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<v Speaker 1>US studios.

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<v Speaker 2>There is a canal that runs through the town of Millhaven,

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<v Speaker 2>and at the place where the old road meets the water,

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<v Speaker 2>there is a small drawbridge. It is not a grand bridge.

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<v Speaker 2>It does not carry thousands of commuters or support the

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<v Speaker 2>weight of freight trains. It is a modest thing, painted

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<v Speaker 2>the color of slate, with iron rails that have gone

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<v Speaker 2>smooth from years of hands resting on them. The breech

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<v Speaker 2>raises and lowers on a schedule that every one in

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<v Speaker 2>town knows by heart, and the person who keeps that

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<v Speaker 2>schedule is a woman named June. June has worked the

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<v Speaker 2>bridge for seventeen years. She arrived in Millhaven on a

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<v Speaker 2>Tuesday in late summer carrying a single suit case and

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<v Speaker 2>a Thermas of tea. She had driven north from the

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<v Speaker 2>city without a plan, following the river until the roads

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<v Speaker 2>narrowed and the building. The cabin is no bigger than

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<v Speaker 2>a garden shed. Inside there is a chair with a

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<v Speaker 2>cushion that has lost most of its foam, a small

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<v Speaker 2>table with a kettle and a single burner, a window

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<v Speaker 2>that looks out over the canal, and a row of

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<v Speaker 2>switches mounted on the wall. The switches control the bridge

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<v Speaker 2>when June flips the first one. The bridge begins to rise.

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<v Speaker 2>When she flips the second, it lowers. The mechanism makes

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<v Speaker 2>a sound like a long, slow exhale, and the gears

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<v Speaker 2>turn with a grinding that is more musical than mechanical,

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<v Speaker 2>more like a cell being played very softly than a

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<v Speaker 2>machine doing its work. Most mornings, June arrives before the

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<v Speaker 2>sun clears the tree line. She walks from her apartment

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<v Speaker 2>on Maple Street a seven minute stroll along the canal path.

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<v Speaker 2>The path is lined with willow trees whose branches hang

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<v Speaker 2>low over the water, and in the early light, the

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<v Speaker 2>canal looks like a ribbon of silver laid across the ground.

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<v Speaker 2>She carries her thermos and a small paper bag with

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<v Speaker 2>whatever she picked up from the bakery the evening before.

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<v Speaker 2>Sometimes it is a croissant, Sometimes it is a cinnamon roll.

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<v Speaker 2>Occasionally on Fridays it is a slice of apple pie

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<v Speaker 2>that old missus Chen saves for her. The first boat

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<v Speaker 2>of the day usually arrives around six thirty. It is

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<v Speaker 2>a small sail boat, white with a blue stripe, skippered

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<v Speaker 2>by a man named Harold, who has been sailing the

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<v Speaker 2>canal since before June started working the bridge. Harold does

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<v Speaker 2>not need the bridge raised. His mast is short enough

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<v Speaker 2>to pass underneath. But he always waves, and June always

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<v Speaker 2>waves back, and that exchange is the first conversation of

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<v Speaker 2>her day. The first raising comes around seven fifteen. A

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<v Speaker 2>barge loaded with lumber heads up river from the mill,

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<v Speaker 2>and the bridge must go up to let it pass.

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<v Speaker 2>June flips the switch. The gears grind their slow song.

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<v Speaker 2>The bridge rises. The barge slides underneath, its deck, stacked

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<v Speaker 2>with pale wood that smells like fresh rain. The captain

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<v Speaker 2>calls out a thing. June nods, The bridge lowers, the

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<v Speaker 2>gears settle. The cars that had been waiting on either

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<v Speaker 2>side begin to cross, their tires humming on the iron grates.

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<v Speaker 2>June keeps a log of every crossing. She writes the time,

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<v Speaker 2>the direction, and whether it was a boat or a vehicle.

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<v Speaker 2>She has filled forty three note books in her seventeen years.

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<v Speaker 2>The note books are stacked on a shelf in her apartment,

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<v Speaker 2>each one labeled with a year in her neat handwriting.

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<v Speaker 2>She does not review them often, but she likes knowing

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<v Speaker 2>they are there, a record of every small thing she

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<v Speaker 2>has done, a proof that the days were not empty.

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<v Speaker 2>By mid morning, the canal is busy. Pleasure boats drift

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<v Speaker 2>up from the marina to the south. A kayaker passes

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<v Speaker 2>through every Tuesday and Thursday, always at ten o'clock, always

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<v Speaker 2>wearing a yellow jacket. Two boys in a canoe paddle

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<v Speaker 2>through on weekends, arguing about which direction to go, their

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<v Speaker 2>voices carrying across the water like birds. June raises and

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<v Speaker 2>lowers the bridge for each of them. She has learned

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<v Speaker 2>to time the raising so that the bridge is fully

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<v Speaker 2>up by the time the boat reaches it, and fully

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<v Speaker 2>down before the next line of cars builds up on

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<v Speaker 2>either side. It is a rhythm, and she knows it

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<v Speaker 2>the way a musician knows a song. At noon, June

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<v Speaker 2>takes her break. She leaves the cavern door open and

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<v Speaker 2>sits in her chair with her thermos and whatever food

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<v Speaker 2>she has brought. Sometimes a fisherman walks up from the

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<v Speaker 2>river bank and sits on the low wall beside the canal,

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<v Speaker 2>and they talk about the weather, or the fish, or

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<v Speaker 2>the town council's latest plan to repave the high street.

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<v Speaker 2>The conversations are easy and unhurried. They end when someone

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<v Speaker 2>ends them, not when someone has to leave. The afternoon

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<v Speaker 2>brings different traffic. School buses cross the bridge at three fifteen,

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<v Speaker 2>their yellow bodies bright against the grave of the road.

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<v Speaker 2>A delivery truck passes through at four, heading to the

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<v Speaker 2>hardware store on the far side. An old man walks

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<v Speaker 2>his dog across the bridge every afternoon at four thirty,

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<v Speaker 2>and the dog always stops in the middle to look

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<v Speaker 2>down at the water, as if it is trying to

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<v Speaker 2>understand what is moving below. June has named the dog.

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<v Speaker 2>She calls him Captain because he walks with such authority,

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<v Speaker 2>his tail held high, his nose in the air. The

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<v Speaker 2>old man does not know this. It is June's small

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<v Speaker 2>private thing, a name given to a creature she will

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<v Speaker 2>never speak to, in a place she will never leave.

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<v Speaker 2>The last boat of the day usually comes around five.

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<v Speaker 2>It is a wooden sail boat, old but well maintained,

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<v Speaker 2>skippered by a woman named Dora, who sails up from

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<v Speaker 2>the coast to visit her sister in Millhaven. Dora always

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<v Speaker 2>has fresh peaches in the summer and preserves in the autumn,

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<v Speaker 2>and she always brings something for June. A jar of

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<v Speaker 2>plum jam, a bag of dried apricots, once a hand

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<v Speaker 2>knitted scarf in a shade of blue that matched the

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<v Speaker 2>canal in winter. June lowers the bridge for Dora the

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<v Speaker 2>same way she lowers it for every one else. The

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<v Speaker 2>gears grind, the bridge settles, the resume, but there is

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<v Speaker 2>something about the last crossing of the day that feels different,

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<v Speaker 2>a quiet punctuation, a period at the end of a sentence.

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<v Speaker 2>After five, the treffet finds a few cars cross. In

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<v Speaker 2>the early evening, a cyclist passes through at six. By seven,

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<v Speaker 2>the canal is still, and the only sound is the

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<v Speaker 2>water moving against the pilings and the occasional call of

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<v Speaker 2>a bird settling into the willows. For the night, Tune

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<v Speaker 2>does not close the bridge at a fixed time. She

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<v Speaker 2>stays until the last boat has passed, or until the

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<v Speaker 2>light is too low to see the water clearly. She

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<v Speaker 2>checks the mechanism one final time, makes sure the gears

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<v Speaker 2>are clean, locks the cabin, and walks home along the

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<v Speaker 2>canal path. In the evening, the willows are dark shapes

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<v Speaker 2>against the sky, and the water is black glass, and

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<v Speaker 2>the only light comes from the houses on either side

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<v Speaker 2>of the canal, their windows glowing with the warm amber

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<v Speaker 2>of lamps and televisions and lives being lived. She does

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<v Speaker 2>not think of her work as important. She does not

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<v Speaker 2>think of it as small, either. She thinks of it

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<v Speaker 2>as hers. The bridge raises, the bridge lowers, The day

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<v Speaker 2>moves through her like water through a gate, and she

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<v Speaker 2>is the one who controls the floe. Not with power,

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<v Speaker 2>but with presence, not with force, but with the simple

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<v Speaker 2>act of being there. On quiet evenings, June sits on

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<v Speaker 2>the low wall by the canal and watches the last

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<v Speaker 2>light fade. She drinks her tea, She listens to the water.

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<v Speaker 2>She thinks about the crossing she will make tomorrow, and

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<v Speaker 2>the one after that, and the one after that. The

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<v Speaker 2>bridge will be there, She will be there, The gears

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<v Speaker 2>will grind their slow song, and the world will pass

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<v Speaker 2>through her gate, one boat, one car, one ordinary crossing

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<v Speaker 2>at a time, And that is enough. That has always

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<v Speaker 2>been enough. Tonight, as she walks home along the canal path,

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<v Speaker 2>June hears the faint sound of the water moving under

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<v Speaker 2>the bridge behind her. It sounds like breathing, like the

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<v Speaker 2>town itself is breathing, slow and steady, in and out,

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<v Speaker 2>in and out. She pauses for a moment and listens.

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<v Speaker 2>Then she continues home. Her footsteps soft on the path,

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<v Speaker 2>the thermos empty, the day complete. The bridge stands in

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<v Speaker 2>the darkness, behind her patient and still waiting for morning.