The Clockmaker's Gift

In a sleepy town between two warps of fog, there was an old clockmaker of the name Elias. His store, which happened to hide in a quiet corner of a forgotten street, was overfull with clocks of all shapes and sizes, and the ticking of them in unison was so loud and clear that it seemed to distract from its own natural harmony. But a most peculiar clock in his whole collection was the one that attracted people's attention so much that they did not fear to go near him.

The clock was not about telling the time, as every other clock would have been. It counted the occasions. It was a present, a kind of a magical item passed from generation to generation, and Elias was just asking of those who will use it "The clock isn't changing your future but you can see the direction you would have taken."

One sunny afternoon, the shop was entered by a young woman, named Clara. In her eyes, so many questions were sparkling and some of them were unheard of and her fidgeting hands were holding tightly to a letter. She had lost her love, her life, and her dreams, her once happy life had just become one of disappointments lately following the loss of her sister in an accident and now she was feeling that she was no longer complete. It had been her late sister who gave it to her, and it was still sealed.

"I have to know if I could have done something else," Clara said in a whisper and gave the letter to Elias.

For an instant, Elias looked at her, his eyes tired and full of doubts, unraveling themselves with the words on their own power. "The clock will tell you, but keep in mind that some truths are more painful than mere mystery."

He took her to the back of the shop where he had the mysterious clock positioned, a place on a shelf where the clock only had a shiny dial instead of hands and this dial was flashing and sparkling as if it was a piece of starlight. Clara sat in front of it, and Elias turned his head back slightly to nod to her.

She put her finger on the clock's dial, and the next moment she was no longer in her room, but in front of her sister's house. It was the same evening that she had seen her sister for the last time before the accident. The dark blue of the sky was freezing cold, the stars shivering against the backdrop of black. Her sister gave her a broad smile, her eyes shining with kindly not expressed joy.

"You are not in a hurry, are you? You can stay with me until we go, can't you?" asked her sister, her smile being rather warm. Clara had been at the door fully prepared to leave, and rush back home, but now she could see the moment unfold before her as if seeing it anew.

Clara saw herself refusing by shaking her head. "I have to go. My work requires me to be early there."

The memory diluted, and Clara resolved to stay, to speak and laugh for the final time. They were up all night and this time, they also committed to meeting each other.

However, recollecting this part of her memories, Clara would be the one with a different life. She would stay, and there would be no accident, no goodbye.

The clock lit up, and Clara once more found herself in the shop, gasping as if she had been running a considerable distance.

Elias gazed at her unwaveringly and sympathetically "What did you see?"

The gravity of the truth weighed heavily on Clara's heart. "I would have been able to stay. I would have raised her."

Elias shook his head. "You could have. But then there would have been new probabilities, new problems to solve. We shape our lives by our choices, and we must also abide by those that are irrefutable."

Clara's eyes filled with tears and she stood up. "And what shall we do now?"

Elias smiled gently, though his look still showed a touch of sorrow and pity. "Now you go back to the life that you know, reminded of the fact that the future is not determined by what if. Time does not change the time. It only makes us aware of how beautiful our moments are, no matter how brief they are."

Clara exited the shop, the night wind cutting in her face. She carried the sense of loss then, though through it all, she knew that the real magic lay not in reversing, but in the acceptance of her decisions and in finding the peace that she could still gather from the time that was left to her.

Thereafter, the clocks in the shop of Elias went in ticking, revealing those who were looking for truth in their souls and also reminding them that in loving what they have was the magic of life.