WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:08.640 Retirement, as I'd imagined, it meant a slow accretion of 2 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:14.000 good days, long walks, modest pleasures, small puzzles, sudden recollection 3 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:18.000 of long unread poems. Still, after thirty six years as 4 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:20.760 a teacher, I found the prospect of too many idle 5 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:25.079 hours and silent lunches disquieting. My wife, whose patience for 6 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:28.440 my stubborn pacing is well honed, dropped a pointed hint. 7 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.839 She'd seen a flyer at the library recruiting volunteers for 8 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:35.759 a shelving and menial help. You'll put them all to shame, 9 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:39.359 she said, cheerfully, And I rolled my eyes, but tucked 10 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:42.840 the slip of paper into my jacket. Two weeks later, 11 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:46.039 I found myself in the Old City Library, badge clipped 12 00:00:46.039 --> 00:00:50.439 crookedly to my collar, sleeves, rolled cart rattling between the shelves. 13 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:55.479 At first, I stuck mostly to what I was given, biographies, travelogs, 14 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:58.759 battered children's stories, books that had been out, and come 15 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:02.560 home again, ready for another lap through curious hands. But 16 00:01:02.640 --> 00:01:06.560 it wasn't long before idle Habit took over years in 17 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.680 a classroom train, and I to drift to notice patterns 18 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:12.840 at the ragged edge of order. The recurring smudges on 19 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.359 a page, the penciled margin note two decades older than 20 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:19.680 the book's previous due date. So on a blue lit 21 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:23.159 November afternoon, while waiting for Jed the college kid, to 22 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:26.879 unlock the storage closet, I found myself thumbing through a 23 00:01:26.920 --> 00:01:32.359 careworn copy of a detective novel. It was nothing special, cover, creased, 24 00:01:32.519 --> 00:01:35.599 spine soft, a story that likely read the same in 25 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.840 a dozen libraries. On an impulse, I flipped to the 26 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:42.280 back cover, more intent on the comforting papery texture than 27 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:45.599 the specifics of story. That's when I saw it. A 28 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:49.239 sharp six digit pencil mark just inside the back flap, 29 00:01:49.400 --> 00:01:52.439 set a quarter inch from the edge, four hundred one thousand, 30 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:56.920 nine hundred twenty eight neatly made the numerals clear, but 31 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.519 oddly old fashioned, tilted a degree more upright than most 32 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:05.000 handwriting I'd taught my students. Without thinking, I assumed it 33 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:08.800 was part of the cataloging system, some abyssal ledger, surely, 34 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:12.039 but its existence nagged at me as I returned the 35 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:16.000 book to its shelf. Later that same day, a newer, 36 00:02:16.039 --> 00:02:19.000 glossy hard back came through for a shelving, A best 37 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.879 selling memoir with a publishing date no older than my 38 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.479 favorite coffee mug. Before shelving it, I checked half curiously 39 00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:30.800 for the penciled mark. There it was five hundred seventeen thousand, 40 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:34.919 three hundred forty six, different number, same careful hand, as 41 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:37.719 though the same person had quietly veined their way through 42 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:42.439 decades worth of acquisitions. This might have dismissed itself as 43 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:46.639 mere eccentricity, one of those harmless quirks of old institutions. 44 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.360 Except over the next hour, nearly every book I checked 45 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:53.439 on that same lower shelf bore a six digit pencil 46 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:57.520 mark in almost exactly the same location, always written in 47 00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:02.039 that sharp, self assured style. I pulled a battered nineteen 48 00:03:02.120 --> 00:03:06.800 seventies paperback, then an illustrated children's encyclopedia, a volume of 49 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:10.840 Neruda's poems, even a giant print copy of Serrano de Bearjirac, 50 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:14.000 each one with a different number, all ghosted into the 51 00:03:14.039 --> 00:03:16.759 same bit of the back cover. I ran a thumb 52 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:20.520 over the pencil. The graphite was faint for some almost worn, 53 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:24.639 but it resisted easy erasure. None bore any sign of 54 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:29.280 official barcode or sticker matching those digits. Surely I thought 55 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:32.560 this was an old inventory habit, perhaps a precursor to 56 00:03:32.560 --> 00:03:36.280 the computer records now standard everywhere. But when I returned 57 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:39.919 to the circulation desk, searching the database out of idle habit, 58 00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:43.360 every book was listed by its barcode or dewy decimal, 59 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:46.759 without even a hint of a six digit variant, no 60 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:49.879 trace in the system. I even poured through a file 61 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:53.400 drawer of outdated accession cards, but those ended in the 62 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:57.599 late nineteen eighties and held none of these numbers. That night, 63 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:00.599 at home, I described this to my wife, laughing, may 64 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:04.159 be at someone's secret code felsafe in case the catalog 65 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:08.360 as hacked by Russian agents. She only smiled, knowing my 66 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.400 fondness for puzzles. But even as the humor faded, I 67 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:15.039 felt a gentle, electrifying itch behind the question, if these 68 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:18.639 numbers meant something real, why didn't anyone mention them? Why 69 00:04:18.680 --> 00:04:22.639 did they sit invisible, in plain sight, unmentioned in any record, 70 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:26.240 as if waiting for the right kind of gaze to notice. 71 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:30.279 So began the small, careful curiosity that would, over the 72 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:34.240 coming weeks, unmake and remake my understanding of the very 73 00:04:34.279 --> 00:04:37.759 building in which I stacked books. I first came to 74 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:41.319 Eldenhurst as a new teacher, straight off the train, carrying 75 00:04:41.319 --> 00:04:44.680 more confidence than experience and a suit case four decades 76 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:50.399 out of style. My students, mostly rowdy, often sweet, universally resourceful, 77 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:53.720 taught me how little of life fit inside any official curriculum. 78 00:04:54.319 --> 00:04:56.839 Years passed in the routine turn of autumn to spring, 79 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:02.160 lesson plans tweaked, faculty meetings in cured cafeteria. Hierarchies are 80 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:06.920 pended and replaced. I grew fond of patterns, lessons that 81 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:11.480 clipped along exactly as expected, names reappearing in honor rolls, 82 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:14.879 the pleasures of cross words and brain teasers at lunch. 83 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:19.839 It was this background, a life oriented toward logic, yet 84 00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:22.680 alive to the thrill of a new enigma, that shaped 85 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.839 my approach to the library. The building itself was an 86 00:05:25.959 --> 00:05:30.319 archive of accumulations. The main entrance, all deco grandeur and 87 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:33.879 fluted lamps, led through a vestibule of cool marble into 88 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:37.399 the original reading rooms, whose ceilings were ringed with gold 89 00:05:37.480 --> 00:05:43.199 painted flourishes. Down corridors lined with grand portraits, mostly men 90 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:48.079 in unfamiliar spectacles, one stumbled into the mid century wings boxier, 91 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:52.759 somewhat soulless, but filled with comfortable chairs and generous windows. 92 00:05:53.360 --> 00:05:57.720 The modern renovations, all low glass and sustainable wood, hadn't 93 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.279 quite managed to subdue the layers beneath. It was a 94 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:05.120 place where all kinds passed through. Clutches of ritarees wagged 95 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:08.439 over local politics with the same depth as city council members. 96 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:11.959 After school, clusters of teens camped by the graphic novels, 97 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:16.759 mothers with strollers passed newcomers pecking at borrowed laptops. The 98 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:22.560 air hummed with the low, steady commerce of curiosity. Puzzles, solved, stories, borrowed, 99 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:27.800 quarrels begun and settled over study tables. My assigned hours 100 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:31.639 were Monday through Thursday ten to three, mostly spent trafficking 101 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:35.519 cart loads from returns to shelves and back again. I 102 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:38.839 grew used to the rhythm. Missus Pritchett's firm greetings at 103 00:06:38.839 --> 00:06:42.839 the back counter, Jed's quietly blaring headphones as he shelved 104 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:47.680 romance novels, Mister reeves impromptu lectures on civil war trivia 105 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:52.439 at the periodical's display. Coffee brakes shared chatter in the 106 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:56.480 break room, reviewing boxy cartons of donations for odd gems. 107 00:06:57.079 --> 00:06:59.439 I found that one could slip a whole week into 108 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:03.800 these routine without the world much noticing. For all its 109 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:08.560 surface change, digital catalogs, barcodede scanners, the whir of printers. 110 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:12.240 The infrastructure of the place was strobed with habit. The 111 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:15.839 old stairs still creaked in their familiar spots. The break 112 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:18.959 room clock had been off by two minutes for fifteen years, 113 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:22.639 and most staffers still addressed one another by surnames out 114 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:26.120 of some hybrid tradition left over from an earlier director. 115 00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:30.879 New donated books might arrive flashy and colorful, but the 116 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:37.399 battered heavyweights of the nineteen sixties remained stubborn residents, outlasting thefts, disasters, 117 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:42.079 and evolving taste. Beneath the orderly whirl, I sensed a 118 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.879 landscape as untouched as any peat bog, a world where 119 00:07:45.959 --> 00:07:50.279 deeper order, more intricate than any library catalog, hummed along, 120 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:54.519 mostly ignored. It was exactly the kind of ground where 121 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:58.759 gentle anomalies could persist for decades. Two days after my 122 00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:02.519 initial curiosity, I made a deliberate effort, paused at the 123 00:08:02.600 --> 00:08:05.839 end of my shift, and retrieved the same detective novel, 124 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:08.560 the one with the neat number four hundred one thousand, 125 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:12.480 nine hundred twenty eight marked inside its back cover. I 126 00:08:12.680 --> 00:08:18.439 checked carefully, expecting nothing, but somehow unmistakably, the neatly penciled 127 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:22.160 number now read four hundred two thousand, two hundred fifty one. 128 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:26.800 The handwriting was identical, still upright, still formed in the 129 00:08:26.839 --> 00:08:30.959 same quick, deliberate style. My first rational thought was that 130 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:34.480 some one, perhaps another volunteer, had replaced the number by 131 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:38.000 some arcane staff protocol. But when I checked the returns 132 00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:41.840 from the previous day books, I had carefully reshelved several 133 00:08:41.879 --> 00:08:47.320 bore numbers that had subtly but undeniably changed. Five hundred 134 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:51.039 seventeen thousand, three hundred forty six in the new memoir 135 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:55.480 was now five hundred seventeen thousand, two hundred ninety one. 136 00:08:56.320 --> 00:09:00.840 Something was off. Numbers didn't just shift invantory codes, if 137 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:04.879 used at all, were immutable unless updated officially, and these 138 00:09:04.960 --> 00:09:08.360 numbers were missing from every shelf list and digital record 139 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:12.240 I could access. I gathered myself and approached Jed at 140 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:15.759 the circulation desk, A tangle of headphones looped around his 141 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:19.399 curly head. I asked, Jed, do you know if there's 142 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:21.519 a system for the pencil marks in the back of 143 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:25.639 the books numbers six digits. Looks like they were written 144 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:29.639 by the same hand for decades, he shrugged, pulling out 145 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:33.919 an earbud. I dunno seen some marks before, assumed they 146 00:09:33.960 --> 00:09:37.200 were for books we send to other branches. Maybe missus 147 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:41.440 Pritchett knows. I found Missus Pritchett shepherding a trio of 148 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:44.720 middle schoolers toward the reference section. She faced me with 149 00:09:44.759 --> 00:09:48.120 the resigned expression of one who had fielded several lifetimes 150 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:53.679 worth of odd questions, pencil marks, back covers, inventory. I'd 151 00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:57.639 guess some old holdover. Why are they confusing the self 152 00:09:57.720 --> 00:10:02.320 check again? It just seemed odd, I said, catching myself. 153 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:05.320 They're not in the database or on any card file. 154 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:12.159 Missus Pritchett was unbothered, if slightly distracted. Oh old internal tracking. 155 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:16.000 I'd imagine some of those novels haven't had their barcodes 156 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:19.840 updated since Clinton's presidency. We do clear out the real 157 00:10:19.919 --> 00:10:23.360 records when we retire a book. If she meant to 158 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:27.000 reassure me it didn't quite work. Later, I wheeled one 159 00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.360 of the carts behind the counter and slipped into the 160 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:33.440 admin computer, plugging various numbers into the inventory search. Not 161 00:10:33.559 --> 00:10:38.559 one result, receipts, printouts, shipment forms. None used pencil or numbers, 162 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:41.799 let alone a six digit code. It wasn't even clear 163 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:44.919 who would have kept such a log. Formal inventory procedures 164 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:50.279 required signatures, labels, and electronic time stamps. Going back twenty years, 165 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:55.039 I grew systematic, almost secretive. I started jotting down a 166 00:10:55.080 --> 00:10:59.879 private ledger pocket notebook column for title, date, observed number. 167 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:03.879 I mark those that seemed stable and those that distinctly 168 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:07.360 shifted after return. It took only a week before a 169 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:11.759 delicate web of contradiction began to emerge. Mondays at the 170 00:11:11.799 --> 00:11:15.639 library always started with a tumble stacks of patron returns, 171 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:19.919 coffee gurgling too slowly, Missus Pritchett greeting the early rises 172 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:23.159 as if welcoming the hinge of a very old polite clock. 173 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:27.480 I began my week by choosing four completely unrelated books 174 00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:31.360 to watch, a cook book, an adventure novel, a travel guide, 175 00:11:31.480 --> 00:11:34.919 and a poetry anthology, careful to note the six digit 176 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:38.919 number inside each. When I checked again at lunch, the 177 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.159 numbers had shifted. The cook book and travel guide now 178 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:45.679 differed by only twelve, while the others had diverged. I 179 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:48.799 traced their borrowing history. Both the cook book and the 180 00:11:48.840 --> 00:11:51.639 travel guide had been checked out together the previous week 181 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:55.799 by different patrons, but on the same receipt. The adventure 182 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.679 novel and poetry book were, as far as I could tell, 183 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:03.600 untethered my next hypothesis. Some numeric increment tied to the 184 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:08.679 order of checkouts collapsed almost immediately. Sometimes, when three unrelated 185 00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:11.039 books were borrowed at the same time by different people, 186 00:12:11.320 --> 00:12:14.200 their numbers each crept toward the middle, then veered off 187 00:12:14.200 --> 00:12:18.559 in opposite directions if returned days apart new arrivals. That 188 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:22.240 week's donation of a young adult fantasy trilogy, for example, 189 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:25.799 occasionally displayed no number at first, but within a few 190 00:12:25.879 --> 00:12:30.679 days of processing developed one. Not a barcode, not an 191 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:35.399 accession sticker, a delicate, hand written pencil numeral belonging to 192 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:40.000 the same invisible catalog. The most jarring discovery came when 193 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.720 I checked one of my original control books, an old, 194 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:47.200 battered history of the Canal district shelved in local law. 195 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:50.120 It had borne the number four hundred eighteen thousand, seven 196 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:53.120 hundred two for the better part of a week, then 197 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.159 after a family returned it along with a book on parenting. 198 00:12:56.440 --> 00:12:59.759 It read four hundred eighteen thousand, six hundred one. The 199 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:03.840 Garraning Book two had shifted numbering only a digit away. 200 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.919 It crossed my mind absurdly but compellingly, that the numbers 201 00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:12.600 not only changed but clustered, that they responded in some 202 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:16.039 unknown way to the company they kept. When books were 203 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:19.799 checked out together or by the same patron. Over successive visits, 204 00:13:20.039 --> 00:13:24.639 their numbers moved closer, then over time faded apart unless 205 00:13:24.679 --> 00:13:28.799 brought back into tandem. I decided to test the idea further. 206 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:32.519 After a shelving, I scanned the daily returns to see 207 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:36.399 if pattens held. When two neighbors, judging by the familiar 208 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:39.600 morning banter, checked out a Romance and a w w 209 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:43.200 I I History book, those books returned days later with 210 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:48.200 albums of numbers suddenly in near alignment. The Romance, once 211 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:51.639 marked six hundred thirty nine thousand, nine hundred eleven, now 212 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:54.639 read six hundred thirty nine thousand, eight hundred ninety four. 213 00:13:55.080 --> 00:13:58.360 The w w I I Book, originally six hundred forty 214 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:02.240 one thousand, fifty five, now read six hundred thirty nine thousand, 215 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:06.240 eight hundred ninety five. The sequence was impossible to ignore, 216 00:14:06.919 --> 00:14:10.559 as if the books were very quietly responding to fleeting 217 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:15.679 connections between their readers. With each new check, my confusion deepened. 218 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:20.240 Interlibrary loaned books were a case study. Some upon arrival 219 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:24.519 briefly displayed a fresh hand written six digit number, always 220 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:27.519 in that now familiar handwriting, but if they left the 221 00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:31.159 building traveling on to other towns and libraries, the number 222 00:14:31.240 --> 00:14:36.159 either faded or was physically erased. Book club selections, the 223 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:39.120 current favorite seemed to be a slim volume of essays 224 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:43.480 on invention and grief, showed the most dramatic cases. When 225 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:47.600 borrowed en mass by club members, the numbers all but synchronized, 226 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:51.120 clustering into a range of only a few digits before 227 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:55.600 dispersing into wider spreads upon their return. My attempt at 228 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:59.919 direct documentation, out of curiosity and perhaps a pinch of anxiety, 229 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:04.120 proved uniquely frustrating. When I photographed the marks on my phone, 230 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:06.919 the image came out blank. If I used a flat 231 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:10.960 bed scanner, faint shadows showed sometimes the first three digits, 232 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.360 never the whole. Even carbon paper failed. The rubbings transferred 233 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.840 little more than smudges. Yet in person, to the naked eye, 234 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:23.440 the six digit number always resolved faint but certain. On 235 00:15:23.600 --> 00:15:27.159 Thursday afternoon, during a lull at the desk, I broached 236 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:30.919 the topic with mister Reeves, a long retired principle with 237 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:35.200 an encyclopedic recall for local oddities and no short supply 238 00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:40.279 of opinions. Reeves, I asked, sidling up as he selected 239 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:44.120 yet another volume of local history. Did you ever notice 240 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:46.679 the pencil numbers in the back of half these books? 241 00:15:47.720 --> 00:15:51.399 He grinned, eyes narrowing. You mean the secret codes. I 242 00:15:51.440 --> 00:15:55.639 thought only school teachers found those. He winked, charming in 243 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:59.759 a twilight zone sort of way. Their probably old circulation notes, 244 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:02.360 or else you're just seeing what you want after grading 245 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:07.080 too many cryptic math tests. But they change, Reeves, They 246 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.919 really change. I checked one last week. It shifted after 247 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:14.919 it went home with some one else. He shrugged. Everything 248 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:17.799 changes if you look hard enough. Maybe it's just I 249 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:20.960 don't know graphite ghosts or something deep in the papery 250 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:25.440 Jungion's subconscious. His tone light, but behind the humor I 251 00:16:25.559 --> 00:16:28.639 sensed a flicker of interest. He was like me, a 252 00:16:28.759 --> 00:16:32.679 man nourished by puzzles. I week's end, I had more 253 00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:36.080 questions than answers. Each attempt to observe or capture the 254 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:39.279 marks left me with less certainty, not more. The one 255 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:41.879 thing I felt, with growing clarity was that no one 256 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:45.799 had designed this system from mere necessity. No archivists whim 257 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:49.519 no software bug could explain what I'd seen. These numbers 258 00:16:49.559 --> 00:16:52.679 lived in a strata both above and below order, both 259 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:56.000 connected to the flow of daily life and stubbornly invisible 260 00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:59.840 unless you cared, unless you truly looked. For the next 261 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.360 two weeks, I behaved less like a volunteer and more 262 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:08.559 like an amateur field naturalist tracking a migratory species. Every shift, 263 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:12.519 I arrived early and left late, spreading my attention across 264 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:17.319 all corners of the collection. I selected a particularly diverse batch, 265 00:17:17.720 --> 00:17:21.319 a hard cover atlas, a spiral bound cookbook from the eighties, 266 00:17:21.599 --> 00:17:25.119 a dog eared political memoir, a tattered collection of science 267 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:29.000 fiction shorts, and a glossy children's pop up book. I 268 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.359 logged the six digit number from each careful, with my 269 00:17:32.480 --> 00:17:37.200 penciled notes held in a little composition book. Whenever possible, 270 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:40.400 I snuck a glance at the check out records, though 271 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:45.000 always keeping within privacy boundaries, sometimes only jotting down first 272 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:49.759 names or initials if a patron greeted me repeatedly a 273 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.839 week in new clue surfaced. Some books untouched for months 274 00:17:53.880 --> 00:17:57.319 displayed numbers that had drifted far apart, over one hundred, 275 00:17:57.319 --> 00:18:01.599 two hundred, sometimes eight hundred digits between extremes. Yet when 276 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:04.680 borrowed together by a school group or reading circle, these 277 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:08.000 same numbers lurched toward each other, often closing the gap 278 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:12.160 to fewer than twenty. Afterwards, as the books cycled through 279 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:15.920 different readers, the numbers drifted apart at no predictable rate. 280 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:21.920 Journals and diaries genres i associated with solitude still exhibited 281 00:18:21.960 --> 00:18:26.519 similar behavior, though the numbers fluctuated less wildly. The science 282 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:29.559 fiction shorts stood out with the oddest pattern. After a 283 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:32.519 local high school club checked out the volume together, the 284 00:18:32.599 --> 00:18:35.240 number not only leapt in sync with a graphic novel 285 00:18:35.319 --> 00:18:38.240 borrowed in the same hour, but remained linked for a 286 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:41.640 second borrowing even as the club spread out into reading 287 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:45.480 their own distinct books. It was evident that the pattern 288 00:18:45.599 --> 00:18:48.720 was less about genre than about the act of borrowing itself. 289 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:53.079 If two strangers, people who barely acknowledged one another, took 290 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:56.680 home books together, their numbers yawed ever so slightly towards 291 00:18:56.720 --> 00:18:59.960 the middle. If friends shared a recommendation at the count 292 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:04.440 to their chosen books, both shifted, sometimes by dozens of units, 293 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:08.960 sometimes barely at all. And yet the pattern had limits. 294 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:12.880 A tiny set of books, mostly recent donations that had 295 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:15.240 yet to be checked out for the first time, and 296 00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:18.319 a handful of reference tomes never permitted to leave the building, 297 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:22.119 showed only the faintest pencil marks or none at all. 298 00:19:22.880 --> 00:19:26.119 I checked these books repeatedly, and while the marks sometimes 299 00:19:26.160 --> 00:19:29.839 appeared after enough handling at the circulation desk, they remained 300 00:19:29.880 --> 00:19:34.359 resistant to the shifts I'd observed elsewhere. By now I'd 301 00:19:34.359 --> 00:19:39.000 become uncomfortably obsessed, I wondered aloud to missus Pritchett, careful 302 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:42.599 not to sound unhinged. Do you ever notice the books 303 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:46.400 go out together and come back changed? She offered, an 304 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:50.000 arch smile, arching an eyebrow. If only the same could 305 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:53.039 be said for our staff meetings. Most things around here 306 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:56.599 spend their days drifting apart. If you ask me, She 307 00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:00.119 seemed unfazed by the implication that the books might, in 308 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:04.640 their way, lead more interesting lives than their handlers. Twice 309 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:08.279 I attempted an experiment, positing that the more books someone 310 00:20:08.359 --> 00:20:11.519 borrowed at once, the more synchronized their numbers would become. 311 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:16.240 Results were inconclusive. Sometimes a batch of five books drawn 312 00:20:16.319 --> 00:20:19.720 by the same family all clustered tightly, but other times, 313 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:23.599 borrowing a solitary book did the same, briefly aligning it 314 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:28.839 near another unrelated title drawn moments before. Book club days 315 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:33.000 proved illuminating. The same small group, aged from mid twenties 316 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:35.680 to retarees, would spill out into the reading room on 317 00:20:35.799 --> 00:20:40.920 Thursday nights, exchanging novels and pastries with equal warmth. Their books, 318 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:45.079 returned together on Friday mornings invariably bore numbers closer than 319 00:20:45.079 --> 00:20:48.200 those of any other group. The effect was most pronounced 320 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:52.839 if club members mingled, sharing recommendations out loud rather than 321 00:20:52.920 --> 00:20:57.480 quietly drawing their own selections. The numbers were neither random 322 00:20:57.519 --> 00:21:01.640 nor strictly linear. Patterns emerged, but at every turn a 323 00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:05.000 new exception. The formula I had hoped for receded, like 324 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:10.279 a horizon, always there, never caught. Still, a new delicious 325 00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:14.039 contradiction emerged one Tuesday, as I attempted my now ritual 326 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:17.680 of capturing a pencil number for posterity with my phone. 327 00:21:18.079 --> 00:21:20.480 I aimed for a clear shot of the six digits 328 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:23.400 where my eye saw six hundred twenty two thousand, one 329 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:27.200 hundred three etched on the inside back cover, The photo 330 00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:30.440 showed only a blank field, the off white paper as 331 00:21:30.519 --> 00:21:35.279 mute as marble. Intrigued, I attempted a scan high resolution 332 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:39.799 grayskill color. The output odd broken shadows, as if the 333 00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:42.240 first three digits were being sprited out into the ether 334 00:21:42.359 --> 00:21:45.640 before the rest could be fixed in memory carbon paper. 335 00:21:45.799 --> 00:21:50.400 At Missus Pritchett's skeptical suggestion yielded only faint, formless streaks. 336 00:21:50.759 --> 00:21:53.599 I even asked Jed, more as a challenge than anything, 337 00:21:53.640 --> 00:21:57.640 to try same result. Yet, as soon as the book 338 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:02.480 was back in my hands, unfiltered, unmediated, the number reappeared 339 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:06.039 exactly as before, visible to the eye, and only to 340 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.279 the eye. It seemed the numbers then belonged to a 341 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:13.000 spectrum just adjacent to the ordinary, not a hoax, not 342 00:22:13.079 --> 00:22:15.680 a trick of shadow, but as stubbornly there as a 343 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:19.880 water mark, visible only under the right angle. I shared 344 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:23.920 this latest confounding development with mister Reeves, mostly seeking a 345 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:28.079 sanity check. He cackled at my frostration. Maybe it's like 346 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:31.640 those quantum cats. Open the box and the number changes, 347 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:35.480 or you've just discovered the first library conspiracy powered by 348 00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:41.359 imagination and graphite. Honestly, what's the harm? His humor strung? 349 00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:44.880 But for the first time, I considered the possibility if 350 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:48.720 the numbers could not be digitized, scanned, or copied, maybe 351 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:51.359 they weren't meant to be abstracted or cataloged at all. 352 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:55.279 Maybe they were meant to be noticed. With no other 353 00:22:55.359 --> 00:22:58.720 path left to probe. I shifted my approach. If the 354 00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:02.160 numbers resisted being solved as codes, perhaps they could be 355 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:06.119 mapped as patterns. Skepticism gave way to a tentative faith 356 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:10.799 in observation, logs, lists, webs of connections. If I couldn't 357 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:14.079 fix the numbers, perhaps I could at least describe their movement. 358 00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.480 I began carrying a larger notebook, lining it with grids 359 00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:22.720 and charts, columns for book title, penciled number, date and 360 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:26.480 time of check, initials of the last patron when known, 361 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:30.119 rough weather, and even remarks on the social atmosphere at 362 00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:33.000 the library. Out of habit As much as the giddy 363 00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:37.400 need to find a leverage point, privacy was paramount. I 364 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.960 never recorded more than a passing suggestion, a last initial, 365 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:44.759 or a regular Friday group, but over time a new 366 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:48.440 picture took shape, so intricate and strange that I found 367 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:53.160 myself both enthralled and somewhat daunted. Most striking was the 368 00:23:53.160 --> 00:23:56.400 way numbers grouped. Not only did they synchronize when books 369 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.960 were borrowed together, but even when handled by unrelated patrons 370 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:04.039 whose only connection was the briefest lobby greeting, their numbers 371 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:08.799 often migrated subtly towards one another. Once two books plucked 372 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:12.920 from opposite wings, a medieval biography and a modern romance, 373 00:24:13.400 --> 00:24:16.559 aligned digits within two of each other, after being checked 374 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:19.160 out by neighbors who shared a joke about the rain. 375 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:23.720 On particularly active days the last Friday of the month, 376 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:27.319 when the reading groups and family story Hour overlapped, the 377 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:32.200 clustering effect intensified. Books from wildly different genres moved in 378 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:35.640 proximity together, only to disperse in the calm of a 379 00:24:35.720 --> 00:24:40.279 rainy Tuesday afternoon. But the clearest evidence of all came 380 00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:44.119 during the anniversary week for a prominent local figure, a 381 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:48.920 centennial celebration marked by music, speeches and a sudden spike 382 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:53.200 in biographies dusted off for display. I logged the numbers 383 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:58.279 from three such biographies checked out by unrelated patrons. All 384 00:24:58.319 --> 00:25:01.920 started scattered across a wide range, but when returned together 385 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.920 after the week of festivities, their numbers had locked near 386 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:08.960 identically eight hundred twenty one thousand, thirty six, eight hundred 387 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:12.319 twenty one thousand, thirty nine, eight hundred twenty one thousand, 388 00:25:12.359 --> 00:25:15.400 forty one. It was as if their passage through the 389 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:19.920 hands of a community simultaneously and with shared attention, pulled 390 00:25:19.960 --> 00:25:24.200 the numbers into line. Gradually, the library felt less like 391 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:27.440 a simple repository for books and more like an organism, 392 00:25:27.519 --> 00:25:32.279 quietly registering the tides of shared experience. The numbers recorded something, 393 00:25:32.559 --> 00:25:36.559 but not just ownership or inventory. Perhaps I thought these 394 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:41.279 numbers were passively keeping track of association itself, lines of connection, 395 00:25:41.680 --> 00:25:45.319 pulsing and real, but so delicately written that only a 396 00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:50.599 certain kind of observer could notice. It changed my methods. Now, 397 00:25:50.759 --> 00:25:53.279 rather than searching for a trickster behind the ledger or 398 00:25:53.279 --> 00:25:56.759 a cataloger's long forgotten method, I began asking a different 399 00:25:56.839 --> 00:26:00.720 kind of question. What if the numbers weren't imposed but emergent. 400 00:26:01.319 --> 00:26:03.960 What if the library, through its books, was less a 401 00:26:04.039 --> 00:26:07.440