The Clock

Alzheimer: Do Ghosts Cry? | home

The Clock

Alice was wearing her watch on the right arm, upside down. She did not want to see the figures. they used to make fun of her, saying that she was a coward and she would reply that it was a matter of esthetics, not a matter of fear.

Some days she could even manage to convince herself that it was an ordinary watch, that the figures were moving like any ordinary watch, not backward.

Every one knew that the translation would come and when the translation would come, yet it was the one subject that could not be discussed.

They called it a watch, but it was not really a watch. The arms of the watch appeared to have a life of their own, some periods counted for nearly nothing, some periods counted for a lot.

Everyone had his theory how to explain how the watch was measuring time. Some were sure that happiness was slowing down the countdown, others were equally sure that pain and unhappiness slowed down the countdown;

Nobody wanted to admit it, yet the magazines dealing with advices on how to take care of the time, how not the make the time move too fast, these magazines that nobody was buying were selling million and million of copies.

Some were convinced that if they kept looking at the watch, they could control its movements, that it would not suddenly jump into a mad rush towards the end, this obsession usually grew and grew and they would do nothing but sit and look at the watch, some were even keeping an agenda of events and numbers. They were getting so obsessed that they would cease to leave their home, they would not eat anymore, they would not sleep, they would just sit and watch. Some tried to stop breathing, convinced that the watch was regulated on their breathing, some tried to slow down their hart, convinced that the watch was synchronized on their heartbeat.

Psychologists and watch counselors had sprung up everywhere in town, some promising that they make you accept the countdown, others that they would teach you how to extend time, all telling you that whatever the countdown, happiness belonged to them, not to the watch.

Was the "do not care" group the happiest? They believed that the watch was obeying no rules, that they could do anything or everything, that it would not change in any way the countdown. So they went about their life without even looking at the watch and when they looked at it, they just looked at it like some meaningless number.

When together, it would be very bad form to look at the others watch, and nobody would even think of asking the others for their remaining time and how the watch had measered time these days. This was too far into own's personal life to be risked.

This was so personal that only when they were sure of their mutual love, would they allow the other to look at their watch, and even that was not a very common practice, even the greatest love was not considered as strong enough to resist the pressure of passing time.

Stories were told of lovers whose love was so great that they had proposed to exchange their watches. Everyone knew that it was meaningless, you could have so much more time remaining on your watch than your beloved, that would not guarantee that one week later the difference would still be the same. But it was of the most beautiful gesture amongst lovers, exchanging their watches.

At death, some claimed that the watch would show the number zero for ever, others claimed that this number was only a waiting time, that the watch would start again.

Some claimed that at death, the watch was showing the number zero, but that inside the watch, the mechanism continue to live and measure time, only we could not see it.

Alice came home from work. She glanced at her watch, as if "by accident" as if she had not meant to look at it, she tried not to let the number register into her mind, to let the number be a number, any number, not to notice that it had become so much smaller than yesterday.

Alice prepared herself a light meal. She did not want to tell her friends, but she was convinced that the watch used food in the same way she needed food, that the less food she ate, the slower the watch would tick.

She immersed into a show on the Total Surround in spite of being aware that during that immersion the watch would be moving and counting and that this time would be time of nothing for her.

Alice brushed her hair, she read again some of the letters, she did not need to see anything, just holding the brittle paper in her hands and the words were in her mind.

Alice went to bed, she turned off the lights, she fell asleep.

On her wrist, in the middle of the night the watch suddenly became like a mad rat running round its wheel, the numbers fell and fell and the final number showed.

It was time

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