WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:08.359 Retirement, as I had once pictured, it was a period 2 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:12.919 of pristine stillness and long, unstructured mornings, punctuated by the 3 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:17.120 reliable rhythm of coffee, idle conversation, and the comforting brush 4 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:20.399 of wind in the nearest patch of green. But after 5 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:25.239 spending four decades as a botanist, scrutinizing leaf scars, cataloging 6 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.879 the precise geometry of cones, forever measuring, dissecting, and naming, 7 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:35.359 stillness proved an illusion. The longing for small discoveries, those 8 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:39.200 daily astonishments of ordinary life, trailed me like a shadow. 9 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:43.159 So most mornings now I walked the same two blocks 10 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:45.759 from my row house to the edge of Woodmere Park, 11 00:00:46.359 --> 00:00:50.439 a rectangle of ordered chaos pressed against weathered houses and low, 12 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:55.039 stubborn apartment blocks. Here, among the cedars and maples, no 13 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:59.920 patch of grass ever looked identical to yesterday. Children punctuate 14 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:02.799 the air with their shrieks and small fists of joy, 15 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.599 and Henry, the park caretaker, cycled steadily between tasks each season, 16 00:01:08.680 --> 00:01:12.799 coaxing tulips, chrysanthemums, or just another round of weeds from 17 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:17.200 the beds. That particular morning, clouds filtered the sunlight to 18 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:20.719 a chilly haze, the kind of light that discouraged all drama, 19 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:24.879 and my field notebook felt satisfyingly weighty. Beneath my jacket, 20 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:29.519 I paused by my favorite cedar, a broad limbed, cantankerous beast, 21 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:32.400 lightly planted when the city was still trading in real 22 00:01:32.439 --> 00:01:36.439 dockside fog and briny air. It had survived ice storms, 23 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:40.200 pruning that was sometimes misapplied, and the steady creep of 24 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:44.280 picnic blankets toward its lowest roots. For a while, I 25 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.719 paced around its trunk, noting the silvery lichen on a 26 00:01:47.799 --> 00:01:51.000 north side branch and the faint hope of new needles 27 00:01:51.000 --> 00:01:56.200 at the tips. When something stilled me precisely eleven zero zero, 28 00:01:56.599 --> 00:01:59.280 my habit for checking my watch inherited from decades of 29 00:01:59.319 --> 00:02:04.000 scheduled field work. Something improbable occurred. The shadow sprawled beneath 30 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.640 the old cedar, which beforehand had been a soft blur 31 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:09.240 in the milky light, took on a razor sharp edge. 32 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.719 It happened almost instantly, as though someone laid a precise 33 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.240 black silhouette upon the ground, the boundaries of every needle, 34 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.319 every kink in a twig, carved in impossible clarity, not 35 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:25.240 a gradual darkening, but a sudden, deliberate act lasted less 36 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:29.039 than five minutes. By eleven zero four, the shadow was 37 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:32.439 ill defined again, dispersing at the edges, resuming its vague 38 00:02:32.479 --> 00:02:36.240 partnership with the weather. I looked up. The sky was unchanged, 39 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:39.520 neither sun nor wind to explain it. Looking west, I 40 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:42.159 saw the family with their pet beagle, the same dog 41 00:02:42.199 --> 00:02:45.360 who tried eating Acorn's whole and always failed. A pair 42 00:02:45.400 --> 00:02:49.240 of joggers, Anna and her circle with their thermoss of coffee. 43 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:54.000 Every one's pace remained unchanged, laughter and low conversation. Rolling 44 00:02:54.080 --> 00:02:58.199 gently over grass, I moved away from the cedar, checking 45 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.800 each tree along the gently curving path. A nulled maple, 46 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:06.159 two cypresses, a squat jinko ablaze with adolescent green, and 47 00:03:06.199 --> 00:03:11.080 the same thing repeated itself. At eleven zero zero. Their shadows, 48 00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:15.280 too became extraordinary sharp as paper cutouts, blacker than their 49 00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:20.080 surroundings permitted, oddly compelling. Even the smallest sapling etched its 50 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:24.280 silhouette on the walk with mathematical precision. I ran my 51 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:27.560 hand along the edge of one such shadow, half expecting 52 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:31.439 to encounter a cool boundary, but felt nothing. The world 53 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:36.039 continued serenely, Yet every trunk, branch and leaf traced itself 54 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:39.199 on the ground, as though asserting its private insistence on 55 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:43.400 being noticed. And settlement is not quite the word, but 56 00:03:43.479 --> 00:03:45.800 there was a hush to my thoughts, a sense of 57 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.159 having stepped sideways into a park where familiar rules bent 58 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:54.319 just enough to provoke a stubborn, delighted curiosity. No one screamed, 59 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:57.599 nothing fluttered in alarm, but I felt certain that in 60 00:03:57.639 --> 00:04:00.199 those minutes I had entered a bracket of time and 61 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:05.120 experience unseen by almost every one else. That first day, 62 00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:09.599 I stayed past my habitual circuit, circling the park's perimeter twice, 63 00:04:09.800 --> 00:04:13.599 hoping for a repeat. But the strange clarity belonged only 64 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:18.240 to those minutes. Everywhere else, ordinary life resumed. The only 65 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:21.279 evidence a handful of notes in my note book and 66 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:25.079 a pulse of anticipation for the next day's walk. For 67 00:04:25.160 --> 00:04:29.639 all its subtle peculiarities, Woodmere Park never presented itself as unusual. 68 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:32.800 The city of Woodmere, itself, perched on a slip of 69 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:36.160 the Atlantic coast, too fog bound to attract real tourism, 70 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:41.480 impressed most visitors as amiably forgettable. If asked, residents admitted 71 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:45.079 to liking its slow buses, wind worn sidewalks, and the 72 00:04:45.079 --> 00:04:48.680 scent of salt that clung even in July, to laundry 73 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:53.519 drying on sagging lines between houses. The park, though diminutive, 74 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:57.279 was fiercely loved. A wedge of grass and trees, bordered 75 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:00.720 on two sides by modest apartments where root roofs rusted 76 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:04.160 at their seams, and sleepy houses with chipping paint that 77 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:09.120 owners swore they'd fix before winter returned. Opposite these, a 78 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.399 long pine street stood a low brick building with windows 79 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:16.439 fogged by decades of half hearted maintenance. It was, depending 80 00:05:16.519 --> 00:05:19.360 on whom you asked, an old art gallery or an 81 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:22.600 all purpose community space, with so many rumors of imminent 82 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:27.040 demolition that it almost felt permanent. Along its west facing wall, 83 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:31.680 a mural in hues faded to pasteal, depicted children turning 84 00:05:31.720 --> 00:05:35.639 cartwheels beneath trees whose real counterparts had grown far beyond 85 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:40.120 the limbs painted seventy years ago. Within this pocket world 86 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:43.120 moved a cast as familiar to me as any gathering 87 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:47.319 of colleagues once had been. Anna, a retired English teacher, 88 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:50.639 orchestrated her mornings around a paper cup of coffee and 89 00:05:50.680 --> 00:05:54.959 a crossword puzzle, joined most days by friends with similarly 90 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:00.079 sharp opinions about the city council's fobles. Mister Dalton, a 91 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:05.319 part time historian whose manner alternated between reclusive and unexpectedly garrulous, 92 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:10.079 maintained an informal archive of neighborhood stories, and more practically 93 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:13.680 always knew who had last fed the feral cat beneath 94 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:18.319 the benches. Nora, perhaps the park's quietest resident, was a 95 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:21.319 twelve year old. Armed with a cheap ballpunt pen and 96 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:25.480 a spiral bound pad, she devoted to drawing tree trunks, birds, 97 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:30.600 and lately speculative dragons lurking behind benches. She didn't say 98 00:06:30.680 --> 00:06:34.040 much unless prompted, but when she did, her eyes made 99 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:36.319 it clear she saw more in the park's angles of 100 00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:40.600 light than most. Then there was Henry, the caretaker, whose 101 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:43.959 indifference to the city's plans for the park was legendary. 102 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:47.160 He moved with the leisurely grace of someone who believed 103 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:50.759 trimming roses on a Tuesday or a Thursday amounted to 104 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:53.879 the same outcome, and who had long since learned which 105 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:57.279 tools could be left unattended without being borrowed by the 106 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:02.279 neighborhood s more enterprising teenage. As for me, I was 107 00:07:02.279 --> 00:07:05.839 happy to play the role of curious observer. My new ritual, 108 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.800 since hanging up my teaching keys and storing the last 109 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:12.759 of my old field presses, involved a slow circuit camera 110 00:07:12.839 --> 00:07:17.079 in hand, note book ready, cataloging tulip blooms, noting which 111 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:21.319 one survived the squirrels, weighing the likely fate of crabapple saplings, 112 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:25.120 and occasionally listening to Anna's gentle complaints that the city 113 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:28.720 never gave the park enough attention, except when proposing to 114 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:32.199 build something over it. The sun dial near the center 115 00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:35.040 was cracked across its face, its gno one leaning east. 116 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:37.879 I had measured its error twelve minutes slow at best, 117 00:07:38.120 --> 00:07:40.959 though hardly any one paid it. Heed often sat at 118 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:44.959 benches bearing the polished plaques of long departed neighbors. For Richard, 119 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.319 who loved this view. Straightened with a recent coat of varnish, 120 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:52.959 These markers acts of attempted permanence felt necessary. In my 121 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:57.439 time as a botanist, I cataloged everything obsessively, but the stories, 122 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:01.120 more than the labels, are what I retained. Still, that 123 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:04.680 first day's eleven zero zero phenomenon was a breed of 124 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:08.639 puzzle I had not prepared for botanical science, for all 125 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:12.360 its romance, leaves little room for magic. And yet as 126 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.199 I replayed the memory on my walk home, I was 127 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:19.560 left with something resisting my usual disciplines of analysis, measurement, 128 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:23.920 and naming. By the second morning, a challenge had taken hold. 129 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.120 Either I had conjured an optical oddity out of boredom, 130 00:08:27.439 --> 00:08:30.800 or the park, in defiance of probability, had presented a 131 00:08:30.839 --> 00:08:34.840 real deviation from ordinary light. That day dawned clear and 132 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:40.159 sharply yellow, sunlight slicing between the houses in cheerful, undignified bands. 133 00:08:40.519 --> 00:08:43.759 I arrived early with my small digital camera and my 134 00:08:43.879 --> 00:08:47.360 note book already opened to a fresh page, determined to 135 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:52.120 keep rigorous watch. At ten fifty nine, the shadows beneath 136 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:56.679 the trees were perfectly ordinary, blurry and faint, stretching lazily west. 137 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:00.600 My wrist watch ticked past eleven zero zero, and again 138 00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:04.399 every shadow snapped into preternatural focus. It was as if 139 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.639 the entire park paused for a breath, holding itself steady 140 00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:10.480 just long enough to confess some secret. I shot a 141 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:13.960 rapid line of photos along the path, first the Jinko, 142 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:17.960 then the maple, the stubborn willow near the broken drinking fountain. 143 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:22.559 To my eye, the effect was absolute. The shadows sharpened 144 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:26.600 to unnatural clarity, each twig and gap a black incision 145 00:09:26.639 --> 00:09:30.480 in the green. Yet reviewing the preview screen, I saw 146 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:34.360 nothing remarkable. The camera's tiny digital eye had captured the 147 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:38.159 same indistinct blurs any morning offered, I played with the 148 00:09:38.200 --> 00:09:42.919 exposure and tried again. The result was unchanged, each digital 149 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.919 image stubbornly prosaic, each live view through my own eyes 150 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:50.840 uncanny in its precision. On a whim, I placed my 151 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:53.919 palm flat in a patch of shadow, but no difference 152 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.399 met my skin. It was only the illusion of density, 153 00:09:57.799 --> 00:10:03.679 the sense of presence, even weight, from something wholly insubstantial rising. 154 00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:06.279 I decided to check the direction of the shadows with 155 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:10.159 my compass. What I found left me quietly unnerved. Some 156 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:13.679 of the sharpest shadows diverged from the expected solar angle 157 00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:17.200 by fifteen or even twenty degrees, as though the source 158 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:21.240 light was askew. Yet the sun itself high and clear, 159 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:27.039 had not moved. The contradictions multiplied. Hoping for a second opinion, 160 00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:29.360 I made my way across the mulch to the bench 161 00:10:29.440 --> 00:10:34.679 where Anna sat, coffee in one hand, crossword in the other. Anna, 162 00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:38.039 I asked, trying to sound off hand, do you notice 163 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:42.000 anything strange about the trees this time of morning? She 164 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:44.720 squinted over the rim of her cup. You mean the 165 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:48.039 eleven o'clock shadows. That's just how it is in the park, 166 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:51.519 she said, turning a page. They always go funny for 167 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:55.120 a few minutes. She shrugged, as if describing an occasional 168 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:58.159 breeze or the return of geese. Like to joke, the 169 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:02.159 park s showing off for the lowch crowd. No one 170 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:06.799 seems bothered, she smiled. Maybe it's been that way forever, 171 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:11.080 not hurting any one, is it, I hesitated, feeling the 172 00:11:11.120 --> 00:11:14.840 hum of expectation in my chest. No, I suppose not. 173 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:19.759 She waved away my concern, and conversation returned to more 174 00:11:19.879 --> 00:11:24.440 ordinary subjects, bust detours, the new bakery, whose dog would 175 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:28.679 win the park's in formal roundest Beagle title. But something 176 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.159 in me bristled at the ease with which she accepted 177 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:35.039 what I could not. I tried all that afternoon to 178 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:39.919 construct a sensible theory. Urban conditions could sometimes create mirrored light, 179 00:11:40.279 --> 00:11:43.600 I reasoned, especially in cities with odd windows and weather, 180 00:11:43.960 --> 00:11:46.480 though I had never seen it so regular or abrupt 181 00:11:47.200 --> 00:11:50.120 street lights perhaps could add to the confusion, but these 182 00:11:50.159 --> 00:11:54.080 did not operate. At eleven zero zero a m I 183 00:11:54.120 --> 00:11:57.240 thought briefly of hidden glass or metallic surfaces on the 184 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:02.320 old brick building, some trick of the city's lair. Even these, however, 185 00:12:02.639 --> 00:12:05.879 failed to explain why no one seemed interested, why no 186 00:12:06.039 --> 00:12:09.639 photograph matched what my eye witnessed, or why every shadow 187 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:13.000 snapped sharply at the same moment with no heed paid 188 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.600 to sun or cloud. By the end of the second day, 189 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.759 the range of available explanations had already begun to collapse. 190 00:12:21.480 --> 00:12:26.000 Retired life, it seemed, was not finished with surprises. By 191 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.799 the third morning, curiosity had transformed itself into a project. 192 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:33.840 The only difference between myself and my younger, research driven 193 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:37.440 self was that the grants and expectations belonged now only 194 00:12:37.480 --> 00:12:40.840 to me. I planned a proper study, or as proper 195 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:44.679 as one botanist could manage, with regular observations. Over the 196 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:50.080 coming week, mornings became more structured. I arrived steadily at 197 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:53.879 ten forty five field notebook in hand, and did not 198 00:12:54.039 --> 00:12:58.200 leave until noon, scraping patients from whatever reserves I retained 199 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:02.559 that entire weak the weather spun a wheel. Thick fog 200 00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:06.200 rolled in Tuesday morning, softening the world to a pastal smear. 201 00:13:06.679 --> 00:13:10.519 Thursday burned cloudless and hot sun, making the grass almost 202 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:14.120 brittle to the touch. It made no difference. At eleven 203 00:13:14.559 --> 00:13:18.039 zero zero. Every day the shadows played their accustomed trick, 204 00:13:18.440 --> 00:13:23.720 undimmed by gloom or haze, unhindered by brilliants. I documented 205 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:27.200 as many variables as my training could dream up species 206 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:31.840 of tree trunk diameter, coordinates of each observation, measuring the 207 00:13:31.879 --> 00:13:34.519 exact length and direction of a shadow with a tape 208 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:37.720 salvaged from the back of a kitchen drawer. On the 209 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:41.720 foggiest morning, when even the houses across Pine Street looked tentative, 210 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:46.679 the shadows still sharpened, black and unwavering. Whether it seemed 211 00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:51.320 was not a factor. Soon more contradictions surfaced Under the 212 00:13:51.320 --> 00:13:54.000 sprawling limbs of the willow. I counted not one, but 213 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:58.879 two overlapping shadows at eleven zero zero. One pointed north, 214 00:13:59.159 --> 00:14:02.600 consistent with early autumn sun, and the other extended east, 215 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:04.759 as if the sun hid it from the wrong part 216 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:07.919 of the sky. Altogether, I traced their boundaries in my 217 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.440 note book. Sketching the double silhouettes on the dew soaked grass, 218 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:16.799 each outline shrank and faded. By eleven zero four, I 219 00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:20.639 checked the branches for signs of extra limbs or hanging debris. 220 00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:25.159 Nothing out of place. Thursday, while sketching the same willow, 221 00:14:25.360 --> 00:14:29.039 I caught my breath a third shadow crisp as glass 222 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:31.480 traced a branch I knew to have vanished in a 223 00:14:31.480 --> 00:14:35.360 winter ice storm three years earlier. I knew because I 224 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:38.200 had helped Henry clear the shattered wood away, had even 225 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:42.799 documented the wound's healing. Yet here was its ghost, unmistakably 226 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:46.559 outlined next to the others. I shifted my focus from 227 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:50.000 the shadows themselves to their contents as I drew and 228 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:54.480 raised hands, growing chilly with dew. The next realization came 229 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:58.440 creeping in. These shadows seemed to carry not just present forms, 230 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:02.679 but lost elements the past, leaning against the present, sharp 231 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:07.759 and black. At eleven, curiosity, now thoroughly ablaze, sent me 232 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:12.480 seeking confirmation from others. Norah was my first subject, easy 233 00:15:12.519 --> 00:15:15.639 to approach because she was always circling the duck pond, 234 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.840 always with her notebook open and tongue pressed in concentration. 235 00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:24.000 Have you ever seen anything weird about the tree shadows here? 236 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:27.480 I asked, as casually as if querying her about a 237 00:15:27.519 --> 00:15:32.519 new bird. She responded without hesitation. Sometimes, when it's the 238 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:35.759 right time, the shadows show me stuff that's not really there. 239 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:39.000 She swept her hand in a wide arc, grinning, like 240 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:42.559 my old swing. She pointed to a corner beyond the playground, 241 00:15:42.759 --> 00:15:45.039 where a battered a frame had once stood, before it 242 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:48.080 was dismantled for new equipment. It comes back in the 243 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:52.080 shadow only. Ever at eleven, she blinked, as if offering 244 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:56.399 only the most basic observation. I asked if she drawn 245 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:00.080 any of it. She flipped to a wrinkled page. There 246 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:03.480 in pencil, a child on a swing, feet pointed skyward, 247 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:06.679 shadow emerging sharp as ink from beneath the empty air. 248 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:09.919 She'd even added a cat near by, her own, who 249 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:13.480 had passed away last year. The cat, it turned out, 250 00:16:13.759 --> 00:16:17.559 also reappeared in the shadows. I found Henry by the 251 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:22.879 rose beds, pruning, shears in hand, kneeling carefully. Ever, wonder 252 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:27.399 about those tree shadows at eleven, I asked. Henry brushed 253 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.039 soil from his gloves. The shadows remember things, don't they? 254 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:35.759 He clipped another sprig. Unhurried parks tend to old places 255 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.639 if you let them. He rose and moved on before 256 00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:41.960 I could pepper him with questions, leaving more riddle than answer. 257 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:46.759 The days pushed on and I tried further experiments. I 258 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:50.120 walked beneath the mapping plane at various angles, knelt and 259 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:52.480 stared up through the limbs. As the minutes ticked by, 260 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:57.080 settled myself squarely in the midst of a shadow's path. Sometimes, 261 00:16:57.320 --> 00:16:59.720 if I lay down perpendicular to the line of two 262 00:16:59.759 --> 00:17:03.200 over lapping shadows, I was left with the distinct impression 263 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:07.000 of being divided, half in the present, half suspended in 264 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.240 an outline of something older. One morning, I positioned a 265 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:14.200 light meter in the grass, hoping to record some measurable 266 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:18.079 blip that corresponded to the phenomenon, but the readings, even 267 00:17:18.119 --> 00:17:23.440 at eleven zero zero, were unremarkable. I borrowed reflective boards 268 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:27.000 from my old field kit and placed them strategically, attempting 269 00:17:27.039 --> 00:17:31.279 to disrupt the process. But nothing changed. The shadows sharpened 270 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:35.200 with or without interference. In the quiet of my den 271 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:38.839 over mugs of late morning tea, I examined the memory 272 00:17:38.839 --> 00:17:41.880 of past visits to this patch of green. Had these 273 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:45.359 shadows always acted this way? I could recall no such 274 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:49.079 spectacle in years of walks. And yet when I broached 275 00:17:49.079 --> 00:17:52.079 the topic with neighbors who had used the park for generations, 276 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:56.359 they looked back with a puzzling certainty. It's always been 277 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:59.759 that way, hasn't it, Anna insisted, again, sipping from a 278 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:04.599 paper cup. You're just paying better attention In my note book. 279 00:18:04.759 --> 00:18:09.400 The diagrams began to accumulate, one after another, arrows sketched 280 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:14.880 at wrong angles, overlapping silhouettes, and faded pencil annotations. Shadow 281 00:18:14.920 --> 00:18:18.440 of lost limb seen again. How more than botany or 282 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:23.160 meteorology seemed required to untangle this knot. It was clear, 283 00:18:23.319 --> 00:18:26.440 after a week of direct observation that the question had 284 00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:29.960 shifted beneath my feet. I no longer puzzled only at 285 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.119 the what and how? Was it an atmospheric exception? Was 286 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:39.480 there some odd city feature imposing itself on the park's geometry? Instead, 287 00:18:39.519 --> 00:18:42.400 I found myself wondering, why do the shadow seem to 288 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:45.400 remember what was once here, even things that only a 289 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:49.200 handful of us recall? And how could such ephemera swing 290 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.279 sets gone for years? A limb lost to ice, A 291 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:56.400 cat now vanished from this world appear so vividly, stubbornly. 292 00:18:56.440 --> 00:19:00.960 At eleven o'clock at home, sifting through old records and 293 00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:04.799 photographs I had contributed to various campaigns to save the park, 294 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.839 I double checked the site's archives. Photos from the nineteen 295 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:13.839 seventies revealed elements now erased from the landscape, flower beds 296 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:17.240 that had since been replaced, benches mapped at different angles, 297 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:20.920 and gardening tools that once leaned beneath the mural wall. 298 00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:25.680 Cross Referencing these with sketches of currant shadows, I found 299 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:29.960 again traces and echoes, shapes revived by memory and for 300 00:19:30.039 --> 00:19:35.079 reasons still elusive by the park itself. My scientific background 301 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.799 roared for a more reliable, more rational answer. I reread 302 00:19:38.839 --> 00:19:43.319 the standard literature urban microclimates, light refraction, all the clever 303 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:46.640 tricks of city weather and hard surfaces. None of it fit. 304 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:50.799 Glass and brick reflected, yes, but always in ways betrayed 305 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:53.680 by subtle color shifts or the teltal glare of heat 306 00:19:54.200 --> 00:19:58.519 in woodmere at eleven zero zero. No such clues attended. 307 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:03.319 The sharpening of the shadows. Debates with myself produced little progress. 308 00:20:03.880 --> 00:20:07.119 On one hand, the city's roof tops and tangled overhead 309 00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:11.279 lines sometimes produced odd phenomena, but not with this precision, 310 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:15.519 this constancy. Even the diaspora of mirrors I imagined on 311 00:20:15.599 --> 00:20:19.640 the crumbling brick building failed to explain why every tree, 312 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.839 not just those bordered by artificial surfaces, manifested the effect. 313 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:28.240 The greatest refutation came not in theory, but in experience. 314 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:32.119 One Friday, a young niece visiting her grandparents played in 315 00:20:32.160 --> 00:20:35.400 the park as her family picnicked near by. At eleven 316 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.799 zero zero, she scampered through a patch of sycamore shadow. 317 00:20:39.319 --> 00:20:41.799 As she ran, her own shape blended for a moment 318 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:45.119 with the trees impossibly sharp outline, and I watched with 319 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.559 a shiver of recognition as the conjoined shadow resembled a 320 00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:51.799 pair of children swinging, though there was no swing and 321 00:20:51.880 --> 00:20:56.440 no second child. The girl shouted with delight, did you see? 322 00:20:56.559 --> 00:20:59.720 I made a friend, then spun away while her mother 323 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:04.759 used merely shook her head. Later, at home, still unsettled, 324 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:07.559 I rifled through the oldest photos I could find in 325 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:11.000 the City Library's online collection. In an image from nineteen 326 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:14.319 seventy three, I found the outline of gardening tools leaning 327 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:17.680 against a now destroyed shed, just visible in a recent 328 00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:20.960 shadow sketch. I had seen their forms returning at eleven 329 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:25.759 zero zero, detailing precisely the long vanished spade with a 330 00:21:25.839 --> 00:21:28.319 notch in its handle and the bent tines of an 331 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:33.640 ancient rake. Not the objects themselves, of course, but their memories, 332 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:37.839 evidently borrowed by the Park, lastingly present at the level 333 00:21:37.839 --> 00:21:42.279 of shadow. The pattern was undeniable. The phenomenon was not 334 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:46.640 about tricks of light alone. The parks shifting continent of memory, 335 00:21:47.079 --> 00:21:50.720 marked by its trees, measured in small increments of shadow 336 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:54.160 and time, had insinuated itself into the realm I had 337 00:21:54.200 --> 00:21:59.160 always reserved for the relieably natural, the strictly observable. My 338 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:03.640 questions applying at each turn became weightier. If the sharpness 339 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:06.720 of shadow referenced not even just the physical limb or stone, 340 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:11.720 but what had been important swing bench, cat tool, then 341 00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:14.759 the Park was more than mere setting. It became a 342 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:18.759 partner in recollection, an archive enacted in negative black on 343 00:22:18.920 --> 00:22:21.640 green for anyone who happened to look at the right moment. 344 00:22:22.720 --> 00:22:27.000 The next step seemed clear. I needed witnesses, collaborators. I 345 00:22:27.079 --> 00:22:31.319 chose my companions with care, Anna, whose patience and sharp 346 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:35.319 tongue hid more generosity than most guested mister Dalton, who 347 00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:39.240 kept his historian's notebook even on morning walks, and Henry 348 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:42.160 if he could be coaxed into lingering at eleven rather 349 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:47.400 than disappearing into work. I also asked Norah, with her trusting, 350 00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:51.359 fearless ability to portray what she saw without apology, to 351 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:56.160 meet me curbside that morning with notebook in hand. We agreed, 352 00:22:56.440 --> 00:22:59.960 over coffee, balanced on the mural adjacent benches to observe 353 00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:04.240 the eleven zero zero event as a group, documenting what 354 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:09.079 each saw. You first, Anna said, grinning at mister Dalton, 355 00:23:09.559 --> 00:23:13.640 you're the historian. He squinted into the sunlight, letting it 356 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:17.160 trace lines on his brow. I see a band stand there, 357 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:21.200 white posts, pitched roof with a missing shingle. He pointed 358 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:23.599 to a patch of lawn where only a new barked 359 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:26.839 oak now stood. It was torn down before you or 360 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.640 I lived here. Anna, She pursed her lips and glanced up. 361 00:23:31.160 --> 00:23:33.599 All I see is Jean, her shadow on the bench. 362 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:37.160 She'd sit right there reading to us before her knees failed. 363 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:41.599 Jean had passed more than a decade ago. Anna's voice softened, 364 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:46.599 her coffee cooled, forgotten beside her. Norah, cross legged against 365 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:50.240 the trunk, hustled her pencil across paper. I see the 366 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:52.839 swing and the tree house. I'm not supposed to climb. 367 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:56.440 It's bigger in the shadow, and a dog may be mine, 368 00:23:56.640 --> 00:23:59.559 maybe one I saw once at the shelter. She shrugged. 369 00:24:00.559 --> 00:24:04.000 I explained what I had seen, the lost limb, the swing, 370 00:24:04.279 --> 00:24:07.480 the gardening tools, details both more and less than what 371 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:12.119 was present. It became immediately obvious that every person saw 372 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:15.839 something different, intimately related to their history with the park. 373 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:20.319 Even the same shadows outline, when compared amongst us, held 374 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:25.119 mutually incompatible details. Yet each sketch was honest, none of 375 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:30.000 us drawing for effect or exaggeration. Side by side, the 376 00:24:30.039 --> 00:24:34.680 illustrations revealed the invisible palimpsest of the park its benches 377 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:38.440 in three configurations, the swing there and not the cat 378 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:41.319 passing beneath a tree that had itself been cut down 379 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:45.200 and replanted twice. This could not be a simple trick 380 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:48.640 of suggestion or crowd psychology. If I prompted Anna to 381 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:51.079 look for the swing, she saw instead the shape of 382 00:24:51.079 --> 00:24:54.759 her friend, the memory unshared by me. When I described 383 00:24:54.799 --> 00:24:59.400 the bandstand, Norah looked up, confused, I see the climbing tree, 384 00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:02.759 not a house. But I believe you, she said. Maybe 385 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:06.200 the park just remembers everything a little differently for each person. 386 00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:10.559 With the encouragement of my colleagues, I expanded the project. 387 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:13.799 I wrote a discreet notice, posted it on the city's 388 00:25:13.799 --> 00:25:17.720 online neighborhood board, and tacked a small sign share your 389 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:22.039 eleven zero zero shadow stories onto the park's main gate. 390 00:25:22.519 --> 00:25:26.319 To my surprise, several park goers agreed to add their memories. 391 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:30.079 One couple described the shadow of a toy lost by 392 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:33.480 their son twenty years ago, surfacing exactly where he had 393 00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:36.920 last played with it. A former city gardener conjured the 394 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:40.319 elaborate beds she had designed in her twenties, though the 395 00:25:40.359 --> 00:25:44.839 shapes had vanished from the soil decades earlier. The evidence 396 00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:49.880 mounted each observer's shadow possessed unique personal contexts, at times 397 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:54.039 drawing on private memory, at others seemingly on inheritance or hope. 398 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:57.720 With every new batch of records, I abandoned old theories. 399 00:25:58.200 --> 00:26:02.119 The phenomenon was not universal. It was specific, shifting and 400 00:26:02.200 --> 00:26:05.839 layering with each memory's revision, yet always wrestling with the 401 00:26:05.920 --> 00:26:12.359