Tick Tock

This is a short story for the WattpadTimeTravel "Only 8 Days?" contest. The goal was to devise a story based on this prompt:

"You're living in a metropolitan city where people barely interact with their neighbors let alone a strange kid who time travels and tells you, 'The end of the world is near.'"

Only 8 days isn't much time, so that's the central theme here. Tick tock. Tick tock. Enjoy!

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It was the third day in a row I'd seen the offbeat kid tugging at the hems of passersby's shirts, asking for change most likely. From a distance, he was entirely unfortunate looking. Legs that appeared too long for his tiny torso darted him to and fro as he chased his impatient quarry. A few of them pushed him away and he would fall, unable to find his balance on such spindly legs.

I sat watching him from the central square bench in front of the biotech firm where I worked as a patent attorney and paper pusher. The bench was where I went on easy-weather days for lunch. Not that this insane heatwave was easy. It was still nice to be outdoors.

No one ever sat there. No one rested on benches anymore. Every second of every minute of every hour of every day was clocked.

I hated clocks. They only reminded me of a wasted life.

Run, run, run. No time to talk. No time to say hello. No time to even lift your head. Just look down at the ground, or at your smartphone, and get to your appointment.

I no longer lived by the clock. I was far too old and dispassionate. All I wanted to do was slow down. Which I did. For the past several weeks, I'd been taking lunch break fifteen minutes early and returning fifteen minutes late. No more rushing for me.

For thirty years I'd anxiously completed all of my paperwork before I left the office, sometimes staying well past midnight to get everything done. Everything stacked neatly and orderly, deadlines never missed. Now I left the office precisely at five. Deadlines came and went and haphazard piles of papers floated around my office. I no longer held a favorable view of the hurried lifestyle. It had failed to improve my life.

What was the point of rushing, rushing, rushing, while letting the world pass you by in that very same blur of motion? What was the point of all that work when you couldn't spare one moment to enjoy the world around you?

It's only a shame I waited this long to realize how much time I'd wasted. It's funny. They tell you not to waste time with idleness. But when your head is stuck behind a mountain of paperwork, isn't that the real waste of time that could have been better spent with a casual walk or simply sitting on a city bench?

The strange kid on the other side of the square was still up to his shenanigans, troubling people who didn't want to be bothered. Watching this charade was better than taking in a movie. But I did feel bad for him when he was pushed. There was something wrong with those legs of his.

He was dressed in a peculiar fashion as well. He wore a navy blue jacket with bright white buttons I could plainly see even from across the square, and a split tail dangled behind him, reaching to the back of his knees. Who wears a nineteenth-century jacket with a tail? And to pair it with shorts? It made the queer length of shins appear even more extended.

I watched him for another fifteen minutes while slowly eating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I balled up the plastic wrap to put it back in my bag and noticed that he was looking straight at me as I did this. I quickly looked away and reached for the book in my satchel I'd been reading, hoping he would choose to ignore me.