WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.199 Retirement has made me soft in small, pleasant ways. My 2 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:13.160 mornings are unscheduled now, my time easily poured into the day, 3 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.679 like warm sugar into tea. I strolled to the bakery 4 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.399 by the harbor each sunrise, greeting the gulls and trading 5 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.640 polite words about weather with old Missus Korkinski, who always 6 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:27.760 manages to have the perfect batch of scones ready just 7 00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:32.880 as I arrive. After breakfast, I meander, sometimes along the 8 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:36.719 tide worn rocks, sometimes up main Street, but more often 9 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:39.560 than not through the big, brass handled doors of the 10 00:00:39.640 --> 00:00:43.880 Rose Bay Public Library. The library is a sturdy old thing, 11 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:47.399 perched on a little rise above the square. It smells 12 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:51.600 of beeswax, pencil shavings, and that indefinable scent of patient 13 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:54.359 old stories. I think of it as a friend, or 14 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:57.600 perhaps a former classroom, a place where you might be expected, 15 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:01.560 but you're rarely expected to be useful. Yet, after forty 16 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:04.680 years teaching history at the local high school, I find 17 00:01:04.719 --> 00:01:09.159 I like to be useful, so I volunteer most days. 18 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:13.719 Missus Norris, i, head librarian, puts me to gentle tasks, reshelving, 19 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:18.120 organizing trivia nights, straightening up the local history room. She's 20 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:21.079 a strict woman of late middle years, with a steely 21 00:01:21.159 --> 00:01:24.840 gray bun, tidy cardigan's and the orderly disposition of some 22 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:27.879 one who still remembers every dewy decimal number from her 23 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:31.439 training in eighty one. She's fond of the phrase a 24 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:34.719 place for everything, and I suspect the phrase is less 25 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:38.840 a guideline and more an article of personal faith. Two 26 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:41.680 weeks ago she had me sorting a backlog of donations 27 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:46.519 from Missus Llewellyn's estate, a famous local packrat and sometime historian, who, 28 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:50.159 contrary to legend, is alive and well, but recently cleaned 29 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:53.400 out a garage. I was down in the old reading alcove, 30 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:56.480 which juts out oddly from the east wall in a shallow, 31 00:01:56.519 --> 00:02:00.439 dim triangle. It always struck me as in between between 32 00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:03.000 the sun and the stacks, between the old and the 33 00:02:03.000 --> 00:02:07.719 new additions. That day, clearing a half collapsed box of atlases, 34 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:10.599 I set the volumes on a bare shelf, wedged back 35 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.840 in a low lit recess. At least it looked bare 36 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:17.520 in the moment, just an ordinary battered walnut book shelf. 37 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:20.800 But as I stood and brushed dust from my trousers, 38 00:02:21.080 --> 00:02:25.039 something caught my eye. The shelf was longer than I remembered, 39 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:28.319 its contents more numerous. To the left, where I could 40 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:31.319 have sworn only a few gardening almanacs had been, they 41 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:35.360 now stretched seven perhaps eight feet of tightly packed, uniform books. 42 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.879 They stood upright, slim, blandly bound in pale buckram, each 43 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:43.039 spine precisely labeled with a date in neat black ink. 44 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:46.919 The labels went backward one per book, without skipping so 45 00:02:47.000 --> 00:02:49.240 much as a single day. As far as I could 46 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.800 trace by squinting in the gloom, the earliest I could 47 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:58.639 spot without pulling everything outread nineteen ten January one. I 48 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:02.199 took out the journal, marked last Tuesday. Its cover was soft, 49 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:05.759 not new, but not worn either. Its pages ruled by hand, 50 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:09.280 each one covered in dense script. The handwriting had that 51 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:13.240 careful discipline of a ledger, neither ornate nor careless. Signed 52 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:17.800 nowhere except unknown, The entry chronicled the weather, blustery mid 53 00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:21.120 day showers, the result of a town council vote on 54 00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:25.360 lamp posts, the menus on offer at the cafe. Dozens, 55 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:29.919 perhaps hundreds of these journals, each dated, each, it seemed, 56 00:03:30.199 --> 00:03:33.560 containing the mundane details of a single day in rose Bay. 57 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:37.639 I looked for an author, a sticker. I found nothing. 58 00:03:37.960 --> 00:03:42.080 No stamp, no barcode, no library markings along the inside cover, 59 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:45.719 none of the usual signs. The shelf itself was free 60 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:49.479 of dust, the spines perfectly, even as if newly arranged. 61 00:03:49.919 --> 00:03:52.879 When I went to lift another out, they slid noiselessly, 62 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:56.280 almost as though the air around them insisted on silence. 63 00:03:57.319 --> 00:04:00.719 I realized, with a prickling sensation that I couldn't recall 64 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:04.319 ever noticing the shelf in this alcove or anywhere else 65 00:04:04.360 --> 00:04:08.599 in the building. And yet the organization and preservation suggested 66 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:14.120 intent routine care. Was it recently installed? Surely Missus Norris 67 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:19.480 would know. I hurried upstairs, fingers still tingling, journal hugged 68 00:04:19.480 --> 00:04:24.120 discreetly to my chest. Missus Norris, I began holding out 69 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:27.000 the volume. Do you know where these came from? Down 70 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:31.000 in the alcove? She peered over the rims of her bifocals, 71 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:34.680 which ones, dear all of the basement shelves were inventoried 72 00:04:34.759 --> 00:04:37.680 last autumn. She took it from me, turning it in 73 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:42.439 her hands, squinting at the spine, odd binding, no record here. 74 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.800 She checked the inner covers, and I certainly never ordered 75 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:49.639 anything anonymous. Where did you say you found them in 76 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:53.439 the alcove, third shelf down, left side up against the 77 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:58.000 old paneling. She pursed, her lips, visibly searching her memory. 78 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:03.160 That's impossible, look over those every month cleaning records repairs. 79 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:06.480 You know, I'd have seen these, maybe a stray shelf 80 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.480 from the Llewellyn piles. But she trailed off and went 81 00:05:09.519 --> 00:05:12.680 to consult her log book, muttering numbers and dates under 82 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:16.199 her breath. I followed her down, and we stood together, 83 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:20.639 side by side, surveying the row of identical date labeled books. 84 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:26.079 Missus Norris frowned. That is strange, she admitted, softer than usual. 85 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:29.319 They're not on any shelf list. I'd stake my pension 86 00:05:29.399 --> 00:05:33.720 on it. I felt something open up inside me, not alarm, 87 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:36.879 but a tug, the old familiar itch that drove me 88 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:41.240 as a teacher. There was something here, a record unrecorded. 89 00:05:41.639 --> 00:05:43.680 The shelf in its book seemed to lean into the 90 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:48.319 dull light, waiting that evening, as rose tinted dusk reached 91 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:51.439 through the windows. I could not help but wonder had 92 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:55.519 the journals always been there, unseen through familiarity and habit, 93 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:58.839 or was this some quieter kind of arrival. I tried 94 00:05:58.839 --> 00:06:01.600 to search my own memory for the answer, but much 95 00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:04.839 like those dimly lit corners of the library, I found 96 00:06:04.879 --> 00:06:08.199 only a gentle, nagging space where certainty should have been. 97 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:13.199 The following morning routine reasserted itself like a gentle tide. 98 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:17.000 I rose at seven, brewed coffee, watched the clouds turn 99 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:19.800 from violet to blue above the old row houses on 100 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:23.360 Spruce Street. My windows face the harbor, and from there 101 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:27.920 the day always begins in slow crescendo, gulls circling missus 102 00:06:27.959 --> 00:06:32.759 Korkinski's cat venturing out, the local postman, mister Callahan, whistling 103 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:36.160 an off key tune as he makes his rounds. There's 104 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:39.079 a comfort to the repetition of it all, a mutual 105 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:43.639 understanding between the town and its inhabitants that nothing terribly 106 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:48.040 dramatic will happen Before ten. At the bakery, I lingered 107 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:50.959 over a second scone and joked with Lucas, the young 108 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:55.399 baker's apprentice, about his amateur sourdough. He's earnest, his cheeks 109 00:06:55.399 --> 00:06:57.959 always ruddy from the ovens, and he takes teasing in 110 00:06:58.040 --> 00:07:01.279 stride from the window. The libey rises over the trimmed 111 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:04.759 plane trees of the central square, its stone facade stippled 112 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:08.120 with lichen, the windows set deep and wide. To day, 113 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:11.639 some brought out the bronze in the engraved dedication Rose 114 00:07:11.639 --> 00:07:15.560 Bay Public Library, a gift to the future. Nineteen eleven. 115 00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:19.639 When I returned, Missus Norris beckoned me through the stacks. 116 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:24.240 You must meet Peter, She said, our new volunteer claims 117 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:29.079 he likes mysteries. Peter was perhaps eighteen, with wild curly 118 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:32.360 hair and trainers that squeaked against the parquet. He eyed 119 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:35.519 the alcove later with calculation, as if sizing up an 120 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:40.000 opponent in chess. You're telling me these just appeared, he said, 121 00:07:40.040 --> 00:07:43.600 with a lop sided grin. Bit weird. Yea may be 122 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:47.759 a prank, I shrugged. If so, some one went to 123 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:51.720 an absurd amount of detail, I'll check them in the system, 124 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:55.560 Peter offered. Tech might catch a glitch better than old eyes. 125 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:00.680 No offense, he added, smiling at Missus Norris. She only 126 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:04.759 sniffed and reminded him order, young man, that's what saves 127 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:09.600 us from chaos. That afternoon, Missus Llewellyn herself emerged from 128 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:14.680 her basement office. Haphazard bun clattering bracelets, spectacles perched on 129 00:08:14.759 --> 00:08:17.680 her head like a crown. I hear the rumor mills 130 00:08:17.680 --> 00:08:21.600 spinning up about the journals, she asked, eyeing me. Rosebay 131 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:25.240 Es never had a shortage of self appointed chroniclers. Did 132 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:27.759 you know we once had three conflicting registers for the 133 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:31.160 same boat launch in nineteen fifty two. People here would 134 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:35.240 rather argue history than live it. You've seen these, then, 135 00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:40.200 I asked, She shrugged, squinting into the half light. Honestly, 136 00:08:40.559 --> 00:08:43.879 can't say I have. But our archives do have old gaps, 137 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:47.240 volumes that come and go. You know, sometimes I think 138 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:51.480 the library grows its own corners. The building itself is 139 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:55.480 a patchwork, with original stone giving way to nineteen forties brick, 140 00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:59.320 then glass and steel from the addition in the late eighties. 141 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:03.559 The alcove predates the newer wing by decades, but always 142 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:07.639 seemed a small footnote to the grander halls above. At 143 00:09:07.679 --> 00:09:11.679 every turn, something in the architecture asserts history as an accumulation, 144 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:14.919 not a straight line. A time worn mural of the 145 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:19.320 fishing fleet, half obscured by magazine racks, commemorative plaques so 146 00:09:19.440 --> 00:09:22.440 old that even town elders can't agree if the firing 147 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:26.639 question was in nineteen fifteen or fourteen, a narrow staircase 148 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:30.039 leading nowhere but a locked store room containing hand painted 149 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:34.559 boards of local election results year after year, slightly differing 150 00:09:34.600 --> 00:09:39.200 in neatness and style. Rose Bay itself seems curated, its 151 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.679 myths and traditions passed down as fiercely as family recipes. 152 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:45.679 There's a sense that every public detail is up for 153 00:09:45.759 --> 00:09:49.000 gentle debate. Dates of the first snow, height of the 154 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:55.159 tallest elm, the true pronunciation of Llewellyn, monthly festivals, fishermen's dance, 155 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:59.559 lantern night, the pie fair dot, the town's calendar, blending 156 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:04.320 except fact and creative embellishment. I once watched an argument 157 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:07.279 at the barbershop turn and whether the bell atop town 158 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:11.080 Hall rang twenty nine or thirty one times after the 159 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:14.720 war ended. It is a place where people both cherish 160 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:17.960 and contest their collective memory. And it struck me now 161 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.679 that perhaps the library is not just Rose Bay's heart, 162 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:25.600 but its brain, its silent keeper of remembered days. What then, 163 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:29.480 to make of a shelf filled with anonymous records, perfectly 164 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:34.039 unclaimed and unseen. That evening back in the alcove, I 165 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:36.679 took a random volume from the shelf, this time the 166 00:10:36.759 --> 00:10:40.440 journal marked with a date only one week prior, last Thursday. 167 00:10:40.879 --> 00:10:43.519 The script was as tidy as the others, the entry 168 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:47.720 a blend of civic trivia and ordinary pleasantries. Noon, the 169 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:51.240 victory bell sounded over the square to day, summoning townsfolk 170 00:10:51.279 --> 00:10:54.720 to the children's parade on Maine, flags handed out by 171 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:58.120 missus Nuyan at the bakery procession, followed by ice cream 172 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:02.399 cones and photographs by miss per Percy. An ordinary enough 173 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:05.799 account for an ordinary Thursday, except that I could not 174 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:09.720 recall so much as the jangle of a bell. I 175 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:14.360 paged through nearby dates. The syntax was strangely consistent, never 176 00:11:14.440 --> 00:11:18.720 breaking from a certain formal restraint. No one signed, always 177 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:23.240 simply unknown. Was it possible I'd missed a whole parade? 178 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:26.639 I tried to reconstruct my own memory. A walk in 179 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:30.279 the morning, scones, a trip to the post office, reading 180 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:34.399 the local paper, nothing about a victory bell or children 181 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:38.559 parading with flags. I approached Missus Norris at her desk, 182 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:42.559 journal in hand. Do you remember a parade last Thursday? 183 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:46.919 I asked? She pursed her lips, reviewing her in a calendar, 184 00:11:47.519 --> 00:11:51.360 I heard some distant music. Perhaps no parade that I recall. 185 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:54.759 But then some weeks I hardly look out from paperwork 186 00:11:54.840 --> 00:11:59.159 until closing. Could have been an impromptu affair. Peter, who 187 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:04.720 was shelving packs, overheard and snorted parade last Thursday. Not 188 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:08.039 a chance, I bet my wages. Nothing happened here last 189 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:12.399 week except maybe the new bins on Maine. A contradiction. 190 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:17.000 Then the record says one thing, the memories another. For 191 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:20.480 a moment I wondered if it were simply a creative flourish, 192 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:24.679 somebody with too much time concocting local history. Yet as 193 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.759 I stood there in the quiet stacks, the image flickered 194 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:31.000 in the back of my mind, a faint echo of bells, 195 00:12:31.240 --> 00:12:36.559 children's laughter, sunlight over Pennance. Was I remembering or only 196 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:40.279 wanting to On a whim? I bundled my coat and 197 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:43.759 left the library for the square. Here the trees dropped 198 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:47.840 early golden leaves. The victory bell and antique hangs in 199 00:12:47.879 --> 00:12:51.320 an open tower over the square. It rarely rings except 200 00:12:51.360 --> 00:12:56.240 for special occasions, wartime anniversaries and the New Year. At 201 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:59.559 the bakery, I paused, noting the usual blackboard by the window. 202 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:03.440 But someone, perhaps Lucas, had arranged a half dozen old 203 00:13:03.440 --> 00:13:07.240 photographs in a fresh display. The top photo showed children 204 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:10.639 with small paper flags, standing shoulder to shoulder in front 205 00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:14.159 of the bronze bell, the costumes, the sunlight, the cluster 206 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:17.480 of adults. These could easily have been last week. A 207 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:22.879 sign beneath declared in Lucas's careful lettering victory Parade October twelve, 208 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:27.240 thank you for celebrating with us. I found myself hesitating 209 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:31.080 at the threshold, unsure whether to ask for clarification or 210 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:34.679 simply accept. I looked at the faces in the photograph, 211 00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:38.720 searching for someone I recognized, but the resolution was poor 212 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:42.879 and the children's faces were turned away. That night I 213 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:47.559 dreamed of bells, clear high tones, echoing through fog in 214 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:50.519 the half light between sleep and morning. It seemed as 215 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:54.279 simple as this, something had happened, something that was supposed 216 00:13:54.320 --> 00:13:57.840 to be remembered. Over the next several days, I tried 217 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:01.039 to let the matter go. Yet every room routeen, every 218 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:05.000 stroll past the schoolyard, every idle chat with Missus, Norris 219 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:09.279 or Peter brought it back. The contradiction, once spotted itched, 220 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.240 I became nervously curious, almost determined. The following afternoon, I 221 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.120 resolved to compare more of the journals entries to what 222 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:22.840 other records remained. I started with town newsletters, the formal 223 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:27.559 newspaper archives, the local history room's brittle folders of council minutes. 224 00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:31.519 For each date, I selected at random a journal volume 225 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:35.600 and found a recent parallel in the archives. A page 226 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:38.240 in the Journal for April twenty third, nineteen eighty eight, 227 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:41.919 for example, described the Three Furs Festival with floats and 228 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:45.120 a bake custard contest, but cross referencing with both the 229 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.480 Rose Bay Herald and Missus Llewellyn's summary history for that year, 230 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.519 I found, curiously no mention at all In other places. 231 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:55.759 The opposite. The journals noted a minor kitchen fire at 232 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:59.440 the Mariners Hall one summer, which the newspaper also reported, 233 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:04.360 but to described differently, different time, different culprit. The more 234 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:08.600 I compared, the more I noticed subtle drift. Public sources 235 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:11.720 disagreed with each other, sometimes by a year or by 236 00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:16.279 a name, sometimes echoing word for word, but often not only. 237 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:20.639 The journal's page after page held their own strange consistency, 238 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:25.519 even for trivial or unremarkable events. I grew bold enough 239 00:15:25.519 --> 00:15:28.440 to ask Missus Llewellyn, who by now was immune to 240 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:31.480 the idea of oddities. When I handed her the journal 241 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:35.399 for September seventh, nineteen seventy three, she hummed and waved 242 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:39.000 a dismissive hand at the page This town's history is 243 00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:43.159 mostly invention, dear, half My job is untangling fact from 244 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.080 local wit. You said the parade was last Thursday. Who's 245 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.960 to say it wasn't just because you don't remember. Peter 246 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:55.159 passing by heard us and grinned. You too, are sounding obsessed, 247 00:15:55.399 --> 00:15:58.240 he said, holding up his phone as if to photograph 248 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:01.919 a page. Let's settle, snap a shot, run some O 249 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:06.639 c R. Check for fraud. I watched as his phone focused, clicked, 250 00:16:06.679 --> 00:16:10.159 and displayed an image, a smear of blurred lines and nonsense. 251 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:15.240 He tried again, zooming in, adjusting the light. Always the same, weird, 252 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:19.080 he mumbled, camera bug. He handed me the phone. No 253 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:23.759 matter how carefully I tried, photos came out, warped, the words, smudged, 254 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:28.559 the dates indistinct. With mounting fascination, I turned to living 255 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:32.720 witnesses at the bakery. I asked Lucas about the victory parade. 256 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:37.039 He hesitated, then laughed. Could have sworn that was years ago, 257 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:41.000 Miss Taylor. But the photos right here, isn't it? Maybe 258 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:43.720 they did a little one after school last week. The 259 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.000 kids like any excuse for ice cream. Out of curiosity, 260 00:16:48.279 --> 00:16:51.639 I spoke with old mister Callahan, our postman. Do you 261 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:55.279 remember the Victory bell last Thursday? I put it plainly. 262 00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:59.360 He tugged at his cap, thinking, Ah, can't say I do. 263 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:03.120 Then after a pause, his eyes lit well, now that 264 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:05.640 you mention it. My mother always used to drag me 265 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:08.799 out to those parades as a boy. Don't suppose I've 266 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:12.039 heard the bell in years, though funny, I could almost 267 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:15.839 see it now, the kids in their ribbons odd In 268 00:17:15.880 --> 00:17:20.519 each conversation, memory bent and wavered. For some, usually the 269 00:17:20.599 --> 00:17:25.000 younger people, nothing remarkable happened for others. Given a moment, 270 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:28.359 recollection began to fit the shape of the record, as 271 00:17:28.359 --> 00:17:32.799 though the memory existed only after being gently steered. I 272 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:35.880 began to notice a new sensation while reading the journals, 273 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:39.920 a slow unfurling inside my mind. At first, I would 274 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.000 remember a day one way, a cloudy morning, a visit 275 00:17:43.039 --> 00:17:45.680 to the post office. But the more I poured over 276 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:49.279 the entries, the more certain details became hazy, only to 277 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:52.720 settle again in alignment with the page. If I searched, 278 00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:55.359 for instance, for what happened at the Square in June 279 00:17:55.400 --> 00:17:58.839 of ninety one, my certainty faded. Had I been at 280 00:17:58.839 --> 00:18:02.720 the festival that year? My own memories began to feel 281 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:06.039 less like pictures in a frame and more like brushstrokes 282 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:11.039 on a canvas. Some one else was quietly repainting. Disturbed 283 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:15.359 and fascinated, I started conducting little tests. I wrote down 284 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:18.759 what I believed I remembered, then read an entry recounting 285 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:22.559 the same day. When I revisited my notes, sometimes my 286 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:27.000 own handwriting seemed slightly unfamiliar. Was it my writing? Or 287 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.599 had I imagined it? At the height of my curiosity, 288 00:18:30.839 --> 00:18:33.400 I sat with Missus Norris and Peter to debate the 289 00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:38.599 bakery's old name. It's always been Korkinski, s, said Missus Norris. 290 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:42.960 My father used to buy loaves there, same sign, same smell. 291 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:47.839 Peter shook his head. Nah, wasn't it main Street Baker's 292 00:18:47.880 --> 00:18:50.440 until the nineties. My mum has a mug with the 293 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:56.079 old logo. Missus Norris frowned. That mug's a souvenir. Main 294 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:00.440 Street Baker's was next door before the fire. Uncan vinced 295 00:19:00.519 --> 00:19:04.960 Peter grinned memories a funny thing, that's all easy to misplace. 296 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.079 A sign mister Callahan passing behind the counter with his 297 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:14.000 mail bag piped up Korkinski's shore always was mind you. 298 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:16.119 There was a brief spell in the seventies when we 299 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:19.440 called it the flower bin for that special on cinnamon 300 00:19:19.559 --> 00:19:24.160 rolls gave out flags at the Trinity Parade. I barely 301 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:28.279 stopped myself from asking which Trinity Parade for. Suddenly it 302 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:32.480 seemed the town's history was not so much contradictory as negotiable. 303 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:36.599 What exactly did we all remember? And why did the 304 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:41.279 journals remember more consistently than any living witness or public archive. 305 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:46.680 With each conversation, my curiosity only deepened. If the journals 306 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:50.799 could nudge recollection, whose voice was it nudging who or 307 00:19:50.880 --> 00:19:54.799 what was writing these days into being? I had begun 308 00:19:54.839 --> 00:19:57.559 to suspect that the journals were not mere records, but 309 00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:01.680 active participants. The contradiction had ceased to be which detail 310 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:08.200 is true? Instead, a different question gnawed, How does this shelf, invisible, unmarked, 311 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:12.119 write itself into what we all remember? Though the answer 312 00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:15.960 hovered tantalizing, I could sense I was missing something deeper. 313 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:20.640 Some thread connecting the page to the world outside. I 314 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:23.720 spent that night at my desk, staring at lines of 315 00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:27.480 the tidy, looping script, wondering not just what had happened, 316 00:20:27.799 --> 00:20:30.200 but what it meant for anything to happen in Rose Bay, 317 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:33.759 or to be remembered at all. The world around me 318 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:37.400 shifted more subtly than ever before. At the library the 319 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:40.640 next morning, I heard two patrons in the adjacent isle 320 00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:44.599 debating a statue newly placed in the park. It's about 321 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:48.720 time they honored Grace Suwell, said one. You remember she 322 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:53.759 founded the children's library back in thirty six, Fanny, said 323 00:20:53.799 --> 00:20:56.799 the other. I was sure that corner was empty until 324 00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:01.160 last week. You think they moved it from somewhere. Curious, 325 00:21:01.240 --> 00:21:03.480 I made my way to the little park, passing the 326 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:06.559 iron gates and pausing by the old chest table, exactly 327 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:10.319 as I remembered. At first, nothing stood out. The flower 328 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:14.079 beds were tidy, the benches bore the same worn brass inlays. 329 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:16.920 But past the big elm, near the far fence stood 330 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:20.119 a small bronze statue, child sized, with a book clasped 331 00:21:20.119 --> 00:21:23.039 in both hands. The inscription weathered as if it had 332 00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:26.759 been there for decades. Read in honor of Grace S. E. W. E. 333 00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:33.079 L l. Nineteen thirty six. I touched the metal, cold, smooth, unremarkable. 334 00:21:33.559 --> 00:21:37.519 No plaque announced a recent dedication. No fresh sod told 335 00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:41.000 of new gardening. The grass grew right up to its base. 336 00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:44.759 In the library's alcove, I found the journal for the 337 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:48.039 previous Friday. Near the end of the entry. It read 338 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:52.440 A sunny afternoon was marked by children gathering round Miss 339 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:57.519 Suell's statue for stories. Rain threatened briefly, but the group persisted. 340 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:03.200 Back inside, I caught Peter straightening magazines. When did they 341 00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:07.200 put up that statue in the park, I asked? He blinked, 342 00:22:07.440 --> 00:22:12.799 which one? Grace Sewell just passed the elm. Peter frowned. 343 00:22:13.279 --> 00:22:15.880 That's always been there, hasn't it. I used to climb 344 00:22:15.920 --> 00:22:19.559 it as a kid. Unless wait, maybe I'm confusing it 345 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:24.240 with the bronze ship. Missus Norris overhearing, said no, the 346 00:22:24.279 --> 00:22:27.720 ship s by the docks. The Suell statue s been 347 00:22:27.799 --> 00:22:32.000 at the corner for ages. She paused, uncertainty flickering across 348 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:35.720 her face. Unless I suppose we could check the records. 349 00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:41.519 The contradiction stacked up a wobbling tower nothing dangerous, nothing 350 00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:46.400 outright impossible, just strangely inevitable, as if the more we believed, 351 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:49.920 the more it must have always been. So. It was 352 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.480 then that my curiosity shifted from simple documentation to something 353 00:22:54.559 --> 00:22:58.680 both more troubling and more beautiful. The journals did not 354 00:22:58.759 --> 00:23:03.400 simply record events or inventions. They seemed to quietly bend consensus, 355 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:06.920 smoothing out the contradictions. I couldn't put it into words, 356 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:11.079 not yet, but the evidence mounted page by page, glance 357 00:23:11.160 --> 00:23:13.920 by glance. If Rose Bay is a quilt made by 358 00:23:13.960 --> 00:23:18.119 a hundred hands, someone or something was slowly and persistently 359 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:22.400 coaxing each stitch into agreement. That night, I walked home 360 00:23:22.440 --> 00:23:25.160 the long way past the bakery, under the glow of 361 00:23:25.160 --> 00:23:29.440 the Victory Bell's tower. Every window was golden, every stone 362 00:23:29.559 --> 00:23:32.720 just slightly more certain under my feet. As I reached 363 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:35.720 for my keys outside my door, I wondered, if I 364 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:38.440 returned to that shelf to morrow, what might I find 365 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:41.359 had changed on the page, in the square, or in 366 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:46.279 my own uncertain mind compelled I arrived early at the library, 367 00:23:46.519 --> 00:23:49.920 half an hour before opening. The building, breathed quiet in 368 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:53.640 the shadowy dawn. I padded down to the alcove. Pausing 369 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:57.720 by the now familiar shelf, Carefully, reverently, I slid out 370 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:01.920 the journal marked for tomorrow, no entry written, just blank lines. 371 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:06.319 Waiting on impulse, as if led by a gentle outside hand, 372 00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:09.160 I took up a fountain pen and began to write. 373 00:24:09.359 --> 00:24:13.880 Nothing fanciful, nothing grand, just a correction. The bakery on 374 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:17.440 Maine is managed by Alena Kraus. As far as I 375 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:20.599 could remember, there had never been an Alena Craus in town. 376 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:24.400 But it seemed as harmless a test as any. I 377 00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:28.200 replaced the volume, hands trembling with a mixture of embarrassment 378 00:24:28.519 --> 00:24:32.440 and secret thrill. The act felt like an intrusion, a 379 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:37.079 trespass against some unspoken order. The next day, at the bakery, 380 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:40.759 the sign above the counter read Crauses Breads and Pastries. 381 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:45.160 The staff the daker unchanged, but conversation among the waiting 382 00:24:45.240 --> 00:24:51.079 customers referred to Elena's poppyseed rolls, Craus's famous rye. Even Lucas, 383 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:55.079 forever flushed from the ovens, greeted me with mourning, Miss Taylor, 384 00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:58.920 would you care for Craus's cinnamon braid? To day, and 385 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:03.440 inside me a strange lurch I found myself, almost almost 386 00:25:03.680 --> 00:25:06.799 able to accept that it had always been Craus S. 387 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:11.440 That evening, at home, I double checked old notes and photographs, 388 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:16.279 some reference to korkinski s, a handful now read Craws s. 389 00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:21.599 My own memory flickered undecidably between them. More daring now, 390 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:24.000 I returned to the library and tried to remove the 391 00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:28.680 same journal. It slid half way out, then grew unexpectedly 392 00:25:28.960 --> 00:25:32.519 impossibly heavy in my hands, the weight increasing until I 393 00:25:32.599 --> 00:25:36.079 dropped it. When I looked again, it sat snugly back 394 00:25:36.119 --> 00:25:39.759 in its place on the shelf, as though undisturbed, My 395 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:44.559 sense of curiosity deepened, tinged only with humility. The shelf 396 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:49.079 resisted tampering, not with violence, but with a polite, inexorable force. 397 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:53.680 You could add, perchance, but not subtract. I sought out 398 00:25:53.720 --> 00:25:57.559 Missus Llewellyn, finding her in her basement retreat amid teetering 399 00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:02.319 stacks of newspaper cuttings. He listened at first, skeptical, but 400 00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:05.920 soon grew thoughtful as I explained the shifting details, the 401 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:12.319