WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.279 It started with rain, and not the grand operatic sort 2 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.039 of deluge from classic novels, but the quietly thorough drizzle 3 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:13.720 of early spring, seeping patiently through the day, tickling window 4 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:16.519 ledges and swelling the river. It was a Thursday, the 5 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:19.399 kind you don't just remember, but registering, mussel and fok, 6 00:00:19.480 --> 00:00:22.600 a day designed for libraries. I'd been coming here most 7 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:25.199 afternoons since my so called early retirement, a phrase I 8 00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:28.160 could barely say without smirking or wincing, depending on the weather. 9 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:31.800 Sometimes it felt like a reward, sometimes like a sentence. 10 00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:33.600 Time to fill unshape. In a town that moves slower 11 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:36.799 outside the school calendar, the library was a red bricks 12 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:39.560 bowl by the water. It expanded of regenerations and sections 13 00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:43.119 that never quite matched. My favorite spot on afternoons like 14 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:45.840 these was the Periodical's room, sunken chamber tucked behind the 15 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.640 reference desk, all low ceilings and lamps that hummed lazily 16 00:00:48.640 --> 00:00:51.799 over batted arm chairs. It always smelled faintly of wet 17 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.719 coats and old newsprint. I had settled in my usual 18 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.159 coroner across wood book sprawled across the urm of a 19 00:00:57.240 --> 00:00:59.479 feder wingback when my eyes landed on the grand for 20 00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:02.679 the clock lie woman by the far wall, intricate baroque, 21 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:05.400 leaning ever so slightly, its carved flourishes reaching for the 22 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:08.799 cracked ceiling as if seeking favor. I'd seen it every visit, 23 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.640 but I'd never really watched it until that day. Something 24 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:14.359 about it to pendulum steady or cut through the room's hush. 25 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:17.200 It should have been two thirty seven p m. My 26 00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:19.959 wristworts said as much as did the flickering wall clock 27 00:01:19.959 --> 00:01:21.760 ab of the catalog compute as a cheap piece of 28 00:01:21.760 --> 00:01:25.079 plastic with a drooping minute hand. But the Grandfather clockery 29 00:01:25.120 --> 00:01:28.200 two twenty three, his polished brass face was luminous in 30 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:31.000 the pale light. The difference pressed on me at first, 31 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:34.079 just a bit of trivia, hardly worth mentioning. Still, A 32 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:36.560 double checked my phone two thirty seven, with the usual 33 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:38.599 cluster of little icons in a reminder to pick up 34 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.760 calf food. I looked around. The periodical's room wasn't empty. 35 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:46.959 An older men, mister Daily, always buried in local headlines, 36 00:01:46.959 --> 00:01:50.159 flipped a newspaper with mild authority. A pair of college 37 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:53.200 students puzzled over an atlas, and in the middle, near 38 00:01:53.239 --> 00:01:55.159 the window, a young man in a blue sweater sat 39 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:57.359 with an unread magazine and a mug of tea, eyes 40 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:00.640 often strained to the Grandfather clock, the auto thing. When 41 00:02:00.640 --> 00:02:03.120 the clock chimed one of those melodies slightly wrong old 42 00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:06.040 Westminster sequences, the young man stood gathering his things as 43 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:09.520 though on key. No one seemed surprised. He left his 44 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:12.039 chair and coat perfectly arranged, as if another self would 45 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:15.439 simply trade places. In a few minutes. On impulse, I arose, 46 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:19.000 crossing to the desk. Missus Krmier, the head librarian, was 47 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:21.479 re arranging the book return. Her hair perfectly silver. Her 48 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:24.360 glasses are a beaded chain. I have never managed idle 49 00:02:24.439 --> 00:02:26.680 chatting with her. She was the rare sword whose gays 50 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:30.919 held both perennial memory and bright practical impatience. Missus Cormier, 51 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:34.199 I began trying to sound half amuse. Has the Grandfather 52 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.840 clock always been as far off? She didn't even look 53 00:02:36.919 --> 00:02:40.360 up well that clock. Her face creased with the beginning 54 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:43.159 of a smile. Always been odd. Dear older than the 55 00:02:43.159 --> 00:02:46.039 libraryes are probably older than this wing. We try resetting it, 56 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:49.759 but it always drifts drift. I asked, as if i'd 57 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.719 call her in some gentle exaggeration. We've had people and 58 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:55.280 clockmaker's hobbyists the whole parade set it right, and in 59 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:57.719 a few weeks it's off again. Sometimes it jumps forward 60 00:02:57.719 --> 00:03:01.520 over night, she shrugged. It's part of the building's rhythm. 61 00:03:01.800 --> 00:03:04.159 I supposed I should have been satisfied, another quirk of 62 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:07.360 old institutions. And yet as I returned to my seat, 63 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.759 the crosswood seemed curiously flat. I watched as a patron 64 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:12.560 who looked to be packing up to leave and stair 65 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:14.639 drafted back to his chair, glancing at the ground for 66 00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:17.520 the clock before flipping to his mark section. A sense 67 00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:21.360 of locy choreography wove the room together, barily perceptible. I 68 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:23.560 scribbled the time discrepancy in the corner of my cross 69 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:26.680 wood brook, half marking my own curiosity. When I looked 70 00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:28.400 up because a movement in the window caught my eye, 71 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:30.639 I realized the young man of the mug was still seated, 72 00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:33.719 exactly as before. For a moment I actually doubted he'd 73 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:37.960 ever left. The rain intensified, rattling across the glass. I 74 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:41.599 settled in feeding questions bloom quietly like mushrooms. After midnight. 75 00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:44.840 I didn't know which clock governed the room or white mattered. 76 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:46.960 But from that moment I washed hunt time began to 77 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.879 feel stranger by the hour. The library, in its way, 78 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:52.280 gave a tel for over to oddity. I had long 79 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:54.639 thought so, even before the day with the grandfather clock. 80 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:57.680 It was built in rumor and and brick, by committee 81 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:00.759 and catastrophe. The oldest wing had been at church, gutted 82 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:02.719 by the fire of eleven a date everyone recite it, 83 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:04.639 though my great uncle swore the blaze was in spring 84 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:07.479 of the next year. They were built along the river side, 85 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:10.439 salvaging walls and pews, then and extrooms and corridors for 86 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.360 each generation's need. A b urban reading room for town matrons, 87 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:16.319 a tero chav wall with geniogies, children's rooms full of 88 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.959 animal murals, and my haven, the periodical's room, sunken and peculiar. 89 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:22.959 Stepping from room to room, you learned to navigate a 90 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:27.040 topography of creaking floorboards and mismatched lamp sheets. The periodical's 91 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:30.399 room was specially eccentric, lined with encyclopedias. Nobody checked out 92 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:32.959 any more. Plump chao salvage from the oak's lodge. An 93 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:36.439 ancient umbrella stands never quite empty. A long one moll Harn, 94 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.079 a series of hand lettered plaques, cracked wooden slats painted 95 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:41.439 with peculiar twantyne zones, A rio of time a river 96 00:04:41.519 --> 00:04:44.199 town meantime found his tin meat attached to a tiny clock, 97 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:46.439 almost all of which ticked at different paces or stood 98 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.439 permanently at ten past three. History built sideways, mister Daley 99 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:53.680 always said, especially in river towns. He told me this 100 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.040 one rainy afternoon, as he unfolded his broad sheet in 101 00:04:56.040 --> 00:04:59.040 the periodical's room, always in the same patch of yellow lamplight. 102 00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:02.480 He never or fail to comment on headlines. They bury 103 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.079 things here, then dig up only what its neighborly. My 104 00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:08.839 own habitat over months edged toward ritual I derived near 105 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:11.639 one in the afternoon, walk the outer stacks, reading spines 106 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:13.839 as one might read local gravesunds, then settle into the 107 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:16.800 periodical's room. The cross Widower was my small act of 108 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:18.800 faith for a puzzle a day, followed by non fiction 109 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:22.560 or history, sometimes volunteering with for shelving, sometimes swapping gossip 110 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:26.120 about the city's warbliss buses. The periodical's room belonged to 111 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:29.879 a steady caste, Missus Cormier, always at her post answered 112 00:05:29.879 --> 00:05:32.160 reference questions with one eye on the clock. Not the Grandfather, 113 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:35.519 mind you. The digital on her desk, raphael A precise 114 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:38.360 teen harvested books from the quiet study next each afternoon, 115 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:41.199 stacking them by subject, alphabet, and color. A system no 116 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:45.199 card catalog recognized. Students from the college drifted through in clusters, 117 00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:48.000 haunted by looming deadlines, high on coffee, in low on quiet. 118 00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:51.319 The Grandfather clock, though tallest, was almost easy to ignore 119 00:05:51.399 --> 00:05:54.040 until you tried not to. Its face was a labyrinth 120 00:05:54.439 --> 00:05:57.319 Roman numerals, shot through with minute hand carved lily petals, 121 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:00.240 the kind that flared in town gardens every July. It 122 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:02.120 takes so softly you'd have to kneel beside it to 123 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.560 hear its heartbeat. Its pendulum slightly clouded with age, swan 124 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:08.639 with authority. It didn't match the decor or the decade. 125 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:11.160 Some one, at some point had screwed a brass plaqued 126 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:14.160 below it, gifted to Riverside Library ere known. I sat 127 00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:16.560 opposite the thing for days before noticing the way people 128 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:19.319 moved in its orbit. Some drifted over near the hour, 129 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:22.439 as if to check their bearings. Others, buried in their 130 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:25.480 routines seemed to register the clock's time without a visible glance, 131 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:28.560 gathering coats or treating out magazines around the half hour mark. 132 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:31.879 Raphael the sharp eyed, in turn, once paused as he 133 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.480 reached for a volume, absent mindedly setting a stack down 134 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:37.519 beside the clock before resuming his work. I remarked on it, 135 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:40.680 joking that the clock was magnetic. He looked blank, then smiled, 136 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:43.920 like someone trying to recall a half remember dream. Another day, 137 00:06:43.959 --> 00:06:46.639 as the rain slackened and sunlight burn through the southern windows, 138 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.079 I noticed one detail I'd missed before. The wall beneath 139 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:51.079 the plaques always seemed to hold a faint shill, as 140 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:53.879 if he did air bent to the clock's needs. One Thursday, 141 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:56.240 at five minutes passed three according to the gold room 142 00:06:56.319 --> 00:06:58.560 wall clock, I saw a ragged handful of regulars gather 143 00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:01.560 near the Grandfather, exchanging nods with the sort of seriousness 144 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:05.079 reserved for real occasions. It wasn't the librarian led program, 145 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:07.680 nor some scheduled event, and yet everyone lingered until the 146 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:11.600 clocks solemnly mark three zero. Almost on cue. Chairs were shifted, 147 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.920 reading pile swapped, whole tables reorganized, some left drifting away. 148 00:07:15.959 --> 00:07:18.519 Others found these seats as if the chimes shuffled their rhythms, 149 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:23.319 no announcement, no bell, but the grandfather's. I looked at 150 00:07:23.319 --> 00:07:27.839 my watch, then the wall clock, then the grandfather. Nor 151 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:30.000 to agree, not even within the same ten minutes span. 152 00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.000 And yet in this room the wall pivoted on the 153 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.680 old clock's pendulum, and it felt less like herror than invitation. 154 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:38.600 That night, as I left, Rafael glanced up from his 155 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:43.079 stack of battered biographies. Good night Evelyn, periodical's closing routine. 156 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:45.800 A quarter passed, Just so you know, quarter past what, 157 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:49.600 I asked, half joking, gesturing at the wall of orphan clocks. 158 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.800 He grinned, but the answer was obvious, Quarter past, Grandfather. 159 00:07:53.319 --> 00:07:55.240 I went home less certain of time's work than when 160 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:57.759 I arrived, but I slept more soundly for it. It 161 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:00.839 didn't take long for curiosity to demand immorses stomatic approach. 162 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:04.079 On a slate gray Wednesday, with bustle muted by drizzle, 163 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:06.279 I arrived at the periodical's room clutching a solution, my 164 00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:09.040 trusty digital travel clock, a black plastic square with an 165 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:11.920 eager backut face. I said it on the end table 166 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:15.879 beside the grandfather, boots barely dried from puddles every half hour, 167 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:18.399 I checked the old clock, the digital, my wristwatch, and 168 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:21.480 my phone. I charted this bread in my crosswood book 169 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:25.360 page margins pulsham of messy numerals and arrows. The Grandfather 170 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.040 consistently lagged, at first by twelve minutes, then at the 171 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.079 next interval only seven. I caught it skipping ahead by 172 00:08:31.079 --> 00:08:32.799 three minutes, in the time it took to finish two 173 00:08:32.799 --> 00:08:36.759 pages of the local news. At first, I suspected mechanical instability, 174 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:40.159 warped gears, loose weights, moody springs, but the pattern was 175 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:43.360 often ways I couldn't account for by engineering. Sometimes the 176 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.759 Grandfather's hand surged forward a burst, then drifted back, as 177 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:50.519 though chasing or teasing the digital's relentless march. Other times 178 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:52.480 the old clock scene content to drift in its own 179 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:56.519 mild orbit. That afternoon, something else snagged my eye. The 180 00:08:56.519 --> 00:08:59.240 book group, mostly old skuld teachers and local gene allergies, 181 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.480 had claimed the window table. Passing around the stack of 182 00:09:01.519 --> 00:09:04.200 yellow clippings. They were deep in debate about the Great 183 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:07.440 Flood of nineteen sixty six, each insisting on different dates 184 00:09:07.480 --> 00:09:10.879 and details. No, No, The Levey broke the weekend before 185 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:14.039 Easter one insisted that would have made it April seventeenth 186 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:18.440 clear as day. Another membrane, says Griggs always precise corrected, 187 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:20.879 it was a Wednesday. Surely Easter was late that year. 188 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:23.639 I craned over the table and on impulse checked one 189 00:09:23.639 --> 00:09:26.399 of the old newspapers they were referencing. The mast had 190 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:30.159 read April seventeenth, nineteen sixty six, Wednesday. My head spun 191 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:33.279 a little because I was certain, absolutely certain, that April seventeenth, 192 00:09:33.399 --> 00:09:36.600 nineteen sixty six was a Sunday. This I knew from 193 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:39.200 my father's old church bulletins, which she never threw out. 194 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:42.639 Maybe these are old, miss Prince, I said aloud, not 195 00:09:42.720 --> 00:09:44.559 sure whether I was speaking to myself or to the 196 00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:48.120 women still lost in dates and debate. Missus Cormier, shoving 197 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:50.440 an armful of atlases near by, overheard and called out 198 00:09:50.440 --> 00:09:52.440 her cheerful shout down the aisle as a fielding a 199 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:55.440 question she'd gotten every week for a decade. Our arcaves 200 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:58.120 were generous with Miss Prince, she said, smiling aes twinkling. 201 00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:00.519 Something in her tone made me th think it wasn't 202 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:03.120 just about errors. It was about archives being quirky, alive, 203 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:06.080 prone to their own logic. I put the newspaper aside, 204 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:08.440 but a knew wich settled in. Was the grand father 205 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:12.279 Cock's time contagious? Did the periodical's room warp small histories? 206 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.559 Everyone seemed to treat the Grandfather's hours news with thee 207 00:10:15.639 --> 00:10:18.559 more than a matter of punctuality. The way mister Daley 208 00:10:18.559 --> 00:10:20.879 would rise and leave with the clock'spell, or the book 209 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:22.879 group would reference dates that didn't exist to none of 210 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.080 it felt entirely accidental. By closing, I had a new 211 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:28.559 entry in my crossword book, Why do dates get weird? 212 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:31.919 In here? Underneath a cruise sketch of the Grandfather Clock, 213 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:34.840 more shadow than brass, Its hands pointed to no obvious 214 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:37.799 hour That evening at home, I come through a photo 215 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:41.440 of last year's Easter sunrise service April seventeenth had indeed 216 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:45.360 been a Sunday, not a Wednesday. The contradiction, grany and refutable, 217 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:48.399 unmoored something in me. What was this room's relationship to 218 00:10:48.440 --> 00:10:50.799 the rest of the world. Why did its errors cling 219 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:54.519 so persistently? The next morning, I arrived early, determined to 220 00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:57.000 map the gap between the Grandfather and the Reel. My 221 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.799 plan was methodical, visit at three different times, check evy 222 00:10:59.799 --> 00:11:03.360 of its leable clock and jock cross comparisons. I started 223 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:07.080 at nine, too, digital in hand. The periodical's grandfather welcomed 224 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:10.159 me with eight forty seven. At noon, the interval had trunk. 225 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:13.039 The clock now read eleven fifty eight. I watched Miss 226 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:15.440 Escormier set up the day's book, displayed humming along with 227 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:17.440 the radio. Her timing mashed the ground for the clock, 228 00:11:17.720 --> 00:11:21.279 not her phone. Twenty minutes later, Rafael swept in arms 229 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:23.639 full of Rotun's calling at cheery morning that match neither 230 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:26.399 my watch nor the grand father's reading. I wandered into 231 00:11:26.440 --> 00:11:29.559 the reference room. No time crooks there. The computer clock, 232 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:33.120 the staff area wall clock, my phone, perfect agreement. The 233 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.279 oddity belonged stubbornly to the periodical's room. After lunch, the 234 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:41.240 rain abated sun shot through the high windows. I sat 235 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:44.600 with a tabloid and waired, watching regulars drift in each hour. 236 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:47.799 The grandfather's hand seemed to hesitate, sometimes rushing to catch up. 237 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:51.080 There was no visible recalibration, no staff winding the movement, 238 00:11:51.399 --> 00:11:54.279 no patrons fussing with keys. It acted as if it 239 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:56.559 were being subtly directed by something in the room, or 240 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.679 by the room itself. More peculiar. Still, a few people 241 00:11:59.679 --> 00:12:01.440 in the peer per articles were and followed the ground 242 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:03.519 for the clock's lead with a trust I could not explain. 243 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:06.759 At half past two, students gathered their bags, glanced at 244 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.600 each other, and headed together to the vending machine. When 245 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:11.679 I checked the wall, clock said two forty three, a 246 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:15.240 grandfather two thirty sharp. The pattern repeated itself out by 247 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:18.320 our generler than routine, resistant to any device I could brain. 248 00:12:18.919 --> 00:12:22.320 It wasn't just time that drifted, either. Conversation had its 249 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.720 own shape, bending toward half forgotten anniversaries and local events that, 250 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:28.200 when quietly fact checked, refused to align with the world 251 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:31.519 outside to grand for this sphere. Mister Daily, trading trivia 252 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:33.639 with me, recounted the ground breaking for the River Sides 253 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:36.799 Civic Center's September nineteen fifty two. Too hot for laborers, 254 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:40.039 so they opened the foundation at sunset. I remembered it otherwise, 255 00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:42.080 growing up at seen the town parade for its opening 256 00:12:42.120 --> 00:12:45.639 in nineteen fifty eight. Daily was adamant, even producing a 257 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:50.120 battered flyer Riverside Civic Center inaugural ceremony September fourteen, nineteen 258 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:53.799 fifty two. My friend Ruth, a former city clerk, once 259 00:12:53.840 --> 00:12:56.440 told me memory is a weather pattern, don't expect it 260 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:59.799 to obey maps. That afternoon, the sense of double reality 261 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:02.200 grew sur potent that I did what I'd never done before. 262 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:04.480 I borrowed one of the yellow paged magazines from the 263 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:06.960 periodical's room and found its reference copy in the reference 264 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:09.919 room next door. The issue should have been identical October 265 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:13.120 nineteen eighty four, but the Periodical's rooms edition bore a 266 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:15.879 mass out of October thirty two, nineteen eighty four, and 267 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.200 its editors led a referenced events I was sure happened 268 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:21.879 the following year. The reference room copy followed the standard calendar, 269 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:25.279 plain as day. Raphaeled every resourceful in turn shrugged off 270 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:29.120 my questions. Old cataloging errors, he pronounced a little too quickly. 271 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.480 This room's always had strange stuff. I figure some pages 272 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.679 just slip out of order. When I pressed, he offered 273 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.360 me a lot, both apologetic and slightly amused, as though 274 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:40.360 I'd stumbled into a game that did not require more 275 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:43.759 than a passing attention. I pressed, missus Kormiir, who replied, 276 00:13:43.759 --> 00:13:45.879 there in the right place, Evelyn, if you checked the 277 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:49.559 original card files she handed me when it typed yellowing 278 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:53.559 the catalog number and description confirmed the thirty two day October. 279 00:13:54.039 --> 00:13:56.960 But when I backtracked comparing to the larger library records 280 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.440 past in prison, the same magazine and the main shelf 281 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:03.240 war the correct date. Again, each reference pointed slyly to itself. 282 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.759 Late that week, a visiting post of the name of 283 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:08.600 Brian cheerful and deeply caffeinated, and mentioned over his loptop 284 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:10.480 I heard a weey bit of focalore at the college. 285 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.840 Students say the clock room remembers too much. Some say 286 00:14:12.879 --> 00:14:15.120 it's the only place on campus with finals week last 287 00:14:15.159 --> 00:14:18.080 three days. He laughed half a joke and half a dare, 288 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:20.000 and scold a dudal of a melting pocket watch on 289 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:22.960 his folder. By the time the leaf rain of Thursday arrived, 290 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.159 I was less sure about what constituted an error or 291 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.639 ac work. The library wasn't shy about its own contradictions. 292 00:14:28.759 --> 00:14:31.279 In some peculiar way, it wore them as proof of concept. 293 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:34.039 At dinner with a friend that evening, I struggled to 294 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:38.000 explain not ghosts, not lost time, but a local misalignment, 295 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:40.679 a space that seemed to erode consensus as easily as furniture. 296 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:43.799 Not even bored and threatened to disrupt my new obsession. 297 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:47.159 I lay awake, rehearsing questions at ask next time. Why 298 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:49.919 did people defer so generally to the old clock? Was 299 00:14:49.960 --> 00:14:52.840 it habit or something deeper? If there was an answer, 300 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:55.159 it was not hidden in a gear or forgotten winding key. 301 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.279 My curiosity no longer fit neat categories. Time bends, and 302 00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:02.320 so do people. I resolved to keep coming back with 303 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:05.000 new questions every day. The river ran high. If you 304 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:07.240 want to know how place things start with its stories 305 00:15:07.240 --> 00:15:10.320 and see which ones change. I arrived early, stealed for 306 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:14.080 detective work. I carry my crosswood book, digital clock, a 307 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:17.039 battered note book, and a folder of dates. My aim 308 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:18.919 was to prod to interview the room, to ask its 309 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:22.200 odd corners and its regulars to offer up explanations. I 310 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:25.080 started with mister Daley at his usual table. He was 311 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:28.000 sorting a bundle of all mapp reproductions and local news cuttings, 312 00:15:28.039 --> 00:15:30.399 reviewing what he called the proof of the Civic sended debate. 313 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:33.039 I let him rattle off the project's time line, and 314 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:35.879 when I suggested he could be recalling another event, he laughed, 315 00:15:35.879 --> 00:15:38.559 If the clock's off so sedate, That's how history works. 316 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:42.360 Sometimes I smiled, but the joke slipped in sideways. When 317 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.960 I pressed about the ground for the clock itself, he squinted, 318 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:48.279 peering over his glasses. Always been off in one way 319 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:50.399 or another. I remember as a boy, folks complained it 320 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:52.519 ran fast when the river train still ran. My mother 321 00:15:52.559 --> 00:15:54.919 said it would get days sometimes. Dear Uncle Richard tried 322 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:57.720 to fix it one summer, nearly drove himself mad. His 323 00:15:57.879 --> 00:16:00.600 voice softened. You never know if a place keeps time 324 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.240 or just memories, Misses Griggs. The book group veteran remembered 325 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:07.120 it differently. I swear, dear, when I was a student 326 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:09.360 here at the clock would chimed three times at random hours. 327 00:16:09.440 --> 00:16:12.000 Sometimes it was right, sometimes not. My father used to 328 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:13.919 say the clock only ked what the river was doing. 329 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.279 She wrinkled her brow. It never made sense to me, 330 00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:20.679 but you get used to it. Several elderly patrons claimed 331 00:16:20.679 --> 00:16:23.039 the clock arrived some time after the high water. Others 332 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:25.480 said it was always there, came with the building. The 333 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:28.200 tales diverged. Some referenced an old clock shot by the 334 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:32.200 Fairy Landing. Although a donation commemorating Charlie Black's retirement, the 335 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:35.639 consensus was partial. Fragmentary. The one thing they agreed on 336 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:38.360 the clock had always been peculiar, and the periodical's room 337 00:16:38.399 --> 00:16:41.559 more peculiar for sheltering it. Each memory it recounted in 338 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.200 the lamplight made me more suspicious that the room's version 339 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.360 of time wasn't just about minutes and hours are tugged 340 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.840 at the order of events. The more the ground for 341 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.360 the clock missed its place, the less regular the room felt. 342 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:55.159 Patron swat stories of anniversaries missed are misaligned, of birthly 343 00:16:55.240 --> 00:16:58.159 celebrated early or late, because the rooms calend fit no other. 344 00:16:58.840 --> 00:17:01.120 I leafed through old or hid stories recorded on tape 345 00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:04.279 compiled by ernest librarian's past, where interviews gave dates for 346 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:06.680 parades and pageants that disagreed with every other record I 347 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.119 could produce. Mid afternoon, I returned to Miss s Krmier, 348 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.319 my arms full of clippings and notes. You ever wonder 349 00:17:13.319 --> 00:17:16.759 why the clock fights being set right, I asked. She 350 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:19.480 looked over her glasses, then cracked a smallness of smiles. 351 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:22.680 Because time here works by its own rules. Most libraries 352 00:17:22.759 --> 00:17:25.440 run on policy, she said, dusting a stray pile of 353 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:30.559 return books. Ours runs on well, local consensus. Maybe I 354 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:34.799 press further, restless, but even the documents get wrong dates events. 355 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:38.240 She shrugged again. You don't expect a river to fall 356 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:41.720 backward to you, but sometimes here tries, she laughed, her 357 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:45.480 gracious sound full of acceptance rather than explanation. I caught 358 00:17:45.480 --> 00:17:48.039 myself later glancing at the ground for the clock before 359 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:50.119 checking my own watch, as if seeking permission to belong 360 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:52.839 to the building's rhythm. In that moment, I wondered when 361 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.000 had I started doing that? Where did the habit come from, 362 00:17:56.119 --> 00:17:58.039 and what did it mean to adopt a room's definition 363 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:00.359 of real It was no longer a question of why 364 00:18:00.359 --> 00:18:03.400 the clock wouldn't keep time. The more pressing mystery was 365 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:05.720 in what sense did the room itself keep time? And 366 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:08.240 what did it mean for those inside? There comes a 367 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:10.880 point with any curiosity when you accept the mystery is 368 00:18:10.920 --> 00:18:14.160 larger than its mechanics. Too Rainy Sada. Days later, I 369 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:17.279 committed myself to project a log of library milestones mapped 370 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:20.759 meticulously against the ground for the clock's wild hours. I 371 00:18:20.839 --> 00:18:25.839 checked old newspapers dug through microfilm, compared visitor registers, sign 372 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:29.400 in sheets, and stacks of town meeting flyers. Patterns snuck 373 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:33.279 up on me. Major local milestones, Reuben cuttings, disastrous fires, 374 00:18:33.480 --> 00:18:36.079 multi generational pageants, full seen to cluster in years when 375 00:18:36.079 --> 00:18:37.839 the grun for the clock was most out of sync. 376 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:40.839 In the margins of one batted ledger, a note in 377 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:44.440 pencil read cock restoration stalled May June nineteen seventy four, 378 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:48.359 Periodical's room off limits that same span. The Riverside Carnival, 379 00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:50.319 which had always known to be held in July, was 380 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:52.480 commemorated in one year by a parade in early May. 381 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:55.319 Fliers for a protest over the loss of faery service 382 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:57.759 gave two dates a week apart, depending on which record 383 00:18:57.880 --> 00:19:00.880 you trusted. Oral history is diverse orage Further, one long 384 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:03.920 time librarian, now retired and living upstate, insisted that the 385 00:19:03.960 --> 00:19:06.000 old reading room burned to tinder in eighty nine, but 386 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:08.319 a troph of late eighties a newsman proved page after 387 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:12.000 page that no fire was ever reported, and yet oddly, 388 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:14.599 the periodical's room floor had been replaced in ninety with 389 00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:16.960 a plaque near the grand Father clock, reading in grateful 390 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:20.240 memory of the reading room's return. Small physical details, too, 391 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:23.599 did not line up. I found a visitor's plaque, old 392 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:25.920 and nearly hidden in the clock shadow listing regulars I 393 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:28.279 had never met, not even during my year's teaching in town. 394 00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:31.359 Some appeared in photos from the late seventies, smiling in 395 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:33.480 front of Christmas displays I could find no account of 396 00:19:33.480 --> 00:19:36.720 in library event calendars. I traced Ledge's reference in the 397 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:39.559 donor of the clock, only to discover citations pointing toward 398 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:42.519 Merit's curiosities. An antique shop on a crumbling Emerald Green 399 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:45.599 Street named the City Directory had no record of each 400 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:47.880 further search to solve. Neatly, the shop flickered out of 401 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:50.880