WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:08.240 The village first appeared to me like a clockmaker's fantasy. 2 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:10.839 It was late spring when I stepped off the bus, 3 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.839 a retired school teacher in search of quiet order, the 4 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:17.519 kind of peace one finds between the tick and tok 5 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:21.399 of trivial days. I'd pictured, on my best days, a 6 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:24.600 month of simple meals, lake air, and perhaps a good 7 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:28.719 book finished beneath the near silence of Linden leaves. In 8 00:00:28.760 --> 00:00:31.280 the time since my old class rooms blackboard had been 9 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:36.920 scrubbed clean behind me, I'd learned to find meaning in routines, predictable, sensible, 10 00:00:37.200 --> 00:00:41.439 regulated by bells or calendars. The village, by lackd'or ay, 11 00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:46.439 advertised as timeless, invited something else, the hope of contentment 12 00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:51.679 without surprise. From the start, everything ran with peculiar precision here, 13 00:00:52.039 --> 00:00:54.640 a quality I only half expected from the far edge 14 00:00:54.679 --> 00:00:58.560 of rural France. My pension overlooked the square, anchored by 15 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:02.359 its improbable clock tower. Each morning's chime drew fishermen across 16 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:05.439 the loose stones, and by the second bell heads appeared 17 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:08.640 in bakery windows or on bicycles streaming toward the lake. 18 00:01:09.239 --> 00:01:13.159 My hostess M. M. E. Rue, arranged breakfast at seven 19 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:16.560 sharp By my second morning, I could measure time by 20 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:20.959 her footsteps on the stairs. Soon I adopted my own rituals. 21 00:01:21.319 --> 00:01:23.959 A stroll from the pension's creaking gait to the linden 22 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:26.760 tree in the square. A second coffee on the porch 23 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:30.000 as carts rolled through fog. A notebook at my elbow, 24 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:34.519 listing the day's unhurried tasks. I liked this minor choreography. 25 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:36.920 It seemed to me a village built for some one 26 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:40.519 who understood, as I did, the satisfaction in living by 27 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:43.879 a schedule tight enough to soothe, loose enough to breathe. 28 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:48.719 I noticed, though, that schedules here held a strangely uniform gravity. 29 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:52.640 People nodded greetings at precisely the corner where the postman's 30 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:56.159 bicycle clicked past. The bells never more than a few 31 00:01:56.159 --> 00:02:00.280 minutes delayed, called shifts instead of hours. Baker's had it 32 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:03.480 out loaves the minute the morning bell faded, and Butcher's 33 00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:06.760 wheeled out specials as soon as the second chime sounded. 34 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:12.360 The market set up each Thursday with uncanny punctuality. Even 35 00:02:12.360 --> 00:02:14.599 the fishermen seemed to glide in from the lake at 36 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:19.319 precisely the same moment each afternoon sun glancing off their 37 00:02:19.360 --> 00:02:23.680 nets as if in concert with invisible signals. It's a 38 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:27.039 sort of choreography, I wrote home to my sister. Nothing 39 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:31.039 out of place, no sense of rush or error, she replied, 40 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:35.680 don't get spoiled. One particular morning, when the Linden leaves 41 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:38.759 began to throw mottled shadows over my book, I found 42 00:02:38.759 --> 00:02:42.759 myself idly anticipating the noon bell. The plan was simple, 43 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:45.719 closed the last page at the chime, they make my 44 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.520 way to Fornia's Bakery, where I'd spied a tray of 45 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:52.680 apricot tartlets waiting behind the glass counter. I had already 46 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:55.520 begun to fold my page corner half way to the 47 00:02:55.560 --> 00:02:58.400 bakery in my mind. When the clock tour's long hand 48 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.960 approached twelve, the square was as quiet as a painted scene. 49 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:06.039 I waited for the music of the bells, expecting perhaps 50 00:03:06.120 --> 00:03:09.560 a long appeal to admit mid day's arrival. Instead, the 51 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:13.280 clock performed an odd gestural trick. The minute hand hovered 52 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:16.599 at the cusp, shivered delicately and swept across, but the 53 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:20.240 hour hand pointed not to twelve, but to eleven, or 54 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:23.560 so it seemed a heart beat later, it jumped again 55 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:27.560 landing with conviction at one below on the street. No 56 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:31.319 one looked up, no bell rang, no doors swung open, 57 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:34.520 No laughter or foot traffic signaled a lunch hour. The 58 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:37.479 light around me felt, though I cannot say how, sharper, 59 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:40.159 somehow thinner, as if the sun were momentarily twice as 60 00:03:40.240 --> 00:03:43.599 high but less golden than before. The moment was everything 61 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:46.840 and nothing a minor lapse. I checked my wrist watch, 62 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.680 tapping the glass fretfully, it too had slipped to one o'clock, 63 00:03:50.879 --> 00:03:54.159 as if no noon had ever intervened. I made my 64 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:58.439 way to Fawnia's bakery, tartlet plan intact but unsettled. The 65 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:02.400 bell above his door tinkled. Fornia himself, a soft spoken, 66 00:04:02.520 --> 00:04:05.639 broad shouldered man, greeted me with his usual a laws. 67 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:09.159 When I mentioned uncertainly that I must have lost track 68 00:04:09.199 --> 00:04:13.240 of time one already, I said, glancing at a second 69 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:16.959 clock above his counter, which confirmed it. You must have 70 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:21.120 lost yourself in the sun, madame, he said, smiling, happens here. 71 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:24.959 The square is peaceful in the mornings. I tried to 72 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:27.439 laugh it off. I was sure I heard the clock 73 00:04:27.480 --> 00:04:32.879 strike eleven. Then well, never mind, He only nodded, sliding 74 00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:35.759 a tartlet across the counter. It's good not to be 75 00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:39.360 too careful of ours. But the rest of the afternoon, 76 00:04:39.639 --> 00:04:43.240 a question quietly pulsed in the space between tasks. Had 77 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:46.759 I really lost an hour nearly two to reading under 78 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:49.560 a tree? Why did it feel in the marrow of 79 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:54.040 memory that something had been neatly edited out? That evening 80 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:57.160 in my small bedroom, I checked the travel alarm i'd 81 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:01.000 packed it, claimed flatly that lunch time had already passed. 82 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:05.279 My book, which I remembered closing just before the noon chime, 83 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:09.279 was marked exactly where my morning reading had ended. The 84 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:12.480 day's light stretched on, as if longing for a revelation 85 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:16.680 that never came. I slept lightly, half hoping for a 86 00:05:16.759 --> 00:05:19.800 dream that would anchor the missing hour. But when morning 87 00:05:19.879 --> 00:05:24.639 returned only the shadow of curiosity remained, thinner, but growing 88 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:28.199 brighter by the hour. The days in the village creased 89 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:31.000 together with a familiar elegance, as if sown by an 90 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:35.519 invisible hand. The lake, glassy as polished pewter in the mornings, 91 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:40.000 mirrored every shift in sky. Chalets buttoned with overflowing flower 92 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.920 boxes circled the central square lanes, the color of old 93 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.639 parchment wrapped past ancient stone work, and occasionally left me 94 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:51.399 doubting the century. The heart of the town, stubbornly loyal 95 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:55.160 to its clock tower, thumped out the day in hourly parcels. 96 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:59.439 Rhythm ruled everything. Bells were the bones of the village. 97 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.720 The deep triple peel at dawn signaled the baker's and 98 00:06:02.839 --> 00:06:06.879 me by osmosis. A single afternoon chime prompted a parade 99 00:06:06.920 --> 00:06:10.839 of dusky tractors. Sunset's slow toll emptied the streets for 100 00:06:10.920 --> 00:06:14.199 supper and evening rounds. Even the air seemed to walk 101 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:18.800 in rhythm, cool and unhurried. After decades of training, I 102 00:06:18.879 --> 00:06:22.399 quickly learned the cast of key faces Thornia. The baker, 103 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:27.879 with soot on his wrists and a thoughtful pause between sentences. M. M. E. Rue, 104 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:31.160 sharp eyed and gently fussy, ruled my pension like a 105 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:35.360 retired admiral. Sister Colette, brisk parish priest with an appetite 106 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:38.680 for subtle gossip, walked her circuit through the alley's insensible 107 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:43.360 shoes a lane. A pale, watchful schoolboy, forever sketching crows 108 00:06:43.399 --> 00:06:46.120 in his note book, kicked stones along my route to 109 00:06:46.240 --> 00:06:50.759 the square. Each afternoon, Doctor Cotton The town nurse wore 110 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:55.879 a skepticism like a scarf, always slightly askew, dispensing advice 111 00:06:55.959 --> 00:07:00.560 and tea in equal parts. Life here was attentive. Meals 112 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:04.399 arrived with punctuality, The market measured out its business towards 113 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:08.240 the shuttered hours of siesta. And yet for all the regularity, 114 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:11.279 the village lacked the headlong business that I'd known in 115 00:07:11.319 --> 00:07:15.079 the cities, a sort of patient anticipation even in its 116 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:19.839 smallest routines. Missing, too was the rush one expects of 117 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:24.480 hungry crowds. At midday lunches seemed to happen, but never 118 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:28.920 alongside any visible rush. The square transitioned from late morning 119 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:33.800 chatter to gentle, postprandial quiet, without the familiar violence of 120 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:37.839 a noon bell. There were tourists, an English couple who 121 00:07:37.839 --> 00:07:40.639 claimed to know all the best Swiss chocolate stops and 122 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:44.079 occasionally joined me for coffee. A young family from Lion, 123 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:48.319 tireless in their pursuit of perfect vacation photographs, a solitary 124 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:52.480 painter who obsessively sketched the squares changing colors. Most like me, 125 00:07:52.600 --> 00:07:55.959 drifted content to let the hours slip over us. Their 126 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.720 watches oddly kept the same time as mine, accurate in 127 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:03.759 the mores and evenings, but curiously imprecise as daytime reached 128 00:08:03.759 --> 00:08:07.519 its peak. The sun's path over the village presented an 129 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:11.120 almost ceremonial sequence of light. I traced its angles with 130 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:14.319 pleasure each day, making mental notes when the barn roofs 131 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.800 caught fire at nine, when the lake began to throw 132 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.480 sparks just before the market closed. Yet the threshold of 133 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:25.399 noon always passed unherlded. Villagers themselves seemed unfazed if asked 134 00:08:25.399 --> 00:08:28.199 about the schedule for the day. Times were always before 135 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:32.039 or after midday. We'll start as the bell's end, or 136 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:36.440 after the lunch rest. Perhaps never never did any one 137 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:41.279 reference twelve directly. The English couple, for whom punctuality was 138 00:08:41.320 --> 00:08:44.279 both a point of pride and private sport, found their 139 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.799 election for a town lunch at noon sharp thwarted. We 140 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:51.440 wandered in circles, didn't we, The husband told me, laughing 141 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.960 at their confusion over mismatched clocks. But I must say, 142 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:58.720 it's nice not to feel behind. For once I recognized 143 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:02.960 their tone, but with a pinch of disquiet. For me, 144 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:05.840 alert as I was to the comfort of routines, the 145 00:09:05.919 --> 00:09:09.480 village's sense of order was soothing and yet a steadily 146 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:12.960 growing anomaly. How did a place so precise in everything 147 00:09:12.960 --> 00:09:15.840 else fail to mark its own midpoint? Why did my 148 00:09:15.879 --> 00:09:18.919 own sense of time begin to fray as mid day approached? 149 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:21.879 And why was the missing hour, if it could be named, 150 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:26.639 so completely accepted or unnoticed by all around me. It 151 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:30.000 wasn't just absent. It seemed woven into the way the 152 00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:33.720 town regarded itself, a kind of private grammar in which 153 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:37.600 one word had been quietly erased some time in my 154 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:41.159 second week. With curiosity swelling in the absence of alarm, 155 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:44.559 I resolved to approach the matter directly. It is an 156 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:48.679 old teacher's habit to test, to schedule, to measure. I 157 00:09:48.759 --> 00:09:51.960 made a plan at the cafe on the north side 158 00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:55.000 of the square. I arranged to meet Elane's mother for lunch. 159 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.320 I had tutored a Lane in a little French and mathematics. 160 00:09:58.679 --> 00:10:01.200 His mother kindly had promised to treat me to a 161 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:05.279 rustic country meal just afternoon. I prepared for the day 162 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:08.480 as if I were a detective in some gentle clockwork mystery, 163 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:12.639 packing my wrist watch, a spare travel alarm, freshly wound 164 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:17.080 the night before, and a small spiral notebook. I arrived 165 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.960 early eleven fifty by the cafe's brass clock, which was 166 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:24.799 visible from every seat on the terrace. The square bustled gently, 167 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:28.320 pensioners read their papers with coffee. A pair of boys 168 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:31.440 chased a ball near the bell tower steps. I ordered 169 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:34.879 espresso for myself, scribbled down the time, and marked the 170 00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:39.120 cafe clock and both my own devices for reference. Elaine's 171 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:42.159 mother arrived a few minutes later, and we chatted lightly. 172 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.480 I found my focus flitting between our conversation and the 173 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:50.279 three time keepers, my own small test to ensure that 174 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:53.200 at least one of them would strike twelve, or stand 175 00:10:53.240 --> 00:10:56.919 as witness to what would happen next. Deftly, as the 176 00:10:57.000 --> 00:11:00.000 hands hovered at eleven fifty eight, I began to glow 177 00:11:00.039 --> 00:11:03.679 lance upward every few seconds, keen to catch the visible transition, 178 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:08.240 the sound, the sudden logic of noon's arrival. Below us, 179 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:12.080 A waiter cleared plates at the next table, Distant bells 180 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:16.080 I thought would soon ring out. Instead, I lifted my 181 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:19.399 cup half, watching the brass clock's minute hand tremble at 182 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:22.799 the mark, expecting it to announce the hour. I remember 183 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:25.919 blinking the moment held a hasty clarity, like stepping onto 184 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:29.799 a mist stare. Somewhere, a single chime echoed. I snapped 185 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:32.440 my gaze at the clock and found unreasonably that the 186 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:36.440 hands had leapt. The clock read one zero two. My plate, 187 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:41.080 startlingly clean, reflected the pale sky. My notebook lay closed, 188 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:45.399 pen capped. I had no memory of lunch, of food 189 00:11:45.519 --> 00:11:49.080 being set on the table, of conversation, of anything at 190 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:53.799 all bridging those two hours. Elaine's mother lifted her coffee cup, 191 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.200 seemingly untouched by any confusion. Will you want deserters, usual, 192 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:01.240 asked M M. E. Rue, who swept over with a 193 00:12:01.279 --> 00:12:06.000 tray of almond biscuits. Her tone was cheerful, ordinary. I faltered, 194 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:11.039 Did we have lunch? M M. E. Rue smiled, glancing 195 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:14.519 to Elaine's mother. Why, yes, I just cleared your plates. 196 00:12:14.759 --> 00:12:19.000 You always take your time. I hesitated, caught by the 197 00:12:19.080 --> 00:12:24.039 hazy conviction that something vital, some experience, some center, had 198 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:27.799 siphoned off, leaving a seamless surface behind, as if my 199 00:12:27.879 --> 00:12:32.000 memory had skipped a stone instead of touching water. I 200 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:35.279 paid careful to note the time on my receipt. It 201 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:38.679 claimed my meal had ended a quarter past one. I 202 00:12:38.799 --> 00:12:42.559 searched Elaine's mother's expression for any ripple of confusion, but 203 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:46.960 she seemed only content. That night, I recorded every detail 204 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.480 I could recall, which was scant enough to write on 205 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:52.879 a single page. I began to doubt my own senses. 206 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:55.639 But something in the day's gap itched at me a 207 00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:59.440 question no longer soluble by attention. What became of noon 208 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:03.480 memory at fault? Or was the world, as it sometimes 209 00:13:03.600 --> 00:13:07.919 privately suggested, hosts a more industrious and elusive kind of 210 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:11.960 strangeness than I had yet encountered when it comes to time, 211 00:13:12.279 --> 00:13:15.200 I am not unthinking. My life in the class room 212 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:17.879 had run on bells and lessened blocks. I am not 213 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.799 someone who carelessly loses an hour, not twice in a row. 214 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:25.679 The next morning, I awoke with the distinct purpose of 215 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:30.320 eliminating any suspicion that distraction or mere inattention could explain 216 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:34.759 the vanishing hour. I selected the painter, a lonely careful 217 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.759 woman named Isa Bel, as my next collaborator. Isa Bell, 218 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:43.399 for her part, kept meticulous sketchbook records, each drawing dated, 219 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:48.000 each cloud numbered with lazy precision. We arranged to meet 220 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:51.240 at the Linden Tree at eleven forty five. I brought 221 00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.919 my travel alarm, now set with three alarms, one for noon, 222 00:13:55.279 --> 00:13:59.279 one for twelve ten, one for twelve twenty. She arrived 223 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:02.799 with her sketch, water colors and a compact digital camera, 224 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:07.240 still shiny with novelty. We settled on a bench. I 225 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:09.360 set the alarm on the table where we could both 226 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:12.639 see it, announced our intent to capture the elusive noon, 227 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.840 and even made her promise to sketch the very instant 228 00:14:15.879 --> 00:14:20.480 the bell chimed. We waited, alternately chatting and glancing at 229 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.559 our instruments, like two scientists at a field study. At 230 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:28.480 eleven fifty seven, Isabelle snapped a photograph of the square 231 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:33.279 children playing a woman bicycling past the war memorial. The 232 00:14:33.320 --> 00:14:36.679 painter dipped her brush, ready to render the subtle change 233 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:40.200 in light. Somewhere in the fifth minute, I found myself 234 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:44.759 frowning at the alarm. No bell. My phone vibrated. I glanced, 235 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:48.039 and it was just after one. The painter's pencil hovered 236 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.440 above an outline she did not remember tracing. She blinked 237 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:54.919 and shook her hands, frowning. I must have drifted, but 238 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:58.879 look my photo. We checked. Her last shot was time 239 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.720 stamped to eleven fifty eight piatzare full of color and possibility. 240 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:07.559 The next, taken reflexively after our awakening, read one zero 241 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:12.320 three shadows stretched people wandering home the intervening space like 242 00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:17.080 the hour itself was gone. We compared notes, both embarrassed 243 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:21.279 but honest. Isabel laughed too loudly, her sketch books suddenly 244 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:25.080 less authoritative. The sun must be stronger than I thought, 245 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.320 she said, but after a long pause she closed the 246 00:15:28.360 --> 00:15:31.799 page as though it bit her. My next attempt was 247 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:34.600 in the company of Hugh and Miriam, the English couple. 248 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:38.919 They installed their phones with atomic clock apps, set alarms, 249 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:43.039 and took photographs with a giddiness bordering on rivalry. At 250 00:15:43.080 --> 00:15:47.720 half eleven, all was ready, alarms set, digital times displayed 251 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:53.159 a self timed group photo. As before reality buckled. Where 252 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:55.240 there should have been dozens of photos, there were only 253 00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:59.759 two eleven fifty eight. The group grinning one zero one 254 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:03.799 three faces suddenly flushed ice cream, half melted. My own 255 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:06.679 heirline damp as if I had run no memory of 256 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:11.320 the intervening time. Alarms had failed to sound. Time, it seemed, 257 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:16.600 had politely erased itself from beneath our attention. Bemused, Hugh shrugged. 258 00:16:16.919 --> 00:16:21.759 It's the mountain air, I suppose forgives all lapses. Miriam laughed, 259 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.279 but neither checked their devices again that day. The gap 260 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:28.799 for them became a vocation oddity, a triviality in a 261 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:33.679 list of minor inconveniences. By then, my bewilderment felt lonely. 262 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:36.600 I took to the church square with my tools, a 263 00:16:36.679 --> 00:16:39.399 note book, my alarm, and my own sense of purpose. 264 00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:42.320 I sat beneath the stone sun dial by the chapel, 265 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:46.200 waiting for the sun's zenith, pen poised to document every minute. 266 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:50.080 The dial, ancient with Roman numerals carved along the edge, 267 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:53.759 presented a new contradiction. After EXI came I a seamless 268 00:16:53.799 --> 00:16:56.639 stretch of stone, where at XII there was only the 269 00:16:56.679 --> 00:17:02.799 bare suggestion of an unbroken curve. Now I approached Sister Colette, 270 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:06.559 hoping for a gentle explanation. Seated on a bench, her 271 00:17:06.599 --> 00:17:09.920 silver hair catching son, she closed her prayer book and 272 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:13.839 listened as I described the phenomenon. Some hours are made 273 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:18.240 for silence, she said, her plain face untroubled. Perhaps noon 274 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:22.319 is one of them. I pressed gently, But the clock, 275 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:25.880 the sun dial, no record, no memory. Surely there's a 276 00:17:25.960 --> 00:17:30.960 story she nodded, considering the stories we keep are like hours, 277 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:34.720 some vanish, some are retold. Our lives are made in 278 00:17:34.759 --> 00:17:38.400 the before and after. I wasn't sure whether to feel 279 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:42.680 comforted or dismissed. I noted, however, the ease with which 280 00:17:42.680 --> 00:17:48.000 she sidestepped the directness of my inquiry. Seeking more concrete evidence, 281 00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.559 I visited the public notice board, market schedules, church mass notices, 282 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:57.759 bus listings. Not one referenced noon mass before midday, buses 283 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:02.039 departing after twelve. I checked every posted event for a week, 284 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.880 always the same. Not a single appointment claimed the heart 285 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:10.000 of the day. I tried doctor Cotton next, approaching her 286 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:12.960 in her corner office. She was measuring blood pressure for 287 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:17.039 an elderly farmer, but paused to entertain my question. You 288 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.680 know I have a theory, she said, half smiling. If 289 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:24.720 you seek an hour too keenly, you lose two. I laughed, 290 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:26.880 but she handed me a cup of tea and winked, 291 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:30.680 maybe this is simply how it is here, you Parisian types, 292 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:35.440 always chasing lost minutes. WI I thanked her, took my tea, 293 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:40.160 and left, feeling no wiser. Children, too, reflected the custom 294 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:44.319 Elaine Forever sprinting past the pension with a doggyed workbook 295 00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:47.519 told me one evening we don't have noon. We eat, 296 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:52.839 then lessons begin. Sometimes I nap. His voice held no confusion, 297 00:18:53.079 --> 00:18:57.079 only the practiced patience of local tradition. By the end 298 00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:01.359 of my second week, my curiosity was compounded resolved. Each 299 00:19:01.440 --> 00:19:06.640 time I pressed through experiment, conversation, written, record, technology. The 300 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:10.480 result was the same. Noon slid through my grasp, taking 301 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:14.559 memory and anticipation with it. The town's rhythm held fast, 302 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:19.920 paradoxically precise, and yet gently incomplete. Most telling of all 303 00:19:20.039 --> 00:19:23.839 was the collective response. A gentle, persistent discouragement of my 304 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:27.680 line of questioning. Life is for living, not counting clocks, 305 00:19:27.880 --> 00:19:32.039 said mmy Rue, pressing a tartlet into my palm with finality. 306 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:36.799 Elaine's mother warned, don't make yourself ill with schedules, ise 307 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:40.920 bel now wary, simply changed the subject. Yet it was 308 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.359 not a conspiracy, nor did I feel I was the 309 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:47.119 butt of an elaborate joke. Rather, I sensed a communal 310 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:51.480 habit of silence, a secret not actively defended but diffused, 311 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:56.519 spread so evenly across generations, records and routine that even 312 00:19:56.559 --> 00:20:01.200 the tools brought by outsiders were politely neutralized. I could 313 00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:05.160 not shed the conviction that the village, its people, documents, 314 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:09.680 even the careful whirring of wrist watches collaborated knowingly or not, 315 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:14.599 in sheltering an hour from existence. My long standing patients 316 00:20:14.599 --> 00:20:18.240 began to fray. I grew furtive, testing yet more methods 317 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:21.759 to force noon into substance. I would rise early, station 318 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:25.799 myself with all possible instruments, the travel alarm phone set 319 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:29.640 with world clocks, multiple watches. I tried staking out likely 320 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:34.880 locations square, bakery, cafe, chapel, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. 321 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:38.640 Always the shift occurred the same, a period of focus 322 00:20:38.680 --> 00:20:42.640 inclosing an experience that in retrospect comprised only two edges, 323 00:20:42.839 --> 00:20:46.160 never a middle. One day, I walked the perimeter of 324 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:49.920 the square, recording my voice into a borrowed dictaphone. It 325 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.920 is now eleven forty five, I stated. In five minutes, 326 00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:57.759 I should see the hour of noon. I recorded street sounds, 327 00:20:58.039 --> 00:21:01.680 bellringer returning to his rounds, the distant whir of bicycles. 328 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:07.640 I continued speaking, pretending I could anchor myself through sound playback, however, 329 00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:12.000 offered immutable proof. The file time stamped eleven fifty nine, 330 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:15.279 with my last words trailing off, then an abrupt cut. 331 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:18.799 My next utterance recorded at one O three. The surrounding 332 00:21:18.839 --> 00:21:23.480 audio changed, different voices, lengthened shadows, the bells distant again. 333 00:21:24.079 --> 00:21:27.640 My own speech sounded dazed, as if emerging from a dream. 334 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.559 The situation defied every plausible explanation I held. Could this 335 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:37.279 be mass distraction of Foley Applucia's But no. Each planned intervention, 336 00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:41.519 every effort to circumvent, ended the same. Even memory, my 337 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:45.400 seasoned teacher's memory, which had survived decades of double lessons 338 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:49.400 and lost Jim's shoes, proved obedient to the skip watchful. 339 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:52.920 I caught myself describing my activities as before lunch and 340 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:57.400 after rest, never mid day itself. At last, driven to 341 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:01.559 seek historical grounding, I wrangled admit to the village's record room, 342 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:05.200 housed in a chilly annex behind the Mary, led by 343 00:22:05.400 --> 00:22:09.119 M m Ru, whose pride in a custodianship was only 344 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.839 rivaled by her suspicion of unnecessary novelty. I poured over 345 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:18.359 stacked ledgers yellow with age births, marriages, deaths, crop yields, 346 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:22.119 where the tallies commemorative notes about the arrival of new mares, 347 00:22:22.359 --> 00:22:27.319 and the opening of bridges. Each was anchored painstakingly in time, 348 00:22:27.640 --> 00:22:31.000 but always before mid day, or more rarely after the 349 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.960 sun's height. Not a single entry marked the hour of twelve. 350 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.960 I pressed the question with M. M. E. Ru, who 351 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:42.960 replied with a shrug and a faint philosophical smile. This 352 00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:46.119 is how it's always been. Try to enjoy the days 353 00:22:46.119 --> 00:22:50.039 as they come. I left with a dozen jotted dates 354 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:53.240 and an uneasy sense that the puzzle was older and 355 00:22:53.319 --> 00:22:57.799 more stubborn than any one living could remember. Determined to 356 00:22:57.839 --> 00:23:00.799 test the boundaries of my own aptitude, I begged a 357 00:23:00.839 --> 00:23:04.039 favor from a young tourist who possessed a video camera, 358 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:08.079 one of those compact high definition gadgets that could record 359 00:23:08.200 --> 00:23:11.200 endlessly on to a memory card. I set it on 360 00:23:11.240 --> 00:23:14.160 a tripod in the square, framing the clock tower as 361 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:17.160 back drop. Certain this would be the experiment to end 362 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:22.160 all doubts, I paced, ordered coffee, even instructed a lane 363 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:25.240 to wave to the camera. As the hour approached at 364 00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:30.039 eleven fifty seven, all was recorded, people shifting in conversation, 365 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:35.400 the bell ringer uncoiling, the ropes, birds flitting past. Later, 366 00:23:35.480 --> 00:23:38.519 in my rented room, I watched the footage eagerly. At 367 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:42.279 the crucial minute, the recording fuzzed a single stilled frame, 368 00:23:42.359 --> 00:23:46.359 then the image jerked. The square reinhabited, people recast in 369 00:23:46.400 --> 00:23:51.440 subtly altered positions, shadows grown longer, cafe tables in new configuration. 370 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:54.440 The time code on the device had committed the skip 371 00:23:54.960 --> 00:23:58.359 eleven fifty nine to one zero one, with not a 372 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:02.839 frame in between. The results left my old certainties in ruins. 373 00:24:03.319 --> 00:24:06.000 I sat with the camera on my knees, staring at 374 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:09.559 the small, bright screen as if looking for a mechanical soul. 375 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:14.079 The universe, the experiment appeared to say, had conspired with 376 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:18.039 the village too gently, imperceptibly prune. An hour from the world, 377 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:23.720 I returned outside, scanning the clouds, scrutinizing every stone and 378 00:24:23.799 --> 00:24:26.119 leaf as if they held the imprint of what had 379 00:24:26.160 --> 00:24:29.559 gone missing. But the square greeted me with the serene 380 00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:34.400 incompleteness of dreams, aware perhaps of my scrutiny, but committed 381 00:24:34.440 --> 00:24:38.039 to its lacuna. That evening, I walked out toward the 382 00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:41.079 edge of town and watched the last pink thread fade 383 00:24:41.079 --> 00:24:44.839 from the lake. In my bones, I understood the phenomenon 384 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:48.880 was not of etiquette, nor lapses of attention, nor mechanical error. 385 00:24:49.480 --> 00:24:52.279 The missing hour was not something to be recovered, but 386 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:55.079 something this place had lived without for longer than memory. 387 00:24:55.559 --> 00:24:58.519 It was a kind of weather, both everywhere and nowhere, 388 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:01.480 a secret so old it had become simply the way 389 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:05.079 things were. When I mentioned my little study to Isa 390 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:08.599 bel the painter, she said, you always look at things 391 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.519 more carefully than they want you to, my dear, and 392 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:14.039 then offered to lend me her spare set of pencils, 393 00:25:14.359 --> 00:25:17.519 as if to propose another friendly a way to understand 394 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:23.480 the landscape. Time, the unbroken, unquestioned sequence, was, I realized, 395 00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:27.079 not an absolute here. It was a conversation, or perhaps 396 00:25:27.079 --> 00:25:30.079 a compact. The village, I had come to believe, did 397 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:34.799 not forget noon. Rather, noon had never arrived. There was 398 00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:39.000 one more path to follow, the slow, ceremonial one. If 399 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:42.240 this place had always lived with absence stitched into its heart, 400 00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:46.319 perhaps its own chroniclers, its keepers of the past, had 401 00:25:46.359 --> 00:25:50.480