"is it not beautiful?" he asked, gazing at it in adoration.
"It's just a big clock old man." I snapped, already tired of this outing. My father had promised to let me out of the house if i came along with him. Of course i agreed, anything to get me away from my little sister.
So, here we were inside th oldest clock tower in the city. Watching it work from the inside.
"And what does a clock do, my daughter?" Hull asked, not taking his gaze away from the interlocking gears.
"It tells the time, keeps track of things." I rolled my eyes, "why does this matter?"
"And what does time measure?" He demanded, spinning around to face me, "tell me that!"
I opened my mouth to reply, then stopped. Time was just time it didn't measure anything, we measured it. Eventually i figured out how to put that in words and told my father as much. He laughed and spun around to face me.
"why?" he demanded, "why would we bother to measure it?"
I growled, frustrated by his questioning. "People want to know how much time things take so they know how much time they have left."
Hull chortled, "That's it!" He cried, clapping his hands together. "how much time we have left. we measure time my daughter, because time measures our lives!"
I snorted, "so you're all just a morbid race waitin to kick it then."
My father smiled gently and lay a hand on my arm, "that's what makes the clock beautiful." he explained, "it reminds us that we are mortal."
I pulled away from his touch, "so, you dragged me all the way up here so you could talk about life?" I asked angrily, "you could have done that anywhere!"
The sun was setting now, painting the inside of the clock tower red and gold. We hd been here for long enough, I turned starting to head in the dircetion of the stairs.
"Wait my daughter." My father said, "this is a very special clock." Gently he put his hands on my shoulders and turned me so i was looking at the pendulum. "listen." He told me, and i did.
in the shadowed silence , i heard it. The steady tick of the clock tower. Dull and lifeless, never faltering in its task. I reflected idly that it was ticking my life away, stealing it sliver by sliver. It was an amusing prospect.
"Now," my father announced, pulling a stethoscope from his coat pocket and putting iton me. "listen to yourself."
I stood there while he placed the end on my chest. After a while, i heard it, the steady tickng of clockwork inside me. Dull, lifeless, matching perfectly with the clock tower.
Hull put the stethoscope back in his pocket. "this is why i bought you here," he said softly," to explain to you that you are beautiful, you are eternal, you are time my daughter."
At that moment, i had never hated him more.
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