The Lost Clock Emporium

submited by

Style Pass

2024-12-09 23:00:14

I can’t remember exactly how I ended up at the Lost Clock Emporium. I do remember brushing by disturbed looking people making their way out.

“Clock a load of you!”, the proprietor muttered, before looking up. “Sorry, no time for introductions, I have things to show you.”

He shooed me over to a long wall covered in old wall clocks. I noticed that some larger clocks had a gear attached to their outer case.

“Mujer de fuego!” he exasperated, all at once. “It’s fine! Yes, I sped up my clocks 300 times for demonstration purposes. But it’s telling the time just fine. Hit that stop button and you will find the time makes perfect sense!”

“I call this the Devil’s Clock. It rotates 13 times counter-clockwise in a day. The effect is that the two hands appear to go in opposite directions. And they always mirror each other. A mirror in time! And yet, it is still a working clock that you can read.”

“Ahhh. Don’t get cheesed off. It is your own expectations that are playing with you. The hands on a clock shouldn’t go in opposite directions, of course. Isn’t it beautiful that the minute hand appears to somehow move faster than the hour hand? But they are moving at the same speed. Your brain gland is not used to such trouble.”