"Clocks" by Jesse Lee Kercheval

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Clocks

Jesse Lee Kercheval

Jackie was my new best friend.

She lived in a ranch house at the end of the block. On the outside, it looked just like the house my parents had rented.


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But inside . . .

Clocks. Some so valuable they arrived from museums in armored cars.


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CLOCK S

Jackie lived with her Uncle Otto. She told me he was a horologist.

Uncle Otto was actually Jackie’s great uncle.


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Her father died in a war but Jackie never talked about him.

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Her mother lived in Japan. Every year on Jackie’s birthday, she told me, Her mother sent her a doll. My favorite looked like Jackie.

But that year on her birthday no doll had arrived.


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Uncle Otto gave Jackie a clock.

And to cheer her up, he arranged with my mother For me to spend the night.


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CLOCK S

It was hard to fall asleep with clocks chiming every five minutes but eventually I did

and slept until midnight when the house shook with bells.


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Jackie woke up.

“Come with me,” she said.

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We went down to the basement. There was a safe and she opened it.

I expected there would be clocks inside. Gold ones. Or ones with jewels.


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Instead, when we stepped through the door, we were outside,

but not in Jackie’s backyard,

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in a forest


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with animals.

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Jackie pointed.


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Through the trees

I saw a woman.

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Jackie ran toward her, “Mother!,”

leaving me behind.


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I was alone in the forest. Absolutely alone.

Then I wasn’t.

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I was in an old inn and Otto was there. “It won’t make her happy,” he said and I knew he was talking about Jackie.


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“They have the best strudel here,” he said.

And they did.

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Then we walked back to the house.


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“What about Jackie?” I asked. “I’ll leave the door unlocked,” he said.

“She always comes back.”

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And he was right. When I woke up in the morning Jackie was there. Before I opened my eyes

I could hear her crying.


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