WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.519 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here. 2 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.800 Let's get into it. At nine four a m. On 3 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:14.119 a clear Monday, the dust just beginning to twister the 4 00:00:14.119 --> 00:00:16.280 old windows of the local public library, and I found 5 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:18.839 myself leaning in knows, almost pressed to the rigid edge 6 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.800 of History, section shelf four B. This was supposed to 7 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:24.399 be the first and complicated day of my retirement. Volunteer 8 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:27.160 morning shift reorganized as far as the shoulder allowed, then 9 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:30.600 coffee while the morning regulars settled in miss Eschen. The 10 00:00:30.679 --> 00:00:32.640 librarian had been delighted to have me, as so few 11 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:34.600 people listened to the shells any more. Ruth though, it 12 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:36.520 was really more the books I came for, and perhaps 13 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:39.799 a lingering taste for order. Thirty two years teaching English 14 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:42.000 and history at Trinett Secondary have left me with a 15 00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:46.439 catalog as instincts. I noticed things. Nobody mentions. That's why 16 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:50.200 I caught the difference. Last week four be held seventeen books, 17 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:53.119 beginning with asterisk histories, great uppersings asterisk in, and closing 18 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:55.240 with the bat of blue volume of asterisk as wetold 19 00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:58.880 of his journal's asterisk. I remember because I'd shelved them 20 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:01.320 myself humming as a squ raped my knuckles on the spines. 21 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.680 To day there were twenty, not crammed to know they 22 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:07.599 saw flush evenly spaced, each straight and upright, as if 23 00:01:07.599 --> 00:01:11.000 this number had always belonged. I stared, frowning and pulled 24 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.200 out my little red note book. Shelf four be history 25 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:18.920 last week, seventeen books to day twenty. I ran my 26 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:21.920 hand along the pine rough beneath the new glossmus eschen 27 00:01:22.040 --> 00:01:26.319 had finally managed to budget for no warping at either end. 28 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:28.879 The shelf joined the upright backs perfectly. No sign of 29 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:31.799 a gap were hidden extension. I paid for hinge a trick, 30 00:01:31.879 --> 00:01:34.239 but the wall behind remained the same familiar plaster, slightly 31 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:37.079 buckle from decades of settling, pattened with drifts of sunlight 32 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:41.200 that seemed thinner each year. Oh Ruth, miss Eschenk, called 33 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.079 her voice, carrying from the check of desk. If you've 34 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:46.719 started measuring the books again, have mercy and leave me 35 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:48.879 out of it. I just got the new inventory in order. 36 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:52.200 I stradened, a little embarrassed, but raised my question, any 37 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:54.239 how didn't the shelf use to be shorter or squeeze 38 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:57.719 fewer books? My words never come out conspiratorial. It teach 39 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:00.920 his tone sticks even in retirement. You smiled, brushing a 40 00:02:00.959 --> 00:02:03.239 loose black curl behind her ear. I was crinkling with 41 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:06.560 cautious warmth. Maybe the books were always squeezed and tighter, 42 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:09.439 or you're remembering a busy day. We shift them often enough. 43 00:02:10.199 --> 00:02:12.400 There was a hint of practice dismissal. But something dog 44 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:14.240 had sat just behind it, a crease in her brow. 45 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:16.639 She had the look of someone not quite convinced by 46 00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:19.560 her own explanation. I retraced the books with my finger, 47 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.360 counting out loud, twenty ol fit. That wasn't so last week. 48 00:02:23.879 --> 00:02:26.840 Missus Chen hesitated, glanced through her glasses at the shelf, 49 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.360 and then shrugged. Things find their place, Ruth, I promise 50 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.360 nothing strange ever happens here, unless you count displaced bookmarks 51 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.759 or Mary shelving her comics backwards lost Friday. Her pragmatism 52 00:02:36.840 --> 00:02:40.599 usually conned me to day. It settled like's ediment. I 53 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:43.199 didn't believe I was wrong, Yet nothing felt dangerous or 54 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:46.080 terribly upset, more a gentle prod in the roots. Something 55 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.159 didn't quite fit, and now I wanted to know why. 56 00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:51.000 After my shift, I wrote an eat note shell four 57 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:54.680 B and explained extra books check again tomorrow, before closing 58 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:57.080 my notebook and stepping out into the chilly dust scapped 59 00:02:57.080 --> 00:02:59.919 at sunlight. I left with a sense of mild wondering, 60 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.479 wat trying to recall when, if ever, chaos had arrived 61 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:06.439 at the library. In such small, specific increments at sixty eight, 62 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:09.039 my days were careful ltics of habit and small indulgence, 63 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:12.039 each providing structural integrity that let my mind drift into 64 00:03:12.039 --> 00:03:14.840 the curious when needed. Twice a week I taught local 65 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.840 children reading skills in a sunny library annex. Once a 66 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:20.000 month I got wrote into the town garden committee just 67 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:23.080 for your persistence with stubborn weeds, Ruth, and in between, 68 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:25.360 I was simply Ruth, a benign presents with the battered 69 00:03:25.360 --> 00:03:28.680 notebook always in hand. Old students still recognized me in 70 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:31.319 the isles, sometimes grown so tall, I only knew them 71 00:03:31.319 --> 00:03:33.520 by the lilt of their voices. In the townspeople accepted 72 00:03:33.520 --> 00:03:37.000 me as a detail orient eccentric. That reputation was handy. 73 00:03:37.639 --> 00:03:39.719 Nobody battered than I when I spent half an arrow 74 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:42.840 arranging dictionaries or returning a single slightly work paperback to 75 00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.039 its original position. The library itself was more than shelter 76 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:48.520 for books. It was marrow in the town's social bones. 77 00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:51.439 Behind the stone columns that sheltered the front steps was 78 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:55.319 a world of quiet, routine and odd confidences. Thomas THEO Barrett, 79 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:58.159 our self appointed local historian, always arrived at ten one 80 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:00.360 sharp with his mug of spiced tea, ready to argue 81 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:02.520 a detail from the railways founding of Scallo at apocryphal 82 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:06.199 internate claims. Mary the teenage volunteer was a bright tangle 83 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:08.319 of energy, her bright blue streaks matched only by the 84 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:12.039 vibrant book marks she scattered and returned novels. Leon Huchare 85 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:14.360 led the council and chess club growth claimed the favorite 86 00:04:14.360 --> 00:04:16.879 seat behind the mystery shelves. If fue lingoed nearby, he 87 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:19.560 trap you in arguments about the economics of reading lamps. 88 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:22.360 The rhythm was as steady as the Grandfather clock inside 89 00:04:22.360 --> 00:04:25.199 the reading room doors unlocking up precisely eight fifty five, 90 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:27.720 Merry whirling through with dust, rag and phone, Missess Chen 91 00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:30.160 at her Kingdom's threshold, and myself note but in one 92 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.079 pocket felt tip in the other. I took special pride 93 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:35.920 in knowing which encyclopedia had an inkstained from nineteen eighty two, 94 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:38.240 or which Atlas was always a touch sticky from someone's 95 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:41.879 childhood jam. The quietness was not intiness, but expectation, like 96 00:04:41.920 --> 00:04:45.399 air holding its breath before a good story. History, biography, 97 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.959 and travel ran along the south wall, sun filtering through 98 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:50.240 the hag glass and painting rosy stripes across the three 99 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:53.800 main shelves. Four A, four B, four C each had 100 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:57.959 its personality. Four A respectably dull, with broad colonial tomes 101 00:04:57.959 --> 00:05:00.920 and family genealogies whose caligraphy almost touch on their claims. 102 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:04.879 Four see Winskill Treveloggs in adventure tales, their covers half 103 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:08.240 fitted from years of hopeful fingers. For B by contrast 104 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:11.759 had always been the most ordinary British revolutions, county histories, 105 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:15.199 and a row of musty local studies. Yet after yesterday, 106 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:17.480 four BE seemed to regard me kindly, as if waiting 107 00:05:17.480 --> 00:05:19.199 for me to catch up with something that hovered in 108 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:21.680 the corner of memory. I left my mud by the 109 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:24.600 circulation desk and returned for another look. Counting off books 110 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:27.240 once more reached that companionably beside the neck, not pressed 111 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.600 as they sometimes were after donation weeks, my eyes drifted 112 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:32.600 over bindings, trying to detect a book out of place, 113 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:37.160 but everything appeared correct. Yet that gentleaking returned softly than unease, 114 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:41.160 but more stubborn than forgetfulness. Miss Eschen called closing at sextzero, 115 00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:44.920 as always outside the town's single street lamp. Hunt to life, 116 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:47.879 and I wandered home with an odd, heavy elowitness. The 117 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:50.319 world had not shifted a library clock take the same, 118 00:05:50.439 --> 00:05:53.199 but children at the playground below for their tea. Only 119 00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:56.279 my mind turned something over, slow and deliberate, promising myself 120 00:05:56.360 --> 00:05:58.319 tomorrow I would check it at shelf again, of care 121 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:01.560 and perhaps understand. I woke up earlier than usual the 122 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.120 next morning, agitation hiding in the slipper shuffle of old 123 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:07.079 feet across the kitchen. Thenleum routine soothed me half a 124 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:10.000 grave through radio news humming, and finally my battered tool 125 00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:12.279 kit that had spent more hours in classrooms than kitchens. 126 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:15.319 I stuffed my note bat pencil, a small ruler, and 127 00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:17.839 honor with my late husband's position. Caliper was into my back. 128 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:20.639 I was determined to meet the shelf on its own terms. 129 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:24.480 Moorning traffic outside library windows reflected in the polished glass. 130 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:27.160 Several school children hunched over their phones, a mother cycling 131 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:29.959 past the two wriggling toddlers, a town postman already harried 132 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:33.279 by the day's post, the familiar course of greetings, massess 133 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:37.040 Chen's brisk a good morning. Mary's muffled excommission as she 134 00:06:37.079 --> 00:06:40.600 tripped over the umbrella stand reassured me my strangeness would 135 00:06:40.600 --> 00:06:43.839 barely register. As soon as we'd finished the opening sweep, 136 00:06:43.959 --> 00:06:46.279 I made my way to history. Note tupt under arm. 137 00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:49.199 Measuring the shelf with calopus brought a guilty pleasure. I 138 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:51.800 could hear the echo of mister Bennett, my secondary school 139 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:56.000 physics teacher, of chirping about experimental rigor. Shelfour be exactly 140 00:06:56.120 --> 00:06:59.040 ninety two point two centimeters wood un bow brackets and 141 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:02.879 changed the vertical still aligned perfectly with the decent shelves. 142 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:07.279 Book count twenty one twenty one. I double checked not 143 00:07:07.319 --> 00:07:10.040 trust in my own eyes. My face hovered so close 144 00:07:10.120 --> 00:07:12.120 to the bindings, I caught the old glescent a whiff 145 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:14.160 of camphor from the ante mooth sasche tucked into the 146 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:17.480 corner twenty one volumes, as surely as I had counted 147 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:20.800 only twenty and seventeen the week before, three new books, 148 00:07:20.879 --> 00:07:23.839 but the shelf's length and change. This time, one in 149 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:27.279 particular leaped out astures The History of Twillingham Village asterisk 150 00:07:27.399 --> 00:07:30.360 bound in faded green buckram, title in bossonguld, barely visible 151 00:07:30.439 --> 00:07:33.279 but clear enough under sunlight. I knew the local area's 152 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:35.759 stories as well as any one alive. Twillingham did not belong. 153 00:07:36.360 --> 00:07:40.120 No such settlement had ever existed within sixty miles. Still 154 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:42.759 did the book sat call number nine hundred forty two 155 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.680 point one t W I I lifted it dust scattered 156 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.199 in a whisper. The copyright page Badley announced nineteen eighty three, 157 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:54.439 published by a Twillingham Heritage Press author Constance enn Hardly. 158 00:07:55.120 --> 00:07:57.680 I flipped the first chapter on the founding of Twillingham 159 00:07:57.720 --> 00:08:00.079 by canal workers in seventeen ninety three, but nothing thing 160 00:08:00.120 --> 00:08:02.839 else awakened a memory. Returning it to the shelf, I 161 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:06.000 headed to the main desk, Miss Eschen, do you remember this? 162 00:08:06.759 --> 00:08:09.319 I held the book at alms length. She peered over 163 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:13.480 her glasses, lips pursed Twillingam Village. How odd I must 164 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:15.639 have cataloged at years ago. I mean, it's got the 165 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:18.199 right sticker. We had a backlog of local histories after 166 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:21.160 the Oxen family moved away. Perhaps it's just slipped your notice. 167 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:25.439 Reluctance in her voice. I remember every local oddity. Twilling 168 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.000 Aam was wholly new. I can't recall this place. Do 169 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.040 you know where it is? She shrugged, brushed imaginary, dissed 170 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:34.840 off her cardigan. Though some of those villages became lost hamlets. 171 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:37.440 The post office has thinner records every year. Maybe it 172 00:08:37.559 --> 00:08:41.240 merged or maybe not. I checked the catalog there it 173 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:44.279 was catalog down to local history. Theyd entered fourteenth March 174 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:48.840 nineteen eighty seven, But online no such village. I called 175 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:52.799 up local histriock have searched Twillingham. Nothing, not even a 176 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:55.639 parish record or old dors map. The brook's presence was 177 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:59.639 complete in the library'some record, absent everywhere else. Surely THEO 178 00:08:59.639 --> 00:09:02.360 would know, I mused. But THEO was late that morning, 179 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.240 his tea delayed, perhaps by a roqu kettle. I jotted 180 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.720 more careful notes, books, eyes, shelving order, call number, even 181 00:09:08.759 --> 00:09:11.840 the precise position of each book, and Missus Jane guanced 182 00:09:11.840 --> 00:09:14.399 at the shelf one more time, then shook her head. Ruth. 183 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:17.240 Sometimes books appear right when you need them. Maybe twilling 184 00:09:17.320 --> 00:09:19.759 Arms always waited for you to find it. Her tone 185 00:09:19.879 --> 00:09:22.080 was lighter, but there was an edge of habitual pragmatism, 186 00:09:22.120 --> 00:09:24.360 grappling with a niche of her knees. The rest of 187 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:26.639 the day passed as day's will, small nuts in service. 188 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:28.960 Mary returned the stack of crime novels to Foresee two 189 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.799 upside Down. Leon spent on our reorganizing chess manuals, debating 190 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:35.879 the theo about Fairburn's law of incremental pacing. I helped 191 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:38.440 an elderly patron find her brother's a wuedabouotea memoir in 192 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:40.480 a display case near the window. She ran her fingers 193 00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:43.399 over the name, eyes brimming with gratitude. But my mind, 194 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:46.799 ceaseless and exacting, turned over that one anomaly I made 195 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:50.919 certain before leaving to recount the shelf. Twenty one all 196 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:54.360 fitting perfectly. That evening, the mystery burned quietly at the 197 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:58.519 edge of routine, more than anything I wanted understanding. Wednesday 198 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:00.679 arrived with brittle sun and a street still damp from 199 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:04.360 overnight rain. I had slept pulley scenes of disappearing shelves 200 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:07.200 and multiplying books, tangling with dreams of deep, rushing rivers. 201 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:10.759 I returned to the library calibrating myself to calm focus. 202 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:14.080 I arrived before full opening, stealing myself with an extra 203 00:10:14.159 --> 00:10:16.960 mug of coffee at the reference desk. There with no 204 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.919 one watching, I retrieved my note bad calipers and ruler, 205 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.000 and approached chaff Or by measure left to right ninety 206 00:10:23.080 --> 00:10:26.159 two point two c a M again. Iight depth unchanged. 207 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:28.919 I checked the wall, no gap or evidence of change. 208 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:33.120 So I come to one, two three, twenty two. I blinked, 209 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:35.639 feeling my chest tightened, not with fear but with frank confusion. 210 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:40.039 Twenty two somehow all flush, no crowding. A new book 211 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:43.279 midway along Astoris the canals and mills of Eastford, asterisk 212 00:10:44.039 --> 00:10:48.799 never seen before, same familiar binding style. The shelf was elastic, 213 00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:52.639 but only for the books the materials. The carpentry stubbornly 214 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:55.639 ignored the new numbers my notes fared for a moment, 215 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:59.919 but resolved into calculation. I opened my note book each day, 216 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:02.919 one extra book, none missing, no sign of anyone altering 217 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:07.000 the space. Documentation I resolved would be my anchor. I 218 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:09.600 pulled out the new title. It spar could match the 219 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:12.639 library's numbering system. The seal inside to cover the libraries 220 00:11:12.679 --> 00:11:14.480 and boss circle looked as if it had been pressed 221 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:18.559 decades ago, published nineteen seventy one, according to the frontispiece, 222 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:22.159 when had we bought it? I flicked through the accession logs. 223 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:25.080 There it was listed for a shoving in nineteen ninety two, 224 00:11:25.159 --> 00:11:28.600 signed off by a long retired staff member. Every record 225 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:31.679 betrayed authenticity. Yet I knew there was no possible way 226 00:11:31.720 --> 00:11:34.879 the shof could hold more without visibly expanding physical law. 227 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:37.440 Still houseway over wood and dust. Yet reality here had 228 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:40.960 accommodated an extra page, an extra record. I resisted the 229 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:43.799 urge to laugh. My whole career had been shaped by 230 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:47.039 the certainty of explainable taxonomy, fact, every day cause and effect. 231 00:11:47.879 --> 00:11:50.279 Now a modest pine board in a public library was 232 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:54.559 quietly privately making itself impossible. Twice I had checked twice, 233 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:57.960 and the number was still growing. I tried the only 234 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.120 thing I could, capturing every detail. I noted the titles, 235 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:04.720 offer names, dimensions, call numbers. I compared my records to 236 00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:07.720 the catalog, then to the old paper checket's slips. Each 237 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:10.039 agreed with itself but could not align with my memory. 238 00:12:10.679 --> 00:12:12.679 I meant to call it a day, let the mystery sleep. 239 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:14.879 But the more I tried to dismiss it, the more 240 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:16.480 the shelf felt like it was waiting for me to 241 00:12:16.519 --> 00:12:20.200 look closer. By Friday, the anomaly had spread, gentle but unsoppable. 242 00:12:20.759 --> 00:12:23.879 Each morning, one news lot for books, sometimes squeezing itself 243 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:27.080 between long standing volumes, never even out, always one more 244 00:12:27.159 --> 00:12:30.360 than before. I laid my small steel ruler against the shelf, 245 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:32.759 willing it to show millimeters of growth, but it stayed 246 00:12:32.799 --> 00:12:35.799 obstinately the same. The wall behind behaved, the bolts had 247 00:12:35.840 --> 00:12:39.240 either and sharp and unchanged. One evening, I lingered after 248 00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:41.960 hours board game night in the reading room, and the 249 00:12:42.039 --> 00:12:45.080 library stretched as closing time passed unseat, the architecture echoing 250 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:48.080 with laughter and clatter rather than silence. I watched the 251 00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:50.360 aisle from a cozy arm chair, half hoping to catch 252 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.000 the shelf red handed, so to speak. Misseschen bustled about 253 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:57.080 keeping half an eye on my stakeout. Mary flitted by, 254 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:00.279 dropping off a pile of comics. Ruth, he look like 255 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.240 Sherlock Holne's plotting a heist. It's just keeping an eye 256 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:07.399 on history, I replied, affecting nonchalance. She grinned, skating off 257 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:09.720 to her group of friends at the far corner. I 258 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:12.879 watched the shelf. The hours pass. The books near the 259 00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:16.360 multiplied nor shrank at nine thirty massess chen click. The 260 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:20.480 main lights off. The shelf remained unmoving and yielding. Before 261 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:22.559 I left a corner. THEO in his usual seat behind 262 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:25.200 the genealogy section, nursing cold tea in a sheaf of 263 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:29.080 hand written notes. THEO quick question asked us the history 264 00:13:29.120 --> 00:13:32.360 of Twillingam village asterisk is at Ringabell. THEO glanced up 265 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:36.799 by his magnified by his ever sliding spectacles. Ruth, there's foundational, 266 00:13:36.919 --> 00:13:38.639 isn't it. I must have cited it in the railway 267 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:41.559 article's wed He rummaged in a bat of Manila file 268 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.480 and produced a sheet marked up with pencil look footnote 269 00:13:44.519 --> 00:13:47.399 three Constance Hadley twilling Amp, page forty seven, then placed 270 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:49.639 by the old canal junctions, posedly the site of the 271 00:13:49.679 --> 00:13:52.679 flu epidemic in eighteen seventy eight. I must have stared 272 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:55.360 at him too openly. You're sure it's always been in 273 00:13:55.440 --> 00:13:58.879 the collection. Theo's face took on a familiar expression, gently smug, 274 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:02.120 as if correcting a student homework. Of course, I even 275 00:14:02.200 --> 00:14:05.200 remember hardly visiting the Society luncheon back in the eighties. 276 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:08.559 He seemed completely confident, even referencing notes in a call 277 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:11.399 number matching the new book. For him, the book and 278 00:14:11.440 --> 00:14:14.480 its odd village where evidence are settled as sunrise, My 279 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:18.240 certainty faltered, giving way to something bordering on delight. Could 280 00:14:18.279 --> 00:14:20.720 I trust my memory or the use more? Or was 281 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:24.879 something else at play? The next morning, Mary interrupted cataloging 282 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.200 to ask, did you notice where asterisk the witch Tamer's 283 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:29.960 Compendium asteriskwent? I swear I checked it out last month, 284 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.039 put it back on four B. But now the system 285 00:14:32.080 --> 00:14:35.080 says it's on shelf missing. Weird right, I scan the 286 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:38.080 lock for this one. The digital entry noted the book 287 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:40.039 as being on four b's of jan nine. But we 288 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.919 flipped through every row. Nothing, not a trace of binding, 289 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:46.440 nor a gap between the expanding sequence of volumes. Had 290 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:49.840 the shelf selectively withdrawn it hiding evidence of its own alterations? 291 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:53.879 Curiosity pressed me harder. I pulled up the mycroffee records. 292 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:56.279 The pet project missus Chen allowed only the most particular 293 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:59.919 hands to access. I scanned for anomalies, expecting the usual 294 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.480 minor corrections or our data cross references. Instead, there were 295 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:06.600 new catalog entries. Astoris the flood of twelling Am nineteen 296 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:09.679 twelve asterisk asteris portraits from mil Lane Asterisk, each with 297 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:13.960 astonishingly detailed annotations. Each appeared to have been catalog decades 298 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:18.120 before I arrived. These never existed, did they? I muttered 299 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:20.559 aloud in the reading room. THEO looked up from his 300 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:23.440 spidery note taking are you on about that again? The 301 00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:25.759 floderer in most of the Northern Parish records in nineteen 302 00:15:25.799 --> 00:15:28.080 twelve made a mess of sorting Holloway's archives. Good to 303 00:15:28.120 --> 00:15:30.840 see we finally got a published account in stock. He 304 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:33.279 said it with the gentle confidence of someone whose reality 305 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:37.720 never required adjustment, memory, habit record. Nothing lined up. For 306 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:40.960 every observable contradiction, a new context seemed to appear. Mutual 307 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.639 exclusivity baked into recollection and documentation. I compared my own 308 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:46.960 sketch of the shelf from last week were to day's photograph. 309 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:50.080 Certain bindings flickered and and out of my memory. Had 310 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:52.159 there always been a pale green volume half way along? 311 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:55.200 Or did it arrive yesterday so lower than the others? 312 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.080 I documented the changes dates circulation in fo of shelf diagrams. 313 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.960 The law library remained unchanged externally but my perception vibrated 314 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:07.320 with possibility, each observation counterpointed by the confident recollections of others. 315 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:10.200 Only deep in the central contradiction. The show's contents were mutable, 316 00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:12.200 but only when looked at closely, and never in the 317 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:15.000 same way by two people up. Once I doubted even 318 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.120 my skepticism. To press the point, I decided on a 319 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:21.440 new test, this time across reference to Booker remembered a 320 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:24.639 stand at local history. Astis Great Floods of the County Asterisk, 321 00:16:25.240 --> 00:16:28.360 a volume I was certain belonged on four b Leon, 322 00:16:28.519 --> 00:16:31.639 who haunted the chess tables was first. I found him 323 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:33.919 in the east reading nook, laying out rooks and bishops, 324 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:37.320 the slow cadence of wood on wood. Familiar Leon, Can 325 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:39.080 you help me? Could you check what's on shelf four 326 00:16:39.159 --> 00:16:43.039 be today? He's quinted, motioning me over. What's the occasion 327 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:46.440 looking for? Astis Great Floods of the County asterisk should 328 00:16:46.440 --> 00:16:48.759 be on the shelf. But I want to confirm we 329 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.360 walked together. His strikee quick for a man of seventy five. 330 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:54.720 He leaned in, counted quietly, and plucked the familiar blue 331 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:57.720 volume from midway down. I checked this thing out every 332 00:16:57.759 --> 00:16:59.600 time it rained too hard. Back in five good to 333 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:01.879 see its survived the weding. He held it up with 334 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:05.960 a fond, slightly self deprecating smirk. I nodded, taking the book, 335 00:17:06.079 --> 00:17:08.880 flipping to the library, stamped sure enough last borrowed under 336 00:17:08.920 --> 00:17:11.720 his name a decade ago, no notation much my own, 337 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.839 but leonsine satisfy. I moved on to Mary. She too 338 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:18.480 remembered reading the volumes to one with the old photos 339 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:20.480 of boats murder in the high street. Right, my mum 340 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:23.480 told me I get nightmares from those. She described the 341 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:26.599 pictures in perfect detail, but when showed the current book, hesitated, 342 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:30.160 it seemed different. Older there to claim the book had 343 00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:32.920 been cited, but he recalled an entirely different cover, a 344 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.160 maroon dust jacket, and what he described as sanitated appendices 345 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:40.559 that I never understood. We compared editions. The catalog reflected 346 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:43.519 each entry according to Hucross referenced it online. The entry 347 00:17:43.559 --> 00:17:46.519 reflected mine on Mary's login. The record claimed there was 348 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:50.480 always a green, spiral bound edition. Each person's memory harmonized 349 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:53.839 with their private past, but diverged from every concrete physical record. 350 00:17:54.519 --> 00:17:57.039 The cesschin looked over our shoulders. I bros haked high. 351 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.200 I remember a paperback yellowish, brittle with pain, which is 352 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.000 the flutter, But the copy she held now felt solid 353 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:06.799 blue and hard back. Database entries even shifted as we watched. 354 00:18:06.920 --> 00:18:10.200 When missus Chen signed in, the annotations were hosemeticulous, concise, 355 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:13.000 touched by her dry wit. When I loured in, they 356 00:18:13.039 --> 00:18:15.559 matched my own notations, though I did not recall writing them. 357 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.440 My sign pages were cataloged, so were hers, written in 358 00:18:19.480 --> 00:18:22.920 our hands, unquestioned by the system, I leaned back, pinching 359 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:25.359 the bridge of my nose. It's as if this shelf 360 00:18:25.400 --> 00:18:27.839 adapts to each of us, matching what we already believe, 361 00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:31.240 unfilling what we secretly wish was here. Missus Chen pursed 362 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:34.039 her lips. Ye mean it's a mirror then, or tricks 363 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:38.720 to shelf. Possibly neither, I said softly. Maybe it's filling 364 00:18:38.759 --> 00:18:41.319 gaps personal or communal, offering what's missing in memory, not 365 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:44.880 in wood and glue. She laughed, not unkindly. If only 366 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:47.400 all our problems were bound and shelves so conveniently ruthe 367 00:18:47.839 --> 00:18:51.079 By day's end, I felt less confused than fascinated. At 368 00:18:51.119 --> 00:18:53.799 some level, it wasn't about physical shells at all. The 369 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:57.359 library systems, catalog check out slips. My croffee sharkouse had 370 00:18:57.400 --> 00:19:01.400 become as elastic as memory. Something was adapt Perhaps the 371 00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:03.720 shelf was merely the pivot point, or perhaps it was 372 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:06.119 more a visible symptom of the way collect of knowledge 373 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:09.839 stitches itself together, especially where gaps appear. That night, I 374 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:12.880 carefully drew the shelf in my notebook, noting every distinguishing 375 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:16.640 feature date, shelf position, order, title. The sketches wopped as 376 00:19:16.680 --> 00:19:20.640 new volume surface with every encounter. My entries accumulated, changing 377 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:25.599 ever so slightly upon each review. Saturday morning experiment required. 378 00:19:26.279 --> 00:19:29.200 I brought a stack of Neon sticky notes. I marked 379 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:32.319 every volume, numbered, labeled, and diground the arrangement as the 380 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:36.960 library closed, numbered each Pop twenty three, Planning a shelf party, 381 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:39.599 Marry us flicking a sticky note from her sleeve to 382 00:19:39.640 --> 00:19:44.279 the tape dispenser. I grinned field work. The next morning, 383 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:46.319 before the door was opened, I cracked the lights on 384 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:49.799 and dashed to four B twenty four books. Sticky notes rearranged, 385 00:19:49.880 --> 00:19:52.799 never removed, just subtly shifted to reflect the new configuration. 386 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:55.599 My mockings flowed like they had always been in those 387 00:19:55.640 --> 00:19:58.279 specific places. But my notebook betrayed the shift. Each ketch 388 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:03.119 reflected the precise current layout. Never yesterdays. Miss Eschen joined me, bemused, 389 00:20:03.759 --> 00:20:06.279 what's the plan to day? I handed her a clipboard. 390 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:08.880 Let's each write down a title from voebe that the 391 00:20:08.920 --> 00:20:12.480 other doesn't spot. Same moment she was game her as 392 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:17.000 asterisk reminiscences of Oxen Perish, Asterisk, Mine, Asterisk, Trade and 393 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:21.240 tied Geese Midland's history asterisk. Each wore by their chosen volume, 394 00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:23.079 and as we tried to point them out, I could 395 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:24.799 see her hand passed through ere where my book was 396 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:28.000 supposed to be. The shalcimage slightly blurred at the edges, 397 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:30.200 as if it didn't want us to resolve the contradiction. 398 00:20:30.880 --> 00:20:34.359 We compared notes, each saw their book, the other invisible. 399 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:37.400 I sat on the step, laughter brimming at the corners 400 00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:40.079 of my mouth. I think we're not just finding books, 401 00:20:40.119 --> 00:20:44.200