Before Clocks

Balthazar was shifting in his cot. It was nearly 2 AM, per the clock in the barracks, and he still could not get any sleep. He was angry because he would be going on duty soon. Only four hours left.

The room was filled with hard but comfortable beds, His Majesty’s troops all in a deep sleep. He could hear them snore and, from time to time, fart heartily. He was probably the only one still awake and it made him really angry. Only four hours until he had to report for duty.

”Fergus,” he whispered, “Fergus, are you awake?"

"What is it?” Fergus said, emerging from deep sleep.

”Fergus, I cannot sleep. It’s these damn clocks. They haunt me. People never used to have this problem before clocks, did they?”

Fergus mumbled something.

”I wish I lived in my grandfather’s time. So free and so pure. There were clocks, but people like you and me never had to worry about them. Swordplay during the day, mead in the evening, and good hearty sleep all through the night. I bet my grandfather only woke when the rooster called."

"Perhaps his cock called him when it was time to piss,” Fergus mumbled.

”Exactly my point.”

Balthazar fell silent, listening to the clock ticking. He figured the regiment captain installed the clock in the barracks to make his troops more effective. Like clockwork, like Germans, like steam-powered automatons. Balthazar glimpsed the regiment captain sneak into the barracks to oil the clock, he was wearing a German officer’s uniform. Balthazar could no longer hear the ticking.

Then he became bluntly aware of the thirty odd men sleeping in the room and he almost cried. “Why can’t I sleep?”

Posted by: Paweł Kowaluk