WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.119 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. The lad you 2 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:11.519 are here, Let's get into it. Along the north bank 3 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:13.759 where gray stones met bright water, a walk with the 4 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:16.359 unhurried step of the retired, one hand curled round the 5 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:18.600 warm wooden head of my walking stick, the other tucked 6 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.280 deep into the pocket of a faded navy coat. Even 7 00:00:21.320 --> 00:00:23.199 early in spring, the light had a kind of newness. 8 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:25.559 You could almost taste soft and brisk ap of the canal, 9 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:27.199 as the wind brought the scent of damp earth and 10 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.640 rising bread. For forty years, maybe more, I traced the 11 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:33.520 same route, past the sullen red shutters of the abandoned tannery, 12 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:36.039 over a bridge five whose bricks had grown as shiny 13 00:00:36.119 --> 00:00:39.079 and creased as an old man's knuckles, Past the ocutiled bakery, 14 00:00:39.119 --> 00:00:43.119 where massesskrowdits peered through flower dusted glass every sunrise. Next 15 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.399 came the post with bright green stamped with the city's 16 00:00:45.399 --> 00:00:48.359 cress lackered inscriptions, spelling out eighteen ninety seven, with all 17 00:00:48.359 --> 00:00:51.039 the original pride, though its mouth now rattled slightly on 18 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:53.799 cold days. My own house stood on the next lane, 19 00:00:53.799 --> 00:00:56.359 and seen but always known, just beyond the linden trees, 20 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:59.240 leaning out over the path. The walk was its own pleasure, 21 00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:02.479 a sword of living, proof of reliability, which is precisely 22 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.319 why I stopped that March morning, half thumping, mild alarm, 23 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:07.840 mostly curiosity, when my eyes caught a detail that sat 24 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:10.719 wrong upon the familiar which between the milliners and the 25 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:13.359 news agents, right where I was certain there had always 26 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:15.959 been a narrow, empty window, stubbornly displaying nothing but a 27 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.239 lays curtained darkness. Then now appeared a shop with the 28 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:21.439 stone facade and lettering in gold leaf ams and sun's horology. 29 00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:25.200 The words arched proudly over the jaw. The glass was clean, 30 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.719 yet not new, paneled with gentle ripples the way old 31 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:30.519 glass distorts its view of the world. The sign looked 32 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:32.760 hand painted to a golden clock faced cradle by pale 33 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:34.760 blue scroll walks so deliberate it might have come from 34 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:38.799 some careful masters brush fifty years before. I stood frozen 35 00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:40.719 in the rhythm of my walk, count in details as 36 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:43.599 if confirming a machine had not skipped to sprocket. The 37 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:46.000 bricks were rounding the sharp friend were not newly mortared. Rather, 38 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:48.640 the echoed doors of the street, softened by rain, moss, 39 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:52.079 nibbling at their edges. It number fourteen sat nestled in 40 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:54.560 an enamel plaque whose deep indiger had pale ruggedly with 41 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:57.719 the sun inside. The window displayimote with things I had 42 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:00.480 never quite seen. Told bat mantel clocks of cherry walnut, 43 00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:03.280 pendulum's wound with thin bronze wire. A clockface was strange 44 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.719 overlapping dials like miniature planetary orbits. Another case filled with 45 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:09.000 dozens of pocket watches, arrayed like Grarecin's a top of 46 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:12.800 velvet cloth. None were modern, but neither were they quite antique. 47 00:02:13.319 --> 00:02:15.439 The seconds hands on the clock swung with a deliberate, 48 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:18.400 unhurried motion. I realized after half a minute of watching 49 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:21.400 that their ticking wasn't mismatched, but composed. Teach clockstick fell 50 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:23.319 in harmony with the one beside it, as if a 51 00:02:23.360 --> 00:02:25.680 choir of metal throats had tuned themselves to a single 52 00:02:25.719 --> 00:02:29.039 shifting cadence. The bakery unchange still bore the scent of 53 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:32.879 Ryan's sartuary. The postbooks waited exactly where it always had. 54 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:36.360 The shops around seemed just as they should. Only the 55 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:40.159 small wonder clockmakers so confidently embedded that if he glanced carelessly, 56 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:42.280 you believe it had always lived here to find memory. 57 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.400 Had I been unobservant even once in all these years? 58 00:02:46.120 --> 00:02:49.120 Surely not the spot had been empty, a window boarded 59 00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:51.599 up in winter, curtains drawn. I was sure of it. 60 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:54.879 And yet here it was. The bones of the street 61 00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:57.759 had not shifted, but something quietly had slipped between the stones. 62 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:00.919 I did not go inside, not out of fear, but 63 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:03.719 a reluctance to disturb perfection. I made a note in 64 00:03:03.759 --> 00:03:05.639 the way of a man who solves problems by attending 65 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:08.639 to details. Amsl and sons, clock sharp north bank. But 66 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:12.400 what bakriy and musician signed w's lash gold face odd clocks, 67 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:15.719 all taking for years, missed old stones like neighbors. I 68 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:18.000 stood a moment longer, letting the rhythm of the clocks 69 00:03:18.039 --> 00:03:21.439 follow me into the streets hush, then continued home routine. 70 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:23.919 I suppose is what makes the city comprehensible with so 71 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:26.439 I often toldly now as we share coffee in the mornings. 72 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:29.199 When you grow up circle the same blocks, the world 73 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:31.240 becomes a kind of map in your head. Every iron 74 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:33.639 ballard and trickling drink grows familiar, as much a part 75 00:03:33.639 --> 00:03:35.039 of your day as the way from the man who 76 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:38.639 rows the garbage barge down Canal eight. My name Victor Glass, 77 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:41.800 retired engineer, if such titles ever truly retire, still appears 78 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.159 in the brass directory played outside the apartment as share 79 00:03:44.199 --> 00:03:47.400 with dust, happy solitude and a growing stack of field notebooks. 80 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:50.319 To most, I'm the fellow with the spectacles slightly bowed 81 00:03:50.319 --> 00:03:52.800 from years overdrawing boards, who walks the canal with a 82 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.759 surveyor's precision. Bridge to post books, post books to bakery, 83 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:58.199 bakery to south Bank by way of bridge cheven olopas 84 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:01.159 fixed as the city's church bells, Lyna always meets me 85 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:03.800 at the riverside cafe, insisting I order had that old 86 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:06.199 fashioned dark roast, splash of honey or else. Endure her 87 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:09.800 teasing about stubbornness. She's kept her post as skulwistress and 88 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.479 part time canal historians since the flood of ninety three 89 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:14.800 and cannot argue any city official over the true color 90 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:18.040 of a century old painterm our world, This tangle of 91 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:20.959 cobblestones and water is nothing if not jealous of its heritage. 92 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:23.920 Any shop that opens submits to months of neighborhood debate. 93 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:27.560 Facades must resemble their grandparents and locals Mark each absentee 94 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:30.800 window or transplanted lump post enough to dinner conversation. Even 95 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:33.240 the musicians Johann and Alise Trins from the next district 96 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:36.120 of Anota, as before shifting a usual playing spot violin 97 00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:38.519 and clarinet, mapped out the alleys and harmonies that change 98 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:41.319 with the light. I cannot claim to remember every detail 99 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:44.120 of every passing day, but certain facts were until this 100 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:46.639 week as given as gravity. Between the bakery and the 101 00:04:46.680 --> 00:04:49.360 news agent. There had never been a clockmaker's not in 102 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:51.040 the map I keep in my head, not in the 103 00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:53.439 charcoal sketches I make after each walk. A habit of 104 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:55.680 cried during convalescents years ago to shop in an inch 105 00:04:55.720 --> 00:04:58.240 of memory, not in the notepads bound in red and blue, 106 00:04:58.279 --> 00:05:01.319 stacked in chronological order on my livne room shelf. My 107 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.839 gaze wandered to those records as I sat that evening 108 00:05:04.040 --> 00:05:06.480 coffee cooling. As I leaf through pages marked sprin cleaning 109 00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:09.560 twenty seventeen in North Canal Walk and autumn storm, bakery 110 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:12.959 window cracked repairs by missus Kr, I check each sketch 111 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.680 of notation for that stretch of the bank. There was 112 00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:17.720 a drawing of the post books of sun faded still 113 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:20.560 green birds nest in late may, a water damaged to 114 00:05:20.600 --> 00:05:22.839 entry of a new stick of gingerbread, a Cravitz, even 115 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:25.160 a rough plan of the building's mill in a empty window, 116 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.759 news agent, no Ansel and Sons, no watchmaker sign, no 117 00:05:28.839 --> 00:05:32.079 gold leaf clock face standing at attention between neighbors. I 118 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:34.879 considered fleeingly the possibility of a slip in my own mind. 119 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:38.399 But engineers trust evidence. My walks were regular every week, 120 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.680 sometimes more. The bakery had been there for decades, and 121 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:44.000 the newt agent well, I remembered the Dames ses Scotland's 122 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:47.120 retirement shrunk the newspapers down to two shelves. The empty 123 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:49.199 window had always caught my eye a little sad for 124 00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:52.480 its lack of purpose. So how does the clockmaker's, fully 125 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:54.959 formed and seamless appear where there had long been only lost? 126 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:58.920 The city resists change, I had to ask myself. Had 127 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:01.439 I grown so complaisance, a wedded to routine that an 128 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.160 entire shop at presents its people its trade could slip 129 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:05.920 by me as easily as a trick of afternoon sun 130 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:08.399 along the canal water That night, I wrote in my 131 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:11.839 law book, cited Ansel and Sons. Today impossible but real. 132 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:14.920 Beneath the question, I found nothing to prove the negative, 133 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:18.279 only a tiny growing it, a curiosity not of absence, 134 00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:21.480 but of contradiction, And I resolved that by morning someone 135 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:23.839 would have to confirm or deny what I alone had spotted. 136 00:06:24.480 --> 00:06:27.399 Lena always arrived first coach, herd, buff with precise economy, 137 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:29.839 cheeks flushed by winter, and the satisfaction of having argued 138 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:32.199 a bus fare with the driver. As I bit into 139 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:34.600 a stale, reasoned bahn, I described the shop and careful 140 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:37.920 systematic detail its sign. It's oddly howmoneous clocks his position 141 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:39.639 in the robe, where nothing so fine or so bright 142 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:43.959 had stood from my remembered years. I expected confusion. I wanted, 143 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:46.639 in truth, a little bit of commiseration from someone as 144 00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:49.879 meticulous as myself. Instead, Lena gave me a look of 145 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:53.959 amusement so gently pitying I almost laughed. Amsl and sons, 146 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:56.240 she repeated, as if reminding me of a familiar neighbor. 147 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:58.800 They've serviced all or skull clocks for as long as 148 00:06:58.839 --> 00:07:02.079 I've taught. The janitor Old Anka always grumbles about their bills. 149 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:04.079 Of course, it's just after the post books on the 150 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:07.920 North Bank. Where else she gestured with hespoon, slicing the air, 151 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:10.040 drawing a map as vivid and certain as the one 152 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:12.399 in my memory, You know, the one with the blue 153 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:15.199 enamel door handle. My knee still swears by the cookoo clocks. 154 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:20.399 I prowed further, describing the shot features. Lena's recollection was unwavering. 155 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:23.240 They're the only ones who undersigned the clock tower in 156 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:26.160 the old Assembly Hall. Amsel apprentices used to deliver repairs 157 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:28.279 by wheelbarrow across the square. You must have read their 158 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.560 sign a thousand times. I'm convinced. I excused myself and 159 00:07:31.600 --> 00:07:33.319 saw up Paval. The green groves were a fond of 160 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:36.279 neighborhood trivia. If ever, there was one Pavel with stocking 161 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:39.959 sacks of potatoes, his thick fingers, quick but gentle Ansel Hey, 162 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.759 Ansel himself sold me my wedding watch, he said, an 163 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:45.600 echo of pride in his voice. That was my Julie 164 00:07:45.639 --> 00:07:48.160 was alive, So at least forty years back. Funny old 165 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:50.519 man used to hold those great pendulum clocks cost A 166 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:54.120 Canal with his lads, always whistling. The details matched the location, 167 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:56.839 the shop's age. It were all in the city's repairman's meadows. 168 00:07:57.480 --> 00:08:00.879 I pressed him. You're certain it's always been ere He frowned. 169 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:04.439 Of course, Victor, you old goose as part of the scenery. 170 00:08:04.439 --> 00:08:07.000 Even before missus Kravitz took over the bakery, they resold 171 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.920 as the bridges that family. I resolved to walk the 172 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:13.839 entire canal circuit twice, if needed, were tracing the morning steps. 173 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:16.839 The bakery stood and changed. Partridge feathers swirled in the window. 174 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:19.759 The news agents racked bore the same shots of war 175 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:22.920 and weather. The clock shop, though every time I glanced 176 00:08:22.920 --> 00:08:25.000 back at its stay as reeny outwood, as if daring 177 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.160 me to admit I miss something obvious all these years 178 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:29.920 at home, my scourgey is worth of my own notes. Again, 179 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:33.559 no mention of clockmaker, nor photograph, not even astray commented 180 00:08:33.559 --> 00:08:36.679 delivery from Mamsell in faded Prince, where I could see 181 00:08:36.679 --> 00:08:39.399 missus Kravitz's hosing her stupen may. The window beside her 182 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:42.559 sat blank, unclean. Yet I now lived in a world 183 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:44.320 where every one I trusted or called not only the 184 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.159 shop's persons, but its history and every cork of its trade. 185 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:50.840 My records denied it, their memories insisted upon it. So 186 00:08:50.960 --> 00:08:53.879 a scribbled day two shop reported always there by several locals, 187 00:08:53.879 --> 00:08:57.519 contradiction collective record oppose his personal evidence. What could a 188 00:08:57.559 --> 00:09:01.600 man trust when stone and memory no longer alive? Curiosity 189 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:03.879 and heathered from certainty is a powerful force, one I 190 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.559 never trusted in yonder days, preferring systems that could be 191 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:09.960 diagramed improved. That evening, I took up my field notebook 192 00:09:09.960 --> 00:09:12.279 and a well sharp and corpenter's pencil, curroed it myself 193 00:09:12.320 --> 00:09:14.120 with the stubbornness of habit, and set out, as a 194 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:17.320 surveyor might, to measure, to test by the canal. The 195 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:20.279 day was folding into dusk, shadows splayed sharp beneath the bridges, 196 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:22.759 the air vibrating with hints of wet grass and woodsmook. 197 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:25.879 The clockmaker stood with its window glowing amber, a lantern 198 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:29.720 flickering above its sign. I spent ten minutes observing, methodically, 199 00:09:29.720 --> 00:09:31.600 sketching every brick in the facade of the cracks, the 200 00:09:31.639 --> 00:09:33.720 shade of moss climbing up one corner, the culor of 201 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:37.080 painted iron supporting the sign. The door scuffed but not WAPs, 202 00:09:37.080 --> 00:09:39.639 swung slightly as customers entered. A mother and toddler a 203 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:42.840 seated when clutching a case through the glass, The array 204 00:09:42.840 --> 00:09:45.440 of clocks performed its minor miracle of order, each beating 205 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.200 out a line in a secret symphony. As I made notes, 206 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:50.279 the twins appeared to Lease, with her violin strapped over 207 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:54.519 her shoulder, Joe and grinning, clarinet case spinning from one finger. Elise, 208 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:58.440 you've played here for years, haven't you, I asked. She nodded. 209 00:09:58.519 --> 00:10:01.759 Liz curls bobbing. Do you remember the shop always being here? 210 00:10:02.360 --> 00:10:05.759 She looked, affronted. Of course, I tuned to their chimes. Listen. 211 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:08.240 She cocked her head as a soft trio of notes 212 00:10:08.279 --> 00:10:11.120 trickled from inside. Weirdly beautiful, neither the hour nor half 213 00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:15.360 hour strike. Who else's clock would behave that way? Joan concurred, 214 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:18.639 eyes dancing. When we record our songs, we sometimes catch 215 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:21.240 the chimes. Every street has its echo. That's half our maps. 216 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:23.559 On a whim, I asked a Lease to walk with me, 217 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:25.960 show me, if you would, exactly where the shop stands. 218 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:29.080 We strolled two bridges east, talking ode of sheet music 219 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:32.080 and neighbors. When we turned to look back, she laughed 220 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:35.120 and pointed, there see across from the old pharmacy, and 221 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:38.000 there on the south bank between the bakeries, twin endacoblers 222 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:40.799 sat a clock maker's window unmistakable. The same blue skull 223 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:43.480 and gold clock is blazing beneath the street lamp. I 224 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:45.240 felt a chill, not a fear, but a sense of 225 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:49.720 being deeply, wonderfully wrong. The buildings, old as legend were unmoved. 226 00:10:49.879 --> 00:10:52.919 Not a brick shifted. The shops stones matched its neighbors, 227 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:55.679 ancient faces, the little grown as weathered as anywhere else. 228 00:10:56.360 --> 00:10:58.720 There were no signs of construction, no row brick, no 229 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.960 new mortar. I snapped a photo with my phone the 230 00:11:02.039 --> 00:11:04.559 next morning, scrolling through the gallery, I saw only the 231 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:07.320 blank time on shop front. I'd have been so caught 232 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.440 up that I failed to actually photograph the right spot, 233 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:12.279 but my memory was as sharp as the lines I drawn. 234 00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:15.879 Something wasn't adding up. Determined to match Choune of doubt 235 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:18.399 to evidence, I asked Miss s Kravitz from her flower 236 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.840 thick window. Did the clockwicker ever collect bread from you? 237 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:25.159 She cackled out. Their apprentices are hungry law always picking 238 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:27.000 up pearls. On the south bank or was at the east, 239 00:11:27.080 --> 00:11:30.639 depends how you're walking, Love, My confusion must have been visible. 240 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:34.559 She patted my hand, squeezing finger sticky with dough. Doesn't 241 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:38.200 matter which bank. They were good customers always. Later, Lena 242 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:41.279 produced an invis from the schools arka beautifully embossed Absol 243 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:44.919 and Sons Canal Lane service, dated nineteen forty seven. I 244 00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:47.799 examined every mark, every faded stamp. It looked older than 245 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:51.960 my parents. She beamed to see proof, but payful disagreed 246 00:11:51.960 --> 00:11:54.639 on location. They were always by Bridge seven, never by 247 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:57.679 the bakery, yet standing with me just then the sharp 248 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:00.960 faced Bridge five pision. As always, I gathered my old 249 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:03.559 walking maps, aligning them beneath the glare of my desk lamp. 250 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.840 If I let myself follow others leeds Eliza's landmarks, Miss 251 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:09.480 says Kravitt stories. Each day, the bridges seemed fractionally altered. 252 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:12.799 Sometimes a block would bend a little, aside ally join 253 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.679 a different main street. Nothing sighs were just enough to 254 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:19.000 unt ziddle as I dug further. Neighbors described with great 255 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:21.759 detail a widow's silver lock at that child anoon auntsel 256 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:24.200 fixed it years ago when the snow nearly shut them in. 257 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:27.120 A pensioner's oakenhall clock was theirs to repair, I think, 258 00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:29.000 and I always went to them by the bakery, or 259 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:31.440 was it the canal. The only thing constant was the 260 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:33.840 feeling that the shop existed wherever one needed it to be, 261 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:36.159 so long as you were willing to believe it belonged there. 262 00:12:36.840 --> 00:12:39.200 And nobody, not the twins with their nimble feed, not 263 00:12:39.320 --> 00:12:41.919 missus Kravitz with her flourry grip, not Leaner with her ark, 264 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:45.759 have appeared to find this problematic, I wrote, combined contradiction, 265 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.679 the shop, and even the city's geography shifts to fit expectations. 266 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:51.200 No one finds it ought. My evidence nowhere matches theirs. 267 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:53.559 The more I pulled at the scene, the larger the 268 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:57.039 opening grew. The only thing truly fixed was my own uncertainty. 269 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.960 Certainty is addictive. The more the pieces refused to fit, 270 00:13:01.120 --> 00:13:05.080 the more irresistible the puzzle. Enough, I thought time to 271 00:13:05.240 --> 00:13:07.120 enter the shop itself, to become part of the world 272 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:09.759 whose contradictions had so quietly appended the rules of streets 273 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:12.399 and memory. March Rain fell in his and sheet as 274 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:14.279 I crossed over a bridge five, a touch less steep 275 00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:16.320 than before I noticed, though I might have blamed the 276 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:19.000 wetness for my caution. Boots mudding at the canal's edge 277 00:13:19.519 --> 00:13:21.600 the shop waited with a warmth that prickled against the 278 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:25.440 chill when Nosy galow and Cloke's faintly luminous in the dusk. Inside, 279 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:27.960 the air was thick with wood polish, the faint metallic 280 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:30.799 ten of brass and something else sos, and perhaps of 281 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:34.200 the scent that follows a lighting stone's passage. Clocks ringing 282 00:13:34.240 --> 00:13:36.639 every wall, tall and arrow, squat and wide, a riot 283 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:38.960 of hands and faces altering in a pattern that never 284 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:41.799 quite repeated, but never jarred. As I drew the door 285 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.480 closed behind me, a tall, thin man with wire spectacles 286 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:46.559 and the sort of smile one gives a returning customer 287 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:51.360 extended his hand. Victor, welcome back, he said, my gunsel 288 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:53.240 at your service. Did the clock we repaired for you 289 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:56.240 last autumn? Keep good time? After all? I felt, in 290 00:13:56.279 --> 00:13:58.320 that moment as if the world had performed the sleight 291 00:13:58.360 --> 00:14:01.600 of hand. I had never been here, never commissioned anything. 292 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.759 Yet Mike expected me with the gentle, truthful affection one 293 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:07.799 reserves for an old neighbor. His hands were nimble, stained 294 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:10.039 by brass, his gray hair combed back above a faceach 295 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:13.240 by laughter rather than fatigue, and apprentice bustle passed a 296 00:14:13.320 --> 00:14:16.919 dark haired woman offering me your usual seat. Sunlight through 297 00:14:16.960 --> 00:14:19.360 the rain, gloss glass pulled in a plane would knockof 298 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:22.360 by the window. I sat at a loss, nope, twitching 299 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:26.080 in my hand, my covered eyes warm but ascrutable. Would 300 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:27.840 you like to see our new pieces? Or as the 301 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:31.080 mantel clock must behaving again, his tone was velvet overseal. 302 00:14:31.720 --> 00:14:33.960 This gentle insistence that I belonged to, that I had 303 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:37.519 always belonged, was more disorienting than any shifting geography. I 304 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:40.200 observed the clocks. There was a ground full of clock 305 00:14:40.240 --> 00:14:43.120 whose are hand glided in exact reverse, but whose pendulum 306 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.200 soft tick was almost in FaZe with the passage of 307 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:47.919 my own watch. There was a brass wall clock whose 308 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:50.799 ivory face shimmered, the hour's position, gently shifting. As I stared, 309 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:54.600 hands flickering rather than advancing another. A pocket watch displayed 310 00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:56.559 under a glass dome would let out a trio of 311 00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:59.200 notes at random intervals, as if conversing with the clock 312 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:02.799 across the room. I forced myself to confront myerk. I 313 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:06.440 cannot recall ever entering the shop. He smiled, not unkind 314 00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:09.759 memory wonders even here the canal change his base for 315 00:15:09.799 --> 00:15:11.799 a soul. We are grateful when people bring theirs in, 316 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:15.200 old or new, It makes no difference. He gestured around, 317 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.159 indicating both the clocks and the room's clearly ancient furniture, 318 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.440 polished with generations touch. Time is patched sometimes on the 319 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:24.320 side of the water. The shop is stable when it 320 00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:27.919 must be. That's always been so, hasen't it. I tried 321 00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:30.240 to protest, but there was no malice, no sense of trickery, 322 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:33.399 no performance for my benefit, only the quiet assurance of 323 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:35.919 someone whose craft exists at the hinge of ordinary things. 324 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.879 As I rose to leave, Mike pressed a small brasquay 325 00:15:38.960 --> 00:15:42.240 into my hand. If your clocks begin losing time, come back. 326 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:44.159 We keep the odd ones, the ones that don't quite 327 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:47.320 fit the usual patterns. What struck me most the feeling, 328 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.600 simultaneously of having trespassed upon and been invited into something 329 00:15:50.679 --> 00:15:54.399 essential to the city's fabric. The clock's hormonized softly behind me, 330 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:57.200 a meashuck of time and rhythm on the sodden street. 331 00:15:57.320 --> 00:15:59.759 I turned, half expecting the shop to have vanished, But there, 332 00:15:59.759 --> 00:16:02.200 its window burning bright, each clock still holding to its 333 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:05.799 mysterious tune. My old engineer's mind always hungry for an 334 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:08.519 explanation ticked now with new rhythm. Perhaps it wasn't a 335 00:16:08.519 --> 00:16:10.399 trick or an error, but a property of the place. 336 00:16:11.120 --> 00:16:13.399 The shop belonged to the city, not just in geography, 337 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:17.000 but embedded in the patterns that govern memory, perception, and custom. 338 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:19.399 I scribbled in my note book, anomaly is not an 339 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:22.399 arab but function. Shop as both brage and anchor, impossible, 340 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.440 yet part of the world. On the far bank, Johannes 341 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:28.600 Clarinet sketched rising uncertain melodies. Dust thickened in to night, 342 00:16:28.720 --> 00:16:30.759 and I realized, with a shiver of excitement, I was 343 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:33.480 no longer simply witness in the city's strangeness, but living 344 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:36.279 inside it. The clocks in my hedgehi and curiously, all 345 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:38.120 the way home, the dumpy things, each beat of those 346 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:41.440 impossible mechanisms repaying immemory, like snippets of a melody whose 347 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.480 logicallyded me, but whose beauty I could not deny. By 348 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:46.279 the time I had climbed the narrow staircase to my 349 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:48.519 apartment and dropped my sodden coat over the radiator, I 350 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.600 found the brusque still in my pometiny thane eloqantly, cut, 351 00:16:51.720 --> 00:16:54.320 cool and wady. I set it down on my table 352 00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:56.840 and stared at it, half expecting it to vanish or 353 00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:59.360 perhaps slipped through the cracks, like everything else about Ansel 354 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:02.320 and Sons, but a state of physical guarantee that something 355 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:04.640 out of the ordinary had not only occurred, but wanted 356 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:07.200 to keep happening that night lodged under my skin in 357 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.680 a way only a handful of others, ever, had. I 358 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:12.279 could not concentrate on my evening routine, could not settle 359 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:14.240 with my book or even the crosswood. My thoughts circle 360 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:16.799 the shop, the seamlessness with which it had accepted my presence, 361 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:19.960 the quiet surety of my counsel's welcome. I replayed every 362 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:23.160 odd phrase, every tick and charm. Sleep did not come easily. 363 00:17:23.880 --> 00:17:26.440 Somewhere between midnight and dawn, I gave into the urge 364 00:17:26.440 --> 00:17:30.519 to plan, filling pages with questions rather than diagrams. By morning, 365 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:33.640 the world pail foxoft reminded me that ordinary life continued 366 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:36.599 begging lean as pardoned for my distraction. I walked the 367 00:17:36.680 --> 00:17:39.359 road again, passing between Bakery and his agent. I was 368 00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:42.680 searching for the impossible shop front. This time Ansell and 369 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:46.079 Sons was not there, Only the old empty window, lace 370 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:50.079 curtains drawn against the gray met my gaze, I steered uncertain. 371 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:52.920 I even checked my notebook. The sketch from yesterday was 372 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.960 still there, each crack stone, each flourish of the hanging sign. 373 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:59.079 Yet only absence faced me. Now, just as my old 374 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:02.799 memories had insisted, was the encounter already receding on stitch 375 00:18:02.839 --> 00:18:05.279 from realities coal Or had I simply crossed back into 376 00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:07.799 a corner of the city that no longer needed the anomaly, 377 00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:11.079 As any engineer would, I set about testing this variable. 378 00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:13.960 Instead of retracing the canal on my own. I arranged 379 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.839 to Meelina at the cafe and asked her, on one 380 00:18:15.880 --> 00:18:18.119 pretext or another, to walk with me past the location. 381 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:22.000 To my slight relief but greater fascination, she spotted nothing amiss. 382 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:24.880 He look as if he expects something to jump out Victor, 383 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:27.480 she teased, eyes bright as we reached the cross roads. 384 00:18:28.079 --> 00:18:31.039 Perhaps she needs wrong a coffee. I played along, not 385 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:33.240 telling her what I saw or failed to see. But 386 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:37.440 curiosity never rests. Later that afternoon, I looped the south 387 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:40.039 bank by myself, coming upon Nansel and sons, nestled there 388 00:18:40.039 --> 00:18:42.200 between the cobwoers and the far stall, as if drawn 389 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:44.880 by my own need to find a present. Each stone, 390 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:47.240 each mote of just on the window sill, rang with 391 00:18:47.279 --> 00:18:50.400 the certainty of permanence. It was all so natural, so 392 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:52.599 inevitable in its place, that I wondered how I had 393 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:56.680 ever doubted its existence. I stepped inside, no longer hesitating, 394 00:18:57.079 --> 00:19:00.240 carrying my questions and the key like talismans. This time 395 00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:03.359 there was no gentle pretint of my status. Mike appeared 396 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:05.480 at the work bench, nodding, as if I had simply 397 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:08.640 returned from a brief errand Ah back, so soon have 398 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:11.160 you brought the cock with a slipping minute hand. I 399 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:14.519 had not, and said so. Mike seemed only mildly surprised. 400 00:19:15.200 --> 00:19:18.599 No matter, we can always find another project. His tone 401 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:21.799