WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:07.480 If I'm honest, I'd have told you I came to 2 00:00:07.559 --> 00:00:10.320 cedar Mead for the peace and quiet, for a little 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:13.640 air that tastes faintly of grass and flour, for soft 4 00:00:13.640 --> 00:00:16.800 mornings with a fresh roll beside the window, and the sharp, 5 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:21.559 honest angle of sunlight slashing through half tinted glass. In 6 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.399 my thirty eight years on the rails, I'd marked my 7 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:27.879 days in half hour blocks, every minute accounted for between 8 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:33.359 stations and scheduled arrivals. On the first afternoon of my retirement, 9 00:00:33.719 --> 00:00:37.880 I promised myself two things. I'd try every village bakery 10 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:40.880 my train used to skirt, and I'd never again set 11 00:00:40.920 --> 00:00:44.359 an alarm. Cedar Mead was supposed to be a first 12 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:47.600 stop on that gentle campaign for loaf and leisure. The 13 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:50.320 train station sat like a worn down pebble on the 14 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:54.039 edge of the valley, a low stone building, almost embarrassed 15 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:56.679 by its own newness, since it had been rebuilt after 16 00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:59.840 a spring flood a decade ago. My own watch ticks 17 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:02.679 steadily as I lugged my bag up the lane toward 18 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:06.480 the heart of the village, winding past hawthorn hedges and small, 19 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:09.920 neat gardens, the kind that seem always a day removed 20 00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:13.680 from peak bloom. Cedar Mead's main street was just as 21 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:17.599 I'd pictured it, slate roofs crowding low above crooked yellow bricks, 22 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:21.560 shop windows full of practical cakes and knitted things. At 23 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:24.200 the center, a clock tow perched atop the town hall, 24 00:01:24.519 --> 00:01:28.359 its face wide and friendly hands, burnished almost silver by 25 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:32.280 some combination of care and time. I squinted up three 26 00:01:32.359 --> 00:01:36.439 twelve by the tower's reckoning early afternoon, which felt about 27 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:40.480 right after my slow walk from the platform. Crossing toward 28 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:43.480 the post office, a squat building with a fussy blue 29 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.879 and white awning, I glimpsed another clock, peeking out above 30 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:50.640 the postmaster's door. Out of habit, I checked for confirmation 31 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:54.359 three fourteen. Unless my eyes were tricking me, it was 32 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:57.439 off by a full two minutes from the tower. I paused, 33 00:01:57.719 --> 00:02:00.879 then fished my own pocket watch from my jacket, winding 34 00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:04.120 it open with a flick of my finger. Three seventeen. 35 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:08.240 I frowned each clock out of step, but not enough 36 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:11.520 to set off an alarm or claim malfunction. There was 37 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:16.240 no subtle shuddering tick or clanky hesitation. Both clocks I 38 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:20.680 saw moved confidently, easily as if the difference was intentional. 39 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:25.439 I moved on two doors down. The bakery's windows steamed 40 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:29.479 in slow, fragrant waves. Inside, a round old clock on 41 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:33.120 the wall presided over baskets of crusty loaves three nineteen, 42 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:35.840 now slightly ahead of the others. A woman in a 43 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:38.919 red scarf bustled by and called over her shoulder, if 44 00:02:38.919 --> 00:02:41.599 you want a walnut loaf, best be here by quarter 45 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:45.080 past bakery time. She grinned at the baker, who replied, 46 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:49.000 says you, post office time still means half a batch left. 47 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:53.400 I hovered invisible for the moment. No one seemed even 48 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:56.400 to register that three clocks hung within eyeshot of one 49 00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:59.560 another were marking not only different minutes, but different moods. 50 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:04.039 When I drifted outside, still clutching my bag, I realized 51 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:07.039 I'd stood in the square for five steady minutes, just staring, 52 00:03:07.520 --> 00:03:10.759 uncertain whether I'd fallen behind or if the village was 53 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:15.240 somehow blissfully ahead. Across the way, a sturdy man with 54 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:18.120 a newspaper tucked under his arm nodded at me, as 55 00:03:18.159 --> 00:03:21.000 if to check my presence off on some invisible ledger. 56 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:25.680 Lovely afternoon by sun dial time, he said, nodding up 57 00:03:25.719 --> 00:03:29.599 the street, where a faded stone disc stood among the daffodils. 58 00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:33.680 My old career trained me to notice small misalignments, a 59 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:36.879 distant signal showing yellow when the time card called for green, 60 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:40.960 the slight hush before a late engine's whistle cedar meade 61 00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:44.719 I could already see was composed of just such tiny departures. 62 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:48.639 Yet here everyone behaved as though they lived on an intricate, 63 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:53.199 invisible schedule no visitor could see, but which was apparently 64 00:03:53.639 --> 00:03:56.439 just as binding as a conductor's whistle or the click 65 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:01.199 of the station clock. I thought, unexpected, how much more 66 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:05.719 interesting my retirement might be than i'd planned. Missus Jellard's 67 00:04:05.759 --> 00:04:08.439 guest house is what the guide book would call well appointed, 68 00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:11.319 but that's the sort of phrase that makes comfort sound 69 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:14.520 like furniture. There's a reading chair beneath the east window, 70 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:17.720 cushions only a little faded, and in the hallway an 71 00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:21.360 umbrella stand polished her rare soft glow. The mantle in 72 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:24.600 my room bears an old brass clock, squat and serious. 73 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:27.720 Its dial marked the hour at three twenty one. I 74 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:31.439 set my bag down, carefully, wiped contral dust from my shoes, 75 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:35.879 and pressed the winding key gently. The clock's hands shivered, 76 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.120 then settled on the dresser lay a note wind each evening. 77 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.399 Not a minute more she found me in the doorway, 78 00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:46.560 a legend in slippers and a sky blue cardigan, her 79 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.639 cheeks full as a hot scone. You're the one from 80 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:53.120 the train, yes, she asked her vowels bright as a bell. 81 00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:58.959 I remembered my note. Gerald keys railman retired. But don't 82 00:04:59.000 --> 00:05:01.600 let that put you off. I snored gently, and keep 83 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:06.879 my shoes outside. Missus jellard Elsie, it's a joy. Breakfast 84 00:05:06.920 --> 00:05:09.639 is at half past tower and supper by bakery. But 85 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.120 I'll bang the gong for strays. She caught my bewildered 86 00:05:13.160 --> 00:05:16.560 glance at the clock. Oh don't mind that tower. Time 87 00:05:16.639 --> 00:05:20.560 for breakfast, bakery for supper is the old way. I 88 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:24.000 met half the village before seven that first evening. Tom 89 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.639 at the bakery, flower on his collar, Molly the school teacher, 90 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:30.879 glasses swinging from a chain as she counted coins for 91 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:35.399 a fundraiser, Reverend Sims, whose hand shake lasted slightly longer 92 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:38.639 than his greeting, and Arthur behind the post office counter, 93 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:43.560 eternally scribbling in a slim brown ledger. The bus arrived 94 00:05:43.639 --> 00:05:46.240 in a hush of wet tires as the post office 95 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:49.839 clock struck six, and a string of villagers darted aboard, 96 00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:54.120 one waving behind at the tower, which announced six o five. 97 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:58.480 Meals and chaws unraveled in delicate little eddies of time. 98 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:03.160 Tom clap his hands together, called tea by bakery clock now, 99 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.879 and half the morning que trickled inside, watches pressed to 100 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:10.240 their ears. Church bells rang not according to Big Ben, 101 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:13.800 but to whatever minute the reverend set, bold and implacable 102 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:17.000 fifteen feet above his head. Molly hustled a knot of 103 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:20.279 children into the class room at quarter past bakery, although 104 00:06:20.279 --> 00:06:24.639 the schoolhouse clock showed quarter after ten. The bus driver, 105 00:06:25.079 --> 00:06:28.639 a ginger haired woman in a crisp jacket, departed precisely 106 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:32.680 by post office time. I's never straying to tower or bakery. 107 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:36.120 I found myself fielding the odd look as I double 108 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:39.319 checked my watch against the nearest wall face. My old 109 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:41.959 engineer's habit made it hard to let such things pass. 110 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:45.279 Every time I thought I'd caught up a quick calculation 111 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:49.000 a new set of minutes, something shifted five minutes ahead 112 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.800 on this clock, three behind on that. A different answer 113 00:06:51.800 --> 00:06:55.240 from each Missus Jellard caught me at it one afternoon, 114 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:57.959 shaking her head. If you try to fit it all 115 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.040 in one line, Gerald, you'll never have a proper breakfast. 116 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:05.240 Later that evening, I found myself quietly aligned to a 117 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:09.240 new pattern I'd never been told, watching as school children 118 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:13.120 collected at the bakery for half past bakery. Families met 119 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:16.720 on the green ten after post office, and no one 120 00:07:16.759 --> 00:07:20.000 seemed to hesitate over whose time applied in which corner 121 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:23.920 of the village. There was a quiet choreography at work here, 122 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:27.720 a patchwork of clocks, but not at odds, each performing 123 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:31.240 its proper part, each sign posting its own small world. 124 00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:35.000 I didn't know it yet, but I was already watching 125 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:39.199 for the sea. Friday morning dawned with pink cloud piled 126 00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:42.839 up behind the silhouetted tower. I had arranged to meet Jamie, 127 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.639 Missus Jellard's nephew for a stroll up to the old 128 00:07:45.720 --> 00:07:49.199 Stone Mill. A short walk promised us ten o'clock at 129 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:53.439 the square. I set my watch old Habits, unwilling to surrender. 130 00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:56.879 There was a pleasure in being punctual, a lifetime had 131 00:07:56.879 --> 00:08:00.680 convinced me. So I arrived at the square to find Jamie, 132 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:03.800 lacing his boots by the horse trough rucksack on his back, 133 00:08:04.040 --> 00:08:07.839 his cheeks damp with morning effort. He blinked at me, startled, 134 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:12.079 Uncle Gerald, I thought you de changed your mind. I 135 00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.959 waited ten minutes, then figured i'd stroll round before heading back. 136 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:21.000 I frowned, glancing at my pocket watch. I'm exactly on time. 137 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:24.800 Ten sharp, He pointed up at the clock tower, a 138 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.279 jeweler's loop for a moment in his squint, ten passed 139 00:08:28.399 --> 00:08:32.480 by the tower, but the post office, says, I pedantically 140 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:37.120 crossed the square barely five past. Jamie pulled out a 141 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:41.720 battered phone. Church time as almost quarter past? Didn't you see? 142 00:08:42.559 --> 00:08:46.320 Standing before three clocks tower, post office and the brass 143 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:50.639 plate by the bakery window. We compared, confirmed, even synchronized, 144 00:08:50.679 --> 00:08:55.600 and wound up thoroughly mystified, Jamie grinned sheepishly. It's always 145 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:59.120 a game, isn't it. You don't mind, do you? No? 146 00:08:59.559 --> 00:09:03.639 I allowed, mostly amused, though inside I chafed at the contradiction. 147 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:06.919 Just seems a puzzle. No one's in a hurry to solve, 148 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.639 he laughed, swinging his knapsack over his shoulder. I don't 149 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:15.080 think there's a prize if you finish, Uncle Gerald. He 150 00:09:15.159 --> 00:09:17.799 kicked at a pebble and started up the lane, letting 151 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:21.639 me catch up in silence. I tried again that afternoon, 152 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:24.919 arranging with Tom to meet for a bier at six o'clock. 153 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.639 He nodded under the chestnut tree by bakery time right, 154 00:09:29.159 --> 00:09:32.600 I let him decide. Determined not to slip behind, I 155 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:35.440 watched the bakery clock from across the street, making my 156 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:38.840 way over as the minute hand ticked past six, and 157 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:42.279 found Tom just finishing his pint, waving my empty seat 158 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:45.799 with a floury hand. I must have got caught up, 159 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:49.000 he said, not fuss. I guess you're right on time, 160 00:09:49.279 --> 00:09:53.200 depending which timer you trust. I began to suspect that 161 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:56.159 trust was at the heart of the matter, that and 162 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:01.679 a deliberate, practiced willingness to let difference slide. By Saturday, 163 00:10:01.799 --> 00:10:05.360 I'd surrendered any hope of remaining a passive observer. I 164 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.759 borrowed a note book from missus Jellard's desk, a ragged 165 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:12.200 affair with pencil stubbs tucked into its spine, and set 166 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:16.240 off to count clocks. The church tower eight thirty one, 167 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:20.120 ringing the hour with full bell, throated confidence, the post 168 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:23.480 office eight thirty four, its second hand aloft like a flag. 169 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:28.279 Bakery eight thirty six, Tom inside, arranging loaves with precision, 170 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:32.840 school House eight thirty eight, the children queuing for morning assembly, 171 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:37.159 the market's stall nine thirty, its owner already packing away, 172 00:10:37.200 --> 00:10:39.279 with the pace of a man running late by one 173 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:43.279 clock but not another. The sun dial in the park court, 174 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.720 just enough sun to cast a fat little shadow, announcing 175 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:51.519 nine fifteen, which seemed more hopeful than precise. Not one 176 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:54.919 of these clocks lagged or raced. I set my own watch, 177 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:58.480 repeatedly tried to match, first the church, then the bakery, 178 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:02.519 then the post office. Each time the drift returned, a 179 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:06.320 minute gained too lost, always floating gently out of co operation, 180 00:11:06.679 --> 00:11:10.240 as though tugged by a hidden current. No one else 181 00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:14.600 seemed drawn to this stranger synchrony. School children in bright jackets, 182 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:18.159 clustered at the bakery after lessons, comparing pocket watches and 183 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:21.720 joking about catching up to Arthur before he closes the post. 184 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:26.200 The bus bearing its small clutch of travelers, always left 185 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:30.200 on post office clock, the driver pausing her sandwich only 186 00:11:30.200 --> 00:11:33.080 when the minute hand squared up to its proper station. 187 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:38.000 In missus Jellard's sitting room, the mantelpiece clock ticked steadily, 188 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:41.240 earnest and slow, while a grandfather clock in the hall 189 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.600 declared itself a full four minutes ahead for supper. At 190 00:11:44.679 --> 00:11:48.240 least once I caught Molly penciling lesson times on the blackboard, 191 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:53.440 correcting herself. Not bakery, post office, No wait, not on Tuesdays. 192 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.200 The children rolled their eyes. We know, Miss I grew 193 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:01.840 increasingly amused by the precision with which confusion was avoided. 194 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:05.320 At the bus stop, the timetable, posted crisply above the 195 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:09.519 shelter read all services depart by post office clock check 196 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:12.759 before queuing. I asked Molly over a cup of tea 197 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.720 if she found all this juggling difficult. She looked at 198 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:19.720 me utterly serene. Oh, not really. You just get used 199 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:22.720 to thinking in layers. If you miss one, there's always 200 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:26.360 another clock to catch. I flipped through the guest house 201 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:33.159 visitors log seeking patterns, doctor Salt appearing from nowhere during breakfast, confided, 202 00:12:33.600 --> 00:12:36.759 if I kept appointments by church time, I'd never see 203 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:39.759 a patient after lunch. The trick is not letting the 204 00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:44.159 clocks rush you. Ducking into the library, a low sun 205 00:12:44.240 --> 00:12:47.399 dusted room full of the smell of crumbling leather and beeswax. 206 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:52.320 I shuffled through bundles of old council bulletins. Each advertised event, 207 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:56.440 each meeting, each fate was punctuated, always by which clock's 208 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:00.759 time applied by tower time at dusk or meeting at 209 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:06.600 quarter past bakery time Tuesday last. So familiar, so gentle 210 00:13:06.639 --> 00:13:11.679 in its deliberateness, Yet something some essential contradiction still pressed 211 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:15.639 at the edges. If all these faces kept such exact discrepancies, 212 00:13:15.879 --> 00:13:18.480 why did no one mind? Or was I the only 213 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:22.120 one who'd ever made a list? I carried my diagram 214 00:13:22.200 --> 00:13:25.519 home that night, a constellation of clocks mapped out in 215 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:29.440 colored pencil. Unlike any time table I'd ever issued in 216 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:33.000 my career, here every minute was claimed by more than 217 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.320 one owner, and none contested. The point I was beginning 218 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:40.360 to suspect there was a method within the apparent madness, 219 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:43.600 though not a method I'd ever been taught at signal school. 220 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:46.720 I gave up my watch the next morning, at least 221 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:50.360 in spirit. The sun rose high, and yellow roof tiles 222 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:53.159 shimmering in a slow early heat, and I made myself 223 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:56.840 part of the village's easy bustle I followed the bakery crowd, 224 00:13:57.159 --> 00:13:59.840 standing in line at what I guessed was the busiest time, 225 00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:03.360 watching Tom slap dough and chat through the open window. 226 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:07.480 A rush of laughter signaled school children racing off again, 227 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:11.039 debates over bakery or school house time filling the air. 228 00:14:12.120 --> 00:14:14.039 It struck me that the tide of the day wasn't 229 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:17.279 a tide at all, but a series of overlapping eddies, 230 00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:21.919 moments of rush and lull, pangs of hunger, stoked and satisfied. 231 00:14:22.279 --> 00:14:26.440 Appointments kept and missed, all according to which clock, whose routine. 232 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:30.519 When I brought up my observation to missus Jellard, she brightened, 233 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:34.639 that's right, dear, the morning belongs to Tom at least 234 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:38.720 until church bells ring afternoons more for the post and 235 00:14:38.840 --> 00:14:42.759 sundial time is best for slipping away. I caught the 236 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:47.080 phrase belong That was it. Each clock demarcated a piece 237 00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:50.519 of the day, laid claim to its own rhythms. People 238 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:54.120 streamed toward the schoolhouse for lessons by bakery's reckoning, but 239 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:57.679 errands to the green or market followed the post office clock. 240 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:01.000 The bells on the church didn't call the hour they 241 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:06.519 claimed territory. Young Martha Tom's daughter explained it another way. 242 00:15:07.080 --> 00:15:09.440 If you want to find someone, go by the clock 243 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.399 that fits. My mum says, it's a mercy when the 244 00:15:12.440 --> 00:15:15.799 tower lags behind, gives her more time. Before the rush 245 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:20.320 on cakes, children huddled by the bench besides the bakery 246 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:24.679 traded cards illustrated with the various famous clock line ups. 247 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:27.799 Remember last year when the market was ahead of the 248 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:31.639 bakery by four whole minutes, we got two breaks. They 249 00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:36.240 dealt cards with scandalous mismatches, amusement, masking the pride in 250 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:41.840 knowing Cedar Meade's strange choreography. Every event, every meeting was 251 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:45.519 calibrated not to a single overriding schedule, but to whichever 252 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:50.480 cycle best suited need or tradition. No arguments, no bickering 253 00:15:50.519 --> 00:15:55.600 over tardiness. The clocks were both boundary and invitation. Was 254 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:59.679 this an accident, a patchwork quilt left from generations slowly 255 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.840 tipped minutes one way or another, Or had some one, 256 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:06.559 once upon a time designed this mosaic of difference? And 257 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.120 if so, why I kept that question close Each hour 258 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:13.919 I spent in the village, I was less convinced these 259 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:17.840 differences were mere remnants. There was an intention here, Maybe 260 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:21.320 too subtle to state aloud. If so, what kind of 261 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:24.679 order would choose to weave its days out of contradictions. 262 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:27.519 For the first time in many trips, I turned to 263 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:32.240 a true expert, mister Avery, retired horologist and keeper of 264 00:16:32.240 --> 00:16:35.480 the village clocks, A man as thin and smooth as 265 00:16:35.480 --> 00:16:39.320 a pendulum rod, was said to walk the lanes every Thursday, 266 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:43.840 winding and adjusting as his father had before him. I 267 00:16:43.879 --> 00:16:46.480 found him at the foot of the church tower, stooped 268 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:50.000 before a small hatch, his toolkit opened like a surgeon's tray. 269 00:16:50.840 --> 00:16:56.120 Mister Avery, I ventured, his hands, spotted and precise, didn't pause. 270 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.159 You're the new man keys, isn't it, missus? Jellard said, 271 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:04.640 you come hunting answers, I admitted as much, adding you 272 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:07.759 do a fine job. But most places I know prefer 273 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:12.480 their clocks to agree, he smiled barely. We check each 274 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.880 one every week. Bits of copper, touch of oil, nothing 275 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.880 left to drift. But they're not meant to match. Not here, 276 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:24.559 why not? I pressed, mister Avery regarded the clock's works 277 00:17:24.599 --> 00:17:28.559 tools poised. Why not is a larger puzzle? The patterns 278 00:17:28.599 --> 00:17:33.720 older than me, These constellations always changing, never repeating exactly 279 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:40.440 never allowed to drift too close constellations, I echoed. He turned, 280 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:44.720 gestured upward. You've seen maps of stars, patterns in the difference, 281 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:48.000 not in the sameness. Cedar needs much the same, But 282 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:51.680 our stars are hours, not light. I left him to 283 00:17:51.720 --> 00:17:56.359 his tune up brain, humming with unfamiliar harmonies. The next 284 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:59.880 morning I found the bakery clock freshly wound and form 285 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.759 in its ahead of the tower. Tom winked at me, 286 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:06.480 as if the whole show was for my benefit alone. 287 00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:09.759 Later that week I asked Arthur at the post office, 288 00:18:10.119 --> 00:18:13.160 a man built entirely of pockets and ledges, when the 289 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.640 clocks had last been in perfect step. His response was 290 00:18:16.680 --> 00:18:19.960 as tidy as his counter not as far as I know, sir. 291 00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:24.519 Perfect agreement begets perfect confusion, and nobody knows who's in 292 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:27.559 charge of the cakes or the sermons. The trick is 293 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:31.400 knowing which minute belongs to whom. It was clear by 294 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.440 now I was not the first, nor even the hundredth 295 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.319 to notice the divergence. What surprised me was how serenely 296 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:43.839 every one managed not indifference but deep practiced participation. Each 297 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:47.640 villager inhabited not one temporal reality, but half a dozen 298 00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:50.960 moving between them. As easily as crossing from one side 299 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:54.559 of the street to another. If anything, time in cedar 300 00:18:54.640 --> 00:18:57.599 Mead was less a river and more a weaving, a 301 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:02.640 thing not to be followed in one straight line, but negotiated, occasionally, knotted, 302 00:19:02.920 --> 00:19:07.160 always particular. The more I pressed, the less certain I 303 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:10.039 became which part of the system was cause and which 304 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:13.759 was effect. My need for answers had reached a point 305 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:18.039 past gentle curiosity. It was now a challenge. I set 306 00:19:18.039 --> 00:19:21.839 about tracing history in Earnest, determined to catch cedar Meade's 307 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:26.720 secret untangling itself. The village library sat low beneath a 308 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:30.640 thatched roof, its bell pull frayed from generations of gentle 309 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:35.759 requests for entry inside. Blinking through a sunbeam thick with dust, 310 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:39.880 I asked the librarian, Missus Hargreaves, for council records on 311 00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:43.759 the clocks we agreed on post office time for my visit. 312 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:46.559 At least, I thought so. She welcomed me with a 313 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:50.839 smile as the tower bell rang, saying you're early by church, 314 00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:54.960 precisely right by town hall. In a back corner lay 315 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:58.440 decades of ledgers cataloged thinly on shelves too shallow for 316 00:19:58.480 --> 00:20:02.279 their seriousness. I they started with the most recent, working backward, 317 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:05.640 every entry catalog, who wound, which clock, which face was 318 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:09.359 adjusted for market days, church feasts, even the odd sports 319 00:20:09.400 --> 00:20:13.480 event a flickering margin read moved bakery ahead three minutes 320 00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:17.599 for harvest festival per committee vote, or sundial shifted to 321 00:20:17.640 --> 00:20:22.519 a line with church time duration one week. The father 322 00:20:22.599 --> 00:20:25.279 I looked the odd of the pattern, the intervals, always 323 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:29.119 shifting a new configuration each year, never quite returning to 324 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:32.960 the same. Some years the clocks were closely packed, differences 325 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:36.400 barely a minute in others wildly outstretched post office a 326 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:40.039 full tenor head of market, and always the language market 327 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:43.920 clock shall rule stalls this November sermons accorded to tower 328 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:47.839 time pending repairs. The voices of old committee minutes carried 329 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:52.559 as much comfort as authority, as if reporting tides. Older 330 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:55.720 notebooks bound in linen and foxed at the corners held 331 00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:59.839 stranger wisdoms nine's time for haymaking, as was tradition, and 332 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:03.839 de mar Jellard let Oxen's bell signal new moon sup 333 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:07.400 before rival crows call. The further back the more the 334 00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:11.799 reference stood, independent of any mechanical clock. Hours divided by 335 00:21:11.839 --> 00:21:17.960 animal calls, sun position, church bells outpacing crowing roosters between 336 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:21.200 the tallies. I penciled my own diagram year on year, 337 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:26.079 a constellation in shifting minutes. The connections emerged slowly whenever 338 00:21:26.119 --> 00:21:29.000 the clocks were particularly far apart. There was a notation 339 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:34.640 about crisis avoided, flood abated, church time rung, late, townspeople spared, 340 00:21:35.240 --> 00:21:39.839 frost struck, early, festival still completed by bakery's hour. No 341 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:43.160 one wrote how this had helped, but the implication rippled 342 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.440 like a shadow through the ledges. During the week day 343 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:49.720 dinner at missus Jellard's, she all but insisted I accompany 344 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:53.599 her to the coming harvest festival, a date she reminded 345 00:21:53.599 --> 00:21:57.480 me entirely bakery time this year, though we swapped from 346 00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:02.240 market after last October's reign. Her smile dared me to remember. 347 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:06.680 At the market, beneath a sky, uneasy with cloud, I 348 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:10.480 asked the elderly doctor Salt about clock alignments. He leaned 349 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:14.559 against the hay bales. Boasting village survived the Great Frieze 350 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:18.680 by being late by bakery clock. Only mind you, post 351 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:22.279 office would have left us knee deep. I laughed, but 352 00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:26.599 the fun faded into stubborn curiosity. Some one or something 353 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:30.599 had molded this system, adjusted it year by year, as 354 00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:34.359 though in subtle conversation with whatever risks and fortunes shaped 355 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:37.720 the valley. Out by the hedgerow, a pair of bird 356 00:22:37.720 --> 00:22:41.799 watchers compared checklists in hushed tones. I greeted them privately, 357 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:45.079 hoping for gossip, and one, a professor from the university 358 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:50.000 come to track warbler migrations, smiled wryly. Funny thing. Your clocks, 359 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:53.279 she said, counted the minutes on years. The bakery lad 360 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:57.440 birds nested earlier. The mismatches over decades almost seemed to 361 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:00.599 follow odd weather patterns. I doubt it's on purpose, but 362 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:04.680 the echoes are there. I felt the scale's tip, the 363 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:08.599 constellations of minutes, the old ways of keeping time, not uniform, 364 00:23:08.680 --> 00:23:12.880 but flexible, mapped and remapped, always reshaped in step with 365 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:18.359 something larger, the weather, the seasons. The birds overhead cedar 366 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:22.279 meads times weren't just tradition, nor were they accident. They 367 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:26.039 formed a living, breathing web, grown out of and into 368 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:29.640 the very patterns of chance and survival, threading the valley. 369 00:23:30.680 --> 00:23:34.440 As the festival wound down, sunlight angling gold across the 370 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:37.680 cricket Green. I watched people pack up according to three 371 00:23:37.720 --> 00:23:41.880 different hour chimes, each content in their own reckoning. The 372 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:45.880 bus departed on time, but whose time even the driver 373 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:49.759 couldn't quite say. The question I'd carried from the railway 374 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:53.319 platform now felt larger. If this was a system, who 375 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:56.920 or what truly kept it running? Were these clocks merely 376 00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:01.640 followers or secret stubborn leaders guiding hundreds of villagers in 377 00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:05.799 a dance, half ritual, half resilience. It was as far 378 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:09.640 from the mechanical certainty of train travel as I'd ever wandered, 379 00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:13.440 but I couldn't imagine anywhere else in that moment I'd 380 00:24:13.559 --> 00:24:17.200 rather have been. I left the cricket Green trailing half 381 00:24:17.240 --> 00:24:20.599 a thought and the after taste of baked apples. Dusk 382 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:23.359 was settling heavily on the hedgerows, pulling the cool up 383 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:26.079 from the grass, and I walked back to Missus jellard 384 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:30.240 Es with my head swimming with possibilities. My notebook was 385 00:24:30.279 --> 00:24:33.240 still in my coat pocket, corners softening in the warmth 386 00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:36.640 of my palm, its pages covered with times and lines 387 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:41.079 and criss crossing arrows, ambition barely contained by ruled margins. 388 00:24:42.079 --> 00:24:45.960 The baker's bell rang somewhere behind me, its chime carrying 389 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:50.359 over the laughter and chattering of neighbors dismantling festival tents 390 00:24:50.599 --> 00:24:54.880 according to their own private timings. At supper, the guest 391 00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:58.039 house was swelling with the gentle chaos of festival leftovers. 392 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:02.559 Someone had brought onions some elsesider. Missus Jellard, flushed with 393 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:05.240 pride and smoke from the kitchen, felt it only right 394 00:25:05.319 --> 00:25:08.680 that I be introduced between slices of pumpkin pie to 395 00:25:08.759 --> 00:25:12.440 Molly's mother and Reverend Sims, never seen husband, fresh from 396 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:15.920 a job in Lincoln, now describing the peculiar punch of 397 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:19.599 Cedar Mead's weather. At a lull, Sims asked how I 398 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:23.240 was getting on with our elusive clocks. It's not the 399 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:26.920 clocks that confuse me, I said, honestly, but how every 400 00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:30.000 one seems exactly where they need to be, without ever 401 00:25:30.119 --> 00:25:33.920