The Clock
For my Hans Christian Andersen class I had to write my own fairy tale inspired by him! I decided to write my fairy tale based off his famous tale called The Pine Tree. You can find the whole version of The Pine Tree here: http://kraftmstr.com/christmas/books/pinetree.html
(I recommend reading it, it was one of my favorites, but beware…it might not have the happiest ending, but that is classic Andersen!)
So I wanted to share with all of you my fairy tale! So here it is… WARNING: May have a sad ending!
The Clock
By: Brittany Allen
Inspired by: Hans Christian Andersen
Once there was a clock who was very sad. He was a beautiful clock who was handmade by the best woodworker in all of Denmark. Everyone who entered his shop paid extra attention to him. No one would have thought that he was unhappy with all of the attention he was receiving. One day the richest man in all of Denmark – well the richest man besides the king – walked into the woodworker’s famous shop. Once he saw the sad clock he demanded to have it. The woodworker tried to warn him that he was very sad, but the rich man could not believe that something so beautiful could be so sad. “I must ask the clock why he is so sad!” said the rich man. The clock replied, “I am sad because my hands are in love and yet they are together for only a minute an hour, which is only twenty-four minutes a day!”
The rich man could not believe that such a thing was possible. He assumed that the hands would be concentrating on their job of keeping time, not loving each other. “Well, is it true big hand, that you are in love with little hand?” The big hand could not even answer for he was thinking of her, the little hand. His mind was consumed with the passing of time. He wanted the time to go faster so he could be with his love again. Oh how the time seemed to go so slow when he wasn’t with her, and yet so fast when they were together. “Well, hello there, big hand!” shouted the rich man. “Can he not hear me?” the rich man asked the woodworker. “Oh no, he can, but he is just too grieved with being apart from her that he chooses not to listen. Now do you understand why the clock is so sad?” “I do indeed,” replied the rich man, “but I still want this clock. It will be perfect above my fireplace!”
The woodworker thought he had warned the rich man enough about the sad clock and decided to sell it to him. “Now, you must remember to wind up the clock every eight days, can you remember to do that?” You see, the woodworker loved the sad clock and felt badly for the hands because they could not be together. But then again, that was the job they chose, so the woodworker felt he could do nothing to bring them together. But the woodworker always remembered to wind up the clock, guaranteeing that the hands continued to meet every week. He was concerned the rich man might forget. But the rich man replied, “Yes, every eight days, no problem.” The rich man left the woodworker’s shop and they never saw each other again.
The rich man hurried home and placed the clock above the fireplace right where he said he would. He boasted, “I have found the most beautiful clock in all of Denmark!” The clock made the rich man very happy. You see, the rich man lived all by himself for his wife had recently died. Any new object in his house became part of his family and became a new companion for him. The rich man desperately wanted to make the clock happy for he hated seeing him so sad. “Big hand and little hand, you must not wish your life away waiting to be together! My love is dead but at least you two still have each other! Be happy that you have twenty-four minutes a day together!” But the hands could not even listen to the rich man’s advice because their minds were consumed with the pain of being apart.
The fall came and went too quickly and time continued to move forward. It was now Christmas time, the rich man’s favorite time of year. He wished for the clock hands to move slower on Christmas day for it was his favorite day of the year. “Will you move slower hands? For today my grandchildren are coming over and I want to dance and sing all day with them!” The big hand replied, “No way, I need to see my love every hour or else I will die!” The rich man said, “Big hand, look around you, look at this beautiful pine tree, see how the tree has lights on it? Enjoy your surroundings, there is more to life than waiting!” Now the big hand was angry. He had not listened to the rich man’s advice before, but now that he could hear him, he wanted nothing to do with him. The big hand did not even thank the rich man for remembering to wind the clock every eight days. “Go away rich man, I want nothing to do with you, leave my love and I alone!” The rich man was surprised by the big hand’s reply and he decided it was best to give him some time alone, even though that is how the big hand spent most of his day.
The big hand wasn’t going to see his love for forty-six minutes, for he had just seen her, so he decided to look around the room and open his ears to what was going on. He heard the pine tree say, “Oh, why doesn’t tonight come! The candles will be lit – I wonder what will happen then! Will I grow roots and stand here both summer and winter?” What a stupid tree, thought the big hand. He thinks he will stay lit all year long? But the big hand also sympathized with the tree for he wished for night as well so he could spend another minute with little hand.
That night, the clock’s hands did not move slower for the rich man. The big hand did not even see the rich man’s grandchildren merrily dancing around the pine tree. Again he was consumed with the power of love, blind to all other feelings of life. But time was not a problem for the rich man, for every minute of Christmas day he relished. Joy and peace overwhelmed him, for even though his wife was not there to see their smiling grandchildren, he saw her in their faces. He knew she was with him always, and that he could always think of her whenever he wanted.
Morning came and the big hand waited impatiently for the rich man to wake up and wind up the clock because it was the eighth day. The rich man was very diligent about winding the clock because he loved him. The big hand started to worry because the rich man was an hour late in winding him up. “Where is he? He must wind me up because if he does not, I can never see my love again! Wake up rich man, wake up!” The big hand thought maybe the rich man was mad at him because he had yelled at him the night before. “Why did I yell at him? He must hate me now. He must not love me anymore. Oh how awful I feel, where is he, where is he?”
The rich man had passed away in his sleep Christmas night. But you must know, he died a happy man and is now dancing in heaven with his wife. But here on Earth, there was no one to wind up the clock. The big hand knew he was going to die apart from his love and his separation from her grieved him deeply. He thought “If only I could have been happy with her while I had a chance to be. Now it is all over and gone! Everything!” Abruptly, the hands stopped at six o’clock in the morning. The hands were on opposite sides of the clock and were never to see each other again.
