WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.119 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. The lad you 2 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:11.320 are here, let's get into it. Late afternoons in our 3 00:00:11.320 --> 00:00:13.279 neighborhood have always felt like the closing act of a 4 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:16.160 well loved play. The light slants gold along the river, 5 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:18.800 warming the age dock and stones, and the clatter from 6 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:20.960 the bakery mixes with the shouts of children tumbling down 7 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:23.760 als older than memory. I have lived in this part 8 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:25.839 of Falconstat since I was twenty two, a patchwork of 9 00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:28.879 cobblestone lanes, terra cotta roofs, staircases that seem to dip 10 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:31.199 and rise wherever the bedrock collets them are. Now decades 11 00:00:31.239 --> 00:00:33.600 later and newly retired, I take comfort in the feeling 12 00:00:33.600 --> 00:00:37.719 that time here is slow and circular. Sometimes, on certain afternoons, 13 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:40.000 I like to remind myself has more pleasures rude us 14 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:43.240 in place, So a fresh loaf wrapped in Chris brown 15 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:45.439 paper from a Lyne's bakery, where the ovens go on 16 00:00:45.479 --> 00:00:48.200 before dawn. The route home, by rights should be a 17 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:50.600 gentle curve along Linden Strasse and then uphill past three 18 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:53.359 tiny squares five blocks in all, but there is a 19 00:00:53.399 --> 00:00:55.719 short could that most people of a look a stone staircase, 20 00:00:55.719 --> 00:00:59.039 newly hidden behind a bakery's rue garden gate. It drops 21 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:02.079 quick as a waterfall or two hours, nearly vertical at first, 22 00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:04.840 then bends and disappears under the green shadow over ay tree, 23 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.159 spitting you at not fifty paces from my own narrow 24 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.920 front door. That short cut. For as long as I've 25 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.239 known it has always seemed a minus. He cout, never busy, 26 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.000 never exactly empty, as if content to stay half forgotten 27 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:17.439 in the city's labyrinth. It's the sort of place you 28 00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:19.680 might discover or as short cut as a child, and then, 29 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:22.359 if you're lucky, keep remembering to use long after you 30 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:25.480 have a hundred other things on your mind. This Tuesday, 31 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:27.239 the air was mild and full of fresh bread, and 32 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:29.599 river marred, and I was humming Saint Lucia for no 33 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:32.519 reason but cheerfulness. The low forsada under my arm. When 34 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:34.359 I turned in through the little gate and found myself 35 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:37.599 surrounded by the old cooling stones, the steps felt slightly 36 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.200 damp through my shoes, chilly even in late spring. I 37 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:43.000 ran my fingers along the mossy wall, floated brick dimpled 38 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:45.439 with initials hundreds of years old, and counted my familiar 39 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:48.519 paces relishing the moment when the alleyways gloom brightened back 40 00:01:48.519 --> 00:01:51.400 into the streets late sunlight. And then I was standing 41 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:53.760 at my front steps, keys in hand, listening to a 42 00:01:53.760 --> 00:01:56.640 blackbird chitter in a plain tree near by. My breath 43 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:58.959 was calm, my shoes hardly scuffed, and my head still 44 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.359 full of that tune. Only when I fished the keys 45 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:03.000 out of my pocket did I happened to glance at 46 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.120 my watch. Two minutes past five. I've walked these streets 47 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:08.400 more times than I could count, but I've always taken 48 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:10.719 a quietly competitive pride and beating my own best time 49 00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:12.639 from bakery to home fourteen minutes if I go the 50 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:15.400 usual way, just under twelve. If I move briskly with 51 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.680 the short cut, it's generally nine or ten. Though I 52 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.520 never rush to day it, if felt and my watch, 53 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:22.879 a sturdy little thing for my teaching days, agreed like 54 00:02:22.919 --> 00:02:26.039 I had managed the whole trip in barely six. I frowned. 55 00:02:26.599 --> 00:02:29.599 Had I left the bakery later than I thought, forgotten 56 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:33.159 a turn. I held my breath, rummaging mentally drew my route. No, 57 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:35.599 I'd gone out the back gate down as mossy stairs, 58 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.319 taken the right car splots and somehow arrived at my door, 59 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:41.520 far far sooner than seemed possible. The bread was still 60 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.360 hot when I set it down. After a moment's head scratching, 61 00:02:44.439 --> 00:02:46.840 I'll let the ardie go. I chalked it up as 62 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:49.000 one of the small mysteries that settle on the corners 63 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.159 of a day, quietly insolved but disturbing. Still, as a 64 00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.199 poor teatin watched the late light fade toward the river, 65 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:56.639 my mine kept circling back. Had the short cut always 66 00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:00.919 felt quite so? Short? Mornings are for rich newspaper, mug 67 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:03.159 of minty, checking on the three time pots at the 68 00:03:03.159 --> 00:03:06.439 back hand. Afternoons are for errands. My days fill easily 69 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:08.439 to parcel or two from the old post office, a 70 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:10.680 quick visit to the bookshop, where otto waves from behind 71 00:03:10.680 --> 00:03:13.719 impossible stacks, and my regular pilgrimage till Lends bakery for 72 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:17.280 whatever brom bread, rolls and gossip might be available. The 73 00:03:17.319 --> 00:03:20.479 city wears its centuries coast to the surface. You can 74 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:22.039 see it in the LOLd of the roofs. The sly 75 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.400 away one house overlays the bones of older Once the 76 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.360 casual way an ali decides it wants to go two 77 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:29.879 places at once, ribbons of cobblestone split and merge into 78 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:32.560 sections that once made sense to some long gun cartographer 79 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:35.599 now wins and stutter out every city map. The river's 80 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:37.879 large bends mean that what feels like due north kam 81 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:40.840 in three twists perdu facing west again. The hills imposed, 82 00:03:40.840 --> 00:03:43.400 though will on the street grid and stacases pop up everywhere, 83 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:46.039 some leading to homes, others just climbing into another maze 84 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:49.000 of valleys. Those stairs behind the lens hooded by brick 85 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:52.199 Kinneko are not the only secret route. Ask any local. 86 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.719 This berfram who spent forty years as a postman here, 87 00:03:54.759 --> 00:03:57.080 who claims to note hidden arteries of this district better 88 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.840 than he knows his own akes. He's a barrel shape 89 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:02.120 man with a trim gray beard, always wheeling his bike 90 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:04.080 up every ramp, who insists there's an alley off the 91 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.280 main square that can deliver you a block or two north, 92 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:08.479 but only if you don't try too hard to find it. 93 00:04:09.080 --> 00:04:11.680 He nods at everyone, introduces himself as if meeting you 94 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:13.840 for the first time, then recounts a story you suspect 95 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.720 he's told a thousand times before by the borough's seven 96 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:18.759 post men. He's the only one who still walks the 97 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:22.199 whole route for pleasure, cane tapping the stones. Lena, two 98 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.439 doors down is newer by neighborhood standers, lived here eight years. 99 00:04:25.600 --> 00:04:28.399 Walks a terrier names Goorskau, with all the determination required 100 00:04:28.439 --> 00:04:30.920 in a dog owner whose companion wants to sniff every leaf. 101 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:34.480 Lena dislikes the short cut. She's told me twice. It's 102 00:04:34.519 --> 00:04:36.839 always a bit cold, you know, even in July. There 103 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:39.879 is a strange draft, she says, shivering. Ascorsky strains at 104 00:04:39.879 --> 00:04:43.240 his leash. Plus it's too easy to slide. I only 105 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.759 take it when I absolutely have to. Then there is 106 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:48.279 that crowd of teenagers, half a dozen at least, skateboards 107 00:04:48.279 --> 00:04:49.959 in hand or propped along the rails in front of 108 00:04:49.959 --> 00:04:53.040 All Blam's Corner Market. Their music drifts up and down 109 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:56.120 the stone, a shifting playlist of trap beats, guitar and laughter, 110 00:04:56.199 --> 00:04:58.879 echoing against the walls. They are in the top landing 111 00:04:58.920 --> 00:05:01.279 of the short cut, most laid up ternoons, launching daring 112 00:05:01.319 --> 00:05:03.120 tricks from the first set of steps and ducking out 113 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:05.560 of the way just fast enough for my liking. I 114 00:05:05.639 --> 00:05:07.959 mostly liked them to be truthful, watching their grace than 115 00:05:08.040 --> 00:05:10.879 noisy creativity. In such an old fashioned setting feels like 116 00:05:10.920 --> 00:05:13.160 a small, ongoing rebellion against the slow crawl of age 117 00:05:13.199 --> 00:05:15.600 and habit. Through all this is my own thread, the 118 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:19.079 daily walk from hum to bakery in back. I treasure 119 00:05:19.079 --> 00:05:21.519 the reassurance I know the route, I know a coal meat, 120 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:23.600 and I know how smell of bread and rain contain 121 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:26.000 the whole city golden for a half hour. It has 122 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:29.920 become a kind of performance, a choreography of steps, faces, exchanges. 123 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:33.519 My days spool out nots in all brighter for their predictability. 124 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:36.839 I have always liked being keen eyed. A lifetime of 125 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.319 teaching history to distract a teenager's hons, your ability to 126 00:05:39.399 --> 00:05:41.360 notice what stands out, to cut all over the tiny 127 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:44.639 variations their betray a change. So when the short cuts 128 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:46.959 seems stranger, when the cold on the stairs feels sharper, 129 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:49.160 or my walk swallows up more or less time than usual, 130 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:50.920 I feel it, even if only in the edge of 131 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:53.879 my mind. The stairs behind a bickery or older than 132 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:56.439 anyone can quite say. Granite blocks worn almost concave with 133 00:05:56.600 --> 00:05:58.639 handrels set into the wall, knot by design but by 134 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:02.519 continual use, wass pale, green and velvety claims the sides, 135 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:04.879 and even clings to the mortar. You break through the 136 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.120 shadowed steps into the light at the lower end, and 137 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:09.480 every time the change feels abrupt, as if the cities 138 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:11.279 out of skin had been peeled back for a second. 139 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:14.680 The short cut always restores me. It gives an ordinary digest, 140 00:06:14.680 --> 00:06:18.120 the right measure of un familiarity, wrapped and comfort. Sometimes 141 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:20.319 in my small garden, I find myself free playing the 142 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:23.199 day's traverse, checking did I take the short cut? Was 143 00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:26.079 a tree blooming? Did the steps feel longer or shorter 144 00:06:26.120 --> 00:06:29.800 than last week? These questions before now never felt urgent. 145 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:33.000 The neighborhood, for all its twists, has always obeyed a logic. 146 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:36.959 I truss it utterly. Two days after the strange hurry home. 147 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:40.040 I decide not to trust foggy memory. At the bakery, 148 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:43.000 I buyed the same level in grins again. Frau Weber 149 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:45.920 planning a feast, ad just hoisting it lagshly, dear, I REPLI, 150 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.800 And as I leave, I tap the timer up on 151 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:50.439 my phone. Before turning toward the short cut, I stroll, 152 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:54.879 no rush, no dawdling. After down the stairs, a teenage 153 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.399 girl leaps off the sixth step of skateboard clacking. I 154 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.560 wave and she salutes with her headphones. I turn left 155 00:07:00.600 --> 00:07:02.839 at the first bend, past the peculiar little garden that 156 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.519 always smells of mint, and emerge by the old water pump. 157 00:07:06.120 --> 00:07:08.680 I check the time, eight minutes door to door. I 158 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:11.720 try to reconstruct the distance. Is it possible? I open 159 00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:14.040 my phone's map, trace my old regular route, and then 160 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.920 the short cut. The short cut at best trims one 161 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.839 hundred twenty meters. Can achiave off so much time? I 162 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:22.959 don't think so. My pace feels exactly as usual. I'm 163 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:26.480 not winded, hand stoudy, heart rate and flustered. Later that 164 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:29.199 evening I retest my route. I take the long way, 165 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:32.439 a long Linden Stress at a crispy measured pace fourteen 166 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:35.600 and a half minutes as predicted, the short cut again 167 00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:39.120 just under six. I laugh genuinely, amuse now at my 168 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:42.160 own stubbornness. My first instinct is that I must be 169 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.399 making some simple mistake, a mistap, a generous estimate. But 170 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:48.600 the numbers are consistent. They swing impossibly in the short 171 00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:51.439 cut favor, regardless of when I wok it. I mention 172 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:53.959 a peculiarity to Lino. She grow rouse, Coskay out for 173 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.920 his evening snifferten. You know, I say, I swear it 174 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:58.839 used to take me ten minutes, but now it's more 175 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.720 like five. Same route and sound right, does it? She 176 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:05.439 smirks seecret passage then, or maybe you've been stealing my 177 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:09.480 runnish shoes. I protest, wiggling a thoroughly dull pair of loavers. 178 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:12.879 Scorsky predictably shows more interest in a pigeon than in 179 00:08:12.920 --> 00:08:17.079 neighborhood magic. Still, Leana's tone carries a familiar and a current. 180 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:20.240 We live in an old muddle quarter. Little mysteries don't 181 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:22.240 get solved so much as folded up and stored away 182 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:26.360 with the city's general eccentricities. I smile, wave and step inside. 183 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:28.399 But this time there is a kernel of curiosity I 184 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:31.639 can't quite shake loose. How short I wonder can a 185 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:33.639 shortca get and why should it be getting any shorter 186 00:08:33.679 --> 00:08:36.679 at all? I take de testing with a vigor that 187 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.799 would have surprised my younger self. In my teaching years, 188 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:41.960 students trooped. I turned every walk into a lesson in 189 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.759 city planning. Now, with the freedom of retirement and a 190 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:48.720 healthy stubborness, I decide to conduct my own experiments. One morning, 191 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:51.240 I set out three different ruts from bakery to home. First, 192 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:53.759 my default scenic deito along the river bank, passing the 193 00:08:53.799 --> 00:08:56.240 n nemural in the old boathousk phase sixty minutes, even 194 00:08:56.279 --> 00:09:00.360 with decent pace. Next, a carved diagonal line drew petronella lane, 195 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.799 dodging a delivery van coming in at twelve. Finally, I 196 00:09:03.840 --> 00:09:05.919 faced the short cut, this time of my old pedometer, 197 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:08.320 a paper notebook and duel timers, my phone and a 198 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:10.919 clunky kitchen timer from a drawer. I stepped through the 199 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:13.399 back gate with a deliberate step, careful not to quicken 200 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:16.639 my pace. This shortcut yawns before me, cool as always, 201 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.720 the stones lightly dappled with last night's rain. As I walk, 202 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:22.200 my mind tracks each detail, the chip brick at the midpoint, 203 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:24.720 the faint scuff marks from cowdlers skateboards. The twists would 204 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:26.879 a stairs become a brick ramp for a few meters 205 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:29.039 By the time I unlocked my door and set the 206 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:31.559 bread on the kitchen table. Both times declared just over 207 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:34.879 five minutes. Steps counted about two hundred and forty, a 208 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:37.720 pausible number for the shortcut, but the old route would 209 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:40.759 have added only another sixty steps. How can so little 210 00:09:40.759 --> 00:09:44.120 distance yield so much time? Determined to catch myself in error, 211 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:46.000 I repeat the short cut later that day, This time 212 00:09:46.039 --> 00:09:50.000 after sunset. The sky is street crimson shadows bleeing off 213 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:52.919 the stones. This short cut to night feels unchanged, just 214 00:09:52.960 --> 00:09:56.080 as shadowy, just as crisp. I walk slowly, so as 215 00:09:56.080 --> 00:09:59.840 not to bias the test result. Three minutes forty two seconds. 216 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:03.000 Now I'm laughing out loud, quietly but genuinely, because this 217 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:05.159 is no longer the disappointment of miss minutes or the 218 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:09.440 trick of faulty batteries. Both timers agree. Next, I dig 219 00:10:09.440 --> 00:10:11.840 out my pedometer and compare the step count across routes. 220 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:14.240 The short cut stays between two hundred and two fifty. 221 00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:17.879 The longer routs show a knee linear increase. Only with 222 00:10:17.960 --> 00:10:20.600 the short cut. Something odd happens. The steps remain proportionate 223 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:22.360 to the route, but the time doesn't merely shrink. It 224 00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:24.600 seems to collapse, as if the stuns themselves cowl up 225 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:27.759 beneath my feet. I recall the City History Club session 226 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:30.480 years back, when an amateur map mac Claim Falconstart was 227 00:10:30.519 --> 00:10:33.360 built to confuse know quick a properties keeps you safe 228 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:36.559 from invaders and from yourself, he'd argued, sipping his tiny coffee. 229 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:38.919 It but sometimes it chaps its own. Do I now 230 00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:42.080 blame the city's layout? I hope not, but I'm starting 231 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:46.279 to worry. My senses gun soft, curiosity sharpening. I decide 232 00:10:46.279 --> 00:10:49.360 to ask for outside perspective. The next day, I spot 233 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:51.960 mister Botram wheeling his bike through the square, cap tilted 234 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:56.039 over one eye. I flag him down, Bertram, fancy and experiment. 235 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:01.480 He laughs, depends Does it involve pies or puzzle short cuts? 236 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.879 I tell him, and he perks up. We walk the 237 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:06.679 short cut together, each with a timer. He gives a 238 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:09.519 running commentary on various delivery miss Apps points out a 239 00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:11.679 roof tile he claims to have fixed himself in nineteen 240 00:11:11.720 --> 00:11:13.840 eighty seven, And when we arrive at my door after 241 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:16.200 what feels like a perfect enormal stroll, he checks his 242 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:19.679 watch nine and a half minutes, nearly as I'd expect. 243 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:23.360 I glance at both my timers, barely over six. I 244 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:26.919 look at him blank. He spots my confusion. Did you 245 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:30.159 dash ahead then come back around? He teases no, But 246 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:33.440 I say I just walked. He shrugs, pats his belly, 247 00:11:33.519 --> 00:11:36.120 and assures me. The stairs have always played tricks, particularly 248 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:39.159 on those impatient to get home. Flustered but determined, I 249 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:41.759 try a new tack. I check my exertion, measuring my 250 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:44.639 pulse as soon as I arrive. Two more runs with 251 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:47.679 the shortcut, one at noon, one in late dusk. Each 252 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.000 time my heart breat is unchanged, and I am not 253 00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:52.279 remotely out of breath. Not the faintest tint I've hurried, 254 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:55.279 despite the hours seemingly shaved from the walk. Each new 255 00:11:55.360 --> 00:11:58.919 day to point to timers, steps, devices, witnesses contradicts the last. 256 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:02.600 If I use the shortcut alone, time condenses beyond all reason. 257 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:05.840 If I bring company, their time stays normal, while mine 258 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:09.480 continues to accelerate. My faith in maps, watches, and the 259 00:12:09.559 --> 00:12:12.120 very stones on the foot begins to wobble. I am 260 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:15.120 not frightened, but fascinated, compelled toward answers in the way 261 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:17.960 a dog worries at a loose red. My own neighborhood, 262 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.080 the anchor of my days for decades, has sprouted a 263 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:24.120 riddle that conventional sense simply cannot rain. In one evening, 264 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:26.840 I stack the weak scribbles, sketches, and time logs on 265 00:12:26.879 --> 00:12:29.360 the kitchen table, which were in pots of tea. I 266 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.879 transcribe my odd minutes and step counts, sketch the routs, 267 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:34.399 and call a code the anomalies. If this were a 268 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:37.720 logic puzzle, the solution would flicker into view. Instead what 269 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:41.480 emerges as a pattern of contradiction. On Thursday, after reading 270 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:44.000 an article about a new GPS fitness tracker, I resolved 271 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.559 to use my phone's GPS mapping aptur in my walk home. 272 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:49.600 I set up the tracker, mark my starting location at 273 00:12:49.639 --> 00:12:51.840 Lynd's back gate, and hit record. As I step onto 274 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:54.480 the short cut, My route appears on phones map in 275 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:57.120 real time, down the steps, past the skateboarders, right at 276 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:59.440 the garden, on to calm light, and guests left again 277 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:02.600 towards my stre I guide through the short cut, steady, 278 00:13:02.639 --> 00:13:05.240 watching a blinking blue dot advance as if narrating my movement. 279 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:07.840 I reach my door at hit end route and the 280 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:10.960 app displays a neat blue line, but something doesn't add up. 281 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:13.879 The log registers me leaving the bakery. Then almost instantly, 282 00:13:13.919 --> 00:13:16.679 my dot jumps forward, skipping half the blocks, coming to 283 00:13:16.720 --> 00:13:19.159 rest at my own address. The section in between is 284 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:23.080 missing no location data. The GPS simply shows two points 285 00:13:23.159 --> 00:13:26.000 start finish, fast forwarded through the city, as if reality 286 00:13:26.039 --> 00:13:28.840 has been cut and spliced. I test this twice more, 287 00:13:28.919 --> 00:13:32.559 easing different apps. The same digital silence occurs, no intermediate 288 00:13:32.600 --> 00:13:35.600 points recorded, as though part of the walt disappeared. This 289 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:38.200 doesn't happen when I take longer routes. Only when I 290 00:13:38.279 --> 00:13:40.960 use the shortcut does the record vanish, leaving a strange 291 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:42.639 foight in place of what should be the main event 292 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:45.960 that evening. Sitting with a madrifying glass in my old 293 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.480 city guideook, I compare every available map. The line of 294 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:52.120 the shortcuit never burns, never changes. Yet my live experience 295 00:13:52.159 --> 00:13:55.320 tells another story, one where blocks can vanish, time can compress, 296 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:58.360 and stone can lie. For the first time, I entertain 297 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:01.080 real disbelief. Perhaps my certainty he has always been an illusion. 298 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:04.320 Maybe the city itself is less stable than I'd ever imagined. 299 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.399 I can no longer blame forget from this, or faulty batteries, 300 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:10.799 or even the sentimental elasticity of memory. Something about the 301 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:13.600 shortcut is not just tricking me, but subtly rearranging the 302 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:17.440 order of experience. My skepticism begins to crumble, replaced with 303 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.559 a keener edge of discovery. I decide I will observe 304 00:14:20.679 --> 00:14:24.919 collect an experiment until since emerges from nonsense. The short Cut, 305 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:26.960 I am convinced, is not simply a cork of bad 306 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:30.200 timing or fuzzy geography. I refuse to accept that somethings, 307 00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:32.440 some mundane something I know so intimately, could defy the 308 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:36.080 logic have trusted all my life. With evidence mounting, I 309 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:38.559 summon my courage and roup in others for a real experiment. 310 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:41.840 On Saturday, I gather small team Alina with Gorsky, who 311 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:44.519 looks unimpressed, mister Bertram game for anything if it means 312 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:46.639 a stroll and a story, and two of the skateboarding 313 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:49.519 teenagers from the Shortcut steps a La Manchayan, whose mother 314 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.320 had once taught us school. I propose reach walk the 315 00:14:52.360 --> 00:14:54.320 Shortcut together, but make a note of our own time 316 00:14:54.360 --> 00:14:57.240 and pay attention to anything art. We agree on a 317 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:01.120 protecoll We'll all start together, time ourselves, and afterward compare notes. 318 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:04.399 I give Lena an extra kitchen timer, one mister Burscher 319 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:06.679 on my phone, and Elam volunteers to fill our walk 320 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:10.120 with a smartphone. Kaien, for his part in Sissy's already 321 00:15:10.120 --> 00:15:12.240 memorize every single crack in the short cut stone and 322 00:15:12.279 --> 00:15:14.159 bets me a soda. He'll beat everyone to the end. 323 00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:16.879 We set out in a jovial huddle, bantering as we go. 324 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:19.519 The short flight of stairs gives way to the first 325 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:22.399 curved alley. Lena points out the bloom on her favorite 326 00:15:22.440 --> 00:15:25.559 climbing rows kind Catt's escateboard under his arm, bragging about 327 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:29.039 last week's trick. Whertra mumbles about a neighbor's garden. Elam 328 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:31.559 checks her footage, turning the camera toward the walls, and 329 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:34.360 I try to focus on my own sensations. As we 330 00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:36.600 approach the eutrene near the short cuts end, I feel 331 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:39.519 a peculiar slippage my mind registers. The transition is seamless, 332 00:15:39.600 --> 00:15:42.519 barely an interval at all. In what feels like a blink, 333 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:45.480 We're standing on my doorstep, the others still chatting about 334 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:49.639 their favorite Ali We graffiti. We compare our timers. Everyone 335 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:52.200 else recorded a passable eight or nine minutes, nothing out 336 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:57.200 of the ordinary. Mine meanwhile, reads just under three. Elam's video, 337 00:15:57.399 --> 00:16:00.519 when we play it back, seems straightforward until she scrolls 338 00:16:00.519 --> 00:16:02.840 to a point that gives us pause. Graffiti we all 339 00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:05.000 remember from the upper alley now appears near the bottom. 340 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.200 In the next scene, a lamp post whose distinct orange 341 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:09.320 glow has always marked them in print, A suddenly position 342 00:16:09.360 --> 00:16:12.559 plainly visible beyond the shortcuts end. I withdraw my old 343 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.759 sketch book, which dates back more than a decade. My drawings, 344 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:18.720 the staircase, a leaning bench, the bakeries signboards showed these 345 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:22.360 landmarks in their previous expected positions. When I compare them 346 00:16:22.360 --> 00:16:24.679 with the video and to day's observations them as match 347 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:26.919 is clear places I have always expected to be up 348 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:30.200 there or down here. I've migrated gently, but unmistakably. A 349 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:34.440 nervous laugh bubbles among us. Leana shrugs. I must have 350 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:37.399 stopped noticing a long time ago, she says, after a pause. 351 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.360 But that's always how these steps have felt, hasn't it 352 00:16:40.399 --> 00:16:42.720 a bit's libbery, a bit odd? Maybe everything shifts more 353 00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:46.399 than we believe. We say our goodbyes. Later that week, 354 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:49.080 walking the short cut by myself yet again, I notice 355 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:50.759 a tiny shop tucked onto a street I could s 356 00:16:50.759 --> 00:16:54.320 where was once two blocks further east. The proprietor frown More, 357 00:16:54.440 --> 00:16:56.320 sweeps the doorstep and waves to me, just as she 358 00:16:56.360 --> 00:16:59.639 always does. You're early to day Evelyn, she calls, though 359 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:03.639 my water says otherwise. I ask about the move, move, 360 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:07.240 she frowns. We've always been here, She gestures to a 361 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:10.720 frame black and white photograph above the counter. Sure enough, 362 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:12.839 the address is the same, but the buildings beside it 363 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:15.960 looking familiar. That's just how the streets always looked in spring, 364 00:17:16.039 --> 00:17:18.799 she assures me. These aloys play tricks when it's so 365 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:20.480 much easier to go where you mean to them to 366 00:17:20.480 --> 00:17:24.839 remember where you went, Armed with observations, sketches, phone recordings, 367 00:17:24.920 --> 00:17:27.799 and accruing sense of humility, I reject any lingering suggestion 368 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:30.440 that this is all memory is mischief. It's not just me. 369 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.720 It's not just time or faulty electronics or rumor. The 370 00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:36.480 short cut, and perhaps the streets around it seemed to 371 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:39.880 respond to silent ques of habit and intent. Sometimes the 372 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:42.599 change is visible in a shifting landmark, sometimes in a 373 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:45.359 stretch of steps that seem to double back, sometimes only 374 00:17:45.359 --> 00:17:47.400 in the numbers, neatly taking away on my time. As 375 00:17:48.119 --> 00:17:50.599 at first I thought I'd miscanted or blind age for 376 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.759 the gaps in my memory, But the city has begone gently, 377 00:17:53.759 --> 00:17:56.559 almost indulgently, to reveal itself, not as a fixed geography, 378 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.920 but as something quietly fluid. The shortcut's length, it's contra 379 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:02.920 Even the position of a lamp post now seemed capable 380 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:05.279 of flexing, almost as if the neighborhood bends to guide 381 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:09.000 me home. I find that realization exhilarating, a strange, benevolent magic, 382 00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:12.200 hiding not in shadows or superstition, but in plain liver roudine. 383 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:15.240 Whatever the explanation, it is, the neighborhood itself flood is 384 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.880 changing underneath musteps, or perhaps shifting to accommodate my intention, 385 00:18:19.079 --> 00:18:21.000 as if these stones remember me and seek to make 386 00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:24.000 the path easier for those who belong. Evelyn didn't sleep 387 00:18:24.039 --> 00:18:27.599 much that Saturday night. Instead, while the city muted itself 388 00:18:27.640 --> 00:18:29.799 to hush, she lay listening to distant river bells and 389 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:32.359 the far rumble of skateboards over stone, her mind stitching 390 00:18:32.359 --> 00:18:35.240 together the pieces of what she seen, not just time 391 00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:37.640 for short now, but features of the city itself. A 392 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:40.160 lamp post, a signboard shuttled about without warning, as if 393 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:44.000 responding to her footsteps were practiced intentions. The familiar short 394 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:46.119 cut was not a trick of the senses, nor could 395 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:50.160 it be shrinked Off's neighborhood eccentricity. Some deeper pattern was emerging, 396 00:18:50.359 --> 00:18:53.279 one which resisted explanation for now, but drew her curiosity, 397 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:55.759 like a bright thread through fabric, grown transparent in places 398 00:18:55.839 --> 00:18:58.960 impossible in others. By first light, she had resolved to 399 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:00.440 make a careful record of the chain. Jane, just no 400 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.920 trust in memory, no half a call details. She would become, 401 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:06.440