WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:12.080 Athos to the US. There is a shop on Hawthorne Lane, 2 00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:17.839 wish between the Bookbinder and the tea Merchant, where time 3 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:24.960 itself seems to slow down. The window is narrow and tall, 4 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:30.399 and through its wavy glass you can see dozens of 5 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:36.280 clocks hanging on the walls. Some are grand, with dark 6 00:00:36.359 --> 00:00:45.399 wood cases and golden faces. Others are small and simple, 7 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:51.520 like the kind you might find on a bedside table. 8 00:00:53.640 --> 00:01:02.280 But every single one and the ticks, and together they 9 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:09.040 create a sand like a gentle rain falling on a 10 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:15.519 tin roof. The clockmaker's name is mister Aldric Finch. He 11 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:20.879 has been mending and making clocks for longer than anyone 12 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:27.480 in town can remember. His hair is white now, and 13 00:01:27.640 --> 00:01:31.200 his hands shake just a little when he holds the 14 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:37.040 tiny screws, but his eyes are sharp. He can look 15 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:41.560 at a broken clock and know what is wrong with it, 16 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:48.359 the way a doctor can listen to a heartbeat and 17 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:52.239 know what the body needs. He sits at his wet 18 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:59.920 pedg each morning, long before the sharp opens, surrounded by 19 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:07.480 the soft chorus of ticking. He drinks his tea from 20 00:02:07.519 --> 00:02:11.800 a cup that has a chip on the rim, and 21 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:17.719 he listens not to anything in particular, but to everything 22 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:24.199 at once. The clocks speak to each other in their 23 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:32.639 quiet way, a conversation conducted in ticks and talks and chimes, 24 00:02:33.800 --> 00:02:39.479 and mister Finch understands every word. And then theither is 25 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:48.719 the apprentice. Her name is Clara. She arrived three summers ago, 26 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:56.599 a quiet girl of seventeen, with ink stained fingers and 27 00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:01.199 the habit of tilting her head when she listened. She 28 00:03:01.360 --> 00:03:05.879 had come from a town further up the coast, where 29 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:09.599 her family had run a bakery. But Clara had never 30 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:16.599 been drawn to flower and sugar. She was drawn to gears, 31 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:25.360 to springs, to the precise and patient art of making 32 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:31.800 something keep time. Mister Finch had been reluctant at first. 33 00:03:33.439 --> 00:03:37.919 He was old and his joints ached, and he thought 34 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:43.400 perhaps it was time to simply close the shop and 35 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:47.479 let the clocks wind down for good. But Clara had 36 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:53.080 stood in his doorway on a Tuesday morning and said 37 00:03:53.479 --> 00:04:00.039 I would like to learn, and something in her voice, 38 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:07.400 some quiet certainty, had made him not. Now she worked 39 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:14.080 beside him every day. She would arrive just after dawn, 40 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:19.639 hang her coat on the hook by the door, and 41 00:04:19.879 --> 00:04:24.639 settling into the small wooden chair at the work bench 42 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:33.160 nearest the window. Mister Finch would already be there, a 43 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:39.000 clock faced down on a square of felt, a loop 44 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:45.920 pressed to his eye. He would not look up when 45 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:52.399 she came in, but he would say good morning Clara. 46 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:59.680 Then she would say good morning, mister Finch, and then 47 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:04.920 they would work in silence for hours. The shop was 48 00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:11.920 their shared world. In the afternoons, when the light slanted 49 00:05:12.040 --> 00:05:17.639 through the wavy glass and cast long shadows across the floor, 50 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:27.199 they would sometimes talk. Clara would ask questions and mister 51 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:33.079 Finch would answer, and the clerks would tick around them 52 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:39.160 like an audience listening to a quiet conversation. Clara had 53 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:43.879 learned to listen. That was the first thing mister Finch 54 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:50.279 taught her. Not to look, not to touch, but to listen. 55 00:05:52.240 --> 00:05:57.759 Every clock has its own voice, he said. A healthy 56 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:03.839 clock ticks with a steady rhythm, like a heartbeat at rest. 57 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:09.759 The clock that is struggling will skip or drag, or 58 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:14.480 make a sound like a sigh. You must learn to 59 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:19.480 hear the difference, Sir. Clara would hold a clock to 60 00:06:19.600 --> 00:06:25.480 her ear and close her eyes. She would listen to 61 00:06:25.560 --> 00:06:30.639 the tick, tick, tick, and try to feel the rhythm 62 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:36.279 of it. The way you might listen to music and 63 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:42.000 try to find the beat beneath the melody. Sometimes the 64 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:48.000 clock would sound strong and sure, and she would smile. 65 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:56.639 Other Times he would sound thin and uneven, and she 66 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:03.879 would frown, and mister Finch would nod and say, now, 67 00:07:04.040 --> 00:07:09.639 opened it up, find a place where the sound goes wrong. 68 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:18.040 She had gotten very good at it. She could take 69 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:26.519 apart a clock, clean every gear and spring, put it 70 00:07:26.600 --> 00:07:33.480 back together, and have it ticking true within an afternoon. 71 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:42.399 Mister Finch had started leaving the simpler repairs for her 72 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:46.879 to handle on her own, and she had never once 73 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:52.360 returned a clock that was not better than when it 74 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:59.160 came in. But to day was different. To day mister 75 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:05.120 Finch had placed something on the workbench that Clara had 76 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:11.560 never seen before. It was a clock, yes, but it 77 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:16.560 was unlike any clock she had worked on. It was small, 78 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:24.120 no bigger than a man's palm, and made of a 79 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:33.799 meazzle she did not recognize. It was not brass, and 80 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:41.360 it was not steel. It had a warm, dark color, 81 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:49.240 like the skin of a plum, and it was covered 82 00:08:49.279 --> 00:09:03.799 in tiny engravings stars, moons, rivers winding through. Where did 83 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:12.360 this come from? Clara asked? Raining closer. A traveler left it. 84 00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:18.559 Mister finchered. He was standing by the window looking out 85 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:23.240 of the lane. He said it had stopped working twenty 86 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:28.080 years ago, and he had been carrying it ever since, 87 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:33.799 waiting to find someone who could fix it. Clara picked 88 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:39.960 it up gently. It was heavier than it looked. She 89 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:44.240 turned it over and found the winding key on the back, 90 00:09:45.799 --> 00:09:51.799 a small silver lever shaped like a crescent moon. She 91 00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:56.039 tried to turn it, but it would not move. It 92 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:00.559 is locked, she said, not locked, mister Finn, and said, 93 00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:08.440 still looking out the window, frozen. The main spring has sat. 94 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:13.840 It has been still for so long that the metal 95 00:10:13.919 --> 00:10:18.360 has forgotten how to move. Glara looked at the clock face. 96 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:28.480 There were no numbers. Instead, there were symbols, tiny and delicate, 97 00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:38.679 painted around the edge, her sun, her crescent moon, a star, 98 00:10:40.519 --> 00:10:47.440 her cloud, a drop of water, a flame, and at 99 00:10:47.480 --> 00:10:54.080 the very tug where the twelve would normally be, there 100 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:59.960 was a small open hand. What does it tell time for, 101 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:08.120 Clara asked, there are no numbers. Mister Finch turned from 102 00:11:08.200 --> 00:11:14.159 the window and looked at her. His eyes were thoughtful. 103 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:22.399 That is a very good question, he said, I believe 104 00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:28.799 it tells time for things that cannot be counted. Clara 105 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:36.399 did not understand, but she did not ask further. She 106 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:42.120 set the clock on the felt and reached for her tools. 107 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:48.480 The work took her three days. The first day she 108 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:53.799 simply sat with the clock. She held it to her 109 00:11:53.799 --> 00:11:58.679 ear and listened, the way mister Finch had taught her. 110 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:07.440 At first she heard nothing. It was utterly still, as 111 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:13.559 silent as a stone, but she was patient. She held 112 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:21.720 it closer, she slowed her own breathing, and eventually, deep 113 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:30.399 beneath the silence, she heard it, a faint vibration, so 114 00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:37.879 subtle it was more a feeling than a floud. The 115 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:44.120 clock was not dead, It was sleeping. She sat with 116 00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:51.080 it all morning, holding it, listening, waiting for the vibration 117 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:59.720 to grow, And slowly it did, like a person waking 118 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:05.840 from a deep sleep. The clock began to stir. The 119 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:14.320 vibration strengthened, became a pulse, became a wisp of movement. 120 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:21.919 Clara could feel it in her fingertips, a tiny rhythmic trembling, 121 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:27.039 as if the clock were breathing. The second day she 122 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:38.480 opened it. The inside was extraordinary. The gears were impossibly small, 123 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:46.480 each one no bigger than a grain of rice, and 124 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:50.360 they were arranged in a pattern she had never seen. 125 00:13:52.720 --> 00:13:58.919 It was not the standard layout a mainspring driving an escapement. 126 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:04.159 It was more like a web, with dozens of tiny 127 00:14:04.320 --> 00:14:14.120 gears connected by hair thin springs, all radiating outward from 128 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:21.159 a central point. And at that center there was something 129 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:28.759 that looked like a small crystal, clear and smoothed, now 130 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:35.440 bigger than a peppercorn. She cleaned each gear one by 131 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:44.039 one gently with a brush so fine it was almost 132 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:51.840 just a whisper against the metal. She oiled the springs 133 00:14:53.279 --> 00:15:01.000 with the lightest touch of her finest oil. She worked 134 00:15:01.080 --> 00:15:09.200 in silence, her breath held her hands steady. The shop 135 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:15.919 was quiet around her, the other clocks ticking their patient ticks, 136 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:21.759 and Clara felt as if she were tending to something sacred, 137 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:27.679 something that had waited a long time for this moment. 138 00:15:29.559 --> 00:15:34.919 And when she reached the crystal at the center, she 139 00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:39.879 held it up to the light and saw that it 140 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:46.039 was not perfectly clear. There was a tiny bubble inside it, 141 00:15:48.279 --> 00:15:56.159 and the bubble seemed to move, drifting slowly from one 142 00:15:56.200 --> 00:16:04.639 side to the other, like a thought passing through her mind. 143 00:16:05.080 --> 00:16:09.840 The third day she put it back together. He worked slowly, 144 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:17.480 carefully matching each gear to its place, each spring to 145 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:24.240 its connection. She checked and double checked a bar fur road, 146 00:16:25.519 --> 00:16:31.919 her lips pressed together in concentration. This offense watched from 147 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:37.559 his bench, but it did not interfere. This was Clara's work, now, 148 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:43.120 her puzzle, her responsibility. When the last piece was in, 149 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:50.000 she turned to the winding key. This time it moved. 150 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:56.519 She felt the main spring catch, felt it coil tight, 151 00:16:57.720 --> 00:17:02.720 and then she heard it, a tick, soft as a 152 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:10.640 heart beat, then another and another. The clock was alive. 153 00:17:11.400 --> 00:17:16.000 She held it to her ear and listened. The ticking 154 00:17:16.279 --> 00:17:20.720 was not like other clocks. It was not a steady, 155 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:28.640 mechanical beat. It was more like breathing. It would tick, tick, tick, 156 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:34.599 and then pause, just for a moment, as if it 157 00:17:34.680 --> 00:17:38.759 were thinking. Then it would tick again. She looked at 158 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:44.960 the clock face. The cymbals had changed. The open hand 159 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:48.720 at the top was now closed, as if it were 160 00:17:48.799 --> 00:17:54.119 holding something. The sun had moved slightly to the left. 161 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:59.440 The crescent moon had shifted downward. In the tiny bubble 162 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:07.359 inside the crystal was now on the opposite side. Clara 163 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:12.839 set the clock down and stared at it. She did 164 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:19.799 not understand what she was seeing, but she understood that 165 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.480 it was important. Mister Finch came over and sat down 166 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:30.440 beside her. He looked at the clock for a long time. 167 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:41.240 Then he smiled, a small and quiet smile, and he said, 168 00:18:43.319 --> 00:18:47.079 you have done well, Clara. What is it she has? 169 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:52.759 What does it do? It does what all clocks do, 170 00:18:52.960 --> 00:19:00.079 he said. It marks the passing of time. But this 171 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:06.680 clerk marks a different kind of time, not hours and minutes, 172 00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:14.440 not days and years. It marks the time of small things, 173 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:19.480 the time it takes for bread to rise, for a 174 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:25.880 letter to arrive, for a child to fall asleep, for 175 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.920 a memory to fade. Killera looked at the clock again. 176 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:39.359 The sun had moved again, just slightly. It is counting something, 177 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:47.720 she said, It is counting everything. Mister Finch said, everything 178 00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:53.480 that matters. That evening, after Clara had gone home and 179 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:58.559 mister Finch was alone in the shop, he sat in 180 00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:03.119 his chair by the window, though and listened to the clocks. 181 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:11.279 Most of them tick in their usual way, steady and reliable. 182 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:15.599 But the small, plank colored clock on the work bench 183 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:24.880 ticked differently. It ticked and paused, ticked and paused, like 184 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:30.200 a conversation between two old friends who do not need 185 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:37.160 to fill every silence with words. Mister Finch smiled. He 186 00:20:37.279 --> 00:20:42.359 had been a clockmaker for fifty years and he had 187 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:47.720 learned many things. But the most important thing he had 188 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:54.680 learned was this time is not something you measure, it 189 00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:59.599 is something you feel. And the best clocks are not 190 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:05.759 the ones that keep the most accurate time, They are 191 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:11.880 the ones that remind you to pay attention. Clara would 192 00:21:11.960 --> 00:21:18.559 learn this too, in time. She would learn that the 193 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:26.079 art of clockmaking is not about gears and springs and 194 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:38.680 precise measurements. It is about patience, about listening, about understanding 195 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:46.240 that every moment, no matter how small, is worth keeping. 196 00:21:46.599 --> 00:21:51.680 And the little clock on the workbench would keep taking, 197 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:59.680 marking the time of small things for as long as 198 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:05.119 there were small things worth counting, which mister Finch thought 199 00:22:05.359 --> 00:22:12.759 would be forever. He closed his eyes and listened to 200 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:32.680 the ticking tick tick tick pause, tick tick tick pause, 201 00:22:34.119 --> 00:22:39.920 and the night settled gently over Hawthorne Lane, and the 202 00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:48.119 clocks kept their watch, and time moved on, soft and unheardy, 203 00:22:50.200 --> 00:22:52.000 the way it was always meant to