If you are fortunate, and call into the right bric-a-brac shop or car boot sale at the right time, you might see a battered old wall clock. The faded ivory-coloured dial is set in a wooden surround that is roughly carved with what could be animals but equally might not be. The more you look at them, the more uncertain you become.
It wouldn’t end up in any antique shop, or on Antique’s Roadshow. It’s not finely crafted enough, and there is no maker’s name on it that would give it interest or value. You get the impression that it’s probably come up for sale decades apart, when someone dies and their house is cleared.
Buy it though, if you see it. Despite its battered look, it will still work if you wind it, and it keeps surprisingly good time.
What’s interesting about it though, is when the clock stops. If you wind it, let it run for at least one full moon to the next, then at midnight reach a finger up and still the minute hand. The hand will twitch against you a few times, and then stop. And for one rising and falling of the moon, it will stay stopped. And that time will be added to the span of your life.
Don’t ever let the mechanism wind down while you own the clock, though. Not ever.
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