituals. 121 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:39.360 I keep replaying that walk though stationary hands, the silent 122 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.879 metamorphosis of the face from nine zero one to ten 123 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:46.600 zero one. I'm a man who likes a system, who 124 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.160 understands the trust and betrayal of schedules and the dignity 125 00:07:50.160 --> 00:07:53.560 of keeping time. A silent clock cannot be forgiven for 126 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:57.560 being right out of habit and a dose of intrigue. 127 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:02.519 I start asking questions. On Wednesday, as the town blinked awake, 128 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:05.800 I made my way to Rosslyn's garden. She was kneeling 129 00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:10.079 among pale tulips, gloved hands deep in winter mulch. I 130 00:08:10.120 --> 00:08:14.120 didn't waste much ceremony, Rosslyn, did you happen to see 131 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:19.040 the clock tower lately? It's keeping time? Apparently? She sat 132 00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:22.439 back on her heels and laughed a rich chestnut sound, 133 00:08:23.439 --> 00:08:27.000 Oh ewen, it always has, isn't that the joke? She 134 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:29.959 shook a streak of earth from her glove. My father 135 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:32.639 set his watch by that thing every Sunday till the 136 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:37.600 day he went blind. Yes, yes, but I faltered, suddenly 137 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:41.159 aware of how easily she dismissed the doubt. Every One 138 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:43.919 says it's dead, but it's been spot on these last 139 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.759 few days. Yet I've never seen any one wind it 140 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:51.000 or fix it? Have you? She mulded over, gaze flicking 141 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:54.000 upward in thought. My gran used to claim a repair 142 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:56.519 man came in the night, wore a blue coat, or 143 00:08:56.559 --> 00:08:59.960 so she said. But Gran also insisted our milk's swirl 144 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:04.600 clockwise because of the tower's shadow. Another laugh. No one 145 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:07.559 seen anything for decades. There's not even a ladder left 146 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.200 in the station. You know, then, how does it stay right? 147 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:15.879 Rosslyn considered me the way a teacher examines a student's 148 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:19.120 wild guess. Maybe people just need it to be right. 149 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.879 What will we do otherwise? Move to bus schedules, she 150 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:27.080 mock shuddered. I left no closer to sense, but oddly 151 00:09:27.159 --> 00:09:32.600 cheered outside. The clock face remained sedately self assured, its hands, 152 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:37.000 refusing to betray their secret. Next, I stopped by Arthur's 153 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.000 cafe before the breakfast rush. He was adjusting chairs, wearing 154 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:45.240 that faded aprons stitched with sings calf better than time tables. 155 00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:50.039 When I posed my riddle, he leaned in. Ah, the clock, 156 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:54.240 the clock, he said, voice syrupy with nostalgia. Back when 157 00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:57.080 my uncle ran the kitchen, he told me an engineer 158 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:01.480 had set up some electromagnetic trick. Never knew winding true 159 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:05.799 railway cleverness. We were the envy of the line. I 160 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:09.679 raised an eyebrow. I poked around once years ago. Didn't 161 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:14.360 see any wires. Arthur grinned, unbothered. You wouldn't, would you. 162 00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:18.200 That was the genius of it, invisible. Or maybe it's 163 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:21.519 the magic of the station without trains. The magic's all 164 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:25.600 that's left. Well, it's working again, if it ever stopped, 165 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:30.840 I admitted. Arthur spread his hands, delighted. That's time for you. 166 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:34.840 Sometimes you stop counting and let it count you. I 167 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:38.919 took my coffee to the window, uncertainty sweetening the first sip. 168 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:42.960 Later that day, as I pondered the strange fidelity of 169 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:46.440 the clock, I remembered Frankie's camera perched on the general 170 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:51.159 store counter. I stopped in found her stocking the magazine rack, 171 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:56.559 her head crowned with earbuds. Frankie, I said, lowering my 172 00:10:56.679 --> 00:11:00.440 voice conspiratorially, I need your help with a little experiment. 173 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:04.519 She brightened. If it involves the clock tower, I'm in 174 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:08.159 everyone's talking about it. My mum says, the hands haven't 175 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:11.879 moved since last October, but now it's showing Thursday's soup 176 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:17.240 special right on time. Her grin bordered on impish. I 177 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:19.960 want to check exactly what time the clock is showing 178 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:24.879 at this moment, I explained, nodding toward her camera. We 179 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:28.240 walked together to Main Street, stood directly beneath the dial. 180 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:32.039 I clicked open my watch two thirty three p m. 181 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:35.840 On the dot. Frankie raised her camera and snapped a crisp, 182 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:41.240 high resolution photo. We studied the image together there, frozen 183 00:11:41.320 --> 00:11:45.519 in digital clarity. Were the hands unmistakably at two thirty 184 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:50.639 three undeniable since the phone's metadator corroborated the very second. 185 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:54.919 I was watching it all morning, I muttered, didn't see 186 00:11:54.960 --> 00:12:00.120 those hands move once. Frankie shrugged, checking her phone. Yes, 187 00:12:00.200 --> 00:12:03.000 it likes to perform when no one's gawking. May be 188 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:06.799 it's camera shy, yet her eyes lingered on the face, 189 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:10.720 and for a moment her humor faded. May be it 190 00:12:10.840 --> 00:12:14.679 always just knows what you want to see. I didn't 191 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:19.639 answer That afternoon. The contradiction replayed in my mind, restless 192 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:22.519 as the trains that used to pass for a clock 193 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:25.399 that never worked. It could not be caught being wrong. 194 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.759 We are a people fond of records and routines. Years 195 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.679 of punching tickets, recording arrivals, and matching watches gave me 196 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:38.200 a suspicion for coincidence. That week I began my informal log. 197 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.159 Each day, I wrote down the time displayed by the 198 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:45.240 clock tower, lining up the readings with my watch, always wound, 199 00:12:45.559 --> 00:12:50.039 always trusted, and on some mornings, with Frankie's phone. It 200 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:53.559 became a running joke between us, care for a time check. 201 00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:58.279 She'd call from across the bakery, camera primed. My careful 202 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:01.879 notes rang with absurdity at seven twenty five a m. 203 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:06.279 One twelve p M. Four forty six p m. Each 204 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:08.559 time I looked up, the clock wore the right face, 205 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:12.080 not one minute ahead, not a tick behind. The hands 206 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:15.440 never shifted as I watched, but whenever my attention drifted 207 00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:19.720 elsewhere the world forgot to keep them still. Frankie joined 208 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:23.879 in wholeheartedly, conducting her own tests. She snapped photos at 209 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:28.360 odd inconvenient hours, lunch break, twilight, and after the town 210 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:31.480 bonfire when the square was a whirl of embers. Every 211 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.879 time the digital display echoed my own reading. On the 212 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:38.279 few occasions when we compared images from two separate phones, 213 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:41.960 the clock face agreed with both. Her laughter had become 214 00:13:42.080 --> 00:13:44.759 less certain. We wondered if we were the subjects of 215 00:13:44.799 --> 00:13:48.759 some elaborate prank. But it wasn't enough to chase shadows 216 00:13:48.759 --> 00:13:52.639 between the two of us. On Thursday, I started canvassing 217 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:56.600 those with longer memories than mine. My first stop was 218 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.679 the home of mister Penn, whose silver beard predates the 219 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:03.279 British rail logo. He presided over his porch like an 220 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:07.639 ancient owl, newspaper folded in his lap. When I was 221 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:11.480 a boy, he said, after a long, slow consideration, the 222 00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:15.679 clock was wired to the old telegraph office underground. Mind 223 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.240 nobody'd see it synchronized to London time. Yes, that's how 224 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:24.679 it kept so perfect. But the telegraph line es been 225 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:29.559 down since before the war, I interjected. He shrugged. Clever 226 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:33.639 folk kept wires running for generations. Maybe they run still 227 00:14:33.879 --> 00:14:38.000 somewhere under the roots. I left none the wiser, holding 228 00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:42.320 an image of ghostly circuits pulsing beneath my feet. At 229 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.120 the pharmacy, Missus Waverley had her own impossibly confident theory 230 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:50.480 that clock's painted on always has been no hands, just 231 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.399 a clever trompello. Will we all only think it moves? 232 00:14:54.120 --> 00:14:58.080 She sipped her tea, unyielding. Her son, popping in to 233 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.879 retrieve a prescription, rolled his eyes. Ma'am, you used to 234 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:04.679 set my school alarm by the clock, like everyone else, 235 00:15:05.159 --> 00:15:08.879 He grinned at me, conspiratorially. Don't mind her. She was 236 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:13.080 a painter. She seized the world in brush strokes. Each 237 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:18.759 story appended the last Tuesday evenings brought the train enthusiastic Society, 238 00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:22.279 a hearty, graying lot who still wore lapel badges from 239 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:26.200 vanished lines, and peppered their meetings with did you know Trivia? 240 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:29.120 I was roped in as a guest speaker one dull 241 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:33.320 February night. Talk turned, as always to the stupid clock 242 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:38.279 tower and its irrepressible stubbornness. The society kept a storied 243 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:42.679 archive photos of station life, each stamped with precise years 244 00:15:42.679 --> 00:15:46.320 and times, spread across the table. The clock's face beamed 245 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:49.440 from every image, but in each the hands matched the 246 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:52.639 supposed time of capture. There was no two alike, no 247 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:56.759 pattern to sabotage ten thirty in nineteen seventy two, eleven 248 00:15:56.840 --> 00:16:00.519 fifteen in nineteen eighty one, quarter to nine last December, 249 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:05.480 all perfectly aligned with the canonical hour. One member gruff 250 00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:09.879 and Analytical insisted, of course we photoshopped nothing. They proved 251 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:13.360 the clock never kept time. Look each one's right only 252 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:17.919 for its day. He seemed both offended and impressed. A 253 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:22.320 thought occurred, has anyone ever seen it wrong? Silence, then laughter, 254 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:27.559 then mild descent, not once, if we're honest, conceded their secretary, 255 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:31.200 peering over her by focals. With the help of Arthur, 256 00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:35.000 always eager for an excuse to revisit forbidden places, I 257 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:37.960 wrangled permission to climb the clock tower with Franky one 258 00:16:38.039 --> 00:16:41.559 blue wind whipped Saturday. Those iron stairs were slick with 259 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:45.399 dust and the riotous sense of feral doves inside. The 260 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:49.039 gears hadn't tasted oil in living memory. The huge central 261 00:16:49.039 --> 00:16:52.720 winding drum was unstrung, wedges of rust flaking at the touch, 262 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:58.759 levers hung loose, disconnected, no wires electromagnetic or otherwise, not 263 00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:02.759 even a promising battle. We stood in the mechanical heart 264 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:07.519 and found only stillness, no secret power, no hidden machinery. 265 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:12.240 Maybe its wind up by belief, franky guest voice echoing 266 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:17.960 through the beams, I made a note to revisit skepticism. Rosslyn, 267 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:21.640 undeterred by the embarrassment of riches and confusion, ushered me 268 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:25.759 into the public library on Tuesday evening. Fluorescent lighting hummed 269 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.200 above as we hunched over leather bound ledgers and brittle newsprint. 270 00:17:29.759 --> 00:17:33.880 The station records suffered a flaky logic. Maintenance men checked 271 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:38.200 the platform clock and washed the engine turntable with clockwork regularity, 272 00:17:38.599 --> 00:17:43.480 but the Tall Tower's own care was sporadic, contradictory. One 273 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:48.319 year annual pride of punctuality, another only a sigh irreparably 274 00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:52.680 broken left to weather. And yet weekly listings for market 275 00:17:52.680 --> 00:17:57.440 openings always referenced the tower's hour. No asterisk, no apology. 276 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.160 Town meetings were called by the charm Times, though I'd 277 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:04.519 never once heard a chime. I lost track of time 278 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:08.359 in that archive, which felt dangerously metter The more we dug, 279 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:12.359 the more unsteady the ground became. No one's memory quite 280 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:16.400 matched the official narrative, and yet photographic, digital, and living 281 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:21.640 record all insisted the clock was always unwaveringly correct, wherever 282 00:18:21.720 --> 00:18:25.480 and whenever you checked. Even when logic splintered, the present 283 00:18:25.559 --> 00:18:28.920 never wavered. By the second week of my log book, 284 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:33.880 my investigation had become the town's favorite subplot. Some approached 285 00:18:33.920 --> 00:18:39.480 me in hope, others with humorous exasperation. Over Tea Rosslyn 286 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:43.079 summarized what we'd gathered. Ewen, we have a clock that 287 00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:46.559 can't work, but does a dozen stories for why, and 288 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:50.680 evidence from every direction contradicting the rest. Yet no one 289 00:18:50.720 --> 00:18:53.400 here worries as long as it stays right. Have you 290 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:57.440 ever wondered if the confusion is the point. My logbook's 291 00:18:57.480 --> 00:19:02.039 pages were thick with dates, times, and off notations, contradictory 292 00:19:02.039 --> 00:19:06.079 explanations braided into a knot. Even Frankie, who claimed the 293 00:19:06.119 --> 00:19:09.880 Internet could solve anything, was forced to concede. Her phone 294 00:19:09.960 --> 00:19:13.519 logs matched mine, the digital, same as the analog, the 295 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:17.839 photos each capturing a perfect single moment, but no narrative 296 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:22.000 made the parts cohere. One Saturday, I caught myself trying 297 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.400 to watch the minute hand move. Eyes fixed and patient, 298 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.440 I waited in the square as the bakery truck unloaded 299 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:32.720 crated loaves. Time seemed to soften, twist, stretch. By the 300 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:35.920 quarter hour, my attention flagged, and all the hand ever 301 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.440 did was remain poised, perfectly composed. The next glance, it 302 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:43.400 had leapt to the right time, with no movement in between. 303 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:48.160 I smiled ruefully, suddenly reminded of the slight of hand 304 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:52.079 tricks my father liked, the coin that vanished, the ball 305 00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:55.799 that appeared beneath a different cup. The more I pressed, 306 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:59.119 the more I suspected the clock's oddness wasn't accidental or 307 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:02.759 mechanical at all. Instead, it felt like something The town 308 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:07.119 itself produced a kind of quiet collusion. Each person's belief 309 00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:10.440 shaped a slightly different story, and yet the clock's authority 310 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:14.839 endured across every contradiction. No matter where or when you looked, 311 00:20:15.039 --> 00:20:18.400 it agreed with you, never in advance, never in delay. 312 00:20:19.480 --> 00:20:22.079 That night, I sat with my note book, faced with 313 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:25.279 the absurdity of a town whose only broken promise was 314 00:20:25.319 --> 00:20:29.039 perfect timing. The patterns in my data didn't match any 315 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:34.279 one else's, and the explanations clock hands painted faces. Magic 316 00:20:34.319 --> 00:20:38.000 engineers seemed to matter less than the sheer collective trust 317 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:42.279 in the clock's face. On Tuesday, after market Day, I 318 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:46.720 decided to bring together the few who shared my obsession. Rosslyn, Arthur, 319 00:20:46.759 --> 00:20:50.839 and Frankie gathered at my kitchen table. Spoons clinked in 320 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:54.039 mugs of tea. Head Lights blinked through the window as 321 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:58.839 dusk settled. I admit, Rosslyn began, the more I hear, 322 00:20:58.920 --> 00:21:02.920 the less I know. My gran's repair man, Arthur's magic wires, 323 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:07.079 the Society's contradictory photos. None of it fits. Yet we 324 00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:11.279 all watched the clock year in and year out. Arthur 325 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:14.480 ran a forefinger around the rim of his mug. It's 326 00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:17.519 like arguing about whether a weather vane knows the wind 327 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:22.519 or the wind is defined by the vein. Frankie interjected, 328 00:21:22.880 --> 00:21:25.319 I think it's what people want from the clock. I 329 00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:28.519 sent photos to my cousin in Manchester. He said they 330 00:21:28.559 --> 00:21:32.079 looked right for the time. I texted, it's like each 331 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:36.440 version lines up with whoever's looking. We lapsed into silence 332 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:41.279 for a moment, letting the notion sit. It's almost I started, 333 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.079 as if the explanations themselves change by person. Each story's 334 00:21:46.119 --> 00:21:51.000 half a conviction, half a need. Arthur laughed quietly. I 335 00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:53.519 don't care if it's a ghost in the gears, as 336 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:56.400 long as it keeps the buses honest and the market running. 337 00:21:56.680 --> 00:22:01.480 Let it be whatever it likes. Rosslyn pur to lips, contemplative. 338 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.599 Have you noticed the town's records? Sometimes there are schedule 339 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:09.559 announcements from years before the tower was even built, referencing 340 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:13.319 its hour. Time flows backward in paper, as if the 341 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:18.039 clock's always been a fixture. Frankie brightened, sort of like 342 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:21.480 in fantasy books, where the magic only works if nobody 343 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:25.240 doubts it. The idea sunk its hooks in me. Had 344 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:29.839 our collective desire for unbending, unwavering times shaped the clock itself? 345 00:22:30.480 --> 00:22:33.640 Was our need for structure and routine, so strong we'd 346 00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:37.759 woven its certainty into the bones of the town records, stories, 347 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:41.920 even our own memories. Skeptical as I am by habit, 348 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:45.000 I felt a blush of awe, not fear. The problem 349 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:49.319 had shifted. What if the clock's reality, its indifference to wires, 350 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:53.200 gears and winding keys, was less a technical feat, more 351 00:22:53.200 --> 00:22:56.039 a mutual pact among all who lived beneath its face. 352 00:22:56.680 --> 00:22:59.400 The contradiction was not in the mechanism, but in us. 353 00:23:00.519 --> 00:23:02.599 No one at my table could quite agree on what 354 00:23:02.680 --> 00:23:06.079 had changed, but we were all smiling, caught in something 355 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:10.319 larger than explanation. My search for the how had delivered 356 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:14.839 me to a new and humbling why. That night, lying awake, 357 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:18.119 the trains I heard in memory ran with a different tempo. 358 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:23.119 Schedules were nothing without faith, and faith, however quietly or 359 00:23:23.200 --> 00:23:27.759 unconsciously held, could turn steel and paint into something timeless. 360 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:31.559 To morrow, I promised myself, I would dig further, but 361 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:35.039 not in search of moving hands or hidden wires. The 362 00:23:35.119 --> 00:23:40.160 foundation of this mystery ran deeper, still tangled in memory, expectation, 363 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:44.160 and the peculiar certainty that holds a small town together 364 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:48.519 through every contradiction. Rosslyn left late that night with half 365 00:23:48.519 --> 00:23:51.319 a plate of biscuits and a sheaf of copied pages 366 00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:54.440 from the library's record book. I was left alone with 367 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:57.799 the ticking of my pocket watch. Sounding suddenly less certain 368 00:23:57.839 --> 00:24:02.279 than before that evening, I found myself restlessly reading and 369 00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:06.079 rereading my notes, scrutinizing my chart of times the same 370 00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:08.240 way I used to scan a time table for the 371 00:24:08.279 --> 00:24:14.000 one elusive mistake. My own compulsion was inching beyond curiosity. 372 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:16.880 It felt more like standing at the mouth of a tunnel, 373 00:24:17.319 --> 00:24:19.880 sure that a train should be coming, and marveling at 374 00:24:19.880 --> 00:24:24.079 the silence instead. The next morning, over a breakfast of 375 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:27.640 burnt toast and orange marmalade I decided it was time 376 00:24:27.720 --> 00:24:31.519 to pull harder on the threads scattered through those contradictory stories. 377 00:24:32.119 --> 00:24:36.119 If the town's need and not any plausible machinery held 378 00:24:36.119 --> 00:24:39.559 the tower in authority, perhaps the real history was buried 379 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:44.920 in its records, not its gears. Rosslyn returned, coat bristling 380 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:48.640 with late frost, her eyes lit with a conspiratorial brightness. 381 00:24:49.319 --> 00:24:52.319 Are you up for an archive dive? She asked, waving 382 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:55.720 a library card. There's a whole cupboard in the council's 383 00:24:55.720 --> 00:24:58.839 records that my cousin says no one's opened since the 384 00:24:58.920 --> 00:25:01.799 first electric stra wheat lamp went up. I can get 385 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:05.720 us in. Arthur was eager to come along too, never 386 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:09.039 one to miss a good rummage through forgotten papers, especially 387 00:25:09.079 --> 00:25:11.759 if there were old menus or train tickets to pocket 388 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:16.119 for his cafe's wall. Frankie texted she'd read my scribbled 389 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:19.119 update on the general store's notice board, and brought her 390 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:23.000 camera plus an armload of charged batteries in case we 391 00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:27.319 catch any time ghosts. Her message read, we met under 392 00:25:27.319 --> 00:25:31.359 the clock tower itself, a quartet in sensible shoes, Rosslyn 393 00:25:31.400 --> 00:25:35.000 wielding a ring of keys, Arthur with his thermous Frankie 394 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:38.640 clutching what looked like a detective's kit. The key stuck 395 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:41.720 only briefly in the council's frigid basement door, and the 396 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:45.359 smell behind it was part dust, part something metallic and 397 00:25:45.480 --> 00:25:50.039 sharp edged, perhaps the fossil scent of lost ambitions. In 398 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:54.400 the archives, sunlight filtered through wire meshed panes, painting stacks 399 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:57.200 of ledgers, and ancient town maps in blue and gold. 400 00:25:57.880 --> 00:26:02.039 We split up rifling through careful boxed timetables and by laws, 401 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:08.119