The clock without a second hand

Fiction · Original fiction

The repairer could replace the missing second hand, but the reading room's caretaker asked her to wait. The clock still kept time, and the quiet ticking had become part of the room.

Visitors looked up less often now. A child asked how it could know where the seconds went. The caretaker answered that knowing and showing were different jobs.

At closing time, the repairer brought a small paper envelope containing the new hand. Keep it, she said. You can choose later.

The caretaker put it in a drawer. Months afterwards, she found it beside spare library cards. She checked the clock, then closed the drawer gently and returned to a reader waiting at the desk.