A clock hand leads the way to the classroom on 50-100 street. The crip breezy air, the warm coffee shop, the colorful fall leaves-- distractions. 

“ I’m going to be late if I don’t hurry” 

She picks up her pace as the clock ticks seem to go faster. 

She reaches the door, half past 2, out of breath and early. 

A sign that says “meeting rescheduled to 5:00”. 

“What?!”, she says. “Since when was it rescheduled?”

She pulls out her phone and checks her email, scrolling past the promotions that she promised will take time to put them in spam. 

Found it. The email even said *Important update*, she must have missed it. 

“Shucks, what do I do now?” 

She’d taken the train today because her car was towed last week when she was visiting her family for thanksgiving and decided that “it would be okay to park against the curb since she definitely would leave by 9:00 when the officers come to check the area”. But yet, as a matter of fact, she didn’t, instead she initiated to leave the house at 9:30 and by 10:00 she arrived at the curb after her cousin decided to start a 30 min conversation at the door. Her car was gone and she had to spend the night at their house- which wasn’t all that too bad. 

But with that being said, she didn’t have a ride to prowl the town and wait for 3 hours before the meeting started so she was stuck at the classroom door. Where should she go? 

She decided to visit the coffee shop and grab a drink with a soft red velvet donut cake and wait. 

Half hour later she heard a DINGggg. An extended ring lasting for about a minute or so coming from the clock smack in the middle of the town center. Awkwardly placed at best, but made for an interesting obstacle course- if you weren’t running late as she learned trying to choose which side of the clock to go beside. 

She decided to check out the clock after finishing up her coffee.

As she approached she noticed the details of the building, a deep brow wrapped around the building almost like a scarf cuddling and acknowledging all the hard work that the clock does. 

Her interest perked as she reached for the knob of the door. a sharp gold texture, a caution of sorts, almost asking "are you willing?" 

She turned the knob, hesitant at first but then people started looking at her so she decided to just go in. 

An intangible breeze, filling her lungs and clearing the air from her allergies brushed against her as she went in.

Peculiar. 

"What could that have been? "

She turned her head swiftly. She didn't say that so who did? 

The door behind her was swollen. Gravitating towards her and she was terrified. 

Her eyes peered and grew as it got closer and closer. finally reaching her nose and not looking like it was going to stop and having her backed into a corner. The door went right through her body. 

"What on earth?!" she said,

"No," the voice said. "What on atom"

She looked at the room frantically, it wasn't the most well lit room but she could still see enough to be comfortable with the lighting. 

She started looking at the room and found herself back at the thanksgiving dinner. Confused, she relived the events that happened. Unable to change anything but equally unable to not try. It didn’t turn out well and she was brought back inside the room. 

Her breath was pulled from her this time then given back. 

“Forward,” the voice said. “You can only go forward”. 

And then she was out. The shock was abrupt, and intense. 

As she took a moment to catch her breath she saw the people in the town a little differently. 

Some of them had a twinkle in their eye. An almost sly smirk, chuckling at her obliviousness. 

“What could it have been?” 

She didn’t know. 

As she leaned on the clock building, the bell rang once more. DINGggg, an extended ring lasting for about a minute or so coming from the clock smack in the middle of the town center. 

It was peculiar. And it was 5:00.

Perplexed at how quickly the time had gone by, she grabbed her bag. Dropping her phone in blindsight as she quickly tried to get to the classroom. 

“Wait!” someone called after her. “You dropped this!”

“Huh?”

As they finally caught up to her, they chuckled with the same twinkle in their eye. 

“Don’t worry, It’s a lot to think about”

She blinked, unaware and skeptical. Do they know what happened?

“Did you-” , she started asking.

“Oh, you better hurry, you're going to be late,” they said, diverting her attention. 

She looked at the clock as it struck 5:05, “ahh, you’re right! Thank you!” she said as she took her phone and dashed off. 

When she reached the classroom she stopped. The handlebars were a similar sharp gold to the clock door, but duller and as she thought back to what the person just said. She questioned how they knew that she was going to a meeting. 

“Huh,” she said. This time with a little bit of excitement, her interest perked. 

She promised herself she would go back to the clock and ask the people with the twinkling eyes some questions. But for now she has to attend this meeting before she misses it.

She got into the doors by 5:10pm on 50-100 street.