WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:07.480 Opening the store after a night of remodel always felt 2 00:00:07.480 --> 00:00:10.359 a little like a wrapping a giant for recent Christmas present. 3 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.679 I swung open the glass doors, breathing in that cocktail 4 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:15.759 of lemony cleaner and fresh past it Willnoli and the 5 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.000 clon to my nose. Even before the lights flickered to fall, 6 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:21.039 the store was silent. Too silent, I thought at first, 7 00:00:21.559 --> 00:00:23.760 Only the distant from of compressors in the dairy case 8 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:25.800 and the soft hiss from the entryway aircat and marked 9 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:28.600 any movement at all. Ordinarily there be a trace of 10 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:31.480 last night's energy scattered around a mot bucket for garden, 11 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:33.920 a cardboard caught jammed into the in cab, empty pallet, 12 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:36.759 stacked a bit off truel on the freezer. Not to day, 13 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:39.920 even the buzz of the early morning with stalkers was muffled, 14 00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:41.719 as if the place and its purpose were waiting on 15 00:00:41.719 --> 00:00:44.960 my okay. Before resuming Enoise, I gripped my clipboard and 16 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.200 paced out my well practiced route, eyes flicking up and 17 00:00:47.240 --> 00:00:48.920 down for the new and out of place, A box 18 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:52.640 upside down, something set askew and in cap display burrowed, improved, 19 00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:54.840 or god forbid it destroyed by corporates over night of 20 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:57.560 visual refresh. It was as I rounded the bulk flower 21 00:00:57.560 --> 00:00:59.600 bins between Asle twelve and the dairy wall that my 22 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:02.960 stride folded there which perfectly were there should have been 23 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.519 a clean shot down to Ale fourteen was a new isle. 24 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:08.799 Aisle thirteen, the signed to Claire, the number in familiar 25 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:11.519 Navy letters, glittering with the kind of proprietary map finished 26 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:15.319 reserved for flagship locations. I stood still, scanning the sign, 27 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:17.640 the ends of the shelving, the seamless stretch of floor 28 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.439 where there should undeniably have been nothing at all. It 29 00:01:20.560 --> 00:01:23.519 wasn't just the sign, the isle round flushing straight and 30 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:26.280 cap displays of teas and sugars, amid run shelf crowned 31 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:28.599 with condiments, all lit by a perfectly positioned band of 32 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.799 valids above. At the far end, a brand new freezer 33 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:34.920 gurgled softly, the humpson com pitted against the muted overhead music. 34 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:37.959 Each shelf was loaded, but not with the normal jumble 35 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:41.480 of dry goods expected. Sun Viney stood in neat ranks. 36 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:44.359 Scold foil boxes subtly misaligned from the house. Brands were 37 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.640 usually carried bored o cheese are style and lable light 38 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:50.359 sweat and never having seen glowed pale under the cooler's light. 39 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.560 Farther down tins of something green and angular script on 40 00:01:53.599 --> 00:01:57.359 the label, unreadably ornate, yet somehow tasteful. Frau ale back. 41 00:01:57.519 --> 00:02:02.079 I told myself, Nueski, you launch maybe Corporate in their 42 00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:05.519 infinite customer journey at Wisdom sent an overnight drop. I 43 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.000 ducked behind the checkle counter to check the daily store map, 44 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:10.360 tracing the route with my finger. Were twelve trailed into fourteen, 45 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:12.560 but the gap was unmistakable, and on the planned no 46 00:02:12.680 --> 00:02:15.680 Isle thirteen no space granted. I clicked over to the 47 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.199 digital blueprints. Nothing there either. The system hopped straight from 48 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:20.800 twelve to fourteen, and the measurements lined up, discounting the 49 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:24.439 enveloping expanse right before my eyes. By then, Claudia from 50 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:27.080 her stock ambled by rolling a cot stat with rink 51 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:30.159 wrap cans. You see what they did with the science. Claudia, 52 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:34.000 I tried nodding toward the new isle. She eyed it neutrally, 53 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:35.560 then looked at me as if I just pointed out 54 00:02:35.560 --> 00:02:39.039 the sunrise. What toile thirteen been? There? Can't miss it? 55 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:43.159 She plucked a can straight in the shelf facer and shrugged. Honestly, 56 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:45.639 I thought you wanted over stock tea there specialty focus 57 00:02:45.639 --> 00:02:48.280 you called it. She gave me an uncommitted wave and 58 00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:51.919 moved on to re arrange some marmalades. Derk usually half 59 00:02:51.919 --> 00:02:55.120 way between over caffeinated and superstitious, mumbling wheeled passed with 60 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:58.560 a load of bottled water. We're not moving that rack again, right, 61 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:02.199 he called. That's the third time this month, but his 62 00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:05.080 tone suggested it was entirely reasonable, just another wrinkle and 63 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:08.960 infinite involding of authorized chaos. A surge of customers pressed 64 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:11.439 through the main doors, bell jingle heralding the start of 65 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:14.560 the morning rush. I caught myself still rooted there at 66 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.039 staring down the threshold that shouldn't by any internal medical 67 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:20.759 corporate log actually exist. Most managers would have shrugged and 68 00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:24.080 cold facilities. But my reputation rides on noticing the irregular, 69 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.719 the vanishing case miss backs, the cryptic deliveries from three 70 00:03:26.759 --> 00:03:30.240 stores over. I see them as opportunities, places to catch 71 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:32.520 what nobody else ought, to prove that everything traceable in 72 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:35.960 the end fits somewhere. But this distribution of fox refused, 73 00:03:35.960 --> 00:03:38.879 even the courtesy of a reasonable lie. The aisle fit too, 74 00:03:38.919 --> 00:03:41.680 while gleaming and plausible, exactly where nothing ought to be. 75 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:44.280 Life in this store is a fine mesh of habit 76 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:48.719 and adaptability. I've worked here eleven years. Every morning means 77 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:51.080 my circuit, clipboard in hand, eyes on the grind, between 78 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:53.639 graut lines, never enough elbow grease in the overnight, taling 79 00:03:53.680 --> 00:03:56.680 shelve depths, and measuring shrink before the customers make everything real. 80 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:00.360 My mind's organized by planet grounds and color coded spread cheats, 81 00:04:00.400 --> 00:04:02.680 the sort of memory some coll photographic, but what I 82 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:06.280 know is just vigilant stitch to routine. Claudia man Official Long, 83 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:09.800 This tenured specialist favors order with an easy patience. She'll 84 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.319 gently rid me overspreadheed updates, and can recall the last 85 00:04:12.360 --> 00:04:14.680 for produce price wings by heart. But she's the first 86 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:16.959 to spot labors out of place, and, more importantly, to 87 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:20.279 fuse the grumbles among the new hives. She's worked elsewhere, 88 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:22.560 the vanished hyper mart, down on Polk, the ill fated 89 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:25.319 organic Experiment, Free Cities over always returning to this doll 90 00:04:25.399 --> 00:04:26.959 like a weed that can't be pride even by the 91 00:04:26.959 --> 00:04:30.920 best transfer offer. Derek's one of my detailed fiends. Step counter, 92 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:33.399 always maxed out, sticky notes peppering his clipboard. In a 93 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:36.480 pastel storm, he delights in the arder delivery crate with 94 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:39.480 extra twining, barcoded printed off center, a staple gun missing 95 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:42.639 for exactly two months, reappearing in plain sight. He calls 96 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.120 these Quark's Store spirits, and though I tease him, I'll 97 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:48.240 admit he finds things I'd otherwise overlook. It keeps the 98 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:52.720 job interesting, especially for someone with his over active pasant detector. Maya, 99 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.199 my assistant, runs like a silent algorithm, decisive laser edged, 100 00:04:56.519 --> 00:04:59.519 rarely swayed by moodle Weather. She'll povert a whole orfore 101 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:02.040 plan with out blinking holds staff briefings so brief some 102 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:04.680 people don't realize they've started, and can resolve anything from 103 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.959 a fistfight over coupon's to power outage with as little 104 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:10.160 drama switching socks. We joke she could run the entire 105 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:12.959 show with a rubber band and a burkeout scanner. Then 106 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:16.199 there's mister Feldman, the night manager, Practically nocturnal, a shadow 107 00:05:16.199 --> 00:05:18.720 in the morning, seldom venturing input except to point out 108 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:21.240 a pyerial air or quietly fix a freezer gasket before 109 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:24.439 anyone else hears the alarm. Most staff think he's huffertite, 110 00:05:24.519 --> 00:05:28.000 drifting toward invisibility. The store belongs to those who act, 111 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:31.360 not those humirely endure. Even our regulars play their part 112 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:35.040 in the choreography. Miss Esingo, fierce and beaming shops for 113 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:37.879 igpants and roots. Most camp pronounced and always chases rare 114 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:42.000 produced down to its last box. Mister Bernstein, cyril complainer, 115 00:05:42.040 --> 00:05:44.120 will corner any available era about last year as a 116 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:48.240 warnted isle, renumbering the pickle shelf moved again unacceptable. Sam, 117 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:51.000 the gangly college student, popped in for the extra inventory shift, 118 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:53.480 pulling student hours and nerves. Tight but eager and friendly 119 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.079 blueprints live in the cloud in the back office, with 120 00:05:56.120 --> 00:05:59.639 every isle cooler and fluorescent. Buld Mapton measured any tweak 121 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:02.160 to the store varas architecture is recorded in digital triplicate, 122 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:04.879 check by facilities and run up the chain weeks ahead. 123 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:09.519 Surprise changes doesn't happen. I valley being the first to 124 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:11.879 catch mistakes. But this this wasn't a mistake. It was 125 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:14.360 an impossibility, and I found I didn't care for the distinction. 126 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.000 On my second pass, clip were tight in my grip 127 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:19.600 I wove myself to step past the boundary into Aisle thirteen. 128 00:06:19.639 --> 00:06:21.920 Sun Vine Tea rested to my left, the cheese glimmerdry. 129 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:24.839 I put one of the tins half by reflex, angling 130 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:27.839 the label toward the lie. The text was blocky and flowing, 131 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:31.240 not quite cyrillic, not quite Greek. I turned it to 132 00:06:31.240 --> 00:06:33.720 reveal a barcoed at least some order. Here at the 133 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:38.360 demo register, a scandacan. The monitor chirped Item accepted vegetable 134 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:40.959 two dollars fifteen nine cents. As if the register couldn't 135 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.240 be bothered with the name. I tried the same with 136 00:06:43.319 --> 00:06:47.040 sun Vine Tea. Out every scan, perfectly smooth acceptance. The 137 00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:51.040 cistern child inventory showed in stock, no anomalies. I cross 138 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:53.519 checked the item number, Yes, it existed in our system, 139 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:57.240 cross reference with shelf tax. Except when back at my 140 00:06:57.279 --> 00:07:00.120 office computer pulling up corporate inventory for sun Vine, the 141 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.759 tag was attached to a brown of cleaning wipes, not tea. 142 00:07:03.399 --> 00:07:05.560 I scrolled a note to check this with Maya, and returned. 143 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:08.319 Before my thoughts caught up, the flow of morning traffic 144 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:11.600 rippled through the aisle. Claudia fetched a six pack, Derek 145 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:13.920 adjusted a display Maya made a brief sweep to check 146 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:17.079 if planet ground standards were being met. Each performed their 147 00:07:17.120 --> 00:07:19.720 role with the same confidant as always. Dipping between Twisle 148 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:22.600 thirteen and fourteen as of geography was merely a suggestion. 149 00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:25.800 When I stopped Claudie to ask her what Ale thirteen stocked, 150 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:28.040 she barely paused, and slicing the tape off her box. 151 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.920 He usually kitchen stuff, sometimes tease. Then the cleaning shelf 152 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:36.120 moved though last month right she stacked jars with mechanical calm, 153 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:39.680 but Derek called over immediately contradicted. That's the high NPTI 154 00:07:39.759 --> 00:07:41.959 spotf all those zulans before that. There were gallons of 155 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.680 white vinegar, he squinted, or maybe the vitamins. I swept 156 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:49.319 the previous week's paper receipts from old customers. Miss s 157 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:52.279 and go leaning on her cart, told me she always 158 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.040 collects a particular honey from Asle thirteen, waving a receipt 159 00:07:55.079 --> 00:07:57.079 at me, but she couldn't quite recall what the label 160 00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.600 looked like. It's the one with the little blue mountain, 161 00:07:59.639 --> 00:08:02.360 she guessed. There was no such honey in stock or 162 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.040 and backwarder and I made another note to check supply listings. 163 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:07.600 If the shelving itself was somehow hold over from an 164 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:10.240 earlier design, it would be reflected and the store's boundary 165 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:13.079 space as precious accounted for to the centimeter in storage 166 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:16.360 and safety coats. I paced Aisle thirteen from end to end, 167 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:19.079 attempting to markets threshold both at the dairy and cap, 168 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:21.879 but found myself struggling to neil the in points with certainty. 169 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:24.920 The isle's entrance fudge giving just enoughly wait to match 170 00:08:24.920 --> 00:08:27.279 the neighboring isle's length, but not so closely as to 171 00:08:27.319 --> 00:08:30.240 overlay perfectly. By the time I reached the dairy collers, 172 00:08:30.279 --> 00:08:32.080 the memory of which shelf was first and last felt 173 00:08:32.120 --> 00:08:35.159 faintly blurred, like a dream. Immediately after waking back in 174 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:38.440 my office, I checked yesterday's blueprints and the overnight security locks. 175 00:08:38.440 --> 00:08:40.159 Every line on the digital map showed a leap from 176 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:42.919 twelve straight to fourteen. The security footage played on double 177 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:45.159 speed showed the crew rolling out new floor tiles and 178 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:48.639 setting up fixtures, but never once constructing stocking, or rolling 179 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:51.559 shelving into the spot where Ale thirty now stood. When 180 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.240 the overnight video rolled past three seventeen A and the 181 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:56.840 aisle simply existed, the camera capturing the after image of 182 00:08:56.840 --> 00:08:59.320 something settled and correct, while my mind screamed at every 183 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:02.120 inch of it. Ile thirteen then was present in every 184 00:09:02.120 --> 00:09:06.000 possible physical mode worked on, chopped in, argued over. It 185 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:09.240 was also totallyad and specifically absent from every plan, map, 186 00:09:09.360 --> 00:09:12.720 an historical record. The contradiction hollowed out of space in me. 187 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.320 You could fix a mistake, you can't contend with what 188 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:18.200 thumbprints the well from the inside out. The next step, 189 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:21.759 given the dawning consensus of contradiction, was methodical. Prepare a plan, 190 00:09:21.879 --> 00:09:24.480 gather data, build a picture from the friction of incompatible 191 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:27.480 stories as if entangling, and not by viewing it from 192 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:31.399 every side. I prioritized observation my first sweep morning, when 193 00:09:31.399 --> 00:09:33.799 sun lights slanted down and made the fluorescence un necessary. 194 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:36.879 With the store in its cleanest, most predictable state, I 195 00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:39.840 retraced my paces at noon. Then a closing clipward readied 196 00:09:39.879 --> 00:09:43.440 with columns for product, shelf and location. Every time the 197 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.720 stock had shifted. Items I'd listed that morning were absent. 198 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:49.559 By noon. The isle impossibly stretched at least four feet 199 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.120 further than before. An encapp display of ketchup had migrated, 200 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:54.399 nudging out an entire cold bruce elf and sending the 201 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.360 cheese to the periphery. At one late check, the isle's 202 00:09:57.399 --> 00:10:00.399 midpoint featured a new display of glossy black vinegarboffe under 203 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:04.000 a sign that definitely hadn't existed an hour earlier. Unfamiliar 204 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.840 products were easy enough to collect, sun vine tea, several 205 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.240 tins with scripts that blowed at a corners, jars of 206 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:12.960 rose plum pickles with no visible supply code. At the register, 207 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:15.600 some scanned perfectly, ringing up his house brands or known 208 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:18.720 shelf items. Others flashed a product not fam but the 209 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.399 price tag defaulted to an even three dollars thirty five cents. 210 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:25.120 An inventory counted dan regardless one f photograph items and 211 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:27.759 compared them to our stock list. Neither image nor name 212 00:10:27.799 --> 00:10:30.480 existed in the head office inventory or any vendor catalog. 213 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:34.080 Direc and Claudier, when asked to describe what they'd last restocked, 214 00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:37.039 offered impressions that often didn't correspond to either my memory 215 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:39.679 or to one another's. Didn't you restock a shelf of 216 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:43.600 cleaning vinegar at noon? I asked Cordier? That was this morning? 217 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:46.120 She countered, and it was extra long spaghetti you were 218 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:50.639 thinking of Derek's end press people's accounts reversed. Direck, who'd 219 00:10:50.679 --> 00:10:53.360 only been sure about tease, later described an aisle filed 220 00:10:53.399 --> 00:10:55.080 with hardware and glue, and when I assured him a 221 00:10:55.159 --> 00:10:58.679 vinegar bottle, I just pulled. He blinked, uncertain even maya 222 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.519 languages impenetrable ss Steddy as ever admitted, I just put 223 00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.279 away whatever's in the delivery cage. It's labeled dial thirteen, 224 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:07.279 so I go there. Sometimes it's all snacks. Sometimes detergents 225 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.240 doesn't matter. There' scan and the system takes them out 226 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:12.639 of habit. I began to cross check receipts from customers 227 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:15.679 who bought from the isle, assessing Goo struggled to recall 228 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:17.799 whether the honey she'd always bought was the square glass 229 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:20.200 bottle or the one with red foil, but she recognized 230 00:11:20.200 --> 00:11:22.279 a vaguely familiar brand on the receipt, even as the 231 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:25.879 physical product in her cup bore no such label. Mister Beernstein, 232 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.679 after a long round about the missing deli counter, found 233 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:31.399 himself holding a ticket marked sm goat item code correct, 234 00:11:31.399 --> 00:11:34.840 but product never once offered by ourstor Sam, the college 235 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:38.080 student recounted a rare neon energy drink found half way 236 00:11:38.120 --> 00:11:40.440 down Aisle thirteen. He produced the kin when pressed, but 237 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:42.960 the flavor of piance bark it read had no existence 238 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.600 online nor in our inventory. I observed his mild embarrassment, 239 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:50.000 but no sign of deception. Eager for something concrete, I 240 00:11:50.039 --> 00:11:52.600 pulled the battered yellow tape measure from my pocket unless indirect, 241 00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:54.279 to help run at the aisle's full length while my 242 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:57.399 recorded in points by shove number. The measure returned and 243 00:11:57.480 --> 00:11:59.799 answer fully seven feet longer than the blueprints lance for 244 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:02.240 the space between twelve and fourteen. When I repeated the 245 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.279 process at evening, the tape was three feet short. A 246 00:12:04.360 --> 00:12:06.360 length of four simply could not account for, as if 247 00:12:06.399 --> 00:12:08.600 the aisle slithered up the stow geometry out by hour 248 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:11.799 once the center seemed to double back the tape measure, 249 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:14.360 revealing more length than could physically fit the visible run. 250 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:17.519 I spent the following day in the back office tracing blueprints, 251 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:21.960 reading system logs, emailing facilities. They replied, as always with 252 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.480 a brisk, polite dismissal. No Isle thirteen is present, remodeled 253 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.440 or planned. Received an order flow show a standard layer 254 00:12:29.080 --> 00:12:32.039 replaying of night security fortich resulted in the same glarying omission. 255 00:12:32.080 --> 00:12:34.639 The asle was simply there, a fixed feature in physical space, 256 00:12:34.799 --> 00:12:38.320 but absent from every instantiation of record and memory. Conversation 257 00:12:38.440 --> 00:12:42.120 with other manager's phone email slack yielded only vagueness and confusion. 258 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:45.480 Isle thirteen. Did you mean a spot between twelve and fourteen? 259 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:47.960 Was all they'd say, and when pressed, none could remember 260 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:50.919 ever walking down that space. I thought perhaps it was 261 00:12:50.919 --> 00:12:53.759 a trick of numbering, a curiosity of local memory, until 262 00:12:53.759 --> 00:12:57.159 the locks themselves began to fracture. Each new finding brought 263 00:12:57.200 --> 00:13:00.279 more contradiction, not less. I'd hoped that the weight of 264 00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:03.200 evidence would funnel into a clear narrative and anauthorized profound unit, 265 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:05.639 delivered by a wilk at night crew perhaps or a 266 00:13:05.639 --> 00:13:09.279 creative dry stock job gone awry. Instead, every piece of 267 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:12.840 evidence spawned it so implausible but mutually incompatible truth. The 268 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:15.240 only constant was the churn of uncertainty, as if the 269 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:17.919 very category of act could not exotraction on this phenomenon 270 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:20.519 at all. To feel I was making progress, I planned 271 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:23.919 a direct test before opening the store one quiet morning. 272 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:26.240 I marked both ends of Vile thirteen with bright green 273 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:28.159 tape and placed a sticky note labeled with the date 274 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:31.600 on each side. That evening, the sticky notes were missing entirely, 275 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:34.960 and the green tape inexplicably reappeared on shell five centeril, 276 00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:37.919 attached now to a stack of unsorted tees. I wrung 277 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:40.120 my hand over the edge, half expecting to be able 278 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:42.759 to peel reality back like shelf paper, but instead feeling 279 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.960 only cold metal bracket and chalky dust. When I tried 280 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:48.480 to write out step by step a definitive a description 281 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:51.080 of Vile thirteen's inventory. A return two hours later to 282 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.240 find the item labels had shifted to gems now where 283 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.039 there had been baking sowed at the cheese, now front 284 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:56.879 by a row of posta jaws I'd seen earlier in 285 00:13:56.919 --> 00:14:01.240 bulk snapping photos did little good. The first photo time 286 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:03.759 stamped showed rows of vinegar bottles, both right side up 287 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:06.480 a mirror reversed cross the aisle. The next time, the 288 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:09.600 pictures appeared nearly normal, though shelf label spelled tomatoed with 289 00:14:09.639 --> 00:14:12.919 far too many vowels. Even my own meeting notes kept 290 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:16.679 obsessively for monthly review. Joined in the revolt, I flipped 291 00:14:16.679 --> 00:14:19.240 back through digital arcs under last week's stock issues will 292 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:23.240 hold paragraphs about ASLE thirteen, some dating months prior. In one, 293 00:14:23.399 --> 00:14:25.960 I referred to an encap of pickles that had never existed. 294 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.480 Another described an aisle of only a hardware and lamp oil, 295 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:32.120 which I remembered as holding canned fruit. Other details magnified 296 00:14:32.120 --> 00:14:34.159 on ease, but not in any way I could call 297 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:37.720 menacing just strange, mildly impossible, relentless in their refusal to fit. 298 00:14:38.360 --> 00:14:41.320 Some products were house brands, wheats continued but bore expiration 299 00:14:41.399 --> 00:14:43.519 date years in the future, or lists of ingredients that 300 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:46.320 didn't line up with any supplier. I knew bottles bore 301 00:14:46.360 --> 00:14:49.080 priced tags, cross damped from stores I remembered closing before 302 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:51.519 merging with Hours brands my old coworkers used to talk 303 00:14:51.559 --> 00:14:54.399 about fondly, but which had vanished during the last decade's turn. 304 00:14:55.000 --> 00:14:56.960 I ran my finger over a tin of Coco labeled 305 00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:59.799 Femberg's Choice, a musty logo I recognized from the old 306 00:14:59.799 --> 00:15:03.120 News York stores folded years ago. It was always dusty, 307 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:04.879 always seemed to come in after a rush date or 308 00:15:04.879 --> 00:15:08.480 a power out. Now Here it was pristine. My question 309 00:15:08.559 --> 00:15:12.679 shifted what determines were ASLE thirteen holts was it queued 310 00:15:12.759 --> 00:15:15.840 up in the delivery system and consciously assembled from collective neglect. 311 00:15:16.559 --> 00:15:18.519 Was I mapping some corner of the mind or was 312 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.679 there a depot logic to it? Shifts as social utility 313 00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:23.720 and need. The urgency slipped from a hunt for managerial 314 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.720 control into something like philosophical dread, not of horror, but 315 00:15:26.799 --> 00:15:28.960 of being in the prisons of assistant too vastros subtle 316 00:15:28.960 --> 00:15:32.600 to sympathy. I found myself growing humble. Each new approach 317 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:34.960 changed the terms of the puzzle, undermining my sense of 318 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:36.720 what de facts stand, the records even meant in this 319 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:40.320 place memory so long, my ally in sorting order out 320 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:42.639 of the stor's chaos began to fray and crinkle under 321 00:15:42.639 --> 00:15:44.360 the gentle press of an anomaly that cared not a 322 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:47.399 work for being solved. It was late nearly end of 323 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:50.320 shift when I found myself ironically searching up mister Felman 324 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:53.159 for any clue from the night crew. He was, as usual, 325 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:55.039 in his second hum behind a battered desk in the 326 00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:59.919 manager's closet, fiddling with peril slips. Ye keeping late hours, boss, here, 327 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:02.799 ye me with quiet amusement. But do you ever remember 328 00:16:02.799 --> 00:16:04.919 seeing the syle Issle thirteen show up? One day, or 329 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:07.879 was it always here? I asked, keeping my voice low, 330 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:10.240 as if not to spook some fragile animal hiding behind 331 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:14.240 the water pipes. Felman caught his head smiling wryly. Here, 332 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:16.120 you know you're not the first to ask about that 333 00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:20.240 happens every so often. Nobody satisfy. As if considering, he 334 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:23.200 reached below his desk, brooding beneath bundles of old manuals 335 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:26.519 and spare tape guns. He emerged holding a battled cardboard 336 00:16:26.519 --> 00:16:30.039 box old tape plod at the corners. Here, he said, 337 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:33.320 with reluctant ceremony, thought this might interest you. He passed 338 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.759 the box, and as I peeled back the cardboard, a 339 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.360 stack of handriton journals appeared to summon loopy cursive, some 340 00:16:38.440 --> 00:16:41.799 in neat textbook print on the first page, Isle thirteen 341 00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:46.919 Records nineteen seventy seven, another thirteen Wristock Procedures nineteen ninety three. 342 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:50.440 Several ulks, some in careful Yiddish, another labeled in what 343 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:52.879 looked like Fate of Vietnamese, each with its own mixture 344 00:16:52.879 --> 00:16:56.519 of product notes and margin sketches. Old calligraphic entries, listed 345 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:00.639 oil cans, painted hardware, otters, described delaxies whose names had 346 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:03.799 only encountered on staff partlet tables, pickle chair at Charcher Route, 347 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:07.599 holiday borched. Some logs took the form of inventory talis, 348 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:11.440 columns and rows of notation that gleamed with certainty. Occasionally 349 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:13.599 a photo was clipt inside a young man in an 350 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:16.759 impossible herduro stocking shelf goods under a sign for border derry. 351 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.880 Elsewhere a faded woman beamed out from between two rows 352 00:17:19.920 --> 00:17:22.519 of beans every inch the confident four lead her apron 353 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:25.359 art with the nineteen ninety one campaign for Regional Cheeses. 354 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:28.359 Each notebook, each entry built its own world in which 355 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:31.000 Isle thirteen was not only real, but central, permanent, and 356 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:34.440 differently described by every author. Several times the writers had 357 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:37.039 attempted their own mapping, the same failures as mine. Lines 358 00:17:37.079 --> 00:17:40.119 that would inter line, inventory that changed, even hedge warnings 359 00:17:40.119 --> 00:17:43.480 in the margins. Last week, vinegar here now all gone, 360 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.799 next shift, flour markers moved again repeatedly. Some one would 361 00:17:46.839 --> 00:17:49.759 mention trying to contact head office for clarification. Manager of 362 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.920 facilities denyes, Ile thirteen at this sea attached reply each language, 363 00:17:54.039 --> 00:17:56.559 each author's style mirror of form of staff are half remembered, 364 00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:00.200 are now retired. Perhaps passed on, each factually insistent, each 365 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.119 unable to agree on a single shelf. The logs painted 366 00:18:03.160 --> 00:18:05.400 a picture of contradiction, but also of persistent care, of 367 00:18:05.480 --> 00:18:07.920 willingness to document, to claim, to fight for the existence 368 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.559 of what should have been impossible and thus beyond accountability. 369 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:13.839 Larger patterns began to flicker as I leaf through the pile. 370 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:17.119 Ile thirteen seemed to bloom most insistently in moments of 371 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.279 stress or lack. Old rites ups about city wide supply 372 00:18:20.359 --> 00:18:24.559 interruptions correlated with detailed list of suddenly abundant cankoots during 373 00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:26.839 a local strike in the nineteen eighties, it became a 374 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:30.920 home for crisis stock, flour, sugar, batteries. In quieter years, 375 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.000 it held rare treats, brands missing from the city for 376 00:18:33.039 --> 00:18:36.880 a decade, snacks remembered from someone's childhood, chill, A fascination 377 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:39.920 not fear, never fear not here ran through me. As 378 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:42.000 I flipped past the oldest in trees, my sense of 379 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:45.119 the puzzle deepened. This isle, far from being new, wasn't 380 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:47.759 even rarer. Its existence flitted in and out of the 381 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:50.759 store's living memory, as present in crisis as in celebration. 382 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:54.480 Possible to eliminate an impossible to agree upon. The phenomenon 383 00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:57.000 repeated an uknoble number of times in an unoble number 384 00:18:57.039 --> 00:18:59.440 of ways, with each observer assured and assured, but never 385 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:03.440 conferrent evidence. Memory and contradiction had now spun a web 386 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:06.839 as complex as it was beautiful. Isle thirteen, I realize 387 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:08.720 might not belong to the world of facts at all, 388 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:10.799 but to something deeper, woven from hope, habit, and the 389 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:13.799 store's own secret rhythm. But every conclusion opened a newer, 390 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:16.240 stranger question, and for the first time I understood that 391 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.839 progress he meant not finding the answer, but understanding the 392 00:19:18.839 --> 00:19:21.599 profound shape of the unknown. Felman regarded me with the 393 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:23.920 tie patients. As I stood leaping through the old logs, 394 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:26.960 the battered cardboard box pitched awkwardly atop his recycling bin. 395 00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:30.279 Like I said, he murmured, comes up every few years, 396 00:19:30.279 --> 00:19:32.799 some one gets interested, starts digging' he think there's an 397 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:36.319 end to it? His question wasn'tknocking. I set the most 398 00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:40.440 fragile notebook aside and scan the others. Every entry, every hand, 399 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:43.119 every language, a private testament, a fragment from someone who 400 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:45.319 had stood just where I was, bend over a clippod 401 00:19:45.359 --> 00:19:48.559