WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:08.519 Hollo, I moalken stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:10.039 Let's get into it. 3 00:00:10.839 --> 00:00:13.800 When the train started winding its way up the Runeberg climb, 4 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:17.000 the haze of the Lowland valleys receded, and I leaned 5 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:19.120 toward the window for my first clear look at the 6 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:22.160 little alpine village that for years had been a kind 7 00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:25.920 of private obsession. I had circled its name Great Bruck 8 00:00:26.399 --> 00:00:29.039 on travel maps more than once, drawn as much by 9 00:00:29.079 --> 00:00:32.520 the promise of untouristed trails as by something subtler, a 10 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:36.079 wish for solitude, perhaps after a lifetime of lesson plans 11 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:41.200 and school bells set to strict, inexorable hours. The locomotives 12 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:44.880 shuddered and gasped into the station, a modest stone pavilion 13 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:47.640 set at the edge of a constellated cluster of red 14 00:00:47.719 --> 00:00:51.359 roofed homes. There was a mild anticipation to my step, 15 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:54.439 a kind I always felt in new places, as if 16 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:58.520 the air itself were fresher and tinged with possibility. But 17 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:02.679 on the platform I found the first trembling note of strangeness. 18 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:07.319 Mounted atop the low ironwork arch was the station clock, generous, 19 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:11.519 white faced, ornate with minor golden flourishes. At a glance, 20 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:15.079 I saw the time five minutes to four, unremarkable except 21 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:17.959 for the motion of the hands. I watched, frowning as 22 00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:21.079 the minute hands shunted smoothly, not upward around the dial, 23 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:25.359 but downward, reversed, retracing its path. Each second ticked off, 24 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.480 but in the wrong direction. I pressed my lips together, 25 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:33.680 suspecting mechanical failure, a loose gear, nothing more. But as 26 00:01:33.719 --> 00:01:36.840 I hefted my rucksack and started toward the cobbled lane 27 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.040 that led to the heart of the town, my eye 28 00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:43.239 was drawn upward the clock tower, its onion dome, crowned 29 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:46.040 by a little iron stag marked the hasp of the 30 00:01:46.079 --> 00:01:49.840 village center. And there too, from my oblique angle, I 31 00:01:49.879 --> 00:01:53.079 could just make out the black hands lopping backward, steady 32 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:58.079 and precise, like a mirrored dance. Between the buildings. Children 33 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:01.400 darted by, laughing, while an old woman nodded politely at 34 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:05.280 a shopkeeper, glancing at a pocket watch that I realized 35 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:08.680 as she closed it must also display time in reverse. 36 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:13.000 The rest felt almost ordinary, which only made it stranger. 37 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:17.360 The bakery window shimmered with glazed loaves, its chalkboard menu 38 00:02:17.400 --> 00:02:21.520 listing opening times. I noticed, with small mirrored numbers the 39 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:25.479 post offices door bore hours inscribed backward. I saw a 40 00:02:25.479 --> 00:02:28.919 young man, his hair netted by flower, sweep the street, 41 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:32.639 then stop and consult a little brass gaced timepiece before 42 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:36.039 stowing it in his apron. Trying to fix some anchor 43 00:02:36.039 --> 00:02:38.639 of normalcy. I wandered into a corner shop to buy 44 00:02:38.680 --> 00:02:42.039 a bottle of water. The proprietor, a tall woman with 45 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:45.240 an arched brow and a quick, kindly smile, rang up 46 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:49.759 my purchase. Excuse me, I ventured your clocks they seemed 47 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.719 to be running. I trailed off, searching for words that 48 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:56.759 wouldn't sound accusatory. She responded, without a trace of irony, 49 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:59.479 as if I had remarked on the weather. All clocks 50 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:03.960 here run backwards. Of course, this she said lightly, as 51 00:03:03.960 --> 00:03:06.199 if it was the only sensible thing in the world, 52 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:09.599 then turned to help another customer, leaving me with my 53 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:14.439 change and a growing heap of questions. There was no explanation, 54 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:17.439 just that smiling shrug. I would come to recognize over 55 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:20.560 the next hours, no one seemed to find their time odd. 56 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:24.280 In the sunlit square, a girl skipped rope reciting numbers 57 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:29.080 downward ten nine eight, before springing into laughter. Others went 58 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:32.639 about their business, their internal metronomes, matching some rhythm I 59 00:03:32.680 --> 00:03:36.400 could not discern, but which felt increasingly not like error, 60 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:38.840 but like a deliberate dance in which I had missed 61 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:42.800 the opening steps. At the guest house, Frau Keller greeted 62 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:45.919 me with a clap and a rush of warmth. Compact 63 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.240 and brisk. She wore her snow white hair in a 64 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:51.639 loose twist and bustled between kitchen and parlor, as though 65 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:55.159 the two rooms might lose cohesion if left unattended. You 66 00:03:55.240 --> 00:03:58.560 are our new visitor, she announced, eyes twinkling as if 67 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:00.680 to say she knew much more about than she let. 68 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:05.080 On second floor window, good sunlight until the reverse morning, 69 00:04:06.039 --> 00:04:08.879 and the bakery below. You must try the plum bread 70 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:12.919 before tomorrow, which is to day's yesterday. More or less. 71 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.000 She led me along a creaking stair and opened a 72 00:04:16.040 --> 00:04:18.519 door on a room painted butter yellow and floored in 73 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:22.720 wide scarred planks, a big bed, two plump chairs piled 74 00:04:22.759 --> 00:04:26.120 with knitted throes, and beside the window rhymed with geraniums, 75 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:29.319 a little round table with a wind up clock. Its 76 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:34.759 face was porcelain, its hands blue delicate, rotating steadily counterclockwise. 77 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:39.360 I tested its winding key experimentally. The second hand shimmered 78 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:43.360 in its reversed circuit, ticking as crisply as any ordinary device. 79 00:04:44.399 --> 00:04:47.839 Do your clocks always do that? I asked, not quite 80 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:51.279 able to keep the curiosity from edging into my voice. 81 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:54.959 Of course, frau Keller replied, as if to say, why 82 00:04:55.000 --> 00:04:58.240 else would we use them? It is proper village time. 83 00:04:58.600 --> 00:05:01.199 If the clocks began going the other way, not even 84 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:05.040 the chickens would know when to sleep. Her humor hummed 85 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:07.519 just below the surface. But I sensed a matter of 86 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:11.319 fact pride in her tone. You will adjust, she continued, 87 00:05:11.399 --> 00:05:14.160 waving a hand, just as you'll become fond of our bread. 88 00:05:14.519 --> 00:05:18.040 There's nothing finer than ribruck time, except perhaps rebruck cake, 89 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:21.160 she offered me. The big brass key delivered a hasty 90 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:24.800 description of breakfast hours before six, but after the ten, 91 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:27.879 if you count careful, with a wink, and vanished down 92 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:31.079 the stairs, trailing the scent of yeast and alpine honey. 93 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:34.600 I stood in the unfamiliar quiet, my suit case at 94 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.639 my feet. It was only just past four, unless it 95 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:40.399 was just before four, or perhaps by the town's measure 96 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:44.360 some hour both near and far from noon. Entirely unsure 97 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:47.160 which clock to consult, I set both my phone and 98 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:50.199 my wrist watch on the table, resolved to record everything. 99 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:53.439 For most of my life, times march forward had been 100 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:58.000 both comfort and oppresser, each bell signaling a lesson, a recess, 101 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:02.480 an ending. Now I was adrift, a little amused, a 102 00:06:02.519 --> 00:06:06.279 little unsettled, and more than determined to sort out Riftbruck's 103 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:10.160 backwards hours. I left my luggage and set off into 104 00:06:10.199 --> 00:06:13.360 the village. Riff Bruck is nestled in an alpine bowl, 105 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:15.920 buildings climbing only as far as the pitch of the 106 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:20.040 mountain allows. Every surface bore the mark of care, fresh 107 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:23.959 paint on carved trim, a sense of deliberate preservation that 108 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:28.639 ran through even the clipped box hedges. Children's voices counterpointed 109 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:33.279 the sow of afternoon wind descending the pass. The bakery's 110 00:06:33.319 --> 00:06:37.800 door hung ajar inside. Two bakers, dentical twins, both ruddy 111 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:41.360 cheeked and flour dusted, sang along to a radio playing 112 00:06:41.399 --> 00:06:44.199 in a language I couldn't place. Timing each batch of 113 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.680 loaves with wind up timers set, I noticed to count down, 114 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:52.279 not up. Impossible to burn the bread, one proclaimed, catching 115 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:56.399 my glance, if you forget it was already done. I 116 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.720 drifted to the post office, where a clerk, hair Weiss, 117 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.720 wore wire spectacles and a vest festooned with stamps of 118 00:07:03.720 --> 00:07:07.839 improbable animals. He sorted parcels by arranging the dates in 119 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:12.240 a descending stack, muttering a little rhyme to himself. At 120 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.600 the school, an airy, low building with painted wooden shutters, 121 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.439 I lingered as children who been playing marbles were called inside, 122 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:22.279 not by the usual clang of a bell's crescendo, but 123 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:25.000 a mellow chime that struck twelve. As the minute hand 124 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.519 loped backward to meet it, a tall, stooped man stood 125 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:32.560 on the steps, ushering them inside. Hair Boorman, the retired 126 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:35.720 head master, I would later learn. He nodded to me 127 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:39.079 and adjusted an elegant silver timepiece that wouldn't have looked 128 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:42.240 out of place a century ago. In the heart of 129 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.279 the square, preparing chalk for the evening menu, was a 130 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:49.319 figure even younger, a girl of perhaps ten, barefoot Despite 131 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:53.439 the chill lot, she introduced herself, I am the reigning 132 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:57.800 skipping champion of backward years. She drew a mathematical grid 133 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:01.160 on the square stones, sums and sub actions labeled in 134 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:05.279 reverse order, a puzzle for her friends. And not far 135 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:08.240 from her, a boy just into manhood was repairing a 136 00:08:08.279 --> 00:08:11.680 sign whose hinges creaked. He had broad hands stained with 137 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:16.240 ink or machine oil. An infectious laugh emmil apprentice clockmaker, 138 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:19.240 spotting my confusion when I looked at the town clock, 139 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:22.279 he called, if you think too hard about the hours, 140 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.079 your head will spin the wrong way. But it all 141 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:29.240 lines up. Seriously, he promised to show me a secret 142 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:31.600 if I ever cared to see the inside of the 143 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.559 clockmaker's shop, a promise I half dismissed as the gentle 144 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:39.240 carousing of a young man. Still I tucked it away. 145 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:44.279 Signs advertising the gross Um Carefist the time Keeping Festival 146 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:47.080 were strung from window to lamp post, each date a 147 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:50.720 careful palindrome, numerals footed and serifed like the loops of 148 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:54.440 a treble clef the whole town. Frau Keller told me 149 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:57.440 over supper will walk backward in the parade, and the 150 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:00.720 clock will be reset. Reset in the proper way, of course, 151 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:05.960 not your hurried city fashion. Her smile was conspiratorial. As 152 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.799 I lay in bed that night, pocket notebook open, I 153 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:12.679 cataloged the strangeness of the day. Every mechanical thing seemed 154 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.840 to follow its own choreography. The people too, unhurried, precise 155 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:20.440 entirely unmoved by what, to my mind must surely be 156 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:24.600 an inconvenience at best, a persistent confusion at worst. I 157 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:28.039 wondered if, after all I would adjust as smoothly as promised, 158 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:31.200 or if my mind, trained so many years to order 159 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:34.919 and rules, would revolt. Intent on making the most of 160 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:38.080 my stay, I awoke the next morning to a chilly brilliance. 161 00:09:38.639 --> 00:09:42.519 Sunlight spilled through frost laced glass, catching motes in its beam. 162 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.840 I set out again, notebook in one hand, the other 163 00:09:45.919 --> 00:09:50.200 clutching my phone set strictly to standard clockwise time. Frau 164 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:53.120 Keller had suggested with a certain ryness that we meet 165 00:09:53.159 --> 00:09:55.559 at four that afternoon for a proper tour of the 166 00:09:55.600 --> 00:09:59.200 crucial hours of Rebruch. Eager not to miss my guide, 167 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.960 I poured over my watch after lunch, triple checking its calibration. 168 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:06.720 I reached the square precisely at four, by my measure, 169 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:09.799 brushing a few errant crumbs from a plum scorone from 170 00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:13.759 my lapel frau Keller was there, holding her shawl against 171 00:10:13.799 --> 00:10:16.960 the alpine wind, but instead of greeting me, she cast 172 00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:19.879 a bemused glance at the church tower's clock and said, 173 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:23.120 you are a thorough man. Only you are also late. 174 00:10:23.559 --> 00:10:26.039 We have just finished. Did you not see the time? 175 00:10:27.159 --> 00:10:30.720 I was baffled. But it's four now, I replied, showing 176 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:35.799 her my phone. She laughed, a crisp, violet sound. Four. Yes, 177 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:38.879 but only if you are living forward. Our tour began 178 00:10:38.960 --> 00:10:41.799 already and has had its history, as all good walks do. 179 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.320 There was no edge to her voice, only the patient 180 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:47.960 humor of some one explaining a joke to a child. 181 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:52.519 But I felt myself flush. My confusion became a motif. 182 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.240 The bus to the next village was posted to leave 183 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:58.440 at eight fifty, but rumbled away from the square at 184 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:02.799 a moment my own watch recorded eight forty. Cafe hours 185 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:06.440 posted on the wall insisted breakfast was served until nine 186 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:09.720 zero zero, but on entering at what I thought was 187 00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:13.720 eight thirty, I found the staff clearing tables for lunch. 188 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:17.559 Each time locals pointed out my error with the mild 189 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:21.919 patience of those accustomed to such slips. Don't worry emmil 190 00:11:21.960 --> 00:11:25.039 told me as we nursed coffees one morning. Sometimes it 191 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:27.919 is hard at first. Your clocks they are not so 192 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:31.039 clever as ours. But you will see. Even the sun 193 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:34.639 goes backward here if you are friendly to it. They 194 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.679 seemed genuinely unbothered by my blunders. I wrote copious notes, 195 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.840 a little defensive, wondering if there was a deliberate effort 196 00:11:41.840 --> 00:11:45.080 to keep outsiders on their toes, a private communal joke 197 00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:48.559 kept alive by gentle corrections. But as I watched the 198 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:51.759 street sweepers, the bakers, the school children all move in 199 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:55.320 perfect synchrony, I realized there was method beneath the surface. 200 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:59.200 On the third day, I realized my own phone, left 201 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:02.519 charging over an night, showed an hour precisely reversed from 202 00:12:02.519 --> 00:12:06.720 the tower's clock face, a trick perhaps of daylight savings. 203 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:11.000 I cross referenced arrivals and departures my own appointments with 204 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:15.000 posted notices. It was a kind of inverted arithmetic. If 205 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:18.240 the bus left at eight fifty and my watch said 206 00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:22.159 eight forty, then by backward reckoning, I was always arriving 207 00:12:22.200 --> 00:12:27.440 ten minutes late. Curiosity eclipsed my frustration. I decided to 208 00:12:27.480 --> 00:12:31.360 systematically record the differences. I set alarms on both my 209 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:35.000 phone and my mechanical wristwatch, compared them every hour to 210 00:12:35.039 --> 00:12:39.200 the big station clock, and tallied the cumulative losses or 211 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:44.879 gains as the hours passed. Breakfast, lunch, shop, closing. All 212 00:12:44.919 --> 00:12:47.919 events in the village shifted subtly against my anchor clocks, 213 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:52.240 sometimes earlier, sometimes later, but always in a rhythm consistent 214 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:55.679 with the revers dials. The train's schedule befuddled me for 215 00:12:55.759 --> 00:13:00.240 several days. Departures announced at the next ten correspond to 216 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:03.600 a time ten minutes earlier than I expected. Yet no 217 00:13:03.639 --> 00:13:08.039 one missed the train, no one ran, cursed or seemed disoriented. 218 00:13:09.080 --> 00:13:12.600 That evening, at the bakery, I found Emmel again, elbows 219 00:13:12.679 --> 00:13:16.320 deep in dough, surrounded by an arsenal of battered egg timers, 220 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:20.159 all ticking with calm certainty from high numbers downward. He 221 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.639 spotted my confusion and grinned Mercht and say ein Jehaimney's 222 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.840 Learnin' want to learn a secret. He wiped his hands, then, 223 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.519 on a scrap of butcher paper, drew two clock faces, 224 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:35.559 one with hands moving clockwise, the other reversed regular people, 225 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:38.039 he said, tapping the first. They wait for time to 226 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:40.600 go round. Here we use the same clock, but see 227 00:13:40.639 --> 00:13:43.360 it together in its mirror. He wrote tiny numbers by 228 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:46.840 each hour marker, mapping backwards hours against the standard. So 229 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:49.080 if here it is four, he pointed, for you, it 230 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:51.840 is eight, but for us it is just as much four, 231 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:56.639 only the other way round. Easy, he laughed. You get 232 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.759 used to it, he shrugged. When I asked why they 233 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:03.200 had adopted this method. This is how it always was. 234 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:06.559 The clocks we build are strong. They like going this 235 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:11.960 way better. I remained unconvinced. At the schoolyard, the bell 236 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:15.600 rang out twelve strokes, but the students collected their bags 237 00:14:15.639 --> 00:14:18.279 and burst from the doors, as if by some implicit 238 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:22.360 signal outside what I thought must be normal dismissal time. 239 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:26.559 There was no bluff or trickery in these routines. Everyone 240 00:14:26.559 --> 00:14:30.600 seemed at ease. I began to note other peculiarities. Visitors 241 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:34.799 to the village families in hiking gear. Photographers bumbled for 242 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:38.000 a day or two, consulting their phones or watches, but 243 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.799 soon matched their behavior to the public clocks, unconsciously shifting 244 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:46.279 their expectations as if drawn into some communal current. Children 245 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:50.360 played games counting down bakers and clockmakers alike set their 246 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:55.440 dials to match the reversals. There was structure, consistency, and 247 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.679 yet the system made no immediate sense when viewed through 248 00:14:58.720 --> 00:15:02.200 the logic I had spent a lot lifetime teaching. One 249 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:05.279 night by lamplight, I tried to codify what I had learned. 250 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:08.879 I listed what I knew. The mechanical clocks ran backward. 251 00:15:09.240 --> 00:15:13.000 All public schedules were coordinated to the reverse time. Whenever 252 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:16.159 I attempted to impose my own order, I was corrected, 253 00:15:16.440 --> 00:15:20.600 not just politely, but consistently and without irony. The system 254 00:15:20.679 --> 00:15:24.200 was not arbitrary, nor an accident. But why was there 255 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:27.960 an older tradition at play, a deeper logic behind the spectacle. 256 00:15:28.919 --> 00:15:31.120 I began to wonder if the phenomenon was more than 257 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:34.960 a custom, if through sheer collective adherents, the village had 258 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:38.399 created not so much a quirk but an alternative standard, 259 00:15:38.679 --> 00:15:41.480 running parallel in a sense to the rest of the world. 260 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:45.600 I thought of metric time in revolutionary France, the half 261 00:15:45.639 --> 00:15:49.600 hour time zones of Newfoundland. Daylight savings clung to by 262 00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:54.240 stubborn states, but none felt as absolute as this new 263 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.399 questions sprouted. Was Rebruck, an isolated oddity or the living 264 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:02.600 remnant of a wider lost practice. Did backward time change 265 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:06.600 the perception of time itself? At breakfast next morning, over 266 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:10.240 boiled eggs and crisp dark bread, I asked Fraukeller if 267 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:13.759 she ever found herself confused when leaving the village when 268 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:18.279 visiting Lucerne, for example. She set down her knife, considering 269 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:21.320 for a day or two perhaps, But you see, time 270 00:16:21.399 --> 00:16:24.919 is a garment you wear what fits Riffbruck. Time keeps 271 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:27.840 us together. When we go out, we put on new hours, 272 00:16:27.879 --> 00:16:31.120 and nobody notices. But here in our walls it would 273 00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:34.440 be most odd to let your hours leak in. Her 274 00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:38.320 tone was neither defensive nor evasive, but that of someone 275 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:42.919 for whom the question itself bordered on the nonsensical. Emmil 276 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.320 listening at the next table, offered, if you stay long enough, 277 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:50.120 you find the backward way easier. It is less anxious. 278 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:53.240 No one here ever misses what is coming or what 279 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:58.279 has already passed. Doesn't that mean you're always late? I asked, 280 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.679 but he just laughed and shook his head head. Deciding 281 00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:04.640 my note book could take no more theorizing, I resolved 282 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:07.519 to go to the source. True to his earlier offer. 283 00:17:07.880 --> 00:17:11.319 Emil invited me that afternoon, after as he put it, 284 00:17:11.720 --> 00:17:14.720 the hand passes twelve for the second time, not the 285 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:18.160 first to visit the clockmakers gild at the edge of 286 00:17:18.200 --> 00:17:22.160 the village. The guild house was a marvel old as 287 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:25.960 any cathedral, if smaller, with centuries of dark oak beams 288 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:30.200 curving over a warren of work benches. Inside, the sweet, 289 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:34.279 ghostly tang of lubricating oil mixed with dust, and the faint, 290 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:37.640 persistent ticking of a hundred clocks, all out of step 291 00:17:37.799 --> 00:17:41.160 with my internal rhythm. At the heart of the room, 292 00:17:41.359 --> 00:17:44.599 Master Umacher sat, a stately man with a sweep of 293 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:48.559 silvered hair and the posture of a conductor. Around him, 294 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:53.279 young apprentices, some still in school, others Groan debated the 295 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:56.880 adjustment of a grandfather clock, whose hands traced their path 296 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:01.640 backwards across the dial, never faltering. The Master offered me 297 00:18:01.720 --> 00:18:04.799 a seat and a cup of heated berry cordial. You 298 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:08.759 wish to understand, hair Lerer, He began with more gravity 299 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:11.799 than I expected. Then let us show you the bones 300 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:15.920 of our hours. From shelf to shelf. He produced clocks 301 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:20.400 by the dozen, carriage clocks, wrist watches, barock mantel pieces, 302 00:18:20.440 --> 00:18:24.079 all their gears ingeniously reversed so that their hands swept 303 00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:28.359 counter to the rightful direction. Some even bore two faces 304 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:32.240 standard and reverse back to back. The apprentices maintained the 305 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:37.480 mechanisms with a reverence befitting delicate surgery. Nothing here was haphazard. 306 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:42.920 Umaca positioned a schematic before me. See here, every clock 307 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:46.680 is in negotiation. Once, long ago it was all confusion. 308 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:50.799 Hair Borman perhaps remembers better than I. The retired head 309 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:55.559 master stepped in, smiling, grand eyebrows arched. There was a 310 00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:58.599 time when the miller's watches and the notary's clocks quarreled 311 00:18:58.599 --> 00:19:03.799 over the proper hour, ecclesiastic time, market time feuds. Even 312 00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:08.200 some would rush about others linger endlessly correcting each other. 313 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:12.039 So the council declared, we make a fresh start. His 314 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:16.519 voice dropped to a hush. The solution reversed the direction. 315 00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:19.680 If no one could claim the hour as right, it 316 00:19:19.720 --> 00:19:23.640 would belong equally to every one and equally to none. 317 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:27.839 Umarca nodded. The system had to be rigorous. We apprenticed 318 00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:30.960 our children to the new way. Clocks built to withstand 319 00:19:31.079 --> 00:19:35.720 outside interference. Apprentices made to master both directions so that 320 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:39.400 no one could claim confusion. We do our arithmetic in 321 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:44.599 both directions. He beckoned Emil to demonstrate. Emil, on a 322 00:19:44.599 --> 00:19:50.000 small chalkboard, demonstrated reverse edition, counting downward to reach a sum, 323 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:54.680 an elegant, if baffling logic, which the apprentices corrected comfortingly 324 00:19:54.839 --> 00:19:59.119 when I stumbled. More impressive were the blueprints they laid out, 325 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:04.359 showing not just clocks, but rolling calendars, ingenious devices that 326 00:20:04.519 --> 00:20:09.240 ticked down the days to festival observances, with codices illuminated 327 00:20:09.319 --> 00:20:13.160 in mirrored ink. When I asked about outside a confusion, 328 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:17.640 Umarca held up a battered ledger. Visitors always think it strange, 329 00:20:18.039 --> 00:20:22.079 but after some days most are just children, especially they 330 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:25.400 have less to unlearn. There are rules for both clocks 331 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.519 and people. The carefulness of it all struck me. This 332 00:20:29.759 --> 00:20:33.920 was no accident or folly. Rebruc's clocks ran backwards because 333 00:20:33.920 --> 00:20:37.319 the people willed them so, and had maintained, with passion 334 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:41.960 and effort, a parallel order that belonged solely here. I 335 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:46.119 pressed them on advantages. Was there something gained by backward time? 336 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:52.000 Something scientific? Perhaps Emmil grinned, Maybe we just like being 337 00:20:52.039 --> 00:20:55.079 the only ones who know what's coming. It teaches you 338 00:20:55.160 --> 00:20:57.759 to see the world not by deadlines, but by what 339 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:03.960 you remember later. Umacha smiled with an ambiguous pride. Perhaps time, 340 00:21:04.119 --> 00:21:07.119 like a story, is best remembered from its end toward 341 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:11.680 its beginning. The other apprentices nodded, half in jest, half 342 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:15.359 in earnest. I emerged from the workshop with my head 343 00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:19.640 whirring like a freshly wound mechanism, the knowledge, both demystifying 344 00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:23.440 and destabilizing. What I'd taken for a charming error was 345 00:21:23.680 --> 00:21:28.599 in fact a finely built, universally agreed upon structure, one 346 00:21:28.599 --> 00:21:32.559 that required collective precision and brought the village not confusion, 347 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:38.119 but paradoxically order. The days curled by the festival approached, 348 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:43.599 and the village's metabolism quickened. Banners appeared on balconies, colored streamers, 349 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:46.119 reversed in their lettering so that only a mirror could 350 00:21:46.160 --> 00:21:50.160 read them aright. In the square, children practiced walking backward 351 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:52.960 in lines, giggling as they tried not to look over 352 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:57.839 their shoulders. Led by Lot, the undisputed expert flower Cellars 353 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:01.279 arranged bouquets upside down so they will look their best 354 00:22:01.279 --> 00:22:04.480 from the end of the parade. Even the weather, it 355 00:22:04.599 --> 00:22:09.079 seemed conspired morning fog warming to late afternoon sun in 356 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:13.079 an order that felt somehow retrieved from the day's conclusion 357 00:22:13.240 --> 00:22:17.920 rather than its start. One evening, Master Umacher sought me out, 358 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:22.799 inviting me to observe the innermost ceremony, the secret resetting 359 00:22:22.960 --> 00:22:26.680 of the town's clocks. That night, after the square had emptied, 360 00:22:26.960 --> 00:22:30.160 I followed the clockmakers through shadowed alleys to the base 361 00:22:30.200 --> 00:22:34.599 of the tower. Inside amid thick beams and ancient stones, 362 00:22:34.839 --> 00:22:39.240 the guild assembled at a great mahogany table. Master Uermacher 363 00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:42.759 said a battered leather bound folio, its pages cramped with 364 00:22:42.839 --> 00:22:47.480 mirroring numbers pennied in fading script. The older apprentices turned 365 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:51.000 the heavy pages with gloved hands. Each record noted the 366 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:55.200 moment of reset, public and private, running back through decades. 367 00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:59.039 The hands of the tower clock were uncoupled by a gentle, 368 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:04.759 almost ceremonial movement at a precisely calculated reverse. Midnight, the 369 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:07.680 hands were drawn to overlap. Then each clock in the 370 00:23:07.759 --> 00:23:11.880 village was synchronized, winding hub minute by minute back to 371 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:16.559 the newly defined starting point. I watched, awestruck as the 372 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:21.839 apprentices consulted brass compasses, checking alignments against blue glass lanterns 373 00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:26.799 and mirrored hour glasses. Emil explained, sotto voch, every clock 374 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:29.960 must run together or the village falls out of time. 375 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:34.519 After I was shown the earliest official chronicle the moment 376 00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:38.920 the Umkia the reversal was decreed, a council of elders, 377 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:42.799 faces painted in brown sepia, their signatures mirrored as if 378 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:45.559 seen in water, had ordered the change in the early 379 00:23:45.640 --> 00:23:50.559 eighteen hundreds. The reasons fairness, peace, a closing of old 380 00:23:50.599 --> 00:23:53.960 wounds so profound that time itself was adjusted to support 381 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:58.000 the new concord by the hearth. The apprentices spoke in 382 00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:03.359 low conspiratorial tones. It isn't just custom, one explained. The 383 00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:06.880 year after the clocks turned, the harvest was greater than ever. 384 00:24:07.400 --> 00:24:10.519 My own great grandfather never once missed a birth or 385 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:13.559 a wedding by the new time, And they say our 386 00:24:13.599 --> 00:24:17.799 elders live longer than in the valley below. Another added, 387 00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:21.599 visitors when they stay blend in. When they leave, they 388 00:24:21.640 --> 00:24:25.119 forget they ever had trouble, like a fever that lifts 389 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:30.079 her Bormann leaning clothes. Added a stirring anecdote. Once a 390 00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:33.680 stranger from Zurich arrived for a week by the festival, 391 00:24:33.960 --> 00:24:37.039 he could recall all appointments in reverse, and found he 392 00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:41.680 anticipated the return train's time before it departed. He remembered 393 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:44.640 the end before the beginning. He wrote a long letter 394 00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:48.119 about the piece it brought him, but then, away from Redbruck, 395 00:24:48.440 --> 00:24:52.319 remembered none of it. Over mulled cider, I listened to 396 00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:56.799 more stories of mist trains miraculously caught of children whose 397 00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:00.799 recitations improved after the clocks reversal, of old women who 398 00:25:00.839 --> 00:25:04.960 grew younger in spirit by counting years back, Whether tall 399 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:08.319 Tale or tenet. The stories pulsed with an easy pride 400 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.480 and an affection for a code that bound rather than 401 00:25:11.559 --> 00:25:16.160