‘Tick Tock.’
Simon had been a clock maker for forty-three years, and had worked on thousands of them, but this was his favourite, the old skeleton-style church clock.
‘Tick Tock.’
This was definitely one of the largest, and had been a bit of a challenge. The ten-foot chime gear had jammed, and he’d had a real struggle to get it moving again.
‘Tick Tock.’
It was a pity that it would be his last. Dressed in his best shirt and tie, he would later that afternoon shake hands with his boss and graciously accept a carriage clock on his retirement.
‘Tick Tock.’
Adjusting his glasses, he leaned forward and peered closely at the gears.
‘Tick Tock.’
The hour hand moved to twelve.
‘Tick Tock.’
The gears spun and the clock began to chime midday. Simon could see with immense satisfaction how perfect the alignment of the teeth was as his head fell through the mechanism.
His wife had warned him about wearing the tie.
John Raybould was born on May 15th, 1953 in Chesterfield, England. He spent the best part of his teenage years in Adelaide, South Australia where he learnt the art of being laid back. Back in the UK, he has had a varied career and enjoys writing short stories. He plans to retire at 55 and write the book that we all have hidden away in our imaginations, and is only waiting for us to have time to write.
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9 Responses to “TICK TOCK • by John Raybould”
Comments
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November 18th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Good story. Time kills!!
November 18th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Love it! Succinct and perfect, and not what I expected.
November 19th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Bloody BRILLIANT, mate! (and “owie” to the “time kills” pun, DJ!)
November 26th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
This is great :o) Would you please write us something for The Pygmy Giant? http://www.thepygmygiant.blogspot.com. We would be honoured.
Mel
November 26th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I love the mission statement of your magazine, Mel, though we at EDF hope that it will soon be your >Canadian< cousins who will be dominating the flash fiction market
If there’s anything we can do to help each other out, please let me know!
November 26th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Perhaps we could link to each other? I’ll get onto it.
Good luck with this, it’s a brilliant idea and I think I might subscribe… And yeah, go Canada!
Hope you don’t mind me looking through and inviting the odd talented Brit to write us something too? Scuse me if I am being cheeky!
All the best.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Mel,
We certainly don’t mind if you solicit authors through our site so long as you send a few back to us occasionally!
As for linking, I can add you to our “friends” section, if you’ll link to us. Is there any particular text you’d like with the link?
November 26th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Sounds good.
Howsabout,
The Pygmy Giant is a place for British flash fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and pretty much anything else under 800 words. An online magazine for writing that’s bigger on the inside than the outside, from a nation that’s much the same. Always looking for submissions - pieces are published every few days.
Thanks very much! Apologies at this point to John who may have had to read this whole conversation. I really do like your story. Please do grace us with your presence!
November 26th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
It’s up. The whole description wouldn’t fit, but I did my best
http://www.everydayfiction.com/features/friends/