WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:08.800 The fog lifts slowest in early spring. From the bench 2 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:11.839 below the linden tree, the square appears less like a 3 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:14.839 stitch together market place and more like a stage that 4 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:18.640 forgot its walls. The benches curve in a lazy embrace 5 00:00:18.679 --> 00:00:22.120 around the cobblestone terrace, each with the grain of decades 6 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.760 pressed into the wood. At this hour, only pigeons and 7 00:00:25.800 --> 00:00:29.960 the resettling of the lake mist trouble the air, and waiting, 8 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.840 fidgeting out of habit, running the blunt edge of my 9 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:36.799 finger over brass letters in the wood, someone's memorial. My 10 00:00:36.920 --> 00:00:39.799 breath makes pale ghosts as I take out my pocket watch, 11 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:43.079 as reliable as the day I left the railway, eight 12 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.960 years gone, and it still catches and shines in the 13 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:49.280 hand like a small bright promise. I have almost thirty 14 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:52.560 minutes until hair Ibler is to meet me. Naturally, I 15 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:56.799 arrived early. The trains taught me to favor margin and contingency. 16 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.079 Precisions are virtue. You grow used to excit, blaming even 17 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:04.560 to yourself. It's only while stalling for time that my 18 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:08.599 eyes wander along the terrace's dusky semicircle of finery. The 19 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:12.280 clocks twelve of them stand upright on their iron stems, 20 00:01:12.359 --> 00:01:15.280 just by the stone path, each dressed with fluting and 21 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:19.159 scroll work, Discreet plaques declaring names in gold leaf, now 22 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:22.280 bearing patches to the rain. Each is a different height, 23 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:26.920 several with faces round and white, others octagonal like little windows. 24 00:01:27.519 --> 00:01:30.840 Most keepers I had always assumed are the older neighboring 25 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:34.760 shop fronts behind each clock. But as the diffusing mist 26 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:38.159 burns away, the hands on each clock resolve into something 27 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:42.200 more peculiar than memory grants. I raise my watch for comparison. 28 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:47.159 The clock before the bakery v Volkov states ten past eleven, 29 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:49.920 nearly two hours ahead. The one in front of the 30 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.719 bookseller's window says not yet a quarter past nine. Another, 31 00:01:54.040 --> 00:01:57.760 shaded by the awning of a tailor, points just before three. 32 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:02.079 At first I think little of it. Outdoor clocks, perhaps 33 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:06.040 a few fallen behind, one left unwound, municipal budget shrunk. 34 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:09.199 But as a procession of townspeople begins to flow through 35 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:12.280 the square, I notice no one gives these disagreements a 36 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:16.719 second glance. M m Me Vulcan bustles out, clutching two 37 00:02:16.840 --> 00:02:20.680 trays of fresh rolls, checks her clock, and grins over 38 00:02:20.719 --> 00:02:22.960 her shoulder to some one who waves from near the 39 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:27.479 barber s. A young deliveryman in a navy jacket dismounts 40 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:30.599 his bicycle, looks straight up at the dial nearest, and 41 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:34.680 barks her cheery not a minute late. The cobbler, leaning 42 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:37.639 on his broom, calls back, if you say so, lucas, 43 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:42.479 not by my reckoning. There's laughter, shuffling, and a roostered 44 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:45.560 chorus of chimes at not quite unison, as each metal 45 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:50.080 throat strikes a different hour. The sound is a confusion overlapping, 46 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:54.159 redundant but not cacophonous. No two clocks sound off together, 47 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:56.639 yet every peal seems to spur a little ripple of 48 00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:00.960 purposeful motion. Children ambling along with backpack shift their speed. 49 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:05.280 Shop doors open or close, Cafe chairs scrape or settle. 50 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:10.439 I'm unused to irregularity masquerading as order. My own sense 51 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:13.560 of time steadies me. The pocket watch, a relic of 52 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:17.080 time tables and single points of reference, insists it's just 53 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:20.360 gone half past ten. No one else so much as 54 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:24.240 glances toward a central tower. There isn't one. The only 55 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.479 public time offered here is whichever clock stands before you, 56 00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:32.159 and in every direction that answer changes. My thumb flits 57 00:03:32.199 --> 00:03:34.520 across the ridges of my watch case as I count 58 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.520 shops ringing the terrace, a cobbler, a bakery, a bookseller, 59 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:42.400 a barber, a florist, a stationer, a tailor, a chemist, 60 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:46.400 a greengrocer's, a small post office, a tobacconist, and a 61 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:50.759 little cafe, each crowned by its own clock, shielded by 62 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.520 carved wood or parted branches. It occurs to me that 63 00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:57.240 I've never seen two clocks here show the same time. 64 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:00.960 Occasionally I'd noticed a lag or jump. But to day, 65 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:04.319 with minutes to spare and curiosity growing bouquets in the 66 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.080 cracks of my mind, I try to fix the differences, 67 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.159 to chart a logic. Maybe the clocks run a few 68 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:13.400 minutes apart by accident, may be the hands drifted over 69 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:17.279 a season of neglect. But some are faster, others slow. 70 00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:21.439 The one over the post office is nearly dusk face 71 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:25.319 gold even in this mist, while the tobacconist's clock claims 72 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:28.800 a bright mid day. The square has always been proud 73 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:32.319 of its modesty. No boasting city clock tower, no grand bell. 74 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.680 The good folk here cling to old ways, handwritten notices, 75 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:41.079 petunias edging the street, bread still kneaded at dawn, patients 76 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:44.839 trained in gardens and routine. Yet here in the heart 77 00:04:44.920 --> 00:04:47.439 of things, the measure of ours is a matter of 78 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:52.000 personal loyalty. I glance up at M. M. E. Volkov, 79 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.439 she standing proudly behind her counter. As the morning que 80 00:04:55.519 --> 00:04:59.279 grows from inside, the faint chime of her clock rings again, 81 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:02.920 a whims double peel. She nods to the next customer, 82 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:08.759 eyes beaming beneath flowery brows, and calls good noon, Anna, Noon. 83 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:12.600 My watch is indignant around us, the square hums. At 84 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.879 the barber shop, a customer gets up, waves and sweeps 85 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:18.720 a rainfall of silver hair from his lap. The barber 86 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.279 checks his own clock, shakes a strip of cape in 87 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:23.720 the sunlight, and points out a spot for the next 88 00:05:23.720 --> 00:05:27.279 in line. Everyone seems to act with the secret surety 89 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:31.000 that their own keeping of time is correct, Yet glancing 90 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:34.600 across the square, their neighbors live out a quite separate hour. 91 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:39.519 Har Ibler is nowhere in sight. I close my watch, suddenly, 92 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:42.480 uncertain whether I'm early or late, and try to catalog 93 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:47.040 what I'm seeing. These clocks, so proud, so meticulously maintained, 94 00:05:47.319 --> 00:05:50.959 are not arranged as decoys or museum pieces. Each seems 95 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:54.720 functional and sacred to its keeper, disconnected from any coordination. 96 00:05:54.879 --> 00:05:59.199 I can discern instead every sequence, the opening of a shop, 97 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:03.360 the arrival, delivery, the banter of children, seems to orbit 98 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:06.680 around a different star. I cannot think it a mere 99 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:10.120 village joke. Not even the slightest local would maintain such 100 00:06:10.120 --> 00:06:13.160 an elaborate game. Year after year, I watch as two 101 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:16.839 shopkeepers consult their clocks, one calling the hour, the other 102 00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:19.639 answering with a time neither would recognize from a radio 103 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:23.560 or phone. The market van pulls up, its driver, guided 104 00:06:23.560 --> 00:06:26.360 by the butcher's clock, and is greeted without a hint 105 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:30.040 of confusion. If this is tradition, it's the best kept 106 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:33.480 secret in town. If neglect, then it has achieved a 107 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:37.759 harmony all its own. My own habit, honed by years 108 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:41.120 on the railway, is to search for regularities. A puzzle 109 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:44.399 in time must have origin, purpose, error, or at least 110 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:48.639 mutual agreement. But here on the clockmaker's terrace, the only 111 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:52.639 consensus is in the disregard for consensus itself. I lean 112 00:06:52.759 --> 00:06:56.079 back notebook perched on my knee, and resolved to stay, 113 00:06:56.199 --> 00:06:59.720 to watch, to ask. It isn't a question of whether 114 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:03.000 some thing is wrong with the clocks. It's whether anything 115 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:06.000 is wrong at all, or if the familiar is quietly 116 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:11.000 stranger than I've ever let myself believe. Muffled laughter calls 117 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:15.399 me back. Mmemi Volkov, bending to sweep crumbs from a 118 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:21.120 threshold waves. When she notices me watching, expecting company, her rheinhard. 119 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.360 Her voice carries warm and round. You're early or perhaps 120 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:29.319 very late, depends who you ask. I wave my pocket 121 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:33.439 watch at her. By city time, I'm almost exactly on schedule. 122 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:36.839 She tosses her head and gestures to her clock face, 123 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:41.079 resplendent in its carved sunbursts. Ah, but that is a 124 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:44.319 railway watch, is it not. Bread is meant for mouths, 125 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:49.439 not for measurements. She disappears inside, humming an aria. The 126 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:53.319 square is alive with arrivals and departures, yet every rhythm 127 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.000 is set by an hour that waltzes on its own beat. 128 00:07:56.800 --> 00:08:01.240 I decide, at last to map this contradiction, not with skepticism, 129 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:04.439 not with a sense of trespassing into some provincial joke, 130 00:08:04.839 --> 00:08:08.879 but as an act of respect for the unexplained. This place, 131 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:12.480 after all, has cultivated its own time. Maybe now so 132 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:16.360 will I I open my note book ink still cool 133 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:20.439 from the morning air, and mark clock one Bakery eleven twelve, 134 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:25.839 then glancing across the semicircle clock two Bookseller nine fourteen, 135 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:29.680 all the way around the Cobbleston's Gentle Arc twelve clock's 136 00:08:29.680 --> 00:08:34.039 twelve hours, none quite agreeing, not one in sympathy. It 137 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:36.919 is in this uncertainty that I feel the smallest spark 138 00:08:36.960 --> 00:08:41.919 of delight, not confusion, delight, some secret order glints just 139 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:46.120 beneath the familiar, waiting patient. As ever the best mysteries 140 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:49.639 do her Ibler was always the late comer, though he 141 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:53.799 would contest it. The old conductor loved the anticipation of entry, 142 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.440 the sense of time rippling outward from a station to day. 143 00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:00.679 He is nowhere in sight. In the meantime, I watch 144 00:09:00.720 --> 00:09:05.919 the terrace, the clocks mark twelve unrelated destinies. Shopkeepers bustle 145 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.200 and argue, as if time were a matter only for 146 00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:13.679 private keeping, a custom, a packed or a tolerated error. Still, 147 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:17.279 the square runs like a clockwork of its own. The 148 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:20.320 Linden trees just beginning to leaf filter the light in 149 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:23.759 a steady gold. School children skip from one shop to 150 00:09:23.799 --> 00:09:27.039 the next, their progress marked by competing bells, and the 151 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:31.159 occasional scold from a parent, now and then a shopkeeper. 152 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:34.799 Missus Blum, the florist, her arms a cradle for blooms, 153 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:38.240 steps outside to check her dial, shouts an instruction to 154 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:43.240 a helper carrying buckets. No confusion, mars her face. I 155 00:09:43.320 --> 00:09:46.960 catch the eye of mister Hess, the bookseller, tall and spare, 156 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:52.240 arranging spines on the sunlit shelf outside his door. Excuse me, 157 00:09:52.600 --> 00:09:56.039 I say, lifting my note book. Which clock does everyone 158 00:09:56.200 --> 00:10:00.240 use for appointments? He does not pause, simply glance is 159 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:03.360 at his own clock, a modest face set in carved oak. 160 00:10:04.039 --> 00:10:08.000 Why this one, naturally? Then, Apparently amused by my question, 161 00:10:08.320 --> 00:10:11.200 he offers a half shrug. Unless you want your bread 162 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:15.480 burnt or your post mislaid. Rhinehardt's chimes are always too fast, 163 00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:21.039 everyone knows. Isn't that confusing? They're all different, I persist, 164 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:25.000 He grins genuine not. If you use the right one, 165 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:27.919 you'll get nowhere with Volkov's clock. If you mean to 166 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:32.200 meet me, His eyes twinkle over his spectacles. He arranges 167 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.720 his books uninterrupted. A child Anna, I think one of 168 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:40.960 missus Blum's granddaughter's tugs at my sleeve. Are you finding 169 00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:45.080 the lost hour she asks, solemn, I kneel. What's that? 170 00:10:46.240 --> 00:10:49.320 She giggles, skipping away her pink scarf, a flutter in 171 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.799 the sun. Her answer, it always comes back in spring. 172 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:57.799 Out Here, time seems both stubborn and absurdly malleable. No 173 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:02.039 one is lost, no deliveries are mist The shopkeepers thrive, 174 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.840 and the terrace fills and empties with the regularity of lungs. 175 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:09.879 If there is error, it is not theirs. I watch 176 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:12.960 as M. M. E. Volkov waves a loaf at the postman, 177 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:16.519 who grins and ambles over. They consult her clock. He 178 00:11:16.639 --> 00:11:20.039 consults his own wristwatch, then nods his approval, though by 179 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:23.159 my watch the times differ by nearly an hour later, 180 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:26.279 at the barber's, a man SIPs coffee, glancing at the 181 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:29.559 tall silver clock fixed to the red striped pole. He 182 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:33.080 checks his phone, frowns, then pockets the device, as though 183 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.960 dismissing and irrelevance. No one is correcting anyone else. Every 184 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:41.200 clock is for its possessor and their circle, simply the 185 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:46.120 measure of reality. No city time posted anywhere, no schedule 186 00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:49.480 for the square, nor a broadcast over the tan, just 187 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:54.399 a conversational tide carrying everyone but keeping them in separate harbors. 188 00:11:55.200 --> 00:11:59.120 Lunch crowds gather the mechanic ducks into the greengrocers. The 189 00:11:59.159 --> 00:12:02.440 tanners passed jokes by the cobbler s, and each I 190 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:06.159 now observe paces themselves to their own marker, their own 191 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:10.200 keeping of the moment. The mechanical chimes ring again, staggered 192 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:14.399 a chorus rather than a unison, shout, each a sovereign voice. 193 00:12:15.320 --> 00:12:19.000 I turned to missus Blum, arranging foxgloves in a tin bucket. 194 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:22.840 How do you ever hold meetings? I ask, notebook poised, 195 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:27.360 she grins, We don't, we visit, We linger, we share 196 00:12:27.799 --> 00:12:29.919 if you wish to find me, you know where, not when. 197 00:12:30.320 --> 00:12:34.879 That's why there are benches and bread, not bells, but deliveries. 198 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:40.399 I protest, she winks A wise deliveryman becomes fluent in clocks, 199 00:12:40.759 --> 00:12:43.919 or else he's soon out of work. Behind her, the 200 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:48.519 school bell rings. A handful of children scatter, shrieking, each 201 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.919 making for a different shop front. Not for the first 202 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.519 time that morning, I wonder if the clocks are an 203 00:12:54.519 --> 00:12:58.600 elaborate joke meant to prod outsiders. Though I've lived here 204 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.879 three years now, never seeing reason to doubt anything but 205 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:06.720 the pastries prices and the florist sense of fashion. Still 206 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:11.039 watching the square, now the realization grows concrete. This is 207 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:15.679 not eccentric neglect. Every discrepancy is deliberate, or at the 208 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:19.840 very least enfolded into daily logic. The clocks are the 209 00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:22.600 pulsing heart of the terrace, and those who orbit them 210 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:26.519 do so by their own times. I breathe in slow. 211 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:30.039 The gentle unease is less of discomfort and more a 212 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:32.600 tickling on the nape of the mind. If no two 213 00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:36.759 clocks agree, and yet everything in the square continues without confusion, 214 00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:41.039 what truly is time here? I resolve not merely to watch, 215 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:45.720 but to test. The first experiment is simple. I arrange, 216 00:13:45.840 --> 00:13:48.240 as I would have for the railway to meet har 217 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.639 Ibler at ten o'clock sharp by my pocket watch, I 218 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:54.639 jot down the hour on a slip for myself, another 219 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:57.720 on a scrap meant for him, delivered via missus Blum, 220 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:02.279 who smiles at my fuss. That's a railway watch. Why 221 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:05.279 not use a real clock, she quips, pointing to her 222 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:08.960 own petals painted about the clock face. We follow ours. 223 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:13.000 It has never yet missed a blossoming. The day brightens 224 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:16.080 as clouds tear and I perch on the bench, scanning 225 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:19.200 the square, watching my watch tick the final three minutes 226 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:23.440 to ten. I stand no sign of Ibler. I stride 227 00:14:23.480 --> 00:14:26.000 to the bakery to ask after him, though my watch 228 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:29.759 is punctual to the minute. Inside, the air is heavy 229 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:33.039 with risen bread and a metallic note from the chime overhead. 230 00:14:33.720 --> 00:14:37.480 M m Me Volkov turns, dusts her hands and waves 231 00:14:37.519 --> 00:14:42.080 me forward. I'm waiting for her Ibler. I explain, by 232 00:14:42.120 --> 00:14:46.759 my watch, it's exactly ten, She snorts, nodding at her clock, 233 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.799 past eleven. Here, you're very late, but he hasn't arrived. 234 00:14:51.080 --> 00:14:55.080 Perhaps he's still on Blums time. A customer behind me, 235 00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:58.679 a wiry man in a green apron with a carpenter's hands, 236 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:02.559 adds you or early, it's not hardly nine. By Hesse's 237 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:08.000 chapter House, each answer delivered with casual assurance contradicts not 238 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:12.399 only my watch, but each other. I step out, resolved, 239 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:16.279 stealed by practical confusion. Mister Hess is at his table, 240 00:15:16.639 --> 00:15:20.720 eyes upon the bindings of a battered volume. Excuse me, 241 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.399 did you see ebla? He checks his clock, shakes his 242 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:29.080 head past nine, still early. He usually arrives just as 243 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:32.080 my clock reads noon. For a pastry. He winks, as 244 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:35.840 though this is a known and settled truth. I glance 245 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:39.200 down the terrace. The sun's position feels wrong for even 246 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:42.559 one of these. The clocks are not marching together, nor 247 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:46.360 evenly apart. There is no slow drift from a master clock, 248 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:51.399 but a wild garden of disagreements summoning the conductor's gravity. 249 00:15:51.480 --> 00:15:54.759 I spent forty years perfecting. I display my pocket watch 250 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:58.120 to m m Me Volkov, to Hess, to missus Blumm. 251 00:15:58.759 --> 00:16:02.799 Look for consistenty's sake, My watch says, The numbers glare 252 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:07.919 precisely ten O three. M m Me Volkov simply shakes 253 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:11.559 her head. That's a railway watch, Yes, but it's for railways. 254 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.919 Here bread is bread, and minutes can bake or freeze 255 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:19.240 as they see fit. Mister Hes nods, as if confirming 256 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.559 a natural law. If you try to follow all clocks, 257 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:27.240 you chase ghosts. Pick one, preferably the right one. He laughs. 258 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:31.639 Missus Blum teases, why not trust a flower? Ours never 259 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:36.200 misses spring. The square accepts this blanket, woven among its 260 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:40.120 own logic. People consult their clocks, refer to my or 261 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:44.519 hour hour, and somehow life carries on. No mist appointments, 262 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:49.320 No confusion, just a natural, untroubled certainty. Even without agreement, 263 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:54.159 deliveries occur. The butcher's van lumbers in unloads to the 264 00:16:54.159 --> 00:16:57.519 bakery at a time m m me Volkov claims as 265 00:16:57.600 --> 00:17:00.840 just on time nearly mid day by her clock, hours 266 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:04.680 off from the neighbors. Later, a cart arrives for the bookseller, 267 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:08.359 the driver stating, right when you said, as Hesse's clock 268 00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:12.759 shows nearly quarter to ten. I try again, this time 269 00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:15.200 arranging with Hesse and Blum to meet for coffee on 270 00:17:15.279 --> 00:17:19.039 the hour. Each refers to their own clock's hour. Each 271 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:21.920 arrives at a different time by my pocket watch. They 272 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:26.160 greet each other fondly, AH rite on time, the phrase 273 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:30.720 exchanged with no awareness of contradiction. The more I press, 274 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:35.359 the more unshakable their certainty. No one refuses to acknowledge 275 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:40.000 the inconsistency. It simply isn't a matter for concern. My 276 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:44.720 skepticism gutters, then turns curious. How do the clocks coordinate 277 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:48.799 if at all? Is there an annual correction, a village reset? 278 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:52.480 I don't know? Or is this a living practical paradox 279 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:55.640 endorsed by the entire square out of habit or mischief. 280 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.519 Before returning to my bench, I slip my pocket watch 281 00:17:59.519 --> 00:18:02.720 from my wayaistcoat and leave it gently ticking on the 282 00:18:02.759 --> 00:18:06.880 stones beside the nearest terrace clock. I pace the square, 283 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.920 resolve to return in ten minutes. When I pick it up, 284 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:13.839 I notice the minute hand has drifted, but not by 285 00:18:13.880 --> 00:18:18.279 ten minutes. Closer examination reveals an oddity. My watch is 286 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:22.119 now oddly faster, matching the bakery clock's time almost exactly, 287 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:26.279 despite leaving it beside the booksellers. I correct it, wind 288 00:18:26.279 --> 00:18:29.759 it against city time, reset the hands, then walk nearer 289 00:18:29.799 --> 00:18:33.960 the florist's clock, and feel faintly a tension beneath my palm, 290 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:38.680 as if the mechanism's desire lay elsewhere. I try my phone. 291 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:42.400 It offers the correct digital time per the city's radio signal, 292 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:45.279 but as I leave it near the florist's clock, it 293 00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:49.799 too shivers and resets itself once not a dropped second, 294 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.440 minutes leap or falter, and only when pocketed again does 295 00:18:53.480 --> 00:18:58.240 it resume. The city's timetable mapping becomes my new pastime. 296 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:03.000 Each clock, each hour, I record its discrepancy, sometimes minutes ahead, 297 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.680 sometimes hours are drift, but no matter where I wander 298 00:19:06.880 --> 00:19:10.599 the shops maintain their business. None are ever late, none 299 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:13.359 ever close at the wrong moment, no matter which hour 300 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:18.400 their own clock claims, festive banners appear. A poster, printed 301 00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:21.119 at least ahead of next week's market day is nailed 302 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:26.599 to the Linden Tree Market sundown Thursday. I ask M. M. E. Volkov, 303 00:19:26.680 --> 00:19:32.000 whose clock marks sundown. She waves a hand dismissively. Everyone's 304 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:36.480 when it's time. It's always time. The more carefully I watch, 305 00:19:36.759 --> 00:19:42.200 the clearer the contradiction becomes. The clocks discrepancies don't shift randomly. 306 00:19:42.599 --> 00:19:45.640 Each follows its own drift, but neither does any ever 307 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:50.000 fall fully into line with another. Later, while noting entries 308 00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:53.359 in my note book, I watch two shopkeepers, the greengrocer 309 00:19:53.400 --> 00:19:56.920 and the bookseller, each waiting on the dairy van. Each 310 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:00.319 expects it at a different time, one at half past seven, 311 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:04.160 the other nearly ten. Yet the van arrives twice, or 312 00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:07.559 so it seems. The same driver in the same uniform, 313 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:12.240 makes two rounds. In one encounter, he nods at the greengrocer, 314 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:15.799 drops off two crates, and then a handful of minutes 315 00:20:15.839 --> 00:20:19.319 later repeats the performance at Hess's, which by all logic 316 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:24.519 should have already occurred. Curiosity overwhelms politeness, and after the 317 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:28.640 second visit, I flag the driver, excuse me, were you 318 00:20:28.759 --> 00:20:33.160 just here at the greengrocer? S? He frowns, shrugs, and 319 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:36.880 lifts his docket. Of course, delivered at seven twenty by 320 00:20:36.920 --> 00:20:39.920 their clock, and here now on time as well. His 321 00:20:40.039 --> 00:20:45.480 eyes flick to the bookseller's clock. Why it's nothing, I stammer, 322 00:20:45.799 --> 00:20:50.000 realizing the futility and pressing him. He moves on indistinct. 323 00:20:50.039 --> 00:20:54.359 Among the day's routines, I watch as two neighbors m M. E. 324 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:58.400 Volkov and Missus Blum arranged to meet for afternoon tea 325 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:02.359 at three. The three occurs at different times by my watch, 326 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:05.640 but each in her own way calls the other punctual 327 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:09.920 as always. As I continue my observations, I try to 328 00:21:09.960 --> 00:21:14.319 triangulate the effect, arranging as a sort of experiment to 329 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:17.079 meet with the bookseller and the barber at the same moment. 330 00:21:17.759 --> 00:21:21.640 I record each appointment, confirm the clocks, and arrive at 331 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:25.720 each per their preferred reckoning. To my mounting wonder, I 332 00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:30.440 experience each meeting as immediate, despite the discrepancy. Each recalls 333 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:33.799 our plan as on schedule when I challenge their sequence, 334 00:21:34.119 --> 00:21:37.960 but weren't you with Hess just now? Missus Blum simply shrugs. 335 00:21:38.359 --> 00:21:42.160 That was then, this is now both right. No one 336 00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:47.079 admits confusion. Contradictions pass like the harmless eddies of conversation, 337 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:52.400 noticed perhaps, but always accepted with a smile. I grow 338 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:57.720 bolder mapping discrepcies across days. The clocks never synchronize. Their 339 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:01.960 drift is neither progressive nor patterned around any obvious rationale, 340 00:22:02.279 --> 00:22:06.400 neither astrological nor mechanical, nor mapp to the sun's arc. 341 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:12.839 Yet the squares life moves with unwavering confidence. Events, deliveries, 342 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:17.519 market days, concerts unfolds seamlessly, as though each clock's keeper 343 00:22:17.559 --> 00:22:20.680 simply knows when the proper time has come. I record 344 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:24.240 a market day. The crowd swells in synchrony, with every 345 00:22:24.279 --> 00:22:27.799 shop opening at its hour. I ask the mare, who 346 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:30.960 appears to supervise the festivities under the shade of the linden, 347 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:36.000 which clock do you use? She smiles. Here each has 348 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:38.359 a right to its own hour. You won't be late 349 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:41.240 if you trust the square. Try running things by the 350 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:45.880 city's clock. You'll see nothing falls into place as evening 351 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:49.240 cools the day I walk the square again, the sunlight 352 00:22:49.319 --> 00:22:52.880 glances off the glass facings. My pocket watch, which I 353 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:56.559 have scrupulously adjusted each morning, now keeps time closer to 354 00:22:56.599 --> 00:22:59.960 the nearest terrace clock than to anything past my front door. 355 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:04.440 My phone, too, gives up once inside the central square, 356 00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:09.559 reverting to whatever hour the shopkeeper's clocks declare. The contradiction 357 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:14.000 is stark, yet in practice invisible. The town operates with 358 00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:18.519 an impossible plurality. Events occur in harmonies of now, each 359 00:23:18.559 --> 00:23:21.400 a line to a different hour, none ever missed, No 360 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:25.880 conflict arises. The clocks maintain their differences day after day, 361 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:31.240 drifting in their idiosyncratic orbits. My questions deepen. Are the 362 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:35.440 discrepancies a code? Is it a system arbitrary yet ancient? 363 00:23:35.920 --> 00:23:40.079 Or is something stranger at play? Late one afternoon, as 364 00:23:40.119 --> 00:23:44.480 the chimes stagger their uneven calls ten, then nine, then three, 365 00:23:44.720 --> 00:23:48.200 then twelve, I see har Ibler at last, approaching in 366 00:23:48.240 --> 00:23:51.559 a long blue coat, his white beard catching the breeze. 367 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.160 He pauses beside the florist's clock, checks its hands with 368 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:58.640 the gravity of a former conductor, then strides to my bench. 369 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:04.039 The squares chaos swirling undisturbed around us, always early. Aren't 370 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:09.400 you reinhard? He chides not unkindly. Some things don't change. 371 00:24:09.599 --> 00:24:12.880 I smile, offering my note book. By which clock would 372 00:24:12.920 --> 00:24:17.119 you like to begin? He grins, squinting into the slanting sun. 373 00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:21.000 All and none. But if you must, the tailor's clock 374 00:24:21.119 --> 00:24:24.559 is the friendliest. Never expects you to hurry, never keeps 375 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:27.880 you waiting long. He sits beside me, the two of 376 00:24:27.960 --> 00:24:30.880 us a pair of retarees with no more trains to catch, 377 00:24:31.160 --> 00:24:35.000 surveying the square, like stewards of an invisible, impossible order. 378 00:24:36.039 --> 00:24:38.960 Tell me, Ibler, how did this come to be? You 379 00:24:39.079 --> 00:24:45.240 remember when timetables were a matter of pride, He leans back, Oh, schedules, yes, 380 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:49.119 but even then, each local station kept its own time. Eh, 381 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:52.599 before the era of wireless and the single pulse. Perhaps 382 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:56.519 this is sanity restored, a democracy of clocks, or maybe 383 00:24:56.599 --> 00:24:59.119 the quirk of old guilds. I once heard it was 384 00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:01.519 to keep the baker from and burning his bread, or 385 00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:06.119 the postmistress from closing too soon on Fridays. He taps 386 00:25:06.119 --> 00:25:08.960 his nose in mock mystery, but his tone is fond. 387 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:13.359 It works, does it not. I leaf back through my notebook, 388 00:25:13.599 --> 00:25:17.480 showing him columns of times for the same event, a delivery, 389 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:21.319 a concert, a birthday, but each recorded differently by each 390 00:25:21.400 --> 00:25:26.480 shop's reckoning. Strangely, the townsfolk's memories match whichever clock belongs 391 00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:30.720 to them. Divergent, but convinced there must be a trick, 392 00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:34.920 I insist, Yet, no matter how I chart appointments, neither 393 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.319 confusion nor delay ever appears. Ask any shopkeeper the hour 394 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:42.799 a picnic began, and you'll get twelve different answers, but 395 00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:47.319 always the right one, according to their own recollection. Her 396 00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:51.799 Ibler laughs, crinkling all the lines around his eyes. Press 397 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:54.559 too hard, and you'll not find an answer. The city 398 00:25:54.599 --> 00:25:58.160 sets its clocks, the square sets its heart. Perhaps it's 399 00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:02.759 better this way, each moment rightly owned. But pressing is 400 00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:05.519 what I know best. The more I try to reconcole 401 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:09.200