When Andre was growing up, he never thought it odd that his heart didn’t beat with a dull drumbeat pulse but instead ‘ticked’ a crisp and precise ‘tock’ through his veins.
For all he knew, this was how all hearts worked. Ticking along in perfect metronomic time, causing all other clocks in the vicinity to match its beat. He just assumed that’s why we’d made clocks like that. What other conclusion was he supposed to reach?
It wasn’t until he was a teenager that this assumption was quite thoroughly deconstructed, as he fainted in class and had to go into hospital. When the doctor put her stethoscope to his chest she heard, instead of the usual lub-dub of thumping meat, a steady metallic sound of perfectly kept time.
The doctor said to Andre:
“Um, your chest appears to be ticking?”
“Oh no, is it not keeping good time? I’ve always been regular before.”
The doctor wasn’t quite sure what to say to that. So she sent him to get an x-ray instead.
The results were … surprising.
There, drawn out in negative, was a timepiece growing out of his heart and nestled beneath the clockface of his ribs.
This caused much consternation from the assembled doctors, not to mention Andre’s parent. They had always done their best to take care of him and thought they’d done a damn good job all things considered, so this really was a bit much.
It was only Andre who seemed sanguine about the situation. After all, he’d managed perfectly well so far with a clock in his heart. What could he really be expected to do about the situation?
Given the hubbub, they sent Andre for a second x-ray. Then a third. Then a fourth. As well as numerous other tests.
The fainting, it turned out, was not related to the heart, but a simple result of low blood sugar.
Much more interesting was what the subsequent x-rays revealed: Andre’s heart was *counting down*.
There was a great deal of speculation about what it might be counting down *to*. Perhaps to his death? Grim, but possible. To some important event? Who knows. Perhaps a time bomb? Well, we can’t rule anything out.
Andre didn’t let it bother him too much. His clockwork heart had never steered him wrong, after all, so he was content to trust it to take care of itself, oiled by his blood and powered by his strength.
Then, one day, it finally counted all the way down…
He was walking down the street on the way to the library. It was a nice day, so he had just bought an ice cream with a single chocolate flake. It would keep him cool till he got to the library’s calming air-conditioned oasis.
Then he heard a ringing out. It was coming from his chest.
Not only that, but he could hear another alarm going off nearby.
He walked in the direction of the other alarm and it took him up to a house on a nearby side street.
It was opened by a man with a thin angular face, dainty spectacles on his nose and leaves in his hair. Behind him, the hallway stretched on into the distance, the knotted wooden floor lit by a strange dappled light from heavy crystal chandeliers.
He looked at Andre. Andre stared back.
Their hearts rang their alarm in harmony.
“Would you like my flake?” Said Andre.
“Very much.” Said the man with leaves in his hair.
[This story was inspired by this gorgeous piece of jewelry by the amazing @reeshasbeads https://www.reeshasbeads.co.uk/collections/frontpage/products/heart-shaped-bead-embroidery-brooch-with-paris-cabochon
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