My Journal of Weekend Write-Ins

Seven-Forty

Sonia drew a large clock on the wall.

"It's a mural on time," she explained to Kenny who had commissioned her. She had told him she would do it for free, but he insisted that her work be paid. After a year of friendship, he could still be very formal.

"Isn't it a bit absu--" he stopped himself, He didn't want to hurt her feelings. Plus he had given her free rein. "I mean wouldn't an actual work better?"

Sonia shook her head but kept drawing. "Clocks are going extinct."

"Uhh," Kenny said.

"They are sort of like typewriters, cassettes, VHS and all the other outdated wonders," she stopped and surveyed her work. Shaking her head she redrew the circle. Kenny watched in awe of how she could create a perfect circle by hand.

"Their time has come," she sighed.

Kenny appreciated the accidental pun.

"I want to record their existence in my mural. To give them a proper memorial."

Kenny couldn't help but smile, only Sonia would mourn for clocks.

"Are you going to paint a particular time?" he asked.

"I thought maybe at twelve o'clock. As a way to represent both an ending and a beginning."

His heart constricted, she was like that--giving hope.

"How about seven-forty?"

She stopped drawing and turned to him. "Why?"

He hadn't meant to tell her but, he couldn't keep it in any longer.

"A year ago, I was running late to meet my then-girlfriend and her parents. I had gotten stuck helping my incompetent boss. And there were train delays because of some incident," he could still feel the frantic tension he had that day, it had been really crappy.

She tilted her head as she listened to him.

"As I rushed across the park near the restaurant I was head to, I glance at my watch," he paused to remember.

"Seven-forty. Forty minutes late," Kenny scoffed at himself. He hated being late. When he looked up he saw a tiny figure illuminated by a park light, drawing magical underwater creatures on the concrete. For a moment he felt was amid the mysterious ocean. His pace stopped.

"Then I saw the world you were creating, filled with dancing fish and dolphins. The explosion of colors and sounds mesmerized me. It was like time had stopped," he swallowed. "And then you looked up with your satisfied smiled and my heart stopped." Kenny's heart pounded as he said the last part.

They stared at each other before Sonia turned back to her mural. She drew a large clock hand pointing at the seven and the small hand pointing at the forty.