Looking out across the
room that time forgot, I can’t help but wonder how we got here? What made them
just get up and leave and why didn’t they take me with them? I served them
endlessly and this is my repayment. For a very long time I kept waiting for
them to return, yet they never came. Eventually I just gave up waiting.
Watching the time pass by, I lost hope. But I never lost count of how long it
had been since they left me.
I have always been very
good with time. I can remember everything that happened in this room, when and
what time each event took place. A room that was once filled with laughter and
memories, now stands alone. It looks the same as before they left me, except
now there is a smell of old lingering and a layer of dust that can’t be shaken.
It feels like only yesterday when that dreadful day came out of nowhere.
Everybody was very excited about the impending move then suddenly that all
changed. ‘Finally, that’s the last of it loaded up. Let’s go’. Then after one
last sweeping look around their loving home they went, without me. They used to
love me, those that lived here and those that didn’t all the same. ‘Oh isn’t it
lovely’, they would say, ‘I would love one’. Yet where are they all now? It was
clearly all a lie. Nobody loves me and nobody wants me. If they did they would
not have left me here, to die.
I can feel myself growing
weaker with each second that goes by, I know that it will happen soon. Once I
was the centrepiece of the room. Standing tall and proud, rising above it all.
Every hour I would chime in delight and get the same warm looks from those all
around. I never let them forget the time, never missed a single tick or chime.
Now I cannot chime anymore, my booming voice is gone. I still tick here and
there but not in a regular pattern, my timekeeping excellence deteriorating due
to a significant lack in care. I spend my days trying to regulate my tick, in
an attempt to return to some of my former glory. It’s always the same, my
pursuit comes to no avail. I am weakened and old and cannot rejuvenate my
health.
Even my name implies that
I am old. A constant reminder that my time has passed. Grandfather’s clock.
That’s what they call me. It was an insult in my prime, I felt as young as all
and was as healthy as can be. Now the only part of the name that is true is the
part suggesting my age. Now in this state, the only insult is being referred to
as a clock. All clocks should be able to tick and chime on demand and I can’t
even do that anymore. Perhaps that is why they left me here. They didn’t want
such an embarrassing feature in their new home.
I know I need to hold
onto hope, after all nobody knows what the future holds. I feel like my
impending death is all that I have left, but does it have to be that way?
Looking across the room and out the tiny window I can see the For Sale sign. It
used to stand so high and tall and gave me hope. Now after fighting the weather
and time it leans at a slant, a sign of hope long extinct.
Something feels different
about today, I just can’t quite place what it is. Maybe today is the day I will
make my last tick, but, no, it does not feel like that. From the darkness I can
almost feel hope. Maybe it is just my old age making me delusional or maybe
today really is the day that things could change. The room feels lighter, like
joy is about to arrive. I hope it happens. I want nothing more than a new
loving family, although even if somebody new was to arrive they would probably
just want rid of me. Why would anybody want a dusty old broken grandfather’s
clock?
There seems to be a
commotion going on outside, I can hear vehicles and voices. Presumably it is
just the family from next door. They look nice and kind, they remind me of my
old owners. A face that finally fits the voice I can hear comes into view out
the window and it isn’t the neighbours, it’s some strangers and they are
tampering with the for sale sign. That poor sign has been through enough, I
wish they would leave it alone, pulling it this way and that, ripping parts of
it off. Isn’t it bad enough that it has to stand outside the house nobody wants
and now it has to deal with these vandals. They finally move out of view and I
dare to look at what damage they have to done to the sign. Just as I look up a
bright gleam of sunlight shines through into the room and I see that they have
attached something new to the sign over what used to say for sale. I read it
once and feel my pendulum jitter. Can it really be true? I read again more
slowly and carefully this time.
SOLD.
It is true. The house has
finally sold which can only mean one thing. New owners. I hope they like me and
want me to stay. I glance back around the room with much more love, the burden
of being forgotten disappearing. I struggle to comprehend how only moments ago
I was waiting to die and now there is the chance of a whole new life just
around the corner. Momentarily I had forgotten about the strangers that had
altered the sign, distracted by the idea of a new life I was idiotic to not
realise they would be coming inside. The creak of the door slowly being opened
reminded me. A man and a woman entered the room and took in the sight of
neglect. This was the moment they were going to realise how much work was
needed and they were going to decide to get rid of me surely, or would they
want this old clock? The woman turned around and started to walk towards me. I
could feel my pendulum start to swing faster and my ticks came more easily. She
gently raised her arm, and with her jacket sleeve quickly wiped away the thick
layer of dust off my face. Oh what a joy to be able to see clearly again.
In the next moment my
whole life changed and I knew that happiness was coming to me. She turned to
the man and said, ‘Oh what a wonderful clock, it will be such a prominent
feature in this room, I just love it. Do you think it still chimes?’ The
surprise of this woman wanting me filled me with such a warm feeling and a
burst of energy that made me feel healthier than ever before. My chime rang out
through the room signifying the start of a new life.
E x
