Jason Hebblethwaite

Punishment

Punishment Joseph watched his grandfather’s clock hit 7:58. Exhausted after a long day of work on the farm, he wanted nothing more than to slip into a deep night’s sleep right there in his polyester chair. He stared at the dusty glass cover on the clock’s face, wondering how the inside of something sealed shut could get so dirty. The second hand had bent years ago for no good reason and now seemed to point to the moment right behind the time it really was. Joseph had hated this clock for years and tonight was no exception. He knew that in just a minute and a half, the internal mechanism of the grandfather clock would hit what sounded like a gong and the whole house would be filled with eight chimes, each worse than the last.