WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.200 --> 00:00:08.119 Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. The lad you 2 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:11.199 are here, Let's get into it. The cross wood was 3 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:13.400 proving stubborn, but not in a way that bothered me. 4 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:16.359 The park swoke gently into early spring, the grass after 5 00:00:16.440 --> 00:00:19.839 vessons starling, stitching the canopy with their bright whistle. I 6 00:00:19.920 --> 00:00:22.000 claimed the same least facing bench for years, and all 7 00:00:22.120 --> 00:00:25.280 ranges happy, too, ingrained for retirement to break. Not that 8 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.920 I minded. I liked to pretend the bench was a 9 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.199 sentry post to the crossware, a cryptic despatch to be 10 00:00:30.199 --> 00:00:32.039 related to those who cared about the small dramas and 11 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:35.240 folding among the flower beds and chest tables. I paused 12 00:00:35.240 --> 00:00:37.280 with my pen hovering over a six downs something about 13 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:40.159 a French river, when the world, simply, utterly and without fanfare, 14 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:42.960 fell silent. It was so abrupt it took a second 15 00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:44.880 to register. And then as I cast about for some 16 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:47.600 weiskirk to myself about peace and quiet. The absent became 17 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:50.920 a prison all its own. No bird calls, not a 18 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:54.280 single child shriek from the playground, no buses hamming from 19 00:00:54.280 --> 00:00:56.520 the avenue on the far side of the park. It 20 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:59.280 wasn't only the people. The wind itself was gone, not 21 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:01.679 just subdue, but as if the entire world had pressed 22 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:04.560 a finger to its lips and waited. That stillness, too 23 00:01:04.560 --> 00:01:06.760 heavy for the hour or season, hit with a strangeness 24 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.719 that nudged me upright. I looked around a knot nervously, 25 00:01:09.760 --> 00:01:12.439 but out of a feeling somewhere between embarrassment and bewilderment, 26 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.239 as if out wandered into a pantomime. At just a 27 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:18.439 run moment, a collie, always exuberant, stood midstride beside the path, 28 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.599 its hind legs bunched, waiting for the man on the 29 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:23.079 other end of the leash to catch up. Only the 30 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:25.439 dog wasn't waiting. It was suspended the least court and 31 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:28.159 a droop that seemed carved out of glass. A group 32 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:30.920 of teenagers arms made gesture over a fawn brimmed with 33 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:34.400 mock out rage. They too were held in place, faces 34 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:37.239 how sculptured in the act of laughter. Squalls, Oh, the 35 00:01:37.239 --> 00:01:40.359 nerves of squails amid investigation beneath the chest, tables, tears 36 00:01:40.439 --> 00:01:43.480 arch moving as the plints themselves. Even the air felt 37 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:46.840 thick and tall. I blinked once twice, expecting a scene change. 38 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:49.239 A dog barking a skateboarder coasting down the hill with 39 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:53.120 wheels that wind, but nothing I leave. The silence and 40 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:55.359 the faint ticking of my wrist were suddenly deafening against 41 00:01:55.359 --> 00:01:58.280 my skin. I half expected the hours to roll backward. 42 00:01:58.319 --> 00:02:01.480 The parked pale into black and white. Sixty seconds by 43 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:03.439 my watch passed as if my pulse had been poured 44 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:06.280 over cold stones. I couldn't say the world's bed, or 45 00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:08.800 lagged it with simple blankness, as clear and full as 46 00:02:08.840 --> 00:02:12.919 any sound. Then, as inconspicuously as it left, the ordinary returned. 47 00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:17.400 The collie lunched forward, embarked, the leash, ship taught, the 48 00:02:17.439 --> 00:02:20.599 teenager's exclamation escaped in a burst, one girl tossing her 49 00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:23.400 head back at whatever prank had just been played. Birds 50 00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:25.639 interrupted into the emptiness, and the faint roar of the 51 00:02:25.639 --> 00:02:29.719 city reasserted itself behind the railings. I found myself breathing out, 52 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:32.000 not because I'd held my breath, but because something in 53 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:34.560 me waited for a cue. Was it a faint dizziness 54 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:37.360 or simply confusion. I shook off the scentse of pause 55 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.000 and studied the crossword, tasking my pencil deliberately on to 56 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:42.879 a wall, but with each blink I found my eyes darting. 57 00:02:42.919 --> 00:02:45.680 Did any one else register it? Surely a minute of 58 00:02:45.719 --> 00:02:48.080 such emptiness would demand a response, a dropped coffee, a 59 00:02:48.120 --> 00:02:51.919 quizzical glance, a ripple of unease. Yet by all appearances, 60 00:02:52.039 --> 00:02:53.680 the only thing out of places the lag in my 61 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:56.919 own heart. After a time, the spell broke, or at 62 00:02:56.919 --> 00:02:59.120 the very least became small and private, to the sort 63 00:02:59.159 --> 00:03:01.039 of thing you assigned to a wandering mind or nap 64 00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:03.960 gone m I filled in three clues in quick succession, 65 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:06.680 relishing a return to normalcy. But something at the base 66 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:08.680 of my spine hummed with the aftertaste of whatever it 67 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:10.439 was that oppressed the mute button on the well for 68 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:14.960 a single maclate minute. The afternoon drained slowly toward dinner time. 69 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:17.719 I got up duster crumbs from my knee and circled 70 00:03:17.719 --> 00:03:20.439 it up pond once before heading home. But deja virewed 71 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.159 deeper flavored tue at the edges of my thoughts. The 72 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:27.159 silence hadn't frightened me, not exactly. I'd spend enough time 73 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.919 alone in woods, storms and search and rescue drills to 74 00:03:29.919 --> 00:03:31.879 know the difference between real peril and things that tease 75 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:35.199 around its edges. Still, I found myself, wondering why no 76 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:37.719 one else seemed the least bit perturbed or even distracted. 77 00:03:38.319 --> 00:03:40.960 Had it happened for and I chalked up to fatigue? 78 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.360 Had I finally become a doughty retiree seeing patterns where 79 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:47.479 there were only ordinary gaps? That night I dreamed of 80 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:50.599 his pieces frozen midgame, the entire board abandoned, while every 81 00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.919 last pigeon watched with silent regard. In the morning, it 82 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:57.159 was the silence itself I remembered most, not emptiness, but fullness. 83 00:03:57.719 --> 00:03:59.840 At dawn, the park was frost clear, every blade jowled 84 00:03:59.879 --> 00:04:02.800 and bristling. Most of the city was only just yawning 85 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:04.719 to life. But the park has always belonged to the 86 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:07.680 early rises, the runners, the birdos, and the unumbered elderly, 87 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:10.319 who walked their rounds with measured prey. I came more 88 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:12.639 for the company than I would a met. With my 89 00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:15.039 badge turned in, I'd become one of a particular breed, 90 00:04:15.120 --> 00:04:18.160 those for whom the little patterns. Madam moved this park 91 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:20.759 Penning's Green, a ribon of woods and lawns and spoiling 92 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:23.079 between the old stone University gate and the grid of 93 00:04:23.120 --> 00:04:26.040 the city's southern blocks. Was equal parts playground and zantuery. 94 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:29.839 Paths wove between stands of beech and oak, carving shortcuts 95 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:32.560 to the duck Pond playground and a community garden so 96 00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:35.279 regularly weeded you could almost believe the dandelions had each 97 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:38.079 signed an agreement. There was a banston that played host 98 00:04:38.120 --> 00:04:40.600 to everything from Cellus d amateur comedians, a scatter of 99 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:42.879 ancient chess tables, older than most who played them upon 100 00:04:42.920 --> 00:04:45.720 the quit gossiping malarts, a perennial champion oak, a tree that, 101 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:48.720 as legend had it, survived the parks, founding almost by accident. 102 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:51.079 Its roch shoving up the path stones with slow insistence 103 00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:55.240 even before retiring, had slipped easily into kinds of neighborhood routine. 104 00:04:55.920 --> 00:04:58.040 Park folks don't walk so much as belonging, each with 105 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:01.120 their rhythm. This Marco strata just of the chess tables, 106 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:04.160 whose opening gambits are only rivaled by his frosty inability 107 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:07.120 to conduct a chat about the weather. Cassie, a whirlind 108 00:05:07.160 --> 00:05:09.600 of laughter, with soil forever packed under her finger nails, 109 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:11.800 tends a patch of beans with the diligence of a surgeon. 110 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:14.199 If there is any insect not yet cattle oged in 111 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:17.680 the beds. It hasn't escaped her eye. Oldly, who brings 112 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:20.040 a batted field notebook for daily tally of every finch 113 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:22.399 and flicker, entering numbers with a precision that would joy 114 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:26.279 the sternest statistician. Grocer presides over the remaining chess tables, 115 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:29.480 wielding a grocery bag as both purse and referees by ton, 116 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:31.160 and can turn the air blue with her defense of 117 00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:34.319 the regulars. There's Townsend, the dog walker, who knows more 118 00:05:34.319 --> 00:05:36.839 about canine psychology than any vette. I've met a small 119 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:40.160 parade of four legged companions always in to the routine 120 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:42.879 goes like this. I walk to pass, I check on 121 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:45.360 a stand of blueberry bushes, making note of which have 122 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:49.240 burst into flower overnight. I nod to Marco, who never notices. 123 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.000 I accept Kassi's offer of a carrot straight from the 124 00:05:52.040 --> 00:05:55.399 damp soil. I have her over Lee's shoulder, peering at 125 00:05:55.399 --> 00:05:57.639 his careful script. He never seems to mind, even when 126 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:00.800 we spot only sparrows at the older I tapped the 127 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:03.000 bark once for luck at the duck pond. Listen for 128 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.439 the slash of the old broken pump. It's a whirl 129 00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:08.759 built from smold SERVANTSS. The rhythm of the fountain spotter 130 00:06:08.800 --> 00:06:10.279 will tell you if the wind's about to pick up. 131 00:06:10.319 --> 00:06:12.639 The course of Blackbird's means dryer weathers held on an 132 00:06:12.639 --> 00:06:15.920 extra day. Even the absence of the maintenance fan are familiar. 133 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:18.519 Sidling yawn of diesel and radio at eight twenty carries 134 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.000 meaning perhaps the head grounds keeper called in or a 135 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:24.040 flat tire to laid the usual bustle. My memory works 136 00:06:24.079 --> 00:06:26.519 this way, glowing itself to patterns, to repetitions and their 137 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:29.639 rare startling lapses, which is why the minute of near 138 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.079 holy silence the day before sat so squarely at odds 139 00:06:32.120 --> 00:06:34.879 with the park's cadence. Not the fact of quiet, parks 140 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:37.639 are full of rare private silences, but the surgical certainty, 141 00:06:37.879 --> 00:06:40.839 and not a smoothness at such a peculiar hour alone. 142 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:44.040 It left its impression both feather light and ements. There 143 00:06:44.040 --> 00:06:47.279 were stories over the years of oddities with easy explanations. 144 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:50.120 Usually animal escapage are clever pranks. The escape raccoon that 145 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:52.279 had made off with someone's head fens and returned nightly 146 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:54.560 to the same hollow lock. The rare snowy ill nesting 147 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:56.879 by the pond one bit of winter, which drew binoculars 148 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.720 and whispers. By the score more than once. The gardeners 149 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:02.360 found footprints and beds never entered by human hand, later 150 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:04.439 revealed by the muddy prince of a wayward dog, or 151 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.120 once a sand del prankster who swore he was blanting 152 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.639 lock for the tomatoes. I've witnessed and dismissed trotities before, 153 00:07:10.759 --> 00:07:13.000 but thus the dead minute press thought away like a 154 00:07:13.000 --> 00:07:15.879 gast slide. On my third morning after the incident, be 155 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:18.360 pen hovering again, I did something I hadn't done in years. 156 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:20.839 I noted in my pocket notebook, with as much detachment 157 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:24.160 as I could muster, three fourteen minutes, three fifteen utter silence, 158 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:28.519 all asterisk, goolasterisk pauses, Nobody blinks. I added a question mark, 159 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:31.879 as if that might preserve my skepticism despite myself. I 160 00:07:31.959 --> 00:07:34.560 returned to the bench that next afternoon, my posture as 161 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:38.000 casual as possible, despite the tremor of anticipation. My hands 162 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:40.680 was with the cross would but didn't scribble much. At 163 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.560 three thirteen, I folded the newspaper, set my phone no money, 164 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:48.199 leaned forward and simply watched there. It was three fourteen 165 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:51.480 p m. At once not gradually, but with a strangeness 166 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:52.920 that tickled the roots of my hair. Of the world 167 00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:56.319 clicked into silence again. The sand faded, leaving even my 168 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:59.480 own heart Betutdding against a cushion of nothing. I looked 169 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:02.639 up by the low wall. Two joggers in Neon Short's 170 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.439 Froze poem, tails hovering at improbable angles with a sense 171 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:08.720 of physics on holiday. The first beee, sky blue and spinning, 172 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:11.040 seemed to rest impossibly syllables from the end of its 173 00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:14.079 parabolic fight. This time, I couldn't even hear the faint 174 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:16.759 swish of my jacket. My phone, whose timer I had 175 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.720 started seconds before, in a fit of justification, tipped merrily forward, 176 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:22.399 second by relentless second, yet next to the world didn't 177 00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:25.839 move for that minute. I dared to stand. My legs 178 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:28.199 felt like waiting through syu, but with a determined flex, 179 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.000 I braced myself upright. The effort throlled me. Could I 180 00:08:31.040 --> 00:08:34.840 break the spell? I waved, perhaps foolishly, at the closest jogger. 181 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:38.840 They were unmoved. Only my own mind moved freely, cranial fugue, 182 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:41.279 sliding through the silence with ease, like a fish darting 183 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:44.960 in a frozen ponds under current three fifteen. Without prelude, 184 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:47.399 the park snapped to the first be clattered on to 185 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:49.639 the path. The joggers grunted on their way, and the 186 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:51.879 distant city noise poured into the hour. As if released 187 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:55.039 from Madame. I let out all laugh, half ames, half nervous. 188 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:58.240 It was disturbingly the same ritual as before the world 189 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:01.120 for a stretch of colckrk seconds steped wholly outside itself, 190 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.559 rattle but fortified. I waited for Tamsen to pass her lead, 191 00:09:04.679 --> 00:09:06.879 rattling as her black lab deftly sniffed out a crust 192 00:09:06.919 --> 00:09:10.840 of bread. I fell in step beside her. Afternoon Tamsen 193 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:14.240 did something ought just happen. My tone, I hoped, was light, 194 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:16.679 as if making sport of the question. She gave me 195 00:09:16.720 --> 00:09:20.159 a sidelong glance, her brow creased. How do you mean, Jack, 196 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:22.279 dog's been good? Didn't trip you up again, did he? 197 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:25.879 I shook my head, trying a different tack. Just was 198 00:09:25.919 --> 00:09:28.879 it unusually quiet? Say a minute ago, you didn't notice anything, 199 00:09:29.480 --> 00:09:32.679 she laughed, He getting philosophical on me to day. I 200 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.440 don't think so. Maybe you're finally relaxed enough to enjoy 201 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:38.039 the piece in quiet. He earned it, She waved off 202 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:40.480 my growing perplexity, clicking her tongue at the dog, who 203 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:44.080 hardly noticed, Still mulling, I visited the chess tables, idling 204 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:47.559 near Marco's in game. Marco Bailey looked up his focused total, 205 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:51.159 his hand decisive, as he claimed upon good afternoon, Marco 206 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:54.039 strange sort of silence A bit ago, wasn't it. He 207 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:57.480 furrowed his brows, quinting at the board. Then at me, silence. 208 00:09:57.519 --> 00:09:59.960 Do you want to play or not? Jack? Only if 209 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:02.039 if you admit you noticed? Time stood still for a second. 210 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:06.080 Air he grunted, snorted with amusement. With you lot talking, 211 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:09.559 there is never silence. Not deterred. I found Cassie leaning 212 00:10:09.559 --> 00:10:12.360 over a row of sunflowers. She greeted me with a 213 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.080 mock salute, grinning, have a good puzzle to day. You 214 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.000 look troubled, I shrugged. Suddenly sheepish, Probably nothing, just sat 215 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:22.159 in an odd patch of quiet. Anyone mentioned a hush 216 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:26.120 around three? Did your plants freeze? She feigned solemnity. If 217 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:28.759 my sun flowers start freezing themselves as a joke, I'll 218 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:31.919 have words with them. I laughed, but her answer too quick, 219 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:35.840 too glib, didn't satisfy. Birds chattered above, people meandered, the 220 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.200 world spun without hesitation. Only I was left holding this 221 00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:41.759 minute of emptiness like a pebble, and she, nobody else 222 00:10:41.759 --> 00:10:44.320 seemed to feel. That night, I replayed the day in 223 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:47.240 my mind, hunting for cracks. Old age did things to 224 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:49.519 a person. Sure, but I'd been a ranger outdoors in 225 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:53.399 crises and calm, reading tracks and chatters. I trusted my senses, 226 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:56.799 or at least I wanted to. But the repetition, the 227 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.639 fixed time, the absolute regularity, the wells, refusal to finchmok, 228 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:02.679 the pussy of mere daydream. If I was losing my grip, 229 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:04.399 it was with a precision. The mine shouldn't be able 230 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:07.240 to summon. The next morning, I packed my old field watch, 231 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:10.200 about a notebook and my phone, determined to see, not 232 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:13.799 just to see Astris, to catch at Asterisk. I arrived early, 233 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:17.480 walking the perimeter with careful, even strides. Three times I 234 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:20.039 paused on the chest tables, twice by the pond, once 235 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:23.000 beneath the big oak. At three thirteen, I perched at 236 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:25.840 a different bension with awkward flourish, set my phone to record. 237 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:29.080 I started the audio app as the second hand swept up. 238 00:11:29.600 --> 00:11:33.759 The minute arrived again. The world receded only this low 239 00:11:33.879 --> 00:11:35.720 store me. Thump of my heart and the persistent tick 240 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:38.759 of my watch grounded me. The phone's time I counted upward, 241 00:11:38.759 --> 00:11:41.399 but no ambienthum, no birds, not the faint noise of 242 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:44.399 sneakers on gravel. A single leaf midfall, caught in the 243 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:48.000 sun seemed held indefinitely in place when it ended sixty 244 00:11:48.039 --> 00:11:51.240 seconds there or other bouts. I played the recording oddly, 245 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:53.720 the app showed a glitch A minute of flat land silence. 246 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:56.399 The countermoving is normal, but the whip froms frozen, no 247 00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:59.279 matter how high set the volume. I quickly scribbled in 248 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:03.240 the notebook three fourteen to three fifteen. Silence confirmed on device, 249 00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:07.360 clocks continue. My handshook was steady, quiet elation. Over the 250 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:10.240 next four days I made a study of it. Each time, 251 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:12.039 without fail, the effect, if that's what it could be 252 00:12:12.039 --> 00:12:14.960 called to, persisted at exactly three fourteen. I took up 253 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:17.519 different vantage points, once on the bridge of of the pond, 254 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:20.240 once by the amphitheater where children usually spilled onto the 255 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:23.600 steps at intermission, once beneath the old oak. Each time 256 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:26.600 the effect was complete. Movement stopped the ducks held on 257 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:29.799 the water like figurians. The children midly gravity apparently reversed. 258 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:32.600 The wind itself, whose leaves and water ripples were so faithful, 259 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:37.080 vanished every time I tried a new device, video, audio, 260 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:39.159 even the digital timer on my watch all tracked the 261 00:12:39.159 --> 00:12:41.759 passage of a minute, but displayed only absence of black frames, 262 00:12:41.799 --> 00:12:44.679 flatland recordings, a solitary minute, and touched by any human 263 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:48.159 trace but my own awareness. Increasingly, I began to feel 264 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:51.399 not so much insane, as excluded, as though I blundered 265 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:53.279 into a party where every one else had been briefed 266 00:12:53.320 --> 00:12:55.799 and the rules accept me. Perhaps it was guilt to 267 00:12:56.120 --> 00:12:59.440 arrangeous guilt at missing signs others took for granted. It 268 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:02.360 became clear whether or not others admitted something happened at 269 00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:05.519 three fourteen, something only a select few fell, if at all. 270 00:13:06.120 --> 00:13:08.080 On the fifth day resolved to widen the net. I 271 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:11.279 picked my moments carefully. Marco and the chess Cohorp were 272 00:13:11.279 --> 00:13:15.200 circumspect deserver bursa ruling the tables that day offered a 273 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.759 more cheerful response a jack. If I stumbled into sixty 274 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:21.159 seconds of peace, I touched it with champagne, but no 275 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:23.600 the clock ticks, the pigeons e ae a sandwich, the 276 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:27.559 world's staggers on as usual. Maybe you need stronger coffee, Cassie. Ever, 277 00:13:27.600 --> 00:13:30.279 the scientists only shrugged. You want me to tie my 278 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.600 beans growth around your magical minute. Yet the very dismissal 279 00:13:33.600 --> 00:13:37.399 spured my curiosity. What if in their routines others failed 280 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.240 to notice because they simply hadn't looked closely. Each has 281 00:13:40.279 --> 00:13:42.440 their rhythm, each is invested in their own patch of 282 00:13:42.480 --> 00:13:47.000 the park's fabric. The contradiction gnawed If time moved uninterrupted 283 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:49.039 for them, and if my device is confirmed the passage 284 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.200 of time, but the world itself paused to what then 285 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:54.120 did it mean for the order of things, for perception, 286 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:58.279 for simple human notice. I stalked the flower beds until dusk, 287 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:01.559 pondering how could I know if my senses deceived or 288 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:04.440 if the world itself sheltered a one minute impossibility each day? 289 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:06.679 Right here beneath the passing feet of all these rig'lars. 290 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:09.879 Over dinner, I composed myself for round the day's discovery. 291 00:14:10.519 --> 00:14:12.799 Something real happened to not only in my mind, not 292 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:15.799 merely in the muscles of my imagination. It pressed out 293 00:14:15.799 --> 00:14:18.159 of every yock of frozen fountain. Every mid rush pigeon 294 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.879 ever sound a snap of leash? But if it was real, 295 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:24.000 what was it? Who else might see? The park at 296 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.200 dawn is a different country, lighter, but more honest. I 297 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:29.720 met mister Leo, as was his gentle custom, with note 298 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:33.000 at the ready, binoculars dangling. He nodded in greeting cheeks 299 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.000 read against the dawn shell. Morning, lou anything unusual these mornings? 300 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:39.360 I tried to sound abrupt enough to pass off his 301 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:43.480 idle chitchat. He pursed his lips, thoughtful. The sedan birds 302 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:47.320 stayed longer yesterday, ought, why do you ask? Oh? Nothing 303 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:50.320 in particular, just noticed round three a sort of lull. 304 00:14:50.879 --> 00:14:53.000 He turned a page, finger in the edge, as he thought, 305 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:56.000 you know now that you mention it. I sometimes get 306 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:58.000 a lag in my bird records, makes me cross out 307 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:00.720 a line and the schedule. He flipped several pages back 308 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.360 see here at around three fourteen, nothing logged. I'd assumed 309 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:06.759 it was a mystic. Got distracted, But it's consistent. Birds 310 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:10.879 disappear then return, always precisely curious, isn't it? Could you 311 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:14.279 keep special track this afternoon? I tried not to sound eager. 312 00:15:14.799 --> 00:15:19.440 He scribbled a note I will for science. Leaving Lige's birds, 313 00:15:19.519 --> 00:15:22.240 I doubled back to the gardens, finding Cassie humming as 314 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:24.960 she weed stubborn stretch of lamb's ear. When I brought 315 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:28.240 up the silence, she looked first worry, then amused. Look, 316 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:30.200 I'm in my own world out here, but now you 317 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:32.440 mention it. Sometimes it feels like the leaves sort of 318 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:34.679 catch their breath. I lose track. Thinkets heat stroke or 319 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:38.759 mild dehydration. Maybe I am just absent minded, maybe I mused, 320 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:43.600 but behind her words luck curiosity. Later, amidst the chest tables, 321 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:45.919 a cut rose, eyeing me sideways as MARKO bast in 322 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:49.080 another wind here in your odd little theories, she teased, 323 00:15:49.320 --> 00:15:52.039 folding her arms. Is it all the fresh air getting 324 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:55.000 to your head? Jack? Fresh air is all I've got 325 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.759 these days. The banter softened the tension, a kind of 326 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.399 shared teasing that acknowledged the oddity without ever omitting to 327 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:05.240 its substance. Incrementally, it became clear I was not quite alone. Lee, 328 00:16:05.399 --> 00:16:08.360 with his fastidious notes and reluctant observations, had registered a 329 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:11.320 blank space in his record. Cassi sensed perhaps a subtle 330 00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:14.480 stir among the garden beds. None of these confessions came 331 00:16:14.519 --> 00:16:17.399 out as admissions, but they carried traces of my own knees, 332 00:16:17.399 --> 00:16:19.519 the shadow of something caught at the edge of experience. 333 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:22.919 That night, sleep failed me. I combed over the day's exchanges. 334 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:26.240 Was there a common thread? Did some things set apart 335 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:30.279 those who noticed the gap? A two meant perhaps familiarity 336 00:16:30.320 --> 00:16:33.159 with small changes, or just a willingness to admit what 337 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:36.919 cannot be cataloged. I decided that tests must be more rigorous. 338 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:39.879 The following afternoon, I set up my digital watch to 339 00:16:39.919 --> 00:16:43.039 beat at the critical moment. I chose the chess tables, 340 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:45.559 placing my arm atop the coal checkered marble where Roset 341 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.559 and Marco played, setting the alarm for three fourteen. When 342 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:51.600 the minute arrived, there it was the hush, total and consuming. 343 00:16:52.120 --> 00:16:56.159 I weeded for the beep, nothing, no vibration, no hint 344 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:59.600 of digital psalm. Yet the time piece's second hand crept onward, 345 00:16:59.639 --> 00:17:02.600 recording the minute's passage, as indifferent to my confusion as 346 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:06.279 any celestial clock. Furious, I clenched my hand, trying to 347 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:09.440 reach for a pawn. The air resisted. My muscles lived 348 00:17:09.440 --> 00:17:12.200 as a swimming through cold molasses. I could think. My 349 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:15.079 mind still raised, twaling possibilities, sifting for close, but my 350 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:18.519 body was no longer my own, no pain, no panic, 351 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:22.119 just a remote, muffled state of being. When the silence ended, 352 00:17:22.599 --> 00:17:25.240 Roses slid her rook, glancing at my outstretched hand with 353 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:29.000 a smirk. Your move, Jack lost and thought again. My 354 00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.240 watch didn't beat, I muttered, Maybe it knows a better 355 00:17:32.279 --> 00:17:35.240 time to wake up, Marco replied, not looking up. For 356 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:37.680 the first time, I felt the possibility of real difference, 357 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:40.680 a true split between mind and material. I could astrisk, 358 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:43.079 think asterisk, but could not move with intend or intervene. 359 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:45.799 In the pause, the world and I were both inside 360 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:49.519 and outside ourselves for one perplexing interval That evening, I 361 00:17:49.559 --> 00:17:52.319 made a request, an unexpected one, perhaps from a former 362 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:55.319 ranger with a modest rapport among the Puck staff. I 363 00:17:55.359 --> 00:17:57.880 emailed the maintenance office my eye in the name of 364 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.759 nostalgia and volunteerism, have a look at olds curity footage 365 00:18:00.759 --> 00:18:03.440 of the park for a project, as I gently put it. 366 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:06.440 The next morning, one of the office assistants, a friendly 367 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:08.880 girl named Dea, loaded up several weeks worth of clouded, 368 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:13.039 jumpy security video. Together we watched noon one two and 369 00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:16.519 then three p m. At the critical moment, every foul glitched. 370 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:19.920 At three fourteen daily the security footage recorded nothing of 371 00:18:20.039 --> 00:18:22.680 just a block of black tancoags rolling on, and then 372 00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:25.440 at three fifteen, the world blinking instantly back into motion, 373 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.839 as if nothing had happened. De found this only mildly amusing. 374 00:18:29.480 --> 00:18:32.319 Must be a soft, poor patch, she said. I took 375 00:18:32.359 --> 00:18:34.519 her word for it, but in Mardi my conviction only 376 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:38.119 grew armed. Now with hard evidence, I returned to Cassie 377 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:42.039 and Lee sharing my findings. Their response is mixed skepticism, 378 00:18:42.119 --> 00:18:44.680 reluctant wonder, and the sort of nervous laughter that bespeaks 379 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:48.279 not dismissal but a grasping at reassurance. Cassie robbed her 380 00:18:48.359 --> 00:18:52.079 into her palms and characteristically fidgety. So what we're in 381 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.359 a Sefi drama? Now? Next thing you'll say is my 382 00:18:54.359 --> 00:18:57.759 bean's teleport crossed the beds. I'm not saying anything yet, 383 00:18:57.759 --> 00:18:59.799 but have you ever noticed, maybe after I don't know, 384 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:02.920 certain afternoons, a patch of flowers shooting up overnight faster 385 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:06.920 than others. No reason. She frowned That patch by the 386 00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:09.480 gate lost week two inches of growth after a hot day. 387 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:11.559 I blamed the rain, but there wasn't any Maybe I'm 388 00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:14.799 just a bad scientist. We're a good observer, I countered. 389 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:19.279 Leu was less easily rattled. He straightened his glasses, flipping 390 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:21.880 through his note book. If you're correct, we should be 391 00:19:21.880 --> 00:19:25.000 able to collect more data. Double up, watch record confirm. 392 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:28.680 Cassie agreed, though her laughter sounded thinner than usual. If 393 00:19:28.759 --> 00:19:31.519 nature's running a secret experiment, let's give us some competition. 394 00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:35.359 The next days we set a regime. Cassie marked a 395 00:19:35.359 --> 00:19:38.480 patch of fairly Crooks's with string. Lee tuned his old 396 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:41.319 field recorder to capture birds, and I manned my bench 397 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:44.680 with phone, note book and timer. Every three fourteen the 398 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:48.400 same the world paused. Our intentions held in amber. Cassie's 399 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:51.400 thermometered in the soil, flat lined, the birds leaves pride 400 00:19:51.400 --> 00:19:53.519 skipped a minute, then picked up their routines as if 401 00:19:53.519 --> 00:19:57.319