keeping time

IN LESS THAN A MINUTE, he sets the time two hours early in all his watches and clocks. He knows that if it takes him more than a full minute, the pieces would not tell the same time. He likes the idea that even cheating needs skill, that it is not easy to trick anyone.

When he is done with the last piece, an old grandfather that has been with him for years, he sits on a stool in a corner of the room, silent as a drum. Outside, above the shadow of dark houses, the ribbon of night sky is stained with clouds, studded with stars.

He could already close if he wants to, but he lights a cigarette instead and studies his own face in the glass windows. His eyeglasses reflect the yellow light from the lamp posts outside, making him look sad and surreal: an android from the past.

The clink of the door chimes at last, a familiar perfume in the new air, and a woman greets him. He crushes his cigarette on an ashtray, stands up, and smiles. I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come.