WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.519 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.560 Let's get into it. The first thing you notice in 3 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.080 Bellamy's watching clock repair is the sound. Not the ordinary 4 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:17.280 background of ticking and chiming you'd expect from a shop 5 00:00:17.320 --> 00:00:19.399 of a stuff with time pieces, but an intricate, all 6 00:00:19.440 --> 00:00:21.960 pervading rhythm that presses some out against the bones of 7 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:24.199 your body. I've felt it before. I saw it, an 8 00:00:24.199 --> 00:00:27.760 almost musical regularity, a subtle drawing together, even as the 9 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:30.160 wooden door swung shut behind me, swallowing the slush and 10 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.920 gray of late January, a walk slower forced to step 11 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:36.359 in time. Something was different than I remembered. I was 12 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:39.159 carrying my grandfather's mountel clock, the one with its stubborn 13 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:42.679 fox face and reluctant midspring. It weighed heavy in my arms, 14 00:00:42.840 --> 00:00:45.719 both for its brass and for what it represented. He'd 15 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:47.880 left it to me, a little joke, I always thought, 16 00:00:48.039 --> 00:00:50.880 for the granddaughter who lived our life cataloging other people's things, 17 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:54.520 handling the library's ancient lending stamps with brisk affection. Since 18 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.039 my retirement, it had perched on my window, silk mocking 19 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.960 irregular hours above my morning tea. When it groaned its 20 00:01:00.280 --> 00:01:02.359 to a halt. Last week, I packed it up, ignoring 21 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:04.799 the mudinous protest of my knees, and tramped down to 22 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:09.280 Dorian Bellamy Sharp. It had been years, decades, probably since 23 00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:12.439 bellpol and paintwork had last felt familiar. The work bench 24 00:01:12.439 --> 00:01:15.000 still shadowed beneath the spray of tiny screw drivers and 25 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:18.040 thin tools like surgical instruments, looked unchanged from my childhood. 26 00:01:18.519 --> 00:01:20.959 But it wasn't the sight that stopped me. It was 27 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:24.680 the sound. Every clock, watch, timer, and even trinket on 28 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:26.519 the shell scene to take not just in time, but 29 00:01:26.599 --> 00:01:30.239 in perfect absolute synchronization. The polese echoed from every corner 30 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.280 at the squad clock face above the safe, the twin 31 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.840 pendulum's gage together near the window, even the little travel 32 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:38.120 clocks that always drifted by none. I remember being struck 33 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:40.719 by the overlapping, muddled sound of the place as a child. 34 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:43.879 Now I couldn't spot even a fraction of a second's chaos. 35 00:01:44.359 --> 00:01:47.159 I paused near the counter, mouth slightly open, and set 36 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:50.519 my grandfather's clock down above my head. A carriage clock 37 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:53.439 gave a little metallic click. From the next shelf came 38 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:56.000 the soft whisking rattle of a dozen tiny watch movements. 39 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:58.000 I could almost feel the swept door of a second 40 00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:01.079 hand through the air. Reflexively, I fumbled my phone from 41 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:03.799 my coat and brought up the stopwat chap, its digital 42 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:08.199 ticks usually a nervous dccotto, melted seamlessly with chorus. I 43 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:10.080 held it up next to an old railway watch and 44 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:13.319 counted lips moving each second, exactly as the mechanical hand 45 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:16.120 snapped to its marker, again and again. I tried a 46 00:02:16.199 --> 00:02:18.840 kitchen timer id glimpse jartting from another customer's bag. She 47 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:21.759 smiled when I gestured politely bemused about even it matched 48 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:25.080 seventy o'clocks at my rough count, every one tacking in 49 00:02:25.120 --> 00:02:28.560 a single invisible line. I blinked hard twice, as if 50 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.919 that might shake loose a trick of hearing or imagination impossible, 51 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:34.080 I muttered a bit too loudly as Dorian bell and 52 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.879 himself emerged from the back, wiping his hands on a 53 00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.080 yellow cloth. The valeying grant my goodness, I'd heard You'd 54 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.680 finally retired, Dora in greeted voice, all warmth. As he 55 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.960 circled the pack counter, his spectacles gleamed, his beard, A 56 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.039 s trepped even further down as neck since I'd last 57 00:02:48.039 --> 00:02:51.680 seen him. I mumbled the greeting distracted. I tried to 58 00:02:51.719 --> 00:02:54.360 shift back to myself blythe precise, but found my attentions 59 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:58.719 bringing away mental fingers itching for cents, Dorian, do you mind? 60 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:01.120 I held up my phone to the wall of clocks, 61 00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:04.319 and certain how to phrase the question. The apparent impossibility 62 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.319 sat in my mind, fascinating and faintly and settling. He 63 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:10.280 peered over his glasses at my phone, enthrived, What is 64 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:13.159 it you're after? Then? Still cataloging the world I see? 65 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:16.479 He chuckled, but my focus wouldn't relent. I left my 66 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.759 ground father's clock and promised to return in a week. 67 00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:21.960 In the street, outside the ordinary wall, pressed back in, 68 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.400 a peopled spaniel barked at bicycle. A child shrieked to 69 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:26.960 her own reflection in a shop window, I checked my 70 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.439 phone stop watch in my own cheap wristwortch, holding them 71 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:31.879 together as a fun cue. The second hands veered up horror, 72 00:03:32.039 --> 00:03:35.879 one lagging one, stopping altogether the impossible ticking I'd heard 73 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:38.319 within the shop. That impossible unity had vanished with the 74 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:41.039 closing of the door. The rest of my afternoon floated 75 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:43.000 in a kind of pleasant disquiet, part of me still 76 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:45.599 listening for the perfectly synchronized ticking, half hoping for an 77 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:47.919 echo to advance from some unseen wall, half certain I'd 78 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:51.759 imagined the whole affair, but my curiosity, never fully at rest, 79 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:54.199 was tickled into action. If not, Damn might wind up. 80 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.400 ELL's village wore bells as some colet has always seemed 81 00:03:57.439 --> 00:03:59.759 to exist slightly outside ordinary time, at least in the 82 00:03:59.759 --> 00:04:03.400 look imagination. I'd grown up on its gentle loops, sleepy lanes, 83 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:05.680 where every third rooftop slouches with a dormer, the leath 84 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:07.159 of the brook, pulling the air just so as it 85 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:10.120 passes under the dovetail bridge. The routine here is a 86 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:13.360 living thing. My own days, even in retirement, spoiled out 87 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:15.479 with the comforting repetition i'd once joke was like living 88 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:18.480 inside a ground for the clock. Each morning, I trailed 89 00:04:18.480 --> 00:04:21.079 the pebble of Riverside path with a canvas toat, fetching 90 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:23.120 eggs from the bickery stall and crests from Miss Paley, 91 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:26.120 a florist who sells miniature ferns and teacups. The high 92 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:27.920 Street is little more than a bend where the old 93 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:30.399 market house flowers at a line of battered iron benches. 94 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:33.360 On most evenings, I curled in a cottage with a 95 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:35.759 pot of strong tea. The library stamp has still arrayed 96 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:37.399 in a battered box, as if I could return there 97 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:40.439 by accident. Through the glass of my kitchen, I watched 98 00:04:40.519 --> 00:04:43.480 daylight paddle over the bookshelves and remembered nursery legends about 99 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.000 the days that hold for you. We'd gathered along the 100 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:49.759 promenade for the annual Horology Festival, celebrating craftspeople whose talents 101 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:52.040 for gears and gilded faces had brought flocks of watch 102 00:04:52.079 --> 00:04:55.720 byers even in the nineteen twenties. Times stand still in Belles, 103 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:58.279 they'd say to us children, as if theer itself had 104 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:01.600 decided to envelop us an orderly in staf. If I'm honest, 105 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.240 I never found the stories particularly magical when I was young. 106 00:05:04.279 --> 00:05:06.600 They seemed ways for adults to reassure us that living 107 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:10.319 simply wasn't the same as being left behind. Patrick, my neighbor, 108 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:13.439 took such things more seriously. He'd inherited boxes of half 109 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.240 deciphered maps and market records, tracing the lineage of every 110 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.279 cobble stone, as if time itself could be measured in 111 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:22.040 family trees. Most of the stories were harmless enough. The 112 00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:26.199 postmistress Marjorie starsh blouses unstoppable smile always had a new version. 113 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:28.680 Tells of a blacksmith who claimed to fourge hours instead 114 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:31.319 of horseshoes, or of the stonemason who had carved mysterious 115 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:35.000 spirals into the allowey arch. Local shops broadened cheese, the 116 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.279 cobbler Bellamy's vife for pride of place, but Dorian's establishment, 117 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:41.040 with its bristling window of brass faces, always featured in 118 00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:44.199 talk about the magic of bells. My routines grounded me, 119 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:47.439 or so I told myself. But after that first visit 120 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:50.240 back to Bellamy's, the memory of those perfectly synchronized clocks 121 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:52.800 kept bobbing up in the eddy of my thoughts. I 122 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:55.600 found myself glancing at shop windows as I passed, checking 123 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:57.879 the faces of old railway clocks and pubwall clocks for 124 00:05:58.000 --> 00:05:59.720 even a shadow of the unity had felt in the 125 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:04.000 repair shop. Nothing matched at home. My grandfather's clock, now 126 00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:06.879 sitting silent in the hallway awaiting Dorian's skilled touch, seemed 127 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:10.160 to clare at me, indignant to my curiosity. One evening 128 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:12.240 I tried to capture the sensation in my journal, the 129 00:06:12.279 --> 00:06:15.519 little green one inherited somewhat shamefully from my librarian years. 130 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:18.639 There must be a reason for such precision, I wrote, 131 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:22.439 But it does not feel imposed, or electronic, or even deliberate. 132 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:24.959 The effect is a unity order without force. My curiosity 133 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:28.560 tickled into action, if not downright wound up. I underlined 134 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:30.920 the last phrase, not quite sure why, and closed the 135 00:06:30.920 --> 00:06:34.120 book for the night. The village there usually a gentle anchor, 136 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:37.560 felt subtly unsettled these next days. I had always prided 137 00:06:37.639 --> 00:06:39.879 myself on my skepticism, the gift and curse of those 138 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.879 who manage archives. For here was a riddle that wouldn't 139 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:46.839 be organized, wouldn't submit to need entries. I resolved, almost 140 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:49.560 without conscious thought, to trace the edges of this curiosity, 141 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:52.160 even if it meant disrupting the peaceful tide of my routines. 142 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:55.600 On the following Wednesday, I decided to call at Dorian's early, 143 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.759 hoping for a quiet word. The mantel clock, according to 144 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:01.079 his need handwriting on the claims slip, would be ready 145 00:07:01.079 --> 00:07:04.319 by noon. But I lingered a little outside watch strapped 146 00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:06.839 tight to my wrist, fiddling with the time, deliberately turning 147 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.319 the minute hands six minutes fast, setting the second hand 148 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:11.600 to run just out of step with my phone's digital clock. 149 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:14.920 Two tourists, neatly dressed, all fleece and rocks, are peaued 150 00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:17.800 and certainly inside, glancing at the que already forming for 151 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:20.839 bakery pass next door. The woman who'd been fiddling with 152 00:07:20.839 --> 00:07:23.720 a silver court watch, frowned as the second hand hesitated. 153 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:26.360 I drew alongside them as the man checked his phone, 154 00:07:26.399 --> 00:07:29.120 tapping its screen for the time. Has your watch gun 155 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:31.519 funny too? She asked, an anxious age to her question, 156 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.639 it does it sometimes, but never both at once curiosity 157 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:39.279 sharpened my attention. Would you mind if i'd I gestured, 158 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:42.279 and she unstrapped her watch, placing it delicately in my palm. 159 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:45.680 I press my phone's timer beside it. To my astonishment, 160 00:07:45.759 --> 00:07:48.240 hand I think house inside the threshold of the shop. 161 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:50.519 Both clicked to gave her falling into a rhythm so 162 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:52.560 clean that to watch them separated was to see nothing 163 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:56.360 at all outside. My own watch ran wild within, snapped 164 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:59.720 into formation. As if chastened, The tourists exchanged a puzzled look. 165 00:08:00.480 --> 00:08:03.199 That's a bit well uncanny, isn't it, said the man, 166 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:06.120 more amuse and spooked, as if suspecting slight of hand. 167 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:09.040 When I explained what I'd witnessed last week, the woman 168 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:12.560 nodded vigorously. You should tell some one. Maybe it's the wiring. 169 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:15.600 She shrubbed and drifted toward the case of pocket watches. 170 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:18.319 Already caught by the shimmer of gold and silver faces. 171 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:21.839 I decided to test my own watch in earnest just 172 00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:24.079 outside the shop. I stopped it dead to pull the crown, 173 00:08:24.279 --> 00:08:26.839 watching the second hand hot on a thick, slightly smear tick. 174 00:08:27.560 --> 00:08:30.199 I counted to thirty, then stepped back across the threshold 175 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:33.240 and pushed the crown in the hands sprang forward, instantly 176 00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.840 catching the chorus ringing overhead, ticking in a canny's step. 177 00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:39.320 The effect gripped me more tightly than before. I saw 178 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:41.399 out Dorian, who was bent over a tray of battered 179 00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:44.759 min springs. When I tried to explain, voice low, he 180 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:48.159 offered the same gentle shrugs as always, old building, old 181 00:08:48.200 --> 00:08:50.679 habits a Valeye, this place is full of quirks. Maybe 182 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:53.240 you're just the latest to see the little wonders. I 183 00:08:53.320 --> 00:08:56.960 tried to press him, nudging toward technical answers, electromagnetic fields, 184 00:08:57.039 --> 00:09:00.200 clever main springs, even the possibility of some hidden speakers. 185 00:09:00.919 --> 00:09:03.320 Dorian shook his head, his smile flickering in that way 186 00:09:03.320 --> 00:09:05.600 people do when they are both flatted and gently unwilling 187 00:09:05.600 --> 00:09:08.440 to indulge the question. The next customer, a gaunt man 188 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:10.879 with a basketful of battered alarm clocks, remarked cheerfully that 189 00:09:10.919 --> 00:09:13.080 the clocks always snapped back to themselves in here. I 190 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:15.200 try winding them at home. No dies, must be the 191 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:18.639 magic of bellamies. A Dorian. He accepted his receipt and 192 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:21.279 strode off, humming. A part of me wanted to dismiss 193 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:23.720 it all as borrowed showmanship, some prideful trick left over 194 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:27.039 from the shop's heyday. But all my librarians in sincts rebel. 195 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:29.600 There was no contradiction in the set up, no hidden machinery, 196 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:33.559 nothing avert or theatrical, only a quiet assertion the clocks 197 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:35.720 in this place a lined as of cult to order 198 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:39.720 by something beyond human planning. My mind, restless began composing 199 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:43.799 mental catalogs, sorting possible causes and contradictions. I spent the 200 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:47.480 afternoon moving from hypothesis to hypothesis. Was it the building 201 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:51.279 of resonance of all beans, some imperceptible pulse in the foundations, 202 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.960 or more mundanely, a series of chance coincidences arranged to 203 00:09:54.960 --> 00:09:58.279 impress customers. It seemed too reliable for chance, too gentle 204 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:02.240 for a trick. When I got home, I recorded the details. Times, visited, 205 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:06.320 types of clocks, tested devices affected. The effect, I noted 206 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:10.080 was universal within the shop, battery or mainspring, digital or analog, 207 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.360 even tired old pocket watches whose gears should have run 208 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.679 rough and slow. A sigh, the effect vanished. Inside it 209 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:18.919 appeared reliably. I shared my puzzle at tea with Patrick, 210 00:10:19.000 --> 00:10:21.720 my neighbor, who treated history as a form of light exercise. 211 00:10:22.440 --> 00:10:24.879 He regarded my notebook with the same cautious respect he 212 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:27.919 gave to old parish registers. Reminds me of the old 213 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:31.000 odd modert Saint Edmund's. He said they used to claim 214 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:33.279 amnk Bill, a clockwork angel that mimicked hum and breth. 215 00:10:33.320 --> 00:10:36.440 Perhaps it's a ghost harmonic, some deep architectural trick, but 216 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:39.440 there was doubt in his voice. Then again, I've never 217 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:41.720 known Dorian to be a showman. Maybe it's just one 218 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:44.519 of those things that keeps people coming back. I found 219 00:10:44.519 --> 00:10:47.279 his skepticism reassuring, but something in me objected to so 220 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:50.519 casual an answer. That evening I stopped by the post 221 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:52.840 office for a chap with Marjorie, whose family had traded 222 00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:55.759 in stories longer than I'd been alive. When I described 223 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:59.480 the effect, she leaned in, lowering her voice conspiratorily. Ye know, 224 00:10:59.679 --> 00:11:02.240 my ryd and said mister Bellamy's grandfather clim The clocks 225 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.279 kept surer in shops where time was watched by the 226 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:06.840 right keeper. Rival villages used to challenge us, said, our 227 00:11:06.879 --> 00:11:09.440 clocks never ran so sweet or so right. All in 228 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:11.919 good fun, I think, But she swore old man Bellamy 229 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.159 had a secret, called himself the keeper of true time. 230 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:17.840 She patted my hand, delighted with her own phrase, every 231 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:21.120 place has its stories, dear, maybe this is ours. Over 232 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:23.559 the following week I returned to Bellamyes that odd hours 233 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:27.279 mid morning dusk, even during the lunch rush. Each time 234 00:11:27.399 --> 00:11:30.519 I observed the same phenomenon. Armed with a bundle of clocks, 235 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:32.639 an old carriage cock from my mother's service chest, a 236 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.360 batter wristwatch had found a jumble sale, and a customer's 237 00:11:35.440 --> 00:11:38.480 kitchen timer borrowed After some cajoling, I ran my experiments 238 00:11:39.159 --> 00:11:41.879 outside the shop. There ticks formed a symbolic mess inside, 239 00:11:41.919 --> 00:11:44.200 each had jumped into alignment the instant I crossed the sill. 240 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:48.159 Dorian raised an eyebrow at my serial tests our local 241 00:11:48.159 --> 00:11:51.960 clock mistresses, he teased, not unkindly, he seemed idly amused, 242 00:11:52.120 --> 00:11:54.159 yet made no move to explain nor prevent my tinkering. 243 00:11:54.759 --> 00:11:57.759 At marjorie suggestion, I asked after family legend among long 244 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:00.799 time villagers, a few were called off happenings with their 245 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:03.440 clocks after returning from repairs. A grandfather in the next 246 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:06.240 street claimed as clock never lost a minute, nor gained 247 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:08.320 one for ten years straight until I let that grands 248 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:11.240 out of mine fiddle with her. An elderly neighbor described 249 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.480 an odd, peaceful hum in the shop, which vanished when 250 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:16.120 he brought his clock home. Each story layered meaning on 251 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:19.519 to the mystery. No reports of Mischievosaune's just a subtle order, 252 00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:23.399 both enforced and benevolent. I decided to involve Patrick again, 253 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:26.600 this time pressing on his historical bent. He admitted to 254 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:29.720 no entales of craftsmen who harmony, not just precision in 255 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:32.559 their work. Stories that trace back even before formal horology 256 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:36.240 reached the village. There's always been something regular about Bellamies, 257 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:39.399 but nobody's taken a scientific interest and tell you it seems. 258 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:43.200 He grinned over his teacup. At one point I borrowed 259 00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:45.840 of vintage alarm clock from the cobboy's escapement ratic, it's 260 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:49.440 take more coffin clock. Even it inside Bellamyes clicked into 261 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:51.799 the invisible pattern, as if soothed by the shop sair. 262 00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:55.399 I carried it out again, walked several paces, restarted it. 263 00:12:55.480 --> 00:12:58.919 The magic gone, the tick stumbling over itself. The final tests, 264 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.200 which left me nearly gave. I held my wrist, which 265 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:04.480 at the shop's threshold neither fully inside nor out. The 266 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:07.240 second hand jerked and paused, then certain, But as my 267 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:10.240 foot crossed into the shop proper, the mechanism caught running 268 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:13.159 like a soldier of roll call, exactly matching the clocks overhead. 269 00:13:13.720 --> 00:13:17.240 No one seemed to find it alarming. Some customers barely noticed, 270 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:19.559 attributing it to the magic of the shop, or in 271 00:13:19.600 --> 00:13:23.759 one case, two dorians tender touch. My librarian skepticism began 272 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:25.879 to yield to something like or recognition that the order 273 00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:28.559 I had stumbled upon was as systematic as it was enigmatic. 274 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:32.799 I found myself sketching diagrams, gruffing times and observations, eager 275 00:13:32.840 --> 00:13:36.279 to uncover some rule. Increasingly, the phenomenon no longer felt 276 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.240 like coincidence or mere novelty. It was a kind of 277 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:42.519 enforced unity, a precision that quietly asserted itself without pride 278 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:45.679 or demand. As soon as one entered the space among 279 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:48.279 all the routines of Bell's village, this secret order felt 280 00:13:48.360 --> 00:13:50.399 like a music I could almost but not quite follow. 281 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.320 Armed with my notebook and a bundle of questions, I 282 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:56.519 resolved to involve Dorian more directly. I waited until he 283 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:59.159 seemed less busy nearly a closing, and birched the subject. 284 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:01.799 After making a show of collecting my grandfather's now refurbished 285 00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:05.600 clock for a moment, Dorian hesitated as softness flickering at 286 00:14:05.600 --> 00:14:08.879 the edges of his expression. You know, Valaine, he began. 287 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:11.759 Everyone asks, in their way, there's something different about this place. 288 00:14:11.799 --> 00:14:13.799 I'll admit to that. But as long as I can remember, 289 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:15.720 it's always been like this. My father used to say. 290 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.519 The clocks here, well, they keep in phase more than accurate. Together, 291 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:21.639 he set my clock gently onto the counter hands steady. 292 00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:25.679 I pressed him for details. Why doesn't anyone talk about it? 293 00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:28.639 And why does the effect vanish? Usigh? He bent to rummage, 294 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:32.000 drew a batter drawer. Perhaps we simply stopped listening elsewhere. 295 00:14:32.600 --> 00:14:34.840 With a quick tug, he produced an old leather bound 296 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:38.279 ledger as corners, scuffed pages banded faintly with oil and graphite, 297 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:41.320 My father's repay journal. Don't let anyone tell you all 298 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:44.519 watchmakers are born. There's ears of notations and hear phases, tests, 299 00:14:44.720 --> 00:14:47.320 even the odd sketch, he used to say, never mind, 300 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:50.440 just accuracy, tests for harmony. He tapped the cover with 301 00:14:50.440 --> 00:14:52.759 a knuckle. He allowed me to leave. Through the journal, 302 00:14:52.759 --> 00:14:55.399 dozens of entries, each dated and indexed, but interspersed with 303 00:14:55.440 --> 00:14:58.879 curious notations. Phase marks in neat red ink, little swirls, 304 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:02.440 and columns labeled day elt, each a precise decimal, sometimes positive, 305 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:05.679 sometimes negative. The delta cue is his measure of time 306 00:15:05.720 --> 00:15:07.960 and drift. He always tracked, not just to repair, but 307 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.360 the amount and direction of the timing change for each clock. 308 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:12.480 After it rested here and ran for an hour or two, 309 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.240 Dorrian shrugged. He'd spend hours listening for the right moment. 310 00:15:16.879 --> 00:15:20.159 I found myself hungry for more technical answers. But what 311 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:23.279 about electrical clocks or even digital ones. Surely they don't 312 00:15:23.320 --> 00:15:26.519 sync with the old mechanisms. Dorian gave a small smile. 313 00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.399 I've seen even battery powered clocks fall in or at 314 00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:32.000 least when the battery is fresh from the court's watches. 315 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:34.879 Sometimes never the same with new electronics, but enough that 316 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.159 I can't explain it away. I suppose I've always thought 317 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:39.360 of it as a quirk of the place. He looked 318 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:42.080 at me, searching for a hint of skepticism. You are 319 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:43.960 not the first to notice. You just haven't learned to 320 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:46.799 accept the mystery the way some others have. His answer, 321 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.519 for all its frankness, broad in my curiosity instead of 322 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:52.600 satisfying it. The effect was not a mere party tricular layers, 323 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:57.200 systematic persistent regularity, documented across generations. My mind leapt to 324 00:15:57.200 --> 00:15:59.919 a new test. What about an atomic time reference three 325 00:16:00.120 --> 00:16:02.919 University friend, doctor Susan Mayer, who'd once run the local 326 00:16:02.919 --> 00:16:05.799 science festival, I arranged to burrow portable atomic clock, the 327 00:16:05.879 --> 00:16:09.279 kind used for demonstrating high precision tankkeeping. My heart beat 328 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:12.159 a little fast to the morning Susan arrived. She gave 329 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:15.360 me up, amused but supportive smile. If alline you find 330 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:18.799 unbelievable things in the dustiest corners. She wields a sleek 331 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:22.159 instrument into Durians shop, drawing curious glances from the regulars. 332 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:24.879 We placed the atomic clock at the shop center, looking 333 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:28.159 at signal. At first, its digital pulse nearly nearly fought 334 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:31.519 against the analog course. Yet after a span of two 335 00:16:31.559 --> 00:16:34.279 or three minutes, even the clock's second display began to 336 00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:37.200 pulse in harmony with the overwhelmingly soft course of mechanical ticking. 337 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:41.240 Susan blinked in this belief that shouldn't happen. If anything, 338 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:43.759 the room should bending to the atomic reference, not the 339 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:46.720 other way around. She connected an array of measuring gear 340 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:51.159 and magnetometers, em F meters, spectrum analyzers. No stray signal 341 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:53.960 revealed itself. If anything, the instruments picked up less noise 342 00:16:53.960 --> 00:16:56.759 inside the shop than on the high street. Her colleagues, 343 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:00.039 fune of her consult expressed deep skepticism some kind and 344 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:03.399 a mechanical resonance. For one asked, could it be humidity 345 00:17:03.399 --> 00:17:06.039 and age affecting everything the same way? But as we 346 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:10.240 tested clock shielded in Faraday cages, nothing changed the clocks 347 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:12.519 digital or analog tagged, then as soon as we set 348 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:15.079 them running within the shop, united in this quiet orchestra, 349 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:18.319 Susan watched Dorian carefully, as if he might reveal himself 350 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:21.240 a magician at any moment. Have you ever tried removing 351 00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:24.079 all the clocks, reintroducing them one by one, she asked. 352 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.680 Dorian shook his head. We try not to empty the shop. 353 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:30.359 It's a tradition, my father said in ever dismiss empty silence. 354 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:33.119 I didn't think much of it. Then, Susan glanced at me, 355 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:36.279 a flicker of professional and vy on her face. Maybe 356 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:38.480 the building is generating some kind of temporal feel or 357 00:17:38.519 --> 00:17:41.119 harmonic resonance. But if so, it's unlike any I've seen. 358 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:43.400 Could just be a wild statistical chance. But you're right, 359 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:46.480 it's not simple trick. We gathered at closing, eyes drawn 360 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:49.079 again to the foundation of the counter abroad doc stone 361 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:52.000 set as the base for Dorian's main work bench, Susan 362 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:54.640 not to examine it, running her hands over strange, shallow 363 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:57.519 mockings carved spirals overlaid on a faint tracery of clockand 364 00:17:57.559 --> 00:18:00.079 and but looked like the dial of a sexton. If 365 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:01.799 the day faded to dusk. I can ben story in 366 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:03.799 reluctantly with a promise of care to let me pour 367 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:08.000 through the shop's oldest ledgers. Susan notebook bristling with hypotheses 368 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.160 and doubts hovering Abay. The earliest leiger Mark seventeen ninety seven, 369 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:14.799 shared the same notations as his father's. Every repair was 370 00:18:14.839 --> 00:18:17.400 indexed by a curious side note of value marked deltic, 371 00:18:17.559 --> 00:18:20.160 along with a faint initial, often jb ord c B, 372 00:18:20.359 --> 00:18:24.359 suggesting a line of careful, consistent record keepers. Each entry, 373 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:27.000 from carriage clock to battered school bell included not just 374 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.279 the time gained or lost, but the measured adjustment Hoffer 375 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:32.759 and with intens or hundreds of a second. Most striking, though, 376 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:35.400 was the pattern all time pieces, after their stay in 377 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:38.039 the shop drifted minute mount toward Ay's shop standard, never 378 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:41.160 quite matching the pre repair reading. Susan eyes, why it 379 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:43.960 tapped her pent thoughtfully. This is more than an anecdote. 380 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:46.559 This is systemic that repairs themselves bring them closer to 381 00:18:46.599 --> 00:18:48.960 the standard, and yet something else happens inside the shop 382 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:51.799 before and after the adjustment. Even pre Court's watches, even 383 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:55.200 before reliable portable time standards adhere to some fundamental drift 384 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:57.319 toward the same phase. It's as if the shop itself 385 00:18:57.359 --> 00:19:01.200 are sets them physically and otherwise. Thus referenced several entries. 386 00:19:01.240 --> 00:19:04.079 Clocks that had belonged to half the village's houses for generations, 387 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:07.079 those bought from other shops or tinkered with by traveling 388 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:10.160 repair men did not share the adjustment. Only those that 389 00:19:10.200 --> 00:19:12.480 had spent time in bellamies bore the mark of the symmetry. 390 00:19:12.559 --> 00:19:15.759 This nudge inforced regularity. When I returned a ledger to 391 00:19:15.799 --> 00:19:17.599 a strawer, my hands shook slightly with the thrill of 392 00:19:17.599 --> 00:19:20.480 a far deeper mystery. The effect was not just modern, 393 00:19:20.480 --> 00:19:24.960 old locally stretched, documented and unbroken across centuries. The repair process, 394 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:27.480 the handling, he even the room itself, had quietly imposed 395 00:19:27.480 --> 00:19:30.359 a pattern on the village timekeepers. One noted but never explained. 396 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.440 As Susan and A puzzled over the pattern, Dorian shared 397 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:35.720 a story passed down from his grandfather. He used to 398 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:37.880 say the shop was founded not to perfect time, but 399 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:39.960 to tend it. Like pruning a garden or tuning an 400 00:19:39.960 --> 00:19:42.680 old violin. You listened for harmony, not just accuracy. It's 401 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:44.799