STORY 2: The Clock That Remembered Tomorrow

In the center of an old city stood a clock tower that no one dared to repair. It was taller than the
surrounding buildings, with black iron hands frozen at exactly 11:47. Strangely, despite being
stopped, the clock sometimes rang—though never at the same time twice.

People said it was cursed. Others said it was broken beyond fixing. But an elderly watchmaker
named Hana believed it was something else entirely: unfinished.

One rainy afternoon, Hana climbed the tower alone. Each step creaked like a warning, but she
continued until she reached the enormous clock face. Up close, she noticed faint engravings
around its edge—tiny numbers and symbols that didn’t belong to any known system of time.

As she placed her hand on the frozen minute hand, it suddenly moved.

Startled, she stepped back. The clock ticked once… then began spinning backward.

Hana was pulled into a vision.

She saw the city as it would be tomorrow: streets flooded with golden light, buildings half-
vanished, people walking backward into their past conversations. She saw herself younger, then
older, then not at all.

Then everything snapped back.

The clock stopped again at 11:47.

But now Hana understood: the clock didn’t measure time. It stored it.

A voice echoed softly from within the tower.

“You’ve seen too far,” it whispered.

“Who are you?” Hana asked.

“I am what remains of every moment that was never allowed to happen.”

Hana realized the clock was not broken. It was protecting reality from collapsing under too
many possibilities.

If it started again, all timelines would exist at once.

“If I fix you,” she said carefully, “what happens?”

“Time becomes uncertain,” the voice replied. “But alive.”

Hana hesitated. Then she reached into her toolbox.

She did not repair the clock.

For the first time in decades, the hands moved forward freely.

And somewhere in the city, someone remembered a future that had not happened yet.

Questions:

1. What is unusual about the clock tower?

2. Who is Hana and what is her profession?

3. What happens when Hana touches the clock hand?

4. What does the clock actually represent?

5. What warning does the voice give Hana?

6. What choice does Hana make at the end?

7. What might “time becomes alive” mean?