WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.519 Hollo I moalcan stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:10.039 Let's get into it. 3 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:13.000 The window in the whale gallery looked out over the 4 00:00:13.039 --> 00:00:16.640 harbor in a way that didn't make sense at first. Well, no, 5 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:19.800 not at first. For a good while after stepping over 6 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:22.800 the museum's threshold, I was content to assume I just 7 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:26.000 hadn't paid attention on the lane outside, distracted by the 8 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:29.000 chatter from the nearby fish key and the smell of salt. 9 00:00:29.719 --> 00:00:32.320 The crumbling Maritime Museum stood in the elbow of the 10 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:35.840 high Street, tucked between a row of faded boarding houses 11 00:00:36.039 --> 00:00:40.280 and a steep, moss bound passage. I'd never been inside 12 00:00:40.359 --> 00:00:44.039 during my earlier excursions through town. I'd always meant to, 13 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:47.479 of course, but meaning too and doing are cousins more 14 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:52.079 than twins, especially in retirement. But that morning, something about 15 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:56.159 the mild, drizzly air sent me looking for a change. 16 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.560 The entryway, barely wider than my old umbrella, offered a 17 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:05.280 wall of notices volunteer openings see shanty Thursdays support local history. 18 00:01:05.799 --> 00:01:08.959 Behind the welcome desk, a cheerful teenager passed the time 19 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:11.560 with a book on knots. Beyond her was a cramped 20 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:15.719 corridor lined with museum placards aging at different rates. Nothing 21 00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:20.079 about the place suggested impossibility. If anything, it was precisely 22 00:01:20.120 --> 00:01:23.959 the worn friendly type of institution that invites forgiveness for 23 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:28.159 leaky ceilings and mismatched rails. But in the first major 24 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:31.400 exhibit room, three steps from the front desk, lay the 25 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:35.200 first oddity. A sash window framed a view of the wharves, 26 00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:39.319 the masts bobbing at waterline, exactly as you'd expect. It 27 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.319 was almost too perfect. A little tableau of the working 28 00:01:42.359 --> 00:01:45.680 port tucked behind glass, a place for school children to 29 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:49.640 press their noses and count gulls, A set of ships logs, 30 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:54.120 and an arrangement of whaleburn artifacts completed the scene. I 31 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.280 took it at face value. Why wouldn't I? There was 32 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:01.280 nothing obviously strange, just a room of view the classic 33 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:04.159 must of old varnished wood and see air that all 34 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:08.360 seaside museums carry like a birthmark. It was the next 35 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:11.599 room that issued the quiet invitation to doubt. No more 36 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:14.560 than twelve steps along a short passage up a slope 37 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:16.919 i'd call a ramp more than a stair, The room 38 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:20.800 beyond was barely larger than a generous closet. Still its 39 00:02:20.840 --> 00:02:24.039 slightly fogged window overlooked not the harbor, but the lumpy 40 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.039 backs of dark tiled roofs the street up hill, a 41 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.439 nott of tangled greenery, nowhere near the sea level view 42 00:02:30.479 --> 00:02:34.319 I just left. The terrain outside didn't rise so steeply, 43 00:02:34.360 --> 00:02:38.800 I thought, frowning, Or perhaps the building was cleverer inside 44 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:43.599 than I'd realized. Stepping abruptly up some lost gradient, I 45 00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:47.120 circled the central exhibit table, a display about an eighteen 46 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:50.080 twenty one rescue at sea, staring out and back at 47 00:02:50.120 --> 00:02:54.479 the window. My old Cataaloagu's brain whirring. These hilly seaside 48 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:58.039 places could twist the logic of elevations in older towns. 49 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:01.800 Floors might double back over themselves. Had a lower staircase 50 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:05.120 only visible from the alley. Half the establishments along this 51 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:08.520 lane seemed to balance on ancient stilt work, or slouched 52 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:11.919 drunkenly in their footings. I'd seen worse in the stacks 53 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:16.159 of city libraries. After the third room, however, my reason 54 00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:20.039 began to develop small cracks. This time after a brief ascent. 55 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:23.000 The window spanned almost the breadth of the far wall. 56 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:26.080 Looking out, I expected to see a little more sky, 57 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:30.560 perhaps the topmost chimneys of those same houses. Instead, the 58 00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:33.319 pane cut a slice of air above the entire town, 59 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.599 down onto the same rooftops I had seen earlier, but 60 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:41.479 now from several stories higher. Beyond that the silver scribble 61 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:45.000 of the river's outflow, and impossibly a hint of the 62 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:48.120 outermost rock pools half a mile further down the coast. 63 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:53.080 I stood perfectly still, fingers gripping my notebook. For one 64 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.960 sharp moment I entertained the idea that the window was 65 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:00.560 an elaborate, very convincing illusion, a cunningly backlit mural perhaps, 66 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:03.840 or a digital screen so realistic it fooled the senses. 67 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.879 But glass was cool. Beneath my palm. The salty wind 68 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:10.439 found its way through a crack at the latch. Out 69 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.479 on the slates, A real gull shrieked and flapped as 70 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.959 two schoolboys splashed below. I, instinct honed by a life 71 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:21.160 of reference queries, was not to ask at once. A 72 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:25.720 good librarian catalog's her curiosities, stores them for later. Instead, 73 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:28.720 I quietly committed the contradiction to memory and carried on, 74 00:04:29.160 --> 00:04:31.560 determined to trust in old bricks and the knack for 75 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.279 odd window placements. I suspected someone clever had designed the 76 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:38.639 rooms to capture different iconic views, a trick of the light, 77 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.120 a well staged journey through the buildings, centuries of additions. Clever, 78 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:48.800 but not impossible, surely for now I resolved, observed first 79 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:53.079 catalog questions later. The museum, it seemed, was content to 80 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.759 play along. The locals called it the Sideways Museum, mostly 81 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.040 with a shrug, as if the odd name were just 82 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:03.240 another flavor in the stew of town gossip, not something 83 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:07.000 that demanded greater explanation. I only learned of it thanks 84 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.600 to to Mars, whose postal rounds gave him a legendary intimacy, 85 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:13.879 not only with post codes and attic stairwells, but with 86 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:18.319 every shade of local peculiarity. To Mars delivered half the 87 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:24.319 town's news, parcels and secrets. He was equal parts historian, postman, 88 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:29.720 and sometimes unreliable narrator. You haven't poked about in there yet, Marjorie, 89 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:33.120 he'd asked one afternoon as we walked home from the bakery. 90 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:36.879 Funny place. That can't say I ever keep straight which 91 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:39.879 weighs the back and which is the front? Seems different 92 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:43.519 every time you step inside, He'd grinned, as if this 93 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:47.360 were the most natural trouble in the world. These days, 94 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:51.279 routine defined my life, and it was by design. After 95 00:05:51.399 --> 00:05:55.720 decades spent deep in cathedral like archives public libraries, mostly 96 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.920 with their leathery quiet and the hum of the central heating, 97 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:02.319 I'd come to the town for its edges, edges of 98 00:06:02.360 --> 00:06:05.199 the country, at least where the cliffs shelter, a cluster 99 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:08.439 of lanes and houses grown up like barnacles on the rock. 100 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:13.639 My retirement was a contented one, books, long walks along 101 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:16.920 the headlands, cups of strong tea with the neighbors, and 102 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.439 the steady thrill of learning the local histories by browsing 103 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:25.000 old maps and wayfinding the tangled lanes. Yet, where habit 104 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.519 tends to dull curiosity, I'd found it instead honed mine 105 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:32.240 to a softer, persistent point. Every morning I set out, 106 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:36.120 intending to know the town a little better, to catalog quietly, 107 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:40.040 privately the subtle rotations of its life. Here was a 108 00:06:40.040 --> 00:06:43.160 bench that moved two meters east every few months. There 109 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:46.839 was the fishmonger who swore his grandfather had survived three 110 00:06:46.920 --> 00:06:52.480 separate shipwrecks, none adequately explained, I loved the puzzle aspects 111 00:06:52.519 --> 00:06:57.120 of local history, the ways stories propagate, mutate, settle into 112 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:01.079 the stone work. The museum itself was less an institution 113 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:05.160 than a patchwork. It sprawled down the steepest lane, hugging 114 00:07:05.160 --> 00:07:09.120 the curve of the road, appearing at once solid and improvisational. 115 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:13.879 The foundation boasted timbers from the seventeen hundreds, a gothic 116 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:17.839 archway from the next century, and more recent concrete post 117 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:23.240 war additions squatting behind. Over the last fifteen years. According 118 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:25.879 to every write up and the faded brass plaque by 119 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:29.959 the door, it had undergone waves of restoration, integrating its 120 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:34.560 many epochs into a living record of maritime life. From outside, 121 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:37.759 you could make a reasonable guess at where each ear joined. 122 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:41.920 A change in brick color, a blocked chimney, a window 123 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.360 that didn't quite match its sibling. Across the entryway, the staff, too, 124 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:50.160 bore the friendly hall marks of local pride and limited resources. 125 00:07:50.720 --> 00:07:54.240 Alongside the teenage guide Lucy and the director, Miss Appledore, 126 00:07:54.680 --> 00:07:57.959 always in cheerful prints, her hands waving as she narrated 127 00:07:57.959 --> 00:08:01.920 the museum's funding challenges. There were two or three regular volunteers, 128 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:06.920 Jorge with his white mustache and encyclopedic knowledge of local shipwrecks, 129 00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:10.120 and Angela, who wore a knit beare year round and 130 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:13.319 dispensed cups of weak tea in the small kitchen past 131 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:17.759 the wailing exhibit. Their air was always more neighborhood gathering 132 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:22.720 spot than serious archive. Lucy, in particular, seemed to carry 133 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:25.519 the building's contradictions as if they were nothing more than 134 00:08:25.560 --> 00:08:29.879 inside jokes. Whenever a visitor asked for directions between exhibits, 135 00:08:30.120 --> 00:08:33.799 she'd respond with cheerful vagueness. Up the corridor, or you 136 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:36.360 could try the stairs at the end, but really you'll 137 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:40.600 get there either way. I'd seen her reassure confused tourists 138 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:44.279 three times in a single afternoon, never losing her smile. 139 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:49.039 If anyone in the building noticed its illogicalities or cared 140 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:51.840 to raise an eyebrow, their attitude seemed to be that 141 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:55.840 of affectionate tolerance. Bit of a muddle, isn't it to 142 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:59.559 Mars had said again when I relayed my observations. But 143 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:03.240 you have to love it keeps us guessing. As a 144 00:09:03.240 --> 00:09:05.919 lover of maps and the order they promised, I found 145 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:10.320 myself increasingly attentive to details At home, My shelves were 146 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:14.360 lined with charts and plans, old fire regulations for the libraries. 147 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:17.600 I had managed hand drawn maps of the Headland walks, 148 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:21.320 some by locals, others collected over years of vacationing before 149 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:24.840 my move. There was something comforting about pinning down space, 150 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:29.200 giving every shelf and window its place. The Sideway's museum, 151 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.320 it seemed, did not share my respect for such discipline, 152 00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:36.080 and yet with every visit I felt less the urge 153 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:39.960 to fix its oddities, and more the compulsion to understand them. 154 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:43.679 Curiosity in such places isn't a hunger for answers, so 155 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:47.000 much as a quiet invitation to linger in the strange 156 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:51.679 gap between sense and surprise. The next real contradiction came 157 00:09:51.679 --> 00:09:55.320 in the Whale Skeleton gallery. It wasn't the centerpiece an 158 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:59.480 impressive vertebral column suspended from iron hooks, the vertebrae as 159 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:03.919 broad as stools, or even the exhibits low, slightly sloping ceiling, 160 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:06.279 which I could have explained away as part of the 161 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:10.720 building's age. Now it was the way. After pausing only 162 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:13.279 long enough to take in a wall of weathered harpoons, 163 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:16.679 I passed into the next gallery and found myself faced 164 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.639 with yet another impossible view through a broad window in 165 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:23.519 this new room, I looked down onto the jumbled rooftops 166 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:26.399 of the upper High Street, their moss dark gutters, sloping 167 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.480 away to the church. This would have made sense had 168 00:10:29.480 --> 00:10:33.000 I just scaled a significant flight upward. But the transition 169 00:10:33.120 --> 00:10:36.759 from whale skeleton to this gallery involved little more than 170 00:10:36.759 --> 00:10:40.720 the most gentle of inclines, a subtle carpeted rise beneath 171 00:10:40.759 --> 00:10:44.240 my shoes. There was certainly no sense of having outclimbed 172 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:48.200 the physical building. Puzzled, I turned to Lucy, who was 173 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:52.840 restocking pamphlets near by. Lucy, the gallery with the sea view? 174 00:10:53.159 --> 00:10:55.559 Is it above or below this one? I tried to 175 00:10:55.639 --> 00:10:59.639 keep my tone casual, she laughed, tucking her hair behind 176 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:04.879 her ear. Neither really they run parallel, she looked, absolutely certain. 177 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:07.639 You can get from one to the other without really 178 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:10.320 going up or down, if you just take the corridor 179 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.159 by the models ships, or if you prefer the stairs 180 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:17.519 that works too parallel. I gave her a polite nod 181 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:21.320 and a thoughtful hum mentally mapping the distances and levels 182 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:27.480 that she, just with utter confidence rendered unhelpfully contradictory. Thank you, 183 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:32.080 I said, and wrote a hasty note visitors orientation seems 184 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:34.879 to depend on their chosen route, but all routes seem 185 00:11:34.919 --> 00:11:39.679 to rise or descend in impossible ways. A wild explanation 186 00:11:39.799 --> 00:11:43.559 flitted through my mind. Maybe the building encapsulates a series 187 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:46.440 of half levels, like a split foy house where you 188 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:49.440 never quite notice your turning in a circle. Or perhaps 189 00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:53.240 I'd simply missed an intermediate stare. It happens, especially in 190 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:57.120 unfamiliar terrain. Still, there was something about the way the 191 00:11:57.159 --> 00:12:01.039 outside world shifted so dramatically from one window to the next, 192 00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:05.919 beyond the credible tricks of Victorian architects or modern renovators. 193 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:09.919 I tested my theory by retracing my steps, trying to 194 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:13.120 span the buildings with and compare each window's view in 195 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:17.320 quick succession. I began counting paces, even humming a little 196 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:20.559 under my breath to keep time. Twelve strides to the 197 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:23.559 whale room, five to the end of the gallery, ten 198 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:26.440 more up the short rise. The sum of it simply 199 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:30.840 didn't account for the apparent changes outside. Back in the lobby, 200 00:12:31.039 --> 00:12:33.960 I paused to observe the flow of visitors. A pair 201 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:37.960 of women compared exhibits animatedly, each describing the layout to 202 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.559 the other. In terms completely at odds. One insisted the 203 00:12:41.559 --> 00:12:44.720 boat models were to the right past the whaling exhibit, 204 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:47.519 while her companion swore you had to follow the odd 205 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:51.519 staircase behind the lighthouse. Dirama. There was no friction in 206 00:12:51.559 --> 00:12:55.480 their disagreement, only the cheerful certainty of memory, as if 207 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:59.679 each version belonged to a private geography. Returning to the 208 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:03.480 teen Lucy, I asked, are there two galleries with views 209 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:07.600 of the roofs? She shook her head, smiling, Oh, there 210 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:10.120 are three, I think, unless you count the one with 211 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:13.759 the leaded glass. But nobody goes in there much. She 212 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:17.320 seemed unbothered by my confusion. If you get lost, just 213 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:20.120 head for the biggest window. You can always see where 214 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:23.840 you are from there. But that, of course, was the trouble. 215 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:28.360 Every window insisted on its own sense of place. I 216 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:31.519 left the museum that afternoon with a head full of questions, 217 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:35.960 convinced I was missing some essential architectural insight, or that 218 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:39.000 the building itself had developed a private joke at the 219 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:43.559 expense of cartographers and librarians. I told myself to return 220 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:48.200 properly equipped to morrow. The next morning dawned pale and 221 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:51.759 fitful with drizzle. The streets shimmered, emptied of all but 222 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:55.519 the heartiest dog walkers. I arrived at the Sideways Museum 223 00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:58.879 just after they raised the dusty open sign, prepared with 224 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:03.039 a plan borrowed from many years in archives, observe record, 225 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:07.039 seek evidence. The wider world, I thought had no patience 226 00:14:07.080 --> 00:14:10.720 for vague impressions, rigor if I could bring it might 227 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:15.399 help decode the quirks. Inside the entrance, three different maps 228 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.039 were found out on the front desk, each marked with 229 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:23.519 colored lines and keyed icons. Ground floor, harbor, entry, upper wing. 230 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:27.799 I selected the plainest, no point in getting distracted by 231 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:32.240 artists flourishes, intending to anchor my observations to a fixed plan. 232 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:37.320 The volunteers warming mugs at the reception nook nodded in 233 00:14:37.399 --> 00:14:41.279 my direction. Bit of a maze our museum. Take a 234 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:45.200 map or two if you like one, said amiably. I'll 235 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.919 take just the one for now, I replied. I set 236 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:53.279 off notebook, open eyes, sharp pace, counting between rooms, sketching 237 00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:57.200 crude outlines, listing window views and the visible landmarks beyond 238 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:00.519 each pane. In the whale gallery. Once more, I marked 239 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:05.159 twelve steps from entry sea view. Immediately afterward, I tested 240 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:08.840 all possible exits, noting each subtle grade. Was it a 241 00:15:08.840 --> 00:15:12.879 true stare or only a slope disguised with carpet. I 242 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:17.639 photographed every detail, concentrating not just on displays, but the 243 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:20.960 exact angle of sunlight, the line up of boats in 244 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:25.480 the harbor, the particular colors in the alley beyond. Moving 245 00:15:25.559 --> 00:15:29.679 deliberately from gallery to gallery, I discovered the second time 246 00:15:29.759 --> 00:15:32.480 through the corridor to the next room was three steps 247 00:15:32.519 --> 00:15:35.639 longer than the day before. The arrangement of ships in 248 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:39.279 bottles had swapped with a glass case of navigational tools. 249 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:43.320 This change, I tried to reassure myself, might simply be 250 00:15:43.399 --> 00:15:47.799 the work of volunteers re arranging the exhibits. Still, the 251 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:51.440 order of rooms themselves seemed subtly off. I entered what 252 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.919 my map called North Annex and found a sequence of 253 00:15:54.960 --> 00:15:59.360 displays labeled for two separate wings. Confident I was just 254 00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:03.399 muddling the plan, I checked my phone's camera roll, expecting 255 00:16:03.399 --> 00:16:06.919 a neat procession of images. Instead, I found something odd. 256 00:16:07.559 --> 00:16:09.960 The whale bone bench appeared first on the left of 257 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.759 the room, then the right. In the next image, a 258 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:17.120 model schooner's painted hull changed shade red to brown, perhaps 259 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:20.240 a trick of the lighting, except it looked markedly different, 260 00:16:20.480 --> 00:16:23.919 and the museum's lighting was unchanging, clouded as it was 261 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:28.360 with daylight. I resolved then to observe the other patrons, 262 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:34.440 listening as they gently wrangled over directions. It's just this way, oh, 263 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:37.159 isn't it? I thought? We came up a stair, a 264 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:41.519 visitor said to their companion. Now look, it's straight along 265 00:16:41.559 --> 00:16:44.960 past the shipwrecks, then left at the mural. You remember 266 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:50.519 the mural. Both then, seemingly without disagreement, went right, not left. 267 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:55.120 I took a chance and approached Miss Appledoor herself, catching 268 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:57.840 her as she arranged a basket of handouts by the 269 00:16:57.879 --> 00:17:02.879 fire exit. Excuse me, I'm working on understanding the building's layout, 270 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:06.319 I wondered, if you might know. Do the gallery floors 271 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:10.079 a line with the streets outside? She tilted her head 272 00:17:10.119 --> 00:17:14.480 that perpetual smile, forming, Oh, our little oddities, they're half 273 00:17:14.519 --> 00:17:17.279 the charm. The town's full of them. Being as old 274 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:20.119 as it is. This place is a collection of wings 275 00:17:20.160 --> 00:17:23.480 and add ons, a bit of Victorian here, Edwardian there. 276 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:27.319 The whole buildings patched together like a favorite quilt, keeps 277 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:31.559 us on our toes. She saw my skepticism and patted 278 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:35.200 my arm. I've worked here six years and still end 279 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:39.000 up surprised by a new corner now and then. Her 280 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:41.880 answer was plausible, but I couldn't shake the feeling that 281 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:47.400 something was being left unsaid, or else simply unconsidered. A patchwork. Yes, 282 00:17:47.960 --> 00:17:51.440 but mosaics didn't usually rearrange their own tiles while you 283 00:17:51.480 --> 00:17:55.440 looked away. To test my remaining doubt, I did one 284 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:59.279 last thing. I stepped outside, circled the alley, and re 285 00:17:59.400 --> 00:18:02.519 entered the building from the main entrance. This time, the 286 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:07.640 door opened impossibly, facing the largest exhibit directly where only 287 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:11.079 yesterday you'd had to climb and turn twice before reaching it. 288 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.480 I halted, surprised enough for my heart to stutter. A 289 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:19.680 staff member, not one I recognized, nodded a greeting. Unaware 290 00:18:20.119 --> 00:18:23.000 or so I thought, of the contradiction, she just played 291 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:26.920 host to. I left soon after, my head buzzing with 292 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:30.119 not confusion but the need to go deeper. I resolved 293 00:18:30.119 --> 00:18:32.079 to approach the building as I would a rare and 294 00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:37.119 confounding text, return with compass, tape and patience catalog the 295 00:18:37.160 --> 00:18:41.720 evidence test every theory, Sooner or later, the logic or 296 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:46.000 its absence would reveal itself. That night, my small kitchen 297 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:49.200 table became an operations room. I laid out my notes, 298 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:54.400 transcribed yesterday's route alongside to day's. The museum's map, dogged 299 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:57.400 and smudged with finger prints, quickly became a tangle of 300 00:18:57.559 --> 00:19:01.759 arrows dotted lines that refused to square with any consistent geometry. 301 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:06.119 Rooms I could swear were adjacent, ended up two corridors apart. 302 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.319 Window views sometimes doubled back, as if the outside world 303 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:14.119 had rotated without moving the building at all. I tried 304 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:17.799 to overlay the printed plan with my sketches. Misalignment compounded 305 00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:20.720 with every attempt, I told myself it must be an 306 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:23.960 error of scale, or perhaps my own haphazard note. Taking. 307 00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:27.240 Years in the stacks had taught me to distrust subjective 308 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:30.960 accounts when hard data was available, but my methods here. 309 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:34.559 If anything leaned too far in the opposite direction. With 310 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:39.359 every adjustment I made, the reality I experienced receded, side stepped, 311 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:43.799 almost as if reluctant to be neatly cataloged. Still, I 312 00:19:43.880 --> 00:19:46.519 was determined as ever to make sense of things, and 313 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:50.200 perhaps more so, because sense seemed tantalizingly out of reach, 314 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:54.359 I needed more than memory and loane observation. I needed 315 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:56.759 to compare my experience to that of some one else, 316 00:19:57.160 --> 00:20:01.720 a check against my own fallibility or possibly a new contradiction. 317 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:06.720 On my third deliberate visit, I enlisted to Mars the postman. 318 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:10.160 He just finished his morning round and responded to my 319 00:20:10.279 --> 00:20:14.200 request for company with the kind of mischievous enthusiasm unique 320 00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:17.720 to the semi attired. We agreed to walk the museum together, 321 00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:20.920 each with a note book, each prepared to jot down 322 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:24.240 the sequence of rooms, their features, and the views from 323 00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.440 every window. It's a bet, then he laughed, waving a 324 00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:32.680 stubby pencil. The reception that day was busy, and Lucy 325 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:36.440 greeted us with a clipboard, half distracted as she recounted 326 00:20:36.519 --> 00:20:40.240 museum membership numbers from Memory to Mars and I set 327 00:20:40.279 --> 00:20:44.880 off on our agreed procedure, enter each gallery side by side, pause, 328 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.799 write down the salient features, remark on the external view, 329 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:52.759 and crucially resist the urge to confer until we'd finished 330 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:56.319 a full circuit. It was in the side gallery, the 331 00:20:56.359 --> 00:20:58.920 one with the battered diving bell, that the first true 332 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:02.839 oddity emerged. Peering through the small cloudy window to my left, 333 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:07.039 I jotted quiet alley brambles garden shed two blue bins. 334 00:21:07.559 --> 00:21:10.400 To Mars with a grunt, leaned over and muttered, your 335 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:14.279 missing the fig tree on the hillside, grand thing, He insisted. 336 00:21:14.319 --> 00:21:17.160 The view, which I could not perceive, showed nothing but 337 00:21:17.240 --> 00:21:21.079 a tumble of green and a footpath winding upward. Are 338 00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:24.160 we not looking at the same window, I asked, quietly, 339 00:21:24.519 --> 00:21:27.440 fighting the impulse to squint, as if my vision might 340 00:21:27.480 --> 00:21:32.039 be persuaded into agreement. He grinned, maybe the glass is 341 00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:35.960 that mucky you can't see. To check our perceptions, I 342 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:39.759 photographed the window, handed to Mars my phone and watched 343 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.640 as he did the same from his point of view. Later, 344 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:46.880 comparing images, each one looked reasonable enough, except no two 345 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:50.400 accounted for the same details I shed on mine, his 346 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:53.920 fig tree on his. I laughed, then nervously it was 347 00:21:53.960 --> 00:21:57.000 not possible, but impossible at a level subtle enough not 348 00:21:57.119 --> 00:22:02.200 to provoke alarm. We continued, each leaving subtle markers. In 349 00:22:02.240 --> 00:22:05.240 one case, my blue silk scarf atop a wooden bench 350 00:22:05.319 --> 00:22:08.480 shaped like the keel of a ship to Mars waved 351 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.480 as I walked on, promising not to touch it. I 352 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:15.160 navigated a loop through two more galleries, intending to return 353 00:22:15.240 --> 00:22:19.279 the same way. When I circled back, the scarf wasn't 354 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:22.079 on the bench. It was behind glass in a display 355 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:27.680 case labeled Maritime Costume nineteen o one nineteen twenty nine. Panicked, 356 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:30.559 I glanced at to Mars, who, from his point just 357 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:34.079 inside the next doorway, called, still there, just as you 358 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:38.440 left it, he gestured, and seeing his version, I realized 359 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:40.559 he believed the scarf to be on the bench Still. 360 00:22:41.039 --> 00:22:43.160 I caught Lucy as she passed to ask if the 361 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:48.079 staff ever moved visitors belongings. Not usually, she said, unconcerned. 362 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:51.599 But sometimes the exhibits seemed to shift around by themselves, 363 00:22:52.039 --> 00:22:55.160 you know, sometimes one of the Mannikins disappears, or a 364 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:58.640 flag s turned up where nobody left it. It's all 365 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:03.039 part of the building's character, isn't it. We finished our experiment, 366 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:08.880 careful to document every transition, steps, views, orientations. Each of 367 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:12.960 us became more convinced that, however systematically we tried, the 368 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.319 building refused to be locked down to a single sequence. Later, 369 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:20.839 over tea, we reviewed the photos on our phones to 370 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:24.759 Mars's sequence made perfect sense within itself, beginning with the 371 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:28.640 signal flags, proceeding inevitably to a case of model trawlers 372 00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:32.680 ending with the north facing window. My sequence was no 373 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:36.920 less plausible, except it made an entirely different, mutually exclusive 374 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:42.440 tour of the same building the same afternoon. Laughing to Mars, shrugged, 375 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:46.400 must have taken a wrong turning in my own head. No, 376 00:23:46.839 --> 00:23:49.839 I said the words slow and careful. I think this 377 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:52.559 place refuses to be mapped, at least not the way 378 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:56.359 we're used to mapping things. Or perhaps it's mapping us. 379 00:23:56.960 --> 00:23:59.880 He thought it over, you reckon, we each get our own. 380 00:24:00.279 --> 00:24:04.440 He sounded delighted at the notion. Before the afternoon was out, 381 00:24:04.680 --> 00:24:08.359 I sought out another staff member, Jorge, the volunteer with 382 00:24:08.440 --> 00:24:11.519 the beard and the twinkle in his eye. Does every 383 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:16.519 one's map of this place differ? I pressed? He shrugged, nonplussed. 384 00:24:16.960 --> 00:24:21.359 Nobody's map, ever, matches up not really old building, old town, 385 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:25.000 layers on top of layers. But people say the museum 386 00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:28.519 decides what makes sense for you. In the end. That 387 00:24:28.640 --> 00:24:31.880 struck me as at once too poetic, too dismissive, and 388 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.160 just plausible enough to let the querulus stop wondering. But 389 00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:38.480 I felt the tension shift. This was no mere architectural 390 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:44.119 quirk nor a case of unreliable memory. The pattern was persistent, reproducible, 391 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:48.599 and weirdly gentle, non threatening, even pleasurable in a sideway's way. 392 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:53.759 No one was made anxious, only perhaps bemused. I walked 393 00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:57.119 home that day under a lowering sky, thinking hard about 394 00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:59.400 what it meant for a place to quietly warp itself 395 00:24:59.440 --> 00:25:03.319 according to the the mind or expectations of its visitors. 396 00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:06.759 The museum was not a maze or a trick. There 397 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:10.079 was no sense of danger, only a growing certainty that 398 00:25:10.160 --> 00:25:14.759 reality here bent itself mildly but persistently to each person's 399 00:25:14.799 --> 00:25:18.960 private logic. My final notes that night were more questions 400 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.039 than conclusions. Was this a case of suggestibility, a series 401 00:25:23.079 --> 00:25:26.839