The Proud Clock (Heather's Assignment)

I don't tick people off. Literally. In fact, everyone loves me. You see, in a house, there are our "gods". The humans. In my house, there are three of them. There's the father, who's a gym rat but loves to sneak a midnight snack here and there. He peaks at me to see how late it is when he's munching on an almond butter sandwich. There's the mother, who's always exhausted from work but always finds the time to do practically every form maintenance. She looks at me early in the morning, at 6 am every Sunday morning before she turns off her iPad, after reading some online Cantonese articles, and moves the nightstand table with her very early breakfast of the previous night's leftovers just to catch a few more hours of sleep. Then there's the daughter, who's always panicking about school and maybe spends a bit too much time with technology. She always looks at me at around 7:40 am every school day morning. She proceeds to curse and struggle with her shoes and her tote bag spilling with scholarly contents. She does the alarm quickly and slams the door shut. A few seconds later, there's the familiar tinkling of finding the right keys and the also familiar click of the lock sliding into place.

This is when the house comes alive. The parents have left already. The girl wakes up by herself and so when she leaves, that's when we come alive.

All the other house items love me. I'm the most popular one. Even more popular than the TV. I don't mean to be a narcissist, but I am the most important thing in this house. I control whether the girl misses her bus or not. I control whether the parents make it on time to their meeting or not. I control the time and I make the decisions in the house.

My spot rests underneath the TV set. I'm sleek. A thin, black box with bright blue digital numbers, flashing every instance and determining the decisions the humans make.

There are other clocks in this house. There are two clocks upstairs but they aren't even close to as important as me. One of them is barely looked at because the father uses his phone as an alarm, and not the clock. The other one, in the girl's room, is broken and can't even tell the time correctly. Their one job. And that pathetic black box of a "clock" can't even tell the time right. What's so hard about flashing the correct numbers at the correct time?

There used to be an analog clock. One that sort of ran on batteries but ticked and showed all the numbers and had a small, thin hand, a larger but still thin hand and a short but thicker hand. He even had a pendulum. Personally, he was annoying. When I came in my box, I saw him. He was old. He was missing a good big corner of glass when a flower tipped over and sent him crashing to the ground. But he had a certain bravery. He continued his annoying tick, toc, tick, toc and swung his pendulum in such a frustratingly continuous matter.

Tick, swing, toc, swing, tick, swing, toc, swing, tic.....

Nothing.

The old man had passed away.

Ever since that clock died, I became the most important clock. We were situated closely. He on the fireplace next to the TV and I under the TV, on the TV shelf.

Everyone looks at me. I am the most important thing in this house because this family runs on time. And what do I do? Well, I control time. So I control their lives.

One girl irritates me. A friend of the daughter's. She forgets me. How can she forget the one clock in this house that's the most important? Her dumb phone is so old and can't even work properly. It's only a matter of time before that girl relies on me solely.

"What time is it?" she'll ask. She then proceeds to take out her pitiful phone and checks the time. The daughter laughs and shakes her head at her friend.

"Charlotte, there's a clock right in front of you."

In a way, I feel like I'm part of the family. I know everything about them. They know everything about me, though there's little to know.

I am so important. I rule the house. This family does everything based on time. "Do we have enough time?" "Screw it, I don't have the time." "Don't worry. Let's watch a movie, we have plenty of time."

Time, time, time. Time is my specialty. I'm so good at it. It's my profession. I even go forward or backwards depending on which Daylight's Savings it is. Everyone depends on time.

They say that we items in the house are ruled by the humans but dare I say that I, in fact, rule the humans.