His universe was a clockwork one; his heart echoed the ticking of the clock.

As a child, his punctuality earned him praise. His fascination grew with him and he timed his life to the ticking of the clock.

Yet as an adult, his obsession with the clock frustrated everyone. He never understood why people could not stick to time. His family gave him grief as they could never adhere to his imposed timings, his colleagues shunned him for he was very vocal about the others' lack of respect for time, he was looked over for promotions as he would get agitated in meetings as soon as the closing minute passed, and his friends drifted away once they failed to align their erratic lives to his timed one.

Old age found him alone; his wife had left him. She had been a lovely woman, with a zest for life. In the early days of their marriage, he adored her tardiness and she humoured his fastidiousness. But when his children were born, she was determined that he would not time every minute of their lives. Disagreements, arguments, silences and hardening stances forced them to separate and she walked out with the kids; who were happy to visit their father on alternate weekends.

At eighty years, his only visitor was his granddaughter who enjoyed his company She reminded him of his wife and he adored her presence, especially as she honoured time, both in being punctual and by majoring in the physics of time.

One afternoon, as they sat together in the balcony, watching the setting summer sun, he was struck by a strange memory, of another summer day where he had met a young girl; decades after he could recall that she looked like his wife but though he could not remember her words, the urgency in them brought out a wistful longing.

At that instant, he realised that his despite his ardent worship of the clock, he was alone, for time never waited for anyone. As his heart thudded to a halt, time kept marching away to the ticking of the clock.

Word count 350

Submission for round five of the the Reading List Marathon, where we had to write a tragic short story in less than or equal to 350 words, with a title borrowed from one of the books added to WattpadShortStory's reading list - 'Another Time, Another Place'. 

Update - And this won first place. 😊