Monday, November 21, 2005


Tick.... tick.... tick.... The colossal clock hurled its living echoes into the room. Unseen. Unheard. At the first tick of twenty past midnight the professor of mysticism began an impromptu lecture on the meaning of time, clarifying concepts the guests may have sensed, may have tapped along the edge of, but of depths eschewed for fear of losing one's orientation. Tick.... tick.... tick.... The instrument of chronology celebrated the seconds in its steady mechanical way, issuing moments that fell like specks of sand from a point infinitely above to a destination far below - the dunes of eternity. Those with vision might snatch a kernel out of the invisible, synchronized stream, and live it, before its occurrence. The professor expounded the concept of projecting one's mind minutes, days, years into one's future and returning with premonitions retrieved out of a remembrance of the gap between that new time and the past. Tick.... tick.... tick.... The person so projected would perceive only a minute discontinuity as insignificant as the momentary loss of vision when an eye is blinked. Upon return, the sudden presence of a new idea would distract from its origin in the times unborn. Tick.... tick.... tick.... The professor spoke his engrossing lecture extending into hours, if anyone present had made inventory of the ticks of that massive mechanism that is always among us, unseen and unheard. After uttering the final syllable of his thesis, the professor glanced at his listeners and vanished. Tick.... tick.... tick.... It was exactly twenty past midnight.

Story #311

Note from Indeterminacy: Thanks for all your contributions! They have been reposted at indeterminacies.blogspot.com.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Barbierella had drunk a little to much punch at the ball, so it wasn't till sometime after midnite that she noticed the change!!!! The Prints was just a ordinary guy in unstylish close, and his dad looked like a white-hared neanderthol!!!!! The other guests were just as looser-looking, and worst of all the ball room had turned into a LIBERRY!!!!!
Barbierella just stood at the top of the liberry steps and screamed!!!!!!
The paranormal investigator on the other side of the clock just stared blankly from his extrasensory eyes. He could not understand why the owners of the house had asked him to examine the Barbie doll lying at the top of the library steps. Why didn't they just pick the thing up?

P. S. Our word verifier is "coyfox." Cool.

Ariel the Thief said...

wow, the master made that clock must have been a believer!

Miles to go said...

Looming over them is an archaic symbol of time seemingly ignored but whomever inhabits its space is made aware of their own time and their possibilities or regressions.

At this very moment, the man in the white shirt's fleeting thoughts of sexual intimacy was denied again and this time by the flooded white flash of intrusion.

And there the man in the gray shirt has been living a life of mired indeterminacies. There is an underlying rage about his unconcious thoughts. Thoughts reacting to flows of sensless wanderings and are bubbling near the surface to hurt those around him.

The person with the white hair has thought of the mistake at dinner when her son chose not to live there anymore. Her wide eyes displays angst about facing time alone without the son and it feels like the dusty caked mouths created by the desert Santa Ana Winds.

Separate and disparaged lives brought together by this symbol of time. To satisfy any yearning for them, one must continue to visit this archaic symbol and who knows you may share where they would go or end up.

Doug The Una said...

Haha, Ariel!

***
Morale had been poor at Biddle, Bottle and Sons Accounting. The stenos, book-keepers and accountants were upset that management wouldn't give them computers so they could blog ("only when it's slow",) wouldn't give them calculators on which to type 0.7734 or other upside-down messages and wouldn't allow straws for the occassional spit-ball contest. In such a serious environment, the staff sat at their desks, watching the clock and wishing for a distraction that might make the day move a little faster.

admin said...

The students of Dresden Technical University where obliged to attend lectures in the Museum that day. It was a fabulous museum that showed the advance of the mechanisms of clocks and watches, through the ages. There was also a section with some very old telescopes, maps and glasses which everyone found breathtaking. Sebastian was also looking at all clocks he found, holding his breath, placing his hand over his mouth, almost as if he was greately shocked. "What is it?" asked him Tonja, "Dont you like the design or what?". "No, thats not it" replied Sebastian, slightly laughing. "Its just that all clocks show that its time to urgently visit the Mensa, and yet we are stil here, waisting our time looking at a bunch of old clocks." Both of them laughed and decided to secretely find their way out, without letting the lecturer notice them.

The Mushroom said...

Hans had a huge clock. He was very proud of his mighty clock. He'd invite friends over, direct them to his library, sit in a chair and point to his enormous clock. Men and women were equally astounded by his clock, and while men were envious of Hans' clock size women would stroke the side of his tall hard clock. Hans didn't mind if women touched his clock, as long as they used a tissue to wipe it afterwards; men were rougher and would beat his big clock to test its sturdiness. What other people didn't realize was that his gargantuan clock didn't actually work... when he knew people were coming to see it, he'd move the hands to two minutes forward of the moment they rang the bell, then by the time they got to the library they'd see the correct time. He would spend about one minute showing off his clock, basically flashing his guests with his huge clock so they wouldn't get a close look, and whisk them off to another room which was more hospitable. As impressed as people were with the size of his clock, the people who adored it were not aware it was functionally impotent.

Jamie Dawn said...

Good Lord! I've lost my train of thought!

Jamie Dawn said...

Time. It haunts us, laughs at us, and binds us. No one escapes its confines. The rich cannot buy more time. It is the master. We are all its slaves.

admin said...

Very well said Jamie.

Indeterminacy said...

Pansi: You are quite a Barbie-girl of Letters. You sure know how to creatively wrench a word. I just bought a new pair of winter gloves, so if I had been there I wouldn't have been afraid to pick up the Barbie.

Miles to Go: I visited your blog and found a collection of great stories. Thanks for sharing your imagination here. I like the magical clock you came up with.

Doug: I can see the office you drew. There's probably a sign on the wall "Time is Money." Not sure I want to work for you now.

Viruswitch: Es hätte bestimmt Spass gemacht, mit dir den Unterricht zu schwänzen.

Mushroom: Wonderfully funny. Wish I'd have thought of this. It would have saved me the trouble of thinking up something else.

Jamie: If only justice were as brutally impartial as time.

Doug The Una said...

Indie, you should see the benefits package.

Indeterminacy said...

Doug: Oh, if there are benefits, I'll take up consideration again. Since I take it that this is a somewhat old-fashioned company, is it ok to bring a book along to read during working hours?

admin said...

You reminded me of my youth Indie. Funny memories of many hours of 'schwänzen'. :)

Indeterminacy said...

Viruswitch! You are still young!

admin said...

24 and young? Try going to a disco... Looks as if they ll forbid the entrance to anyone above 18 now. :P :))

Anonymous said...

Cool sci-fi, Indie. I really liked the ending.

The Mushroom said...

It's not your style to make 'big clock' jokes so I wouldn't have expected you to head toward the lowest common denominator. :)

Jamie Dawn said...

Cool story, Indie.

Tom & Icy said...

Remember Roachz of Rambling Chicken? She made a post on her blog but only wrote "Bird Flu". She commented on Dogs' Daze. We really liked her and her writing.

Indeterminacy said...

Viruswitch: is there a more lovely age for woman than 24? Whoever falls in love with you now, you will remain 24 as long as you want.

Mrs. Weirsdo: Your nod really makes my day with this story. Usually I hate my stories after they are written, this one especially because I thought it might be too dense for people to enjoy. But you like it, and you are people, excluding Pansi, so as I said, it makes my day. I also wanted to have more science fictions.

Mush: But it was so wonderfully innocent. Anyhow I thought it was funny.

Jamie: Thank you so much.

Tom&Icy: Of course I remember Roachz. I stopped by her site every so often, but she hadn't posted in such a long time. I'm glad that she's back!