WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:07.320 The winter light outside the old brick windows was gray, 2 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:09.919 a felted wash broken by rows of bare maple branches. 3 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:13.519 Inside the air in the library's basement thickened with dust motes, 4 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:15.439 and the faint oz in town of the dehumid afire 5 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.760 wearing even on January's goldest days. I had been working 6 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.760 my way through the local histories, shelves spined by brittle spine, 7 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:25.120 doing what I promise when I volunteered methodically clean catalog 8 00:00:25.239 --> 00:00:27.519 and raschelve the legacy books half forgotten in the okav 9 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:29.960 There was comfort in the ritual of it. Rows of 10 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:32.719 titles I shelved a dozen times, pages splay open like 11 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:36.840 friendly old hands. That morning, though my careful order was interrupted, 12 00:00:37.439 --> 00:00:40.399 I just finished dusting in capwhen escoat faded volume caught 13 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:43.280 my eye. Asterisk Stories of Old Lyon County, third edition, 14 00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:45.600 Aster's thin blue cover, a faded stamp of the town's 15 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:48.640 crest across the back. The title looked familiar, but the 16 00:00:48.719 --> 00:00:51.479 date at the bottom made me pause. Nineteen twelve A 17 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:54.960 puzzle for a moment. Curious, I thummed just one shelf 18 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:56.960 over and almost laugh out loud at what I found it. 19 00:00:57.000 --> 00:00:59.799 There was the first edition dated five years later nineteen 20 00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:03.240 s seventeen. Their third edition predated their first, each looking 21 00:01:03.240 --> 00:01:06.120 as authentically worn an aged as expected, with ragged edges, 22 00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:09.120 cracks at a spine, a pale sun faded edge, a 23 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:11.359 sign of a printer's mix up, I thought, or maybe 24 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:15.000 ms bound cover. Except glancing inside, everything tracked, each page 25 00:01:15.040 --> 00:01:17.519 printed on paper consistent with a given year publish a 26 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:21.359 logos and swirling imbustments differing as they should. The dedications 27 00:01:21.359 --> 00:01:24.560 and front species were duplicated, no pasted over stickers or 28 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.519 signs of her binding. Whatever the mistake, it had a 29 00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:30.680 level of detail that felt beyond careless. I stood for 30 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:32.760 a minute that, though edition still open in my hand, 31 00:01:33.280 --> 00:01:35.799 I flipped to its subtitle page underneath the floor of cursive, 32 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:38.120 a handrit and onners mark and sepink aged into the 33 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:41.879 page itself de Rosalind for Lanton Knight nineteen thirteen. I 34 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:44.519 knew the script or something like it from other town records. 35 00:01:45.079 --> 00:01:48.120 The book felt genuinely old. Their first edition had a 36 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:51.439 similar owners mark A given in Gratitude nineteen twenty w E. 37 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:53.680 M th. But if this was the first, why so 38 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:56.560 much newer? Trying to chase away the odd sense that 39 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:58.840 I was missing something obvious. I scanned the shelf for 40 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:02.079 more of the local Histories sat the town Directories, and 41 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:05.599 next to those another set of mismatched dates. Asterisklene County 42 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:09.000 Annual Register, second edition nineteen thirty Asters Squeeze beside a 43 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:12.879 first edition labeled nineteen thirty five. My curiosity went from 44 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:16.520 mild to flaring. Both volumes bore the same distinctive creaking 45 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:19.840 boards and curling paper stock. Checking the children's shelf, I 46 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:22.199 spotted a doggie of copy of Aster's Tales of Willow 47 00:02:22.240 --> 00:02:25.560 Street Anniversary Edition nineteen fifty eight. Aster is gonna run 48 00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:27.520 that just last week? I could have sworn served this 49 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:31.960 home to another nearer looking book. I heard footsteps behind me, Carla, 50 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:35.520 arms full of book returns. Breeze passed. She was abrupt 51 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:37.039 in her movements, her mouth sat in the way it 52 00:02:37.080 --> 00:02:39.039 always was when she was late shelving for the children's 53 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:42.240 story hour. Carla, I called, softly, holding up the two 54 00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.400 versions of the local Histories book. How can the third 55 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:48.159 edition be older than the first? The publisher dates don't match? 56 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:51.599 She barely paused. Mix up. We get that a lot, 57 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.080 especially with the old donations. Maybe even a prank from 58 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:57.000 the old cataloging staff. Don't fuss too much over Ruth. 59 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:00.400 She gave a dismissive wave, her bracelet's jingle entirely and 60 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:03.479 turned to her. Just a display happens more than you'd think. 61 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:06.800 Has it happened to you before? I tried, Not quite 62 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:09.719 able to let the strangers settle, Karl offered a non 63 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:12.719 committal shrug. You wouldn't believe half the things that turned 64 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:15.000 up down here. One summer, I found a cooking manual 65 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.680 from the future. Advertised my crowa with casseroles, and we 66 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:20.479 barely had electric ovens back then. Probably an inside joke, 67 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:24.319 she smiled, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. Don't 68 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.199 lose yourself in it. The best thing about this old 69 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:28.280 place is that it never quite matches what you expect. 70 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:31.080 As she vanished into the stacks, I turned the odd 71 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:33.919 books over in my hands, feeling suddenly sharply waked their 72 00:03:33.960 --> 00:03:37.960 quiet impossibility. That evening, back in my small apartment above 73 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:40.280 the bakery, I kept thinking about those titles and dates, 74 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:43.439 Retracing my steps with pencil and note bead, I listed 75 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:46.439 every unusual book i'd found, their supposed editions and dates, 76 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:49.960 every blurring of sequence, maybe I told myself it was 77 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:52.840 only a fluke of donations, all cataloging airs long lass 78 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:55.919 fight into our system. But something about its duck hovering 79 00:03:55.960 --> 00:03:58.080 about in the corners of my mind, a persistent, insistent 80 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.520 nudge I'd always trusted as a teacher in for all this, 81 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.280 as a child who refused to leave any story half finished. 82 00:04:03.960 --> 00:04:06.879 Winter and old Lime was designed for such puzzles. The 83 00:04:06.960 --> 00:04:09.000 library sat at Maine and Walnut, a low square of 84 00:04:09.039 --> 00:04:11.400 brickfirst built in eighteen seventy one, and then doubled in 85 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:13.759 size over the decades. First in twenty nine, they said, 86 00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:16.639 then again after the war, when the town's population bloomed. 87 00:04:17.240 --> 00:04:19.839 Most days, the upstairs reading room was warm and alive, 88 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:22.879 pockwork with voices, children's brutes, the clatter of the afternoon 89 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:25.720 bridge club. The facade bore the town's seal, the lamp 90 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:28.800 burning under the old eyeing maples. As a child, I 91 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:31.680 remembered summer spent spoiled on cold tiles, inside, the air 92 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:33.680 heavy with the blivering scent of must. In the sudden 93 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:35.800 clarity when you opened a volume that hadn't been touched 94 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:38.680 in a generation. It wasn't only nostalgia that gripped me. 95 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:41.480 The library was, to my mind the nerve center of 96 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:44.079 our little town. Venue for the genealogy workshops that drew 97 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:46.800 out every lost grandparent, the local history nights where surrochery 98 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:49.199 pie was served with every chapter, and the oddble reading 99 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:51.560 groups that sprang up each winter to stave off the cold. 100 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.519 Beneath the charming surface, those stacks of worn cookbooks and 101 00:04:54.560 --> 00:04:57.439 the perennially miswidg yearbooks sat something harder to describe, a 102 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:00.279 sense that the library was the town's collective brain, telling 103 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:04.079 itself through every borough, copy and returned folktale. Staff came 104 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:07.519 and went, but a few fixtures held steady. Carla, who 105 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:09.399 had just shrugged me off, had been the nearly two 106 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.360 decades pragmatic weather orn, not a lover of mysteries, but 107 00:05:12.360 --> 00:05:14.240 always with a sharp eye for anything out of place. 108 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:18.079 Mister Finch, the library director, remained a figure carved from 109 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:20.959 another You're always entie in wolvest, proud of the institution's 110 00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:23.560 civic crowle, and only faint amused by the quarks of cataloging. 111 00:05:24.079 --> 00:05:26.160 When he walked the stacks, there was a hush, a 112 00:05:26.199 --> 00:05:28.839 faint tightening, as if the books themselves straightened up. He 113 00:05:28.879 --> 00:05:31.439 had owed the libraries, traditions, the annual open house, the 114 00:05:31.480 --> 00:05:34.800 handrton borrow and slips, the legacy collection and now help catalog. 115 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:37.319 If something seemed to add or out of turn, he 116 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:39.560 choked it up to the charming unpredictability of a long 117 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:42.480 life in books. And then there was Susan, the part 118 00:05:42.519 --> 00:05:45.399 time archivist. She kept her heap in back and her 119 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:48.199 glasses smudgy, with a kind of steady, mediculous energy you 120 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:51.120 want in someone preserving a hundred years of paper. While 121 00:05:51.199 --> 00:05:54.480 she seldom ventured opinions without evidence, her curiosity was lively 122 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.519 and invectious, especially for the tiny, persistent mysteries that nobody 123 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:00.560 else seemed to care much about. Most days I moved 124 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.720 through the routines, checking new donations, chatting with parents, exchanging 125 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.480 bits of memory with old times. There was a warmth 126 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:10.079 to it, a pleasant chaos. But beneath always I listened 127 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.639 for the libru's quite a voice, inscriptions and fly leaves, 128 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.199 triple stamp check at cards, the little notes penciled into 129 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:18.800 Chapa margin's, tiny record keeping miracles, often anonymous, that pieced 130 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:21.959 together lives otherwise half lost to town memory. The basement 131 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:25.279 Arkeev was my favorite place chill eat dome full of 132 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:27.639 the damp smell that only piles of all print can produce, 133 00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:31.600 shells sometimes shifted out of alignment with the neat labels, 134 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:33.920 and every so often you'd find a rolling card cattle 135 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:36.000 or which draw handles called to the touch, holding names 136 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.439 of pigeons and accession numbers at a calligraphy so elegant 137 00:06:38.480 --> 00:06:41.399 it felt antique, the electrical hum of the dehumored, if 138 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:43.600 I lay out comfortingly beneath it all, just as the 139 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:46.160 crayon drawings have forgotten summer reading challenges lingered on the 140 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:49.600 staff bulletin board. One feature always caught my attention. A 141 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:52.079 locke'orage cabinet, the kind with a sturdy padlock and a 142 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:56.040 handred in label yellow dener eligibility records private. When I'd asked, 143 00:06:56.120 --> 00:06:59.519 mister Finch only offered a bland smile. A few donor files, 144 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:04.480 old born bricods, he'd said, straightening his cuffs. Confidential. You understand, 145 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.720 sometimes local families offer conditions with their legacy gifts, nothing 146 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:11.079 for volunteers to worry about, the way, he said volunteers, 147 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:13.439 had a gentle admonishment to it, as if to remind 148 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.560 me that there were layers to this institution best left 149 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:18.959 and disturbed. Still, my mind returned again and again to 150 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:21.480 the addition, and amealy, why was I so sure these 151 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:24.959 weren't just cataloging mistakes. Why, if aught it has happened? 152 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:27.759 Did these particular volumes seem so deliberate, so embedded in 153 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:30.519 the very bones of the library. A few mornings after 154 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.360 my discovery, I took the conundrum the Susan. We were 155 00:07:33.399 --> 00:07:36.279 reshelving the genealogy pamphlets, staple bound, ince off to the touch. 156 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:40.040 When I decided to ask Susan, I said, lowering my voice, 157 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:42.439 have you ever come across editions of the local histories 158 00:07:42.439 --> 00:07:44.439 that are well out of order, like a third edition 159 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:47.720 that predates the first or something similar? She lifted her 160 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.639 head a right smile, curving her lips. Only in the 161 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:54.959 basement she sounded teasing, but her attention sharpened. Show me 162 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:57.920 we found the same two volumes, and I handed her 163 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.560 the third edition the paper whis prettis She flipped through, 164 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:03.920 stopping at the publisher's page in nineteen twelve, and then 165 00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:06.399 here she picked up the first edition in nineteen seventeen. 166 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:10.360 They are not reprints, different cover stocks, marginalio. Everything fits 167 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:13.079 the date on the page. She peered at the library's 168 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:16.360 old card catalogs, sliding the war and drawer free. Let's 169 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.160 check how they were filed. Her fingers danced across the 170 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:22.120 hundred and cards. The third edition was listed as the 171 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:24.560 alias to entry at the first edition. Succession number came 172 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:27.959 years later, odd, Susan said, tucking a strand of hair 173 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.279 behind her ear. Let's check the state system for comparison. 174 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:35.639 On her phone, she brought up the State Library's digital holdings. There, 175 00:08:35.720 --> 00:08:38.759 under asterisk stories of old Land County asterisk only, the 176 00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.879 first edition was listed with a nineteen seventeen date. Though 177 00:08:41.919 --> 00:08:44.679 third edition of the one I held, supposedly five years older, 178 00:08:44.679 --> 00:08:48.240 didn't exist in any state or publisher listings. Maybe it 179 00:08:48.279 --> 00:08:51.440 never officially existed, Susan mused, Or it was a local printing. 180 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.080 But the card here says we received it in the twenties, which, 181 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:56.759 if this third edition is real, fits the timeline. She 182 00:08:56.919 --> 00:09:00.559 ran her thumb along the edge. Unless is an elaborate forgery. 183 00:09:00.679 --> 00:09:03.799 But I can't imagine who would go to the trouble. Emboldened, 184 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:05.960 I pulled up the old donation records. A binded the 185 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:09.240 size of a cinder block spine's peeling. Page after page, 186 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:12.759 I traced the original accession notes. Their third edition was 187 00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:15.799 listed as donated in nineteen twenty four, but under donor 188 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:18.919 simply read anonymous. I cross checked out for the other 189 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.559 volumes in two more adjacent categories, a guidebook on county 190 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:24.960 houses and an old charity fair program. The pattern repeated 191 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:28.159 additions with dates that made no sense. Donor entries marked 192 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:32.399 only as lexi or by shelf placement, no names, no provedence, 193 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:36.080 just a tacit agreement to accept whatever arrived. Susan's lips 194 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:39.759 pressed together. Ghost book syndrome, she said, half joking, where 195 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:41.799 records show up out of nowhere in the books follow 196 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:46.080 She packed both volumes into her arms, but in all seriousness, 197 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.519 Donor histories usually matched the publishing record, unless someone's playing 198 00:09:49.559 --> 00:09:52.000 games of the records are rum or, we're cataloging something 199 00:09:52.039 --> 00:09:54.720 that shouldn't have gotten past the front desk. I'm not 200 00:09:54.759 --> 00:09:57.759 sure we're dealing with mere error, I replied. These seemed 201 00:09:57.799 --> 00:10:00.279 constructed to fit a history that only half exits lists. 202 00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:04.279 She nodded, something flickering in her eyes. You have a 203 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:07.720 real puzzle, ruth. That evening, I lay awake, replaying the 204 00:10:07.799 --> 00:10:09.919 way Susan had turned a puzzle over in her mind. 205 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:12.480 I found myself wanting to believe there was a clever 206 00:10:12.519 --> 00:10:15.919 trick behind it, something straightforward. But it wasn't just the 207 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:18.279 books or even the records. Something in the whole library 208 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:22.240 system seemed complicit. If not error, then what The next 209 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:25.159 morning I returned Early Their my Steemi in hand and 210 00:10:25.240 --> 00:10:28.159 set about cross checking other titles in the same awkward category, 211 00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:31.240 incremental versions in succession dates flickering back and forth across 212 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:34.639 the decades. In there I saw Coow's's section. I found 213 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:37.080 a second edition nineteen thirty and two copies to the 214 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:40.519 right eight first edition nineteen thirty five. Those second edition, 215 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:43.240 if believed, was older than its supposed predecess the same 216 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:46.360 as before. Both were stamped with received dates to match 217 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.960 their respective publication years. The card's tut within reference to 218 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:52.919 accidental donations from different state sales, but the name to F. 219 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:56.600 Bradley Turner Estate had no entries elsewhere in the children's 220 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:59.519 alco my breath caught at a slim illustrated volume Master's 221 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.679 Tales of War Olau Street Anniversary Edition nineteen fifty eight, 222 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:05.399 asterisk nestle between battered year books, and the inevitable eight 223 00:11:05.399 --> 00:11:09.320 coppies of asterisk Charlotte webasterisk pealing it open. I found 224 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:11.960 sketched and faded ink at dedication in honor of the 225 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.799 Willow Street Lantern Festival, May nineteen sixty two. The oddity 226 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:18.519 I'd helped organize the very first lantern festival, at least 227 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:21.279 the official one in nineteen seventy seven, long after this 228 00:11:21.320 --> 00:11:24.399 proclaimed to have celebrated it. Flipping through the pages, the 229 00:11:24.399 --> 00:11:27.080 illustration showed strings of colored lanterns bobbing up of the 230 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:29.840 familiar street, alongside a map that matched exactly the layout 231 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:32.039 of the festival we designed years after the books said 232 00:11:32.080 --> 00:11:36.039 it happened. I spent hours cross referencing other volumes. In 233 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.480 every case, the stranger the edition, the more likely it 234 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:41.000 was to reference something not yet realize, an official version 235 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.799 of town history, affair, a lost tradition, sometimes even the 236 00:11:43.799 --> 00:11:46.279 restoration of a building or the dedication of a statue that, 237 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:49.559 by every other record, was conceived only decades later. The 238 00:11:49.559 --> 00:11:52.159 books didn't just mismatch publication ordered the seemed to reach 239 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:55.399 forward to anticipate or reflect alternate histories that strictly speaking 240 00:11:55.480 --> 00:11:58.759 never happened, yet sometimes seemed to have nearly happened. After 241 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:00.759 a quick cup of coffee, a Cli and the corkscrew 242 00:12:00.759 --> 00:12:03.559 steps to the Community Wrecker's office on the library's first floor. 243 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:06.320 I leafed through the old council minutes, hoping for some 244 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:08.440 hint of when these events had first come into play. 245 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:11.360 There it was tucked into a meeting log from nineteen 246 00:12:11.399 --> 00:12:15.840 sixty two. Noted correspondence Rey Willow Street Lantern Festival Decoration 247 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:19.000 Fund discussed a frowned of memories, insisted that the event 248 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:21.039 was new in the seventies, a revival born of the 249 00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:24.440 bicentennial fever. The local paper didn't mention it at all 250 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:28.120 until fifteen years later. Yet here in official records was 251 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:31.159 a footnote suggesting its existence long before anyone remembered it 252 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:34.799 as tradition. Down Stairs, I intercepted Carla just as she 253 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:37.639 finished tidying the new books. Cart you ever notice how 254 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:40.360 some of these local histories jump around in time? I 255 00:12:40.399 --> 00:12:43.440 asked for arranging my tone to sound casual, like there 256 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.120 are editions where later versions of dated earlier books that 257 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.480 remember events before they happened. She grinned, brushing away a 258 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:52.240 tangle of hair with one hand. All the time, Old 259 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:54.840 Missess Dayton. Do you remember her, the children's librarian with 260 00:12:54.840 --> 00:12:57.320 the pinecun earrings. She always at the basement, was haunted 261 00:12:57.320 --> 00:12:59.639 by forgotten stories. She would jiggle the stacks sometimes that 262 00:12:59.799 --> 00:13:02.279 like the books, would rearrange themselves if she wasn't careful. 263 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:06.679 Carla's laughter was gentle indulgent. But honestly, it's probably just 264 00:13:06.720 --> 00:13:08.919 poor cata logis, or some printer's idea of a joke 265 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:11.120 or a donation gone off the rails. You'd have to 266 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:12.879 have a mind built for puzzles to care, not that 267 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:16.039 there's anything wrong with that, she added quickly, or maybe 268 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:19.559 just someone who's taught middle school for thirty years. I smiled, 269 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:21.759 but Carla was already moving down the aisle, a practice 270 00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:25.000 shift to the next task. Still, her answer, half joking, 271 00:13:25.120 --> 00:13:27.000 half dismissive, echered what I had heard for years. The 272 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:30.039 library invited oddities and forgot them just as quickly. Content 273 00:13:30.080 --> 00:13:32.799 with the gentle confusion it bred, I typed a careful 274 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:36.759 query to the State Library's historical Acquisitions office, outlining the anomalies. 275 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.039 The reply came two days later, a polite note assuring 276 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:42.519 me that legacy cataloging anomalies were not in common and 277 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:46.080 possibilities include a transcription era donation mix ups or mistated 278 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:49.559 tattle pages. No known pattern of persistent temple reversals in 279 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:52.600 publication order. They wrote like scentific reassurance, but the tone 280 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:56.120 suggested indulgence for a locals eccentric cobby. Desperate for something 281 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.879 more concrete. I dug into the library's and photo arch ive, 282 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:02.039 yellowed images of the basements, lined with glass negatives and 283 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:05.279 polaroids from every decade since the nineteen thirties. It is 284 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:07.879 snatch up marked June nineteen fifty four. The shof now 285 00:14:07.879 --> 00:14:10.200 holding the odd second edition of the County Register bore 286 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:13.639 a distinctly different book, though fourth edition apparently missing now altogether. 287 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:17.159 The next frame, the early decade later showed the familiar 288 00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:20.240 second edition in its prime location. Either the volumes had 289 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:22.639 been swapped out over time in some peculiar rotation, or 290 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:25.519 books had appeared unvanished with no official record of accession. 291 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:28.879 Some photo showed double shelf volumes in places that, by 292 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.240 my careful recent camp could not possibly hold more than 293 00:14:31.279 --> 00:14:35.600 one copy. The layers of contradictions stacked higher and higher, restless. 294 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:38.799 I dubbed deeper into the card catalog. One well worn 295 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:41.559 file and index to festival programs had an entire row 296 00:14:41.559 --> 00:14:46.200 of cards referencing Centennial Parade Special Commemorative Volume nineteen sixty nine, 297 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:49.360 but nowhere could I find the book itself. The inverse 298 00:14:49.399 --> 00:14:51.679 also happened. A few programs showed no card at all, 299 00:14:51.720 --> 00:14:53.639 but appeared on the shelfs of conjured from thin air, 300 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:56.759 pristine covers, appropriate stamps, and the pattern of each baked in. 301 00:14:57.440 --> 00:14:59.720 It was as if the library stubbornly, quietly cured in 302 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:03.639 noth books but alternate versions of itself. That night, I 303 00:15:03.679 --> 00:15:06.720 brew to strong tea and drafted a timeline publication dates, 304 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:10.200 received dates, festival years, and marginal events from every odd book. 305 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:14.039 A pattern was taking shape, a layering of contradictory histories, 306 00:15:14.200 --> 00:15:16.639 more a palempss than a database editions offering evidence of 307 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:20.519 possible pass and nearly realized futures. The line between record 308 00:15:20.519 --> 00:15:22.840 and imagination felt porous, as if feach Book was a 309 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.200 draft in a communal story being written and written by 310 00:15:25.200 --> 00:15:28.720 invisible hands. The next day, I button Wholesusan during her 311 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:31.960 lunt break, portfolio still open across the stuffed table. I 312 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.559 think the library's collection is more than a record, I said, 313 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.799 showing her the annotated chart. Some of these books don't 314 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:40.080 just arrive of wrong dates. They seem to reflect versions 315 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:42.240 of events no one remembers quite the same way, like 316 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:46.279 a memory that keeps revising itself. Susan absently tapped her pencil. 317 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:49.639 Maybe some of the books were custom bound or swapped 318 00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:51.759 out during the big renovation in the eighties. Remember all 319 00:15:51.799 --> 00:15:54.799 the shifting around. Then, she spoke slowly, as if weighing 320 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.679 the theory. I've ever heard all the patrons complain about 321 00:15:57.679 --> 00:16:00.200 missing titles or said they remembered different versions. No one 322 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.200 could ever pin down specifics. She flicked through her own 323 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:05.919 stack of library notes, could beat that the books are 324 00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:09.639 acting as mirrors, not just windows. I looked at her, sharply, 325 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:14.919 mirrors for whose memory? She paused, considering, maybe all of 326 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:17.320 us communities have stories they like to tell and ones 327 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:19.399 they liked to forget. That wouldn't surprise me if it 328 00:16:19.399 --> 00:16:22.840 seeped into the collection itself. Emboldened, I re examined our 329 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:26.720 key volumes, the dedications, the language in the prefaces, even 330 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:28.600 the annotated notes. A leader to events that hung on 331 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:31.320 the edge of plausibility. That Centenau parade that had on 332 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:34.120 RecA been rescheduled after a flood that never arrived, the 333 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:36.639 mention of an East River expansion the town planning meetings 334 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:38.279 had killed dur Ali, a note about a mayor or 335 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:40.559 firefront for a disaster that, if it existed at all, 336 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:43.919 was saved by providence. Any one of these, taken alone 337 00:16:44.200 --> 00:16:46.879 might have been a flight of a foril fancy. Together, 338 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:49.360 the same choreographed a set of possible lives the town 339 00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:52.799 almost experienced. On a hunch, I pulled out the donations 340 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:55.399 bind the re kept in the acquisition's office in a 341 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:58.480 sleeve clip, carefully turn and shelf pamphlet was a yellowed 342 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.799 note from nineteen sixty one where returne as received never listed, 343 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.400 no name, no accession record. The more I mapped, the 344 00:17:05.400 --> 00:17:08.039 more deliberate it all felt not a lone er or 345 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.519 a stray volume, but a pattern, nor a phenomenon in 346 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:13.000 which the ordinary rules of record and memory treaded together 347 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.160 in ways neither quite controlled. The library was behaving as 348 00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:19.640 a kind of organism, preserving, discarding, and overlaying drafts of 349 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:23.039 the community's story, each edition like a competing episode, fully 350 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:26.359 realized yet only half remembered. I felt, for the first 351 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:29.160 time both the weight and possibility of the place. The 352 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:32.279 contradiction was no longer frustrating, but illuminating, a reminder that 353 00:17:32.359 --> 00:17:35.279 every record is, after all, a negotiation with the past. 354 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.759 It wasn't enough in a more to wonder. I needed proof, 355 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:40.480 or at least a deeper record of something to tie 356 00:17:40.480 --> 00:17:43.160 together the books, the shelf anomalies, and the flickering of 357 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:46.079 half experienced history. There was only one element left and 358 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:49.119 tested that lock cabinet in the basement, always labeled off limits, 359 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:52.400 its contents known only to mister Finch. Emboldened by weeks 360 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:55.680 of mounting evidence, I approached Susan with my request. I know, 361 00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:58.319 I'm just a volunteer, I said, smiling gently to ease 362 00:17:58.359 --> 00:18:00.240 the ask, but I found a curious redit. I'd like 363 00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:02.200 to follow a red that goes right through the cabinet 364 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:04.359 marked recors priorate. Would you help me, ask mister Finch 365 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:06.400 for supervised taxes. I have a hunch there may be 366 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:09.880 something inside old a quisition locks, DOUGHNA records correspondence that 367 00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:13.319 adds context we don't otherwise have Susan hesitated, but only 368 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:16.920 for a moment. Mister Finch is an exactly known for transparency, 369 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.359 she said, lowering her voice just in case the stacks 370 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:22.599 were listening. But curiosity's part of the job description, if 371 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:26.279 only in small doses. Let's ask together. That afternoon we 372 00:18:26.359 --> 00:18:29.039 found mister Finch in his glass walled office polishing a 373 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:33.400 pair of antique wiry and glasses. Good afternoon, Ruth, Susan. 374 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:36.799 Dear both a picture of civic dedication. He smiled, cordially, 375 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:40.519 with little of his usual reserve. Mister Finch, Susan began, 376 00:18:40.839 --> 00:18:44.079 Ruth's been cataloging some persistent oddities among the legacy editions. 377 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:45.759 We'd like to cross reference a few of the books 378 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.000 with a Quycian locks and private records, if you'd be 379 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.359 willing to let us of a look under supervision. Of course, 380 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:53.960 he studied as carefully. Let's prest in a line. Those 381 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.519 files are strictly confidential. You understand Dona wishes some sensitive 382 00:18:57.599 --> 00:19:01.759 historical gifts. Normally I'd say no, Sair, I interjected gently, 383 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:04.759 This isnt idle curiosity. Some of our volumes, especially that 384 00:19:04.960 --> 00:19:06.759 of sequence editions, may be linked to the way our 385 00:19:06.759 --> 00:19:09.319 collection has gathered and preserved local history. It could help 386 00:19:09.400 --> 00:19:11.880 us with public programming, or even attract more interest from 387 00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:15.480 the state. He frowned, but not unkindly. I suppose there's 388 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:17.480 no harm. If it's for the sake of record integrity, 389 00:19:17.559 --> 00:19:20.640 I'll supervise as you say. He unlocked a desk drawer 390 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:22.839 and laid out an ancient keyon a battered letter tag. 391 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:25.640 Down in a basement, beneath a growl of the furnace 392 00:19:25.640 --> 00:19:27.880 and a wall of unshelved bindos, Finch knelt by the 393 00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:31.039 old cabinet and twisted the lock. The hinges streaked open, 394 00:19:31.319 --> 00:19:34.839 clearing dustin use in ears inside the top shelf grown 395 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:37.440 under the weight of a massive math Eden ledger is 396 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:41.680 water color label reading special Quisitions ongoing. Finch carefully set 397 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:44.240 it on the archived table. Susan and I have a 398 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:46.319 close as he opened to the first page, dated in 399 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:49.359 the Loose Victorian Hand Acquisitions in May eighteen ninety six. 400 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:52.319 Each decade since was marked by a different script, a 401 00:19:52.359 --> 00:19:55.599