A homeless thief breaks into a house that has nothing worth stealing - except for the heart of a lonely man who is obsessed with time.
*****
Blake has been living on the streets for...
Later that day, Jordan spoke with Jasmine over Skype, and it went well. Since she would stay the entire week, we weren't going to hurry the actual meeting, so Jordan was pretty relaxed the rest of the day. I could still see a slight change in his behavior when his mom came to visit.
"There's... something I want to give you," Jordan spoke at some point, and Julia raised her eyebrows.
I watched from the couch while he went to get the first clock he wanted to get rid of, and returned into the living room.
"It's... one of your...?" Julia mumbled with wide eyes, as Jordan slowly made his way closer to her.
"I told you before, I want to get rid of them," Jordan said, and stopped only a few feet away from his mother. On good days he could go even closer than that, but those days were very few.
"I thought... I thought you meant later..." Julia said, keeping her eyes on the clock. "Are you giving it to me?" she asked and looked up at him.
"You've wanted to throw them out for years," Jordan said, and took one more step closer to her, and slowly lifted his hand, holding out the clock to his mother. "I want you to do the honors."
Her eyes got even wider, and she looked at the clock. It took her a few seconds to snap out of her surprise, and carefully, she reached out with her hand to take the clock. Jordan stepped back and looked down for a short moment before he smiled at his mother.
I had no idea he would do that! I didn't even notice I was holding my breath, so I let the air escape my lips. It was the first time Jordan and his mother had been so close to each other, but by the looks of it, Jordan wasn't feeling too uncomfortable. It took him only a few moments to straighten his posture.
"You can keep it or throw it away," he spoke. "But I'll be giving you a lot of clocks from now on until there's nothing left."
Julia burst out smiling and looked at the clock like it was the most precious thing in the world. In a way, it was. This was a new step, a big step, and Jordan was still fine.
"I think I'll keep it," Julia said quietly. "How could I throw it away?"
"It's your decision," Jordan said reassuringly.
Julia nodded with a big smile, holding the clock tightly against her chest.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
-Julia-
I was thrilled when I stepped out of Jordan's room, holding the clock he gave me. I closed the door behind me and stopped to stare at the simple thing. It was the shape of an egg, but with the bottom cut off for the clock. It was completely white, but with green numbers and pointers. It couldn't be worth more than five bucks, but it was already dear to me.
