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.

He turned his eyes to the rotted wood at the base of the piece and thought about how old it must be. His grandfather had received it as a gift after he and his own father helped out a German immigrant, some eighty-odd years ago. The German wanted to purchase a small plot of land so he could open up a family business with his wife and two daughters. They were expert clockmakers in Germany, but here, they were nothing. After hearing about the German panhandling with his daughters watching nearby, the aging farmer decided he would end his embarrassment and set his life straight. Three different counties had denied them loans, but Joseph’s great-grandfather was always willing to lend a helping hand to a man in need. They had had a bountiful crop yield that year and were in a wonderful position; For the first time in decades, the family had extra money and nowhere to put it. Rather than hoard his money away, Joseph’s great-grandfather decided to take a chance on what appeared to be an honest man. The loan was apparently quite large, much to the dismay of his wife and son, but just as he had predicted would happen, the debt was paid back in full (with a reasonable deal of interest of course) over the next decade. The German’s life had been saved by this man and would have given him anything, but the old farmer was kind-hearted and only requested that the man and his family come over for dinner on Christmas and for lunch on Easter. When Joseph’s great-grandfather eventually passed away due to Tuberculosis, the old German clockmaker showed his love for the farmer and his family by gifting Joseph’s grandfather with a clock he claimed to be his masterpiece.

Joseph’s grandfather had died when Joseph was only eight and to be honest, he couldn’t even remember what the man looked like. His father inherited the clock and cared for it each and every day. As much as he would dust the glass and clean the wood, he never once had to hire anyone to replace the internal mechanisms or even adjust the pendulum to keep the clock in time. It truly was a masterpiece, his father would say smiling, from time to time. Years later, when his father died, Joseph’s older brothers split up the farmland giving themselves nearly double what Joseph would receive. When he argued with them on the unequal distribution, his brothers told him that he had known their father for the least amount of time, as the youngest son, and therefore deserved less. After more argument, the two men attempted to satisfy Joseph with the time-teller, telling him that it was a priceless masterpiece and was likely worth more than all of the land put together. The attempt failed to please Joseph and he was left unsatisfied, but on his wife’s demand, he simply gave up and left with it in a wagon.

Decades later now, Joseph was pondering the actual age of said clock when it struck eight, pulling him away from any notion of falling asleep soon. Each chime, just as he knew would happen, rang worse in his ears than the last. Without thinking, just as the sixth chime resonated in his ear, he quickly stood up and moved to look at the clock, face to face. He gazed blankly at the steel pendulum and listened to the last two ‘gongs’ with unmistakable hatred burning in his heart. He had grown old and tired since he inherited the clock years ago, and looking at the clock now, he saw that it, too, had grown too old to be useful anymore. He lifted his calloused hand to the side of it and forced his fat fingers into a loose fist. In his younger days, Joseph was strong and beautiful. Now the beaten clock reminded him of his own draining life and descent into ugliness. He decided today was the day. He would tear apart this eyesore and finally conclude his fight to avoid its constant chiming. He pulled back his fist and was about to put it through the face when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. He slowly turned his neck, expecting his wife to be coming from upstairs to get water. If it wasn’t her, it might have been one of his hired farm-hands, stealing something from inside the house. Instead, he saw a cat running out of his basement and towards the back door.

Joseph instantly forgot about his immense hatred toward the clock and turned his body to face the cat. He took a step towards it, but felt a sharp pain in his lower back and decided to call for his wife instead. He had not spoken a word out loud in days at this point and it took great effort for him to pull the air into his lungs. The oxygen tore at his chest and he felt sharp pain as he projected his voice upstairs. “Peggy! Peggy! Get down here, there’s a cat inside the house. Peggy!”. There was no answer, but it was late, and Peggy did not have the best hearing in the world anymore. He knew she was probably asleep in their bed, ready to spend another night alone upstairs. Joseph had hurt his back a month back and could not muster the strength to make his way up the stairs. He told Peggy about it and she told him to see a doctor, but he refused, saying that sort of thing is just when men have to live with when they get old.

Joseph took a moment to compose himself and began walking towards the cat again. Had Joseph ever had a cat, he likely would have called out to it, trying to get its attention. His father had told him “no” a lifetime ago, however, leaving Joseph with no feline experience and an empty longing for a pet of his own. As he walked, he decided that if the cat did not belong to anyone and seemed to be pleasant, he would keep it as his final friend before his death. As he finally neared it as it sat by the back door, he saw a small tag around its neck. His heart half-broke with the realization this cat would never be his.

He quickly leaned down to grab the small guest before it could notice he was there. Just as he was about to reach it, the cat turned and meowed twice loudly at him. It then turned and meowed twice more at the door. Joseph thought it seemed peculiar that the cat thought it could order him around like this and he decided he would pick up the cat anyways, before letting it go outside. He picked it up without any trouble whatsoever and looked at the name engraved into its collar. At first, Joseph could not read what was written, as it seemed to be in Hebrew or maybe Arabic, but the longer he stared the more visible the writing became. What was just a moment ago completely unreadable for Joseph, was now clearly “Meiri the Magnificent”.

Joseph pondered what kind of person would give their cat such an odd name. He fell into his own mind and stopped paying attention to the world in front of him. Suddenly, he found himself staring, open-mouthed, out of his now open back door. He looked down at his arms and found that the cat had disappeared. Confused, Joseph shut his door and tried to piece together what had just happened. The clock began to ring out and Joseph chuckled at the idea that it had already somehow been fifteen minutes since he first saw the cat at eight. “Old and broken.” As he listened to the chiming, Joseph sighed. He knew he had gotten too old and could no longer keep track of anything but himself. Barely that even. After the gong beat a third time, it suddenly stopped. Joseph noticed the hard stop and thought the clock had finally retired, just as he would soon. But, when he looked at its face, he saw the hour hand pointing dead right. “Three”. Joseph furrowed his eyebrows and felt his stomach drop. It made no sense to him how it could possibly be three in the morning now. He started pacing around the room, racking his brain looking for any plausible answer for what was happening to him. While he thought about the current condition of his brain, he saw his back door open once again.

He stared blankly outside for a few seconds until he thought he saw something standing in his doorway. It was almost the shape of a man, but not quite. He blinked a few times and the dark silhouette seemed to stay, even swaying back and forth with the wind. This time, his back had no part to play in his movement towards the door. If Joseph’s legs were broken, it would not have slowed him down now. With a speed fueled by fear and adrenaline, he approached the door only to find nothing and nobody standing outside.

Suddenly, Joseph felt a cold breath travel up his back and go above his head, causing his body to jerk and shiver. He turned around as fast as he could, only to once again find absolutely nothing. Joseph had never been one to be superstitious or afraid of ghosts, but something was definitely wrong tonight. For the first time in his life, Joseph thought that perhaps humans are not alone in this world. He did not particularly want to find out for sure, however, and quickly went to slam the door. Just as the door was about to close shut - four, long, black fingers held it open with unprecedented force. Joseph tried to scream but nothing came out. He felt his stomach churn and his whole body started to sweat. He wanted nothing more than to turn and run upstairs to his wife so that he could sleep with her, but he was paralyzed from head to toe.

From the other side of the door, a deep and ratchet voice spoke, “Have you seen my cat?”. There was no doubt in Joseph’s mind that the source of the voice, the monster with smoked fingers, was not human. He shut his eyes and started to pray deep inside the depths of his mind, but once again the foul voice bellowed from the other side of the door, “He’s been a very, very bad kitty and I just want to take him home - so can I teach him a little lesson or two.” Then, the shadowy creature started laughing at the thought of punishing the cat. Joseph’s jaw clenched shut and he felt his heart beating throughout his whole body. Once more the voice spoke, “Could you please stop praying so loud?” Joseph knew for sure that he had not spoken one word aloud. He feared what would happen if this thing could hear his inner thoughts; if it could tell just how afraid he was. His heart beat faster and faster in his chest and his whole body felt like it would crumble away at any moment now. The voice called to him one last time, “Well if you see him, tell him that I am going to find him no matter what. There is no point in running.” The monster seemed to bite the air and Joseph heard the sound of an empty ‘chomp’.

In an instant, the air cleared. Joseph turned back to his door. Black burn marks were burned into the door where the fingers had just been. He thought about screaming his wife’s name now, telling her about the situation, but instead, he slowly closed the door and walked back to his chair. As he sat down, he imagined a creature with a wolf’s face tearing his sleeping wife to pieces and throwing her guts along the bedroom wall. The thought was more than just intrusive. It was as if someone else had played a movie for him in his own mind, without any sort of permission. He now pictured the beast laughing as it dragged her lifeless body around on the floor, streaking her blood in a clear path in the carpet. He saw the silhouette from before pulling Peggy down the stairs and smashing her into the clock that he had hated with all his guts. He imagined the clock shattering as her skull hit its glass face and could almost feel the shards hitting him sitting in the chair as the clock exploded.

His heart beat slower and slower the harder he thought about this, and once he found himself sitting all the way down, he pictured the beast wildly cackling as it walked out the back door, eventually congratulating Joseph on a life well lived just before it disappeared forever. Tears welled up in his eyes and his heart suddenly stopped. Any other day that he had lived before, Joseph would have fought death tooth and nail with his whole being - but not tonight. For now, after what had just happened, Joseph did not fear death - only what had been on the other side of the door.