ticks and tocks
There’s a broken clock on the wall of my 2:30 class on Monday afternoons. I noticed it on the first day I had the class, for the whole hour and twenty five minutes the clock claimed that it was 10:43 on a wednesday, the ninth. The second hand is bright red and it just ticks in place between 36 and 37 seconds. The second hand is what caught my attention at first, on every tick it jumps lightly in place, but on the tocks it jumps more forcefully, as though it’s really hoping that on this tock it’ll finally break free of it’s 37th second prison. I spent most of the first class watching the clock, I was curious if the minute hands would actually make some attempt to tell time, but they didn’t budge.
When I came back the next week, at 2:30 once again, the clock claimed it was 4:25, still on wednesday, the ninth. The second hand though, hadn’t moved from it’s spot between 36 and 37, and still jumped lightly on the ticks and forcefully on the tocks…. Why do I find this interesting? God only fucking knows. But I spent the whole of that class watching the clock again, trying to catch the minute hands in action, to no avail. THIS is what I waste MY time doing, watching clocks that move without moving, trying to catch them in the act.
I was back in that room again today. It said it was 5:40, still wednesday, still the ninth. Although, the wednesday is only half visible now, which makes me suspect that next week it may finally be thursday. The room is obviously stuck in some sort of time warp where, conceivably, life is moving at a much slower pace. Today I started musing about what wednesday of what month of what year it was that I was visiting while I sat in the room. My teacher asked why I was smiling, and I quickly made an excuse and a mental note to control my facial expressions for the rest of class.
) Your Reply...