While I’m reading, a sentence will grab me and force me to stop. I pay tribute to other authors by sharing their Damn Fine Sentences with you. Then I recount a memory the words bring up for me. It’s about how books connect with your life.
***
“Now time had fallen right out of his pockets when he wasn’t looking.”
——Britt Bennett
—--The Vanishing Half
Every six months, my husband and I changed the clocks in the house depending on whether daylight savings time was coming or going. One year, I refused to cooperate. Ben adjusted the stove, the microwave, the toaster oven, his watch, his car, and the analog clock by the television, I let the clocks on my nightstand and in my car stay at the old time. My laptop and phone changed on their own (a hint right there that time is slippery and untrustworthy). The stove soon outpaced the microwave by two minutes. Thirteen minutes ahead of the kitchen, the analog bully by the T.V. ticked incessantly, like being loud proved it was right. Meanwhile, I ate when my stomach growled, slept when I got sleepy, woke up when the sun lit up the bedroom. After six months, Ben re-set all the clocks, and the house caught up with me. Time didn't exist, when I wasn’t looking.
***
“Now time had fallen right out of his pockets when he wasn’t looking.”
——Britt Bennett
—--The Vanishing Half
Every six months, my husband and I changed the clocks in the house depending on whether daylight savings time was coming or going. One year, I refused to cooperate. Ben adjusted the stove, the microwave, the toaster oven, his watch, his car, and the analog clock by the television, I let the clocks on my nightstand and in my car stay at the old time. My laptop and phone changed on their own (a hint right there that time is slippery and untrustworthy). The stove soon outpaced the microwave by two minutes. Thirteen minutes ahead of the kitchen, the analog bully by the T.V. ticked incessantly, like being loud proved it was right. Meanwhile, I ate when my stomach growled, slept when I got sleepy, woke up when the sun lit up the bedroom. After six months, Ben re-set all the clocks, and the house caught up with me. Time didn't exist, when I wasn’t looking.
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