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| This Week’s Theme: Phobia
Sharon’s brother knew why she was afraid of clocks, but he never told. In fact, he never let on he even knew. Oh, he teased her unmercifully about it in front of the other kids. After all, he couldn’t let on he knew. Well, unmercifully is an exaggeration, for he was very protective of Sharon. He always stopped short of putting one beneath her bed or hiding one in her bathrobe pocket. He couldn’t let himself go that far. He knew the ticking, the incessant, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, reminded her of those nights at their cousin’s house. He knew that if she saw the big hand on the 12 and the little hand on the 10, even now, she quietly went into the bathroom and threw up. It was the only way she could purge herself of the memory. He wanted to help. He had wanted to tell on each of those four Saturday nights, but he was afraid of Uncle Nathan’s fists. He had seen the damage they could cause the summer before she had been, well, you know. The clocks at their uncle’s house had been awfully loud: tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick was all they heard at lights out at eight. But at ten they all heard another sound, a muffled whimpering… He had to tease her, he couldn’t tell, he had to tease her, they couldn’t know he knew. They would not understand why he didn’t tell… She couldn’t know he knew. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. He reached down and smashed the clock. Then went to tell his mom that Sharon broke it. He couldn’t let them know he knew. MeeAugraphie |
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McLeesBogaert
12 Comments
Wow, Marcia, that’s a powerful story. Very well done.
marcia,, that was wonderful,, kind of a two fisted punch with him smashing thew clock at the end!!!
I have to tell you Marcia that this story riled us up. We don’t remember, but the body does.
But we’re cool.
Rose
xo
A good read, thanks.
Good job. Nice complexity on the Psychoanalytical level.
I shivered as I read this. Good job.
I am kind of speechless!
I like the way you’ve used the sound of the clock to pace the piece, and I really like that he understands it’s more important for her to think he doesn’t know about >that
This could keep going, I think. I’d like to read more.
this has me slightly freaked out - so clearly its a very effective bit of writing… well done… now I’m going to go and remove the clock from my room…
Chilling … this is the story from Fiction Friday that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind. The simplicity and the complexity - the macabre. Congratulations on a tight piece of fiction!
oh my golly. what a very strong piece. you have associated the mundane ticking of the clock with an event that no one would ever forget. you’ve got me wanting to punch someone somewhere. =)